The Criterion Collection finally (well, back on September 4th) released its “director-approved edition” of Night on Earth, perhaps my favorite Jim Jarmusch film. Attentive readers will recall my sister purchased a no-frills European version of the film for me last year when it was still unavailable on DVD in the U.S. (Now Island Records only needs to re-release the out-of-print Tom Waits soundtrack; somehow I snagged a pristine used copy a few years ago for about $8, but copies now on Amazon.com are pulling down no less than $29.99.)
As with Criterion’s edition of Down By Law, one of the most engrossing features is an hour-long audio-only segment in which Jarmusch answers viewer-submitted questions about the film at hand and other random topics, resulting in erudite ruminations packed with curious trivia.
I listened to this Q&A for Night on Earth tonight and, most crazily, Jarmusch reveals that the New York City segment, in which a fare convinces a cabbie with both poor English and driving skills to move over and let him take the wheel, actually happened to him late one night on the Upper West Side many years ago.
He confirms what he’s said in interviews before, that shooting films in moving cars (instead of using in-studio tricks like rear projection) is a major pain in the ass. Camera rigging mounted on the sides of the cabs prevented the actors from exiting in less than 20 minutes, which proved amusing when a tow-line broke one night in Helsinki, depositing an actor-filled vehicle on an active trolley track.
Lighting and sound design in moving cars at night proved tricky too. Light rigging attached to the roofs, just out of frame, bounced combinations of gelled light onto the actors inside, specific to the city: pastels in Los Angeles, for example, and a harsh green cast in New York City. (Jarmusch took pains to blot out the actual cast of New York City at night—orange—because he can’t stand that color, according to longtime director of photography Frederick Elmes in another commentary on the DVD.) The cars in which the actors were towed during filming had a camera mounted where the hood and engine had been removed, necessitating post-production addition of all engine and transmission sounds.
Although Jarmusch wrote the initial script in English (in a mere week, he says), he worked closely with translators and the actors themselves in the Rome, Paris and Helsinki segments to revise the dialogue, ensuring the language and slang were correct. And although it would seem otherwise, Roberto Benigni’s manic monologue was only somewhat improvised by the actor and mostly based on a script outline Jarmusch and Benigni had developed in advance, based on many of the actor’s jokes and habits, such as only driving the wrong way down one-way streets late at night in Rome.
Also, Jarmusch prefers Carl Perkins over Elvis and his favorite Clash album is Sandinista!