Romance & Cigarettes

[kotte]

As it happened, the Coens didn't end up directing this. They are producing it though, for Turturro to direct.

There are some quality performers that'll guarantee a good movie:
James Gandolfini
Susan Sarandon
Kate Winslet
Steve Buscemi
Julia Stiles
Christopher Walken

Can't wait to hear these people sing.

Sounds like a cool project. It's on my must-see list even though it's only in pre.

imdb

[Pubrick]

cigarettes should be permanently banned from titles.

[Gamblour.]

hah, i was honestly waiting for someone to say that. i think the ampersand is next.

[MacGuffin]

'Cigarettes' stars light up Venice fest

VENICE -- James Gandolfini, Susan Sarandon, John Turturro and the Coen Brothers waltzed their way onto the Lido Tuesday for the premiere of the bawdy musical "Romance & Cigarettes."

Director Turturro's movie was the second U.S. title to unspool here in competition.
 
One of the largest entourages to arrive yet provided ample opportunity for a packed news conference to quiz the filmmaker and stars. But the event was largely dominated by questions fired to Sarandon about her views on Hollywood and politics.

Sarandon joshed that the only way to end your career in Hollywood was to get "old and fat." She said Hollywood wasn't really a "political entity that is going to evolve in some way." She also said that it was a pity that men got paid more than women to be in movies but added that many of the roles did not appeal to her.

The movie script, described by producers Joel and Ethan Coen as "sufficiently demented" to bring them on board, trades in foulmouthed dialogue and lewd sexual references.

"Dirty language of a certain kind is a certain art and everything can't be sweet," said Turturro, who penned the project in addition to directing it. "We made a list of interesting expressions and as long as it is humorous it is fun."

Prior to the news conference, a war of words broke out between Venice festival organizers and a major Italian newswire service. Organizers said Italy's second-largest wire service, Adnkronos, had misrepresented the tone and content of festival coverage from outlets including The Hollywood Reporter.

Adnkronos ran an article -- picked up by the Venice daily Il Gazzettino -- which said that U.S. press coverage had slammed the festival organization and the movies so far. But organizers fired back at the wire service, saying in a press statement that the "tone and comments" of coverage "were in fact positive."

As the war of words broke out, Venice entered the home stretch and Italian entries pushed to the fore. Tuesday saw the first Italian movie unspool in competition as Roberto Faenza's "I Giorni dell'Abbandono" hit the screen. Both Cristina Comencini's "La Bestia Nel Cuore" and Pupi Avati's "La Seconda Notte di Nozze" also will vie for the jury's attention as Saturday's awards ceremony approaches.

[modage]

i hope this is good, but in a way (because i'm prejudiced against actors directing) i wish this were the new coen film cause then it could be really good (or suck really bad).  the stakes would be higher either way.

[kotte]

i hope this is good, but in a way (because i'm prejudiced against actors directing) i wish this were the new coen film cause then it could be really good (or suck really bad).  the stakes would be higher either way.

Seriously, yes. That´s what's missing from the Coens nowadays. High stakes.

[MacGuffin]

Trailer

Release Date: TBA

Cast: James Gandolfini, Susan Sarandon, Kate Winslet, Steve Buscemi, Kumar Pallana, Christopher Walken, Mandy Moore, Aida Turturro, Mary-Louise Parker, Eddie Izzard

Director: John Turturro

Premise: A down-and-dirty musical set in the world of working-class New York, tells a story of a husband's journey into infidelity and redemption when he must choose between his seductive mistress and his beleaguered wife.

[Ghostboy]

It looks like they're hiding the fact that it's a musical. Nonetheless, that's a kickass trailer.

[Tictacbk]

Best trailer I've seen in a while...right down to the sweet title screen (although i fear that could be confusing if i didn't already know the title for some reason)


I have a feeling this movie is gonna be insane, and good, and maybe, just maybe, insanely good.

[Ravi]

Now we'll find out if he's really a soprano.

[hedwig]

what a fantastic cast.

[Figure 8]

I really hope this movie turns out as good as that trailer and that cast make it look.

[SiliasRuby]

Yipeee....That trailer was so yummy. Can't wait.

[MacGuffin]

Queens – The Musical!
Source: filmbrain.typepad.com

Last night I dreamt an entire film. It was a musical of sorts, set in one of the ugliest neighborhoods in the borough of Queens, NYC. It featured a trio of actors from The Sopranos (James Gandolfini, Steve Buscemi, Aida Turturro), as well as Kate Winslet, Susan Sarandon, Christopher Walken, and a handful of other cast members you'd never expect to find in the same film, including Eddie Izzard, Elaine Stritch, Mary-Louise Parker, popstar/irritant Mandy Moore, Fassbinder protégée Barbara Sukowa and Wes Anderson regular Kumar. It was full of raunchy, sexually explicit dialog, and musical numbers that found the actors singing along to such 60s chestnuts as Tom Jones' Delilah, and Engelbert Humperdinck's A Man Without Love.

I awoke this morning to discover that it wasn't a dream at all, but merely the result of watching John Turturro's Romance & Cigarettes at 2:00 AM. Produced by the Coen brothers, Turturro first came up with the idea for the blue-collar musical while working on Barton Fink, and one could say that Romance & Cigarettes truly has "that Barton Fink feeling.") Made in 2005, the film has yet to see the light of day here in the States, a casualty of the Sony acquisition of MGM. It's a shame, for this utterly insane musical deserves to be seen. But by whom, I'm not so sure.

Set in the working-class community of Rosedale, Queens (directly in Kennedy Airport's landing path), Romance & Cigarettes can best be described as Mike Leigh meets Dennis Potter – a dysfunctional family dramedy with fantasy musical interludes. Gandolfini plays Nick Murder, a schlubby construction worker saddled with a wife, Kitty, who hates him (Sarandon), and a Greek chorus of daughters, Baby, Constance, and Rosebud, who mock him at every opportunity when not performing bad rock and roll in their cement garden. His only pleasure in life is his red-headed mistress Tula (Winslet), a potty-mouthed Brit with an exaggerated Yorkshire accent who casually tosses off lines like "you can knock on me back door, Marlon Brando style" as if she was talking about the weather. When Kitty learns of the affair, she turns to Cousin Bo (Walken, in a caricature of himself), an ageing, over-sexed Gene Vincent/Elvis wannabe, who suggests they kill Tula.

What the film lacks in plot it more than makes up for in sheer inventiveness. As in Dennis Potter's work (The Singing Detective, Pennies From Heaven), the musical numbers are waking fantasies, where characters express what they dare not say in words. Yet instead of lip-syncing, Turturro has the actors singing along with the songs, regardless if they are off-key, flat, etc. Supporting the second-rate singing is the choreography, which (I'm assuming) is intentionally amateurish and rather slapdash, coming off like a bad high school production of a Broadway musical. There are exceptions, including Christopher Walken's brilliant interpretive dance to Delilah, and Kate Winslet's fearless rendition of Connie Francis' Do You Love Me Like You Kiss Me?, which finds the chesty actress bouncing and shimmying in only a tiny bra and short skirt, her breasts fighting a losing battle to stay put.

Still, what impresses most about the film is how accurately Turturro has captured this tiny section of the city, an area that hasn't changed in decades. This is the Queens of Archie Bunker, where aluminum siding dominates, and houses are spaced only inches apart. Positioned at the geographical edge of New York City (it borders Long Island), its proximity to Kennedy Airport explains the cheap, ugly motels that line Conduit Boulevard, and acres of undeveloped land that have become unofficial dumping grounds. Turturro, who was raised near there, is on familiar turf, and his portrait would be a masterpiece of realism if it wasn't wrapped around this absurdist musical. This is a warts-and-all look at the working class, which like the films of Mike Leigh, manages to be honest while avoiding a derisive tone. There is a healthy level of cynicism, particularly about relationships and the desperation behind most of them, but the film's bittersweet conclusion offers at least a hint of salvation.

I honestly can't decide if Romance & Cigarettes' genius is planned, or a simply a case of happenstance. One thing for sure though, it is a film of unforgettable moments; Barbara Sukowa belting out Prisoner of Love in front of a garbage pile, Kate Winslet's underwater rendition of Nick Cave's Little Water Song, and a calf running through the streets of queens are but a few of the film's striking images. Equally as impressive is Turturro's razor sharp screenplay, which finds characters conversing in song titles, engaging in Pinter-esque exchanges, or uttering sexually explicit dialog more silly than salacious. (The Coen's influence is evident.)

Romance & Cigarettes isn't a film for everyone. It's not a crowd pleaser, is at times uncomfortable, and might come across as too off-kilter for many. However, this experimental musical that both subverts and transcends genre conventions is a 21st century treasure. Somebody needs to rescue this from the Sony vault, and soon.

[MacGuffin]

Turturro taking out 'Romance'
Source: Hollywood Reporter

NEW YORK -- John Turturro is taking matters into his own hands. The actor-writer-director is self-distributing his $11 million musical "Romance & Cigarettes," a project that has experienced a tortured history since it was filmed in 2004.

Despite an all-star cast that includes James Gandolfini, Susan Sarandon, Kate Winslet, Steve Buscemi, Christopher Walken, Bobby Cannavale, Mandy Moore, Mary-Louise Parker, Aida Turturro, Elaine Stritch, Eddie Izzard and Amy Sedaris, the unconventional United Artists feature was put in limbo in 2005 when Sony Pictures merged with MGM.

Turturro was nominated for a Golden Lion award for the film after its September 2005 premiere at the Venice Film Festival, but "Romance" received mixed reviews there and at the Toronto International Film Festival a week later. It was labeled a "karaoke nightmare" and "downright unwatchable" by some, but "terrific as a musical" and "almost impossible not to adore" by others.

The over-the-top story line follows a Queens construction worker (Gandolfini) who gets in trouble when his wife (Sarandon) discovers he has a lusty mistress (Winslet). The characters break into songs ranging from James Brown to Engelbert Humperdinck to Bruce Springsteen.

Despite an investment of less than $5 million by United Artists for North American rights and several other foreign territories, and the Coen brothers attached as executive producers, the filmmakers found themselves in a quagmire that took years to get through.

"A lot of the time over the last few years was to figure out just who to talk to and navigate the internal workings of a corporate merger," said one of the people involved in the production. One of the few other films rescued from the merger quagmire was UA's "Capote," which Sony Pictures Classics brought to an Oscar win for lead actor Philip Seymour Hoffman.

A Sony spokesman said video rights now reside with Sony and theatrical rights reside with MGM. The production source said Turturro (who produced the film with John Penotti) and his CAA agent Bart Walker eventually persuaded the powers that be to give the film an open-ended theatrical release Sept. 7 at New York's Film Forum. It appears in press materials without MGM or Sony's names, and according to the film's publicist, it is being self-released by Turturro.

"Romance" opened in more than a dozen countries overseas last year, earning about $2.5 million, the majority of that in Italy. It's unclear whether the film's run will be extended beyond New York.

A Sony spokesperson said the company has no plans to release the film on DVD "for a while." A source close to the film, however, said it will be released by Sony Pictures Home Entertainment sometime in 2008. But first, Turturro will have the satisfaction of seeing the film open in his hometown.