Quotes -

“In an age of violent regional conflicts, there is German-born filmmaker Percy Adlon, the cheerful peacemaker who celebrates the richness possible in the mingling of cultures and ideas.” (Bruce Kirkland, The Toronto Sun, 1/20/92)

Adlon’s cinematic style “ has a sweetness that lingers like a desert sunset.” (David Ansen, Newsweek)

“Adlon is a master of his own particularly quirky and whimsical tone.” (Kenneth Turan, GQ, MAY 88)

“For me, the desert is a great horizontal stage. With one person on it, you have an image. With two, you have suspense. And when you put three people on it, you have a drama.” (P.A.)

“Music played the biggest role in shaping my sense of aesthetics. Music is my master, and the only reason I didn’t become a musician was because I wasn’t able to. I had a very nice soprano voice when I was a boy and I even did concerts in my school, but intuitively I knew that if I took up music professionally I’d loose it. So instead I use music in a secondary way - it’s always there supporting the ideas in my films. How suspense is built up, how a melody forms, how rhythms happen, how blocks of harmony come together and cook down to one line - the musical elements are central to my films.” (P.A.)

“The thing I enjoy most about filmmaking is the end of a shooting day when we finish early and the sun is still up and I go walking. Your body has completed a day’s work, and it’s such a relief when you’re just breathing and nobody is talking to you.” (P.A.)

“I don’t like tags but I understand why I’m sometimes described as a feminist filmmaker because I have stronger relationships with woman. I had a wonderful mother and I was always so proud that we didn’t need a man to get along.” (P.A.)

“My first film, “The Guardian and His Poet”, is my white film. It tells of a poet who is in a mental institution, and who goes for long walks - or rather runs - with his guardian in the snow. “Bagdad Cafe” is my yellow film: the color of the sand and the sun - and of warmth.” (P.A)

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“There would seem to be no place in today's entertainment industry for movies about fat German ladies and homesick truck stops, and yet "Bagdad Cafe" sets us free from the production line of Hollywood's brain-damaged "high concepts" and walks its own strange and lovely path. There is poetic justice in the fact that this movie, shot in English in America by a German, is one of the biggest box office successes in recent European history.” (Roger Ebert, rogerbebert.com)