1,001 LaserDiscs 9: Bagdad Cafe

Bagdad Cafe 

LaserDisc front cover

photo by Styrous®

      

        

       

One of my all-time favorite movies is Bagdad Cafe, a 1987 English-language German film directed by Percy Adlon (link below) a German director, screenwriter, and producer who is associated with the New German Cinema movement, whose "members" also include Werner Herzog and Rainer Werner Fassbinder.        

Bagdad Cafe ~ LaserDisc back cover detail 

detail photo by Styrous®

Bagdad Cafe is a comedy-drama set in a remote truck stop and motel in the Mojave Desert in California. A real cafe was used in the film, the Sidewinder Cafe, now – unsurprisingly renamed the Bagdad Cafe – on the famed old Route 66, between the east and west off-ramps of I-40, Newberry Springs, east of Barstow, on Highway 40 in the Mojave Desert, California.        

 

Bagdad Cafe

Newberry Springs, Southern California

The film is based on the Carson McCullers novella, The Ballad of the Sad Café (1951), and centers on two women who have recently separated from their husbands, and the friendship that that develops between them.      

 Marianne Sägebrecht, CCH Pounder ~ Bagdad Cafe

Photograph: Pelemele Film

The casting for the film was brilliant (link below)! None of the actors, with one exception, were well-known, "established" American performers. That exception was Jack Palance as Rudi Cox, an ex-Hollywood set-painter, and he was sensational! Before this film I had always considered him an actor typecast as a rouge or swashbuckler of one kind or another. He was definitely not so in this case; his gentle, romantic side and his comedic talent glittered like diamonds!

Jack Palance ~ Bagdad Cafe

film still

Bagdad Cafe ~ LaserDisc back cover detail 

detail photo by Styrous®

Marianne Sägebrecht as Jasmin Münchgstettner, the abandoned German wife, was absolutely perfect in the role as was C. C. H. Pounder, who portrayed Brenda the owner of the cafe.  

The customers of the cafe and the denizens inhabiting the motel attached to it were amazing and delightful (a tattoo aritst, etc.); there was one just surprise after another (link below).   

        

Bagdad Cafe 

LaserDisc back cover

photo of back cover by Styrous®

 

The score for the film was by Bob Telson and his song, Calling You, sung by Jevetta Steele, is one of the most unique tunes ever written for a film (link below). Telson also recorded an instrumental version; both versions are on the movie soundtrack. The song was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Original Song at the 61st Academy Awards. Unfortunately, Let the River Run from Working Girl, with music and lyrics by Carly Simon, won the award.       

Celine Dion covered Calling You during her live performances between 1990 and 1996. The 1994 performance by her recorded at the Olympia in Paris was included on the À l'Olympia live album and released as the first and only single in December, 1994, which peaked on the French Top 100 Singles Chart in the last week of 1994, reaching number seventy-five. It left the chart after five weeks  (link below). The Olympia was the same venue where Édith Piaf achieved great acclaim giving several series of recitals from January 1955 until October 1962, and where she recorded her famous album, Piaf at the Olympia (link below).   

George Michael of Wham! fame also did a cover of Calling You with a female singer singing the chorus during his 1991 "Cover to Cover tour" (link below). 

During the film, Darron Flagg (Salomo, Brenda's son) brilliantly performs the preludes from Book I of the Bach The Well-Tempered Clavier: the C major, no. 1, BWV 845; the C minor, BWV 846, no. 2; and the D major, no. 5, BWV 850.       
    

Bagdad Cafe was released on November 12, 1987, in Europe and on April 22, 1988, in the United States. The film was successful at the box office, with a US gross of $3.59 million.        
 

Bagdad Cafe movie poster

In 1990, Bagdad Café was adapted as a TV series, with Whoopi Goldberg as the owner – a role she had refused for the film.      
      
       

        

       
Viewfinder link:     

          

Celine Dion   
Édith Piaf        

        

Net links:                 
      
Plot         

Cast
The Guardian ~ How we made Bagdad Café Percy Adlon interview 
Cinema 1544 ~ Bagdad Cafe         
Roger Ebert ~ review   
Eye for Film ~ review       
Washington Post ~ review      

        

YouTube links:              

        

Jevetta Steele ~ Calling You        

Celine Dion - Calling You
George Michael ~ Calling You        

Carly Simon ~ Let The River Run     
Bagdad Cafe Official Trailer         
 

         
   
The Bagdad Cafe LaserDisc is for sale on eBay  
       
      
        
       

“The film is a kind of a fairytale . . .
  I wanted it to look like a Salvador Dalí painting.”   
                               ~ Percy Adlon

 

       
Styrous® ~ Thursday, November 12, 2018       

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Chez Panisse 40th Anniversary Pt 2

The extravagant Gala commemorating the 40th anniversary of Chez Panisse at the Berkeley Art Museum on the 26th of August was fashionably elegant, and beautifully showcased the finished, polished product we have come to call, slow food.

The day after the Grand Opening, on the 27th in the museum gardens, the nuts and bolts to bring that slow food to us was featured by over a dozen small businesses and educational food initiatives that produce it. This as well as other events was sponsored by OPENrestaurant and the Chez Panisse Foundation.

I arrived early and got a chance to watch the producers set up. It was overcast at the beginning of the day but after a couple of hours the sun came out and it turned into a perfect, beautiful day.

I entered the gardens and the first thing I saw were the brightly colored bee hives of The Mobile Bee Observatory. It is a honeybee ecology classroom on wheels. Rob Keller furnished a 28-foot Airstream trailer with a floor-to ceiling observation hive and a honey tasting station. Keller shares his knowledge of beekeeping and extolls the beauty and importance of the honeybee.

photo by Styrous®

photo by Styrous®

Keller shares his knowledge of beekeeping and
extolls the beauty and importance of the honeybee.
photo by Styrous®

The next thing I saw was the Digger's Bread Bakery. In the mid-60s the Diggers in San Francisco proposed a form of "community anarchism" in which they offered free food, medical care, and street performance. They also baked and gave away bread, and were rumored to have introduced whole-wheat flour into US hippie counterculture. Artist Chris Sollars and Steve Sullivan from Acme Bakery bake Digger bread in cans while David Simpson and Jane Lapiner recount stories from their experience as Diggers.

photo by Styrous®

I tried to get a shot of the finished bread-in-can but

every time I went back it had been eaten up by the audience.
photo by Styrous®

At the Edible SchoolYard Project, a charming young girl 

offered me a tasty chapati made from whole wheat flour
with a yogurt topping.
photo by Styrous®

They had a weird contraption I first thought was some sort 
of exercise bicycle but I discovered it was used
to grind the wheat for the flour.
photo by Styrous®

A young man kindly demonstrated how the process was done.

Fascinating!
photo by Styrous®

Wandering down the path a bit I came across,
of all things, goats at Goats Milk.

photo by Styrous®

Jeannie McKenzie raises goats in Oakland and teaches about urban homesteading. Jeannie is a circus artist, dancer, musician, and teacher. 72% of milk used in the world is goat's milk.!t is easier to digest for the majority of people who cannot digest cows milk.

photo by Styrous®

McKenzie milked a goat . . .

photo by Styrous®

. . . the kids were fascinated . . .

photo by Styrous®

. . . and they made the most incredible candy from the milk.

photo by Styrous®

On the lawn of the gardens were huge letters cut from corrugated cardboard. Alphabet Soup placed huge cut-out letters on the lawn as an invitation for people to rearrange the letters to form new words and redistribute them on the lawn.

photo by Styrous®

About midway, I found A Curious Radio. It was a week-long children's workshop A Curious Summer conducted that explores the radio: its history as an instigator of change, its inner workings, and its unique ability to deliver stories directly to the theater of the mind. Inspired by this experience, young journalists operate an FM station at OPEN education, providing live coverage, conducting interviews, and curating the content of a freeform radio show. The transmission was picked up on receivers scattered throughout the Berkeley Art Museum, as well as online. This was a collaboration with OPENrestaurant and Mutiny Radio.

photo by Styrous®

Next to A Curious Radio, appropriately, was the Free Speech Police Car. In 1964 the Free Speech Movement made world news when Mario Savio stood on top of a police car in Sproul Plaza in the midst of a crowd of student protesters. Now, the car is a stage for talks and conversations with educators, students, farmers, food activists, and eaters wrestling with the corporatization of our school systems and the industrialization of our food systems.

photo by Styrous®

The side of the police car was used as a chalkboard list

of the day's speakers.
photo by Styrous®

One of the many fun & tasty stops, and perfect for the warm sunny day, was the Metas Lemonade Stand. Artist Alison Pebworth with students from METAS at Contra Costa College created custom sodas, lemonade, and aguas frescos with herbs, fruits, and honey from edible schoolyards. METAS students discussed do-it·yourself alternatives to mass-produced beverages. METAS is an enrichment program assisting latino students to achieve personal and higher education goals.

photo by Styrous®

Behind them the Lettuce Daybed thrived in the sun. Earlier this year, Latino protesters gathered in the streets, reminding us that there is no future without dreams. In South Son Francisco, Brooke Budner and Caiyn Galloway run Lime City Gardens, a functioning urban farm. They often ask volunteers to lie down between the beds, offering a different kind of service to the farm. The lettuce daybed provides a place to lie down and dream while browsing a library of seeds and political literature. To-go seeds and compost are provided by Hayes Valley Farm, a community-run farm and urban agriculture education project created on the site of a San Francisco freeway ramp.

photo by Styrous®

I found a curious set up with a pair of shoes smack

in the middle of all the food.

photo by Styrous®

photo by Styrous®

The culprit: Reheating Werner Herzog's Shoe. Werner Herzog made a bet with Errol Morris that Morris would never finish his first movie, promising to eat his shoe if he lost. For the premiere of "Gates of Heaven" in 1980, Alice Waters cooked Herzog's shoe with garlic, herbs, and duck fat for five hours. Herzog ate his shoe in front of an audience at the UC Theater, an event documented by Les Blank in the documentary "Werner Herzog Eats His Shoe."

photo by Styrous®

Finally on the lawn level was the Obugs Pickle Workshop. Since 1998 OBUGS (Oakland Based Urbon Gardensl has been building healthy communities through experiential learning programs offered to children, youth and families. Functioning as a network of school and neighborhood gardens, green spaces, and farmers markets, OBUGS offers in-school and after-school programs as well as summer camp each year.

photo by Styrous®

photo by Styrous®

Of course, Ms. Waters was there for the event.

photo by Styrous®

On one of the upper terraces I found a stand

with the most incredible tamales . . .

photo by Styrous®

. . . and across from them was a stand with grilled corn

that was out of this world.
photo by Styrous®

photo by Styrous®

Further down on the terrace was the Four Barrel Ojer Caibal School Kitchen. Four Barrel Coffee works with a small community of 300 families in Ojer Caibal, Guatemala to grow coffee in 61 tiny gardens. The exchange of getting a fair price for their beans provides cooking appliances, clean water, and waste management. Four Barrel adds an additional 25 cents per pound to the retail price of this coffee and funnels the surplus toward building a new kitchen for the school in Ojer Caiba!.

photo by Styrous®

photo by Styrous®

Across from Four Barrel was the La Cocina Salsa Kitchen: Salsa-making with the metaphorical harvest of the Three Sisters garden with Dilsa lugo from los Cilantros. Dilsa and Caleb Zigas discuss la Cocina, a business incubator designed to help entrepreneurs create successful small businesses.

photo by Styrous®

In back of them was a mini-library with food-related books from the Chez Panisse Library and Moe’s bookstore plus a copy machine to make reproductions. There were books, periodicals and magazines for reading and there was paper, pencils, coloring materials and all kinds of fun things for kids to work on.

photo by Styrous®

Of course, inside the museum the children

were romping on top of the BAMscape.
photo by Styrous®

Not only was it a beautiful, sunny California day,
 it was an educational one as well.
photo by Styrous®

I had a fantastic time thanks to all who participated in the event.

Styrous® ~ September 16, 2011

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