To Rome With Love

[MacGuffin]

Woody Allen's Rome-Set Movie Gets Release Date, New Title
"To Rome With Love," the writer-director's follow-up to "Midnight in Paris," had been titled "Nero Fiddled."
Source: THR

Woody Allen's newest movie has a new title and a release date.

Allen's follow-up to Midnight in Paris, the filmmaker's highest-grossing movie, will hit theaters June 22 with the title To Rome With Love, Sony Pictures Classics announced.

The project is Allen's latest movie to spotlight a European city he becomes taken with – Match Point was set in London while Vicki Cristina Barcelona and Midnight in Paris have their settings in their respective titles – and was previously titled Nero Fiddled.

"Nero Fiddled, while an appropriate and humorous phrase in the U.S., is not a familiar expression overseas, and many international territories preferred a more globally understood name," said the company in a statement.

According to SPC, Rome "is story about a number of people in Italy — some American, some Italian, some residents, some visitors — and the romances and adventures and predicaments they get into."

The cast inlcude Allen, Alec Baldwin, Roberto Benigni, Penélope Cruz, Judy Davis, Jesse Eisenberg, Greta Gerwig and Ellen Page.

The movie was produced by Letty Aronson and Stephen Tenenbaum and financed by Italian production and distribution company Medusa Film.

[Jeremy Blackman]

Nero Fiddled, while an appropriate and humorous phrase in the U.S...

It is?

[Pubrick]

man i hope the Stantoning the title has gone through doesn't extend to the movie itself.

i guess after Midnight in Paris made (relatively) so much money the suits are worried he'll fuck it up by referring to media burning software.

meanwhile woody is like "compu what now".

[Ravi]

Nero Fiddled, while an appropriate and humorous phrase in the U.S...

It is?

Totally. With my hep-cat friends and it's nothing but "nero fiddled" this and "nero fiddled" that.

I am familiar with the phrase, but I don't think I've ever used it.

[MacGuffin]

Nero Fiddled, while an appropriate and humorous phrase in the U.S...

It is?

Totally. With my hep-cat friends and it's nothing but "nero fiddled" this and "nero fiddled" that.

I am familiar with the phrase, but I don't think I've ever used it.

If its not in the marquee already, it should be now.

[malkovich]

This is a terrible poster fit for a terrible name change. I get that maybe Bop Decameron would be too obscure a reference, but did Nero Fiddled really have to be reduced to To Rome With Love? I'm going to see this out of love for Woody, but yikes.

[polkablues]

Oh, god.  I didn't realize Roberto Benigni was in it until just now.  I'll just pray for the sweet release of death instead, thanks.

[Reel]

this is gonna be good

[malkovich]

Oh, god.  I didn't realize Roberto Benigni was in it until just now.  I'll just pray for the sweet release of death instead, thanks.

Hah. What's your beef with Benigni?

[polkablues]

Son of the Pink Panther, Life is Beautiful, and Pinocchio, primarily.

[malkovich]

Ah, understandable, especially about Pinocchio. The only film I've seen him in was Down By Law, so I don't really have any issues with him appearing in this.

[Fernando]

Trailer

[Pubrick]

I had to scroll to the top of the page to see if I could find anything explaining what the actual story is about here, and I still have no idea. Looks like they took a bunch of boring stories and charaters and put them in Rome.

People liked the Paris one cos of its easy to understand gimmick, it made a lot of dumb people feel clever. He used to make movies for smart people. I don't know what this is, it looks about as bland as the title.

[Sleepless]

This isn't a great film, but I really enjoyed it. I thought it was very funny. If you're going into this hating Roberto Benigni rather than just laughing instantly at the sight of him, then you probably won't enjoy this. Essentially, it's just a collection of four stories with nothing to tie them together other than the theme of fantasies being somehow realized.

In one story strand, Alec Baldwin acts as a conscience to Jesse Eisenberg as he considers an affair with Ellen Page. In another, Roberto Benigni is an average everyman who wakes up one morning to be inexplicably famous - and hordes of reporters chase him to ask questions like "what did you have for breakfast?" or "boxers or briefs?"

The strongest (and funniest) story for me though was one where Woody Allen travels to Rome to meet his daughter's fiance and family. He's a retired opera director and he overhears his future son-in-law's father singing in the shower. After convincing him to audition, he learns that he can only sing good when he's actually in the shower, so of course they stage an entire opera where he is able to shower on stage throughout. It's a simple gag, but it makes you wonder why no-ones has ever done it before.



(Btw, I love how "Eisenberg" is always highlighted as a typo for "Heisenberg")

[matt35mm]

... he learns that he can only sing good when he's actually in the shower, so of course they stage an entire opera where he is able to shower on stage throughout. It's a simple gag, but it makes you wonder why no-ones has ever done it before.

http://blogs.indiewire.com/kohn/did-woody-allen-rip-off-the-flintstones

Also, The Simpsons had a similar idea where Homer gains the ability to sing opera, but only when lying down, so he performs operas that are staged with him lying down. It's stupid.