Tuesday, January 06, 2015

Bagdad Cafe

from the book log (1/3/89)

Bagdad Cafe, a movie

Neat-o movie. It was playing in London while I was there, but I held off seeing it cuz there were other movies I thought were less likely to get around here. So here it is at the Plaza [in Petaluma]. And was it good? Oh, we liked it! This German couple fight at the beginning of the movie. Woman (Jasmin) nabs suitcase from car and stalks off down the road to the Bagdad Cafe, service station and motel. Jasmin moves in, cleans up, and teaches Brenda, the proprietress, and her family, magic. And the whole place becomes magic. A great ending, too.

*

I haven’t seen Bagdad Cafe all the way through since the Plaza showing, but if I were shown an unidentified 60 second snip I could probably name it. Bagdad Cafe was distinctive in look and feel. Images stick in my head. The chubby Jasmin dragging her suitcase down the road. The exasperation of Brenda, the proprietress. Whenever I saw CCH Pounder in something I knew I’d seen her first in Bagdad Cafe.

The movie was covered in the gay press for the female friendship of the leads. Were they lovers? Could they have been? I remember being disappointed a bit in that. Perhaps it was “gay vague” before the term was coined? However, the review I wrote shortly after seeing Bagdad Cafe betrays no reservations. Now I’m curious to see it again.

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