Mystery Train
| Movie | |
|---|---|
| German title | Mystery Train |
| Original title | Mystery Train |
| Country of production | USA , Japan |
| original language | English , Japanese , Italian |
| Publishing year | 1989 |
| length | 113 minutes |
| Rod | |
| Director | Jim Jarmusch |
| script | Jim Jarmusch |
| production | Jim Stark |
| music | John Lurie |
| camera | Robby Muller |
| cut | Melody London |
| occupation | |
First story
Second story
Third story
| |
Mystery Train is an American episode film directed by Jim Jarmusch from 1989 .
action
Different people spend the same night at the shabby Hotel Arcade in Memphis , the hometown of Elvis Presley . Their stories are told in three episodes, with the night porter and the young bellhop appearing in all three parts of the film, and Elvis Presley's version of the song Blue Moon is always played on the radio at 2:17 am .
In the first episode “Far from Yokohama”, the Japanese tourists Jun and Mitsuko, who are on a trip through the United States, arrive in Memphis. The young couple from Yokohama are enthusiastic about rock 'n' roll and they visit different places together like the studio of Sun Records , where they take part in a rather loveless tour of the city. While Mitsuko loves Elvis above all and creates a photo album with his pictures, her boyfriend appreciates Carl Perkins and is a little annoyed by her admiration for Elvis - especially since a picture of Elvis is still hanging in the hotel room in Hotel Arcade. The small discrepancies are quickly forgotten and the next morning the couple leaves Memphis together.
The second episode “A Ghost” accompanies the Italian Luisa, who wants to bring her deceased husband back to Italy in a coffin. However, her plane broke down and she is now stuck in Memphis for one night. After wandering through the city of Memphis, where she bought a pile of magazines and had an adventurous story told about the ghost of Elvis, she was also stranded in the Hotel Arcade. In the entrance hall she meets Dee Dee, who is constantly chatting, who has just broken up with her boyfriend Johnny and now wants to try a new start with a friend in Mississippi . Since both women do not want to be alone, they share the room together. When Dee Dee is already sleeping, the ghost of Elvis appears for Luisa in the hotel room for a short time. In the morning the two women part ways, not without Luisa giving the destitute Dee Dee some more money to continue the journey.
The third episode "Lost in Space" - named after the television series of the same name , which is mentioned in a scene - introduces Johnny who has been abandoned by Dee-Dee. After the Englishman lost his girlfriend and his job on the same day, he waved his gun around in a bar in a miserable mood. A concerned acquaintance calls Johnny's best friend Will, who sets off with Johnny's supposed brother-in-law Charlie. The two men get Johnny out of the bar to keep him out of trouble, but a little later he shoots the employee at a gas station. The three men are afraid of the coming trouble, get drunk and finally slip into the Hotel Arcade, where Will's brother-in-law is the night porter. The next morning, Charlie, who as a normal hairdresser was most taken by surprise by the events of the night, learns that Johnny is not his brother-in-law as claimed, since he and Dee Dee had never married. Charlie is angry with his near-brother-in-law. He wants to shoot himself, which Charlie can prevent at the last moment, but he is shot in the leg by Johnny. When they hear the police sirens, the three men hastily flee Memphis with the wounded Charlie in the back of the car.
In the credits, the characters from the three episodes are shown leaving Memphis.
background
On the radio show, in which the song " Blue Moon " is played in the version of Elvis, the voice of the radio presenter Tom Waits belongs , who had played one in Jarmusch's film Down by Law three years earlier . The singer Screamin 'Jay Hawkins took on the unfamiliar acting role as a night porter at the request of Jarmusch. Hawkins' song I Put a Spell on You had already played an important role in Jarmusch's Stranger Than Paradise . Cinqué Lee, the younger brother of filmmaker Spike Lee , can be seen in the role of the bellboy.
Reviews
- Lexicon of international film : "A fascinating film about coincidences, banality and imponderables in life, which, despite all its melancholy, strikes cheerful and funny tones."
Awards
Mystery Train premiered in 1989 in the competition at the Cannes International Film Festival , where it received the special prize for a particularly high-quality artistic achievement.
Web links
- Mystery Train in the Internet Movie Database (English)
Individual evidence
- ↑ Mystery Train. In: Lexicon of International Films . Film service , accessed July 23, 2017 .