USA,
2005, 105 min
Shown in 2006
CREDITS
- dir
-
John Turturro
- prod
-
John Penotti, John Turturro
- scr
-
John Turturro
- cam
-
Tom Stern
- editor
-
Ray Hubley
- mus
-
Chris Robertson
- cast
-
James Gandolfini, Susan Sarandon, Kate Winslet, Steve Buscemi, Bobby Cannavale, Christopher Walken, Eddie Izzard, Mary-Louise Parker
- source
-
Greene Street Films, 9 Debrosses Street, 2nd Floor, New York, NY 10013. FAX: 212-609-9099. EMAIL: general@gstreet.com.
- premiere
-
U.S. Premiere
-
COMMENTS
John Turturro in attendance.
OTHER
John Turturro’s exuberant new film is many things: a warm, affectionate portrait of a working-class American family; an homage to the musical; a scatological celebration of outrageous behavior; an exploration of love; and a vehicle for some of the world’s finest actors to let it rip in a deliriously over-the-top, no-holds-barred melodrama. We are propelled into the narrative when long-suffering Kitty (Susan Sarandon) discovers a poem her husband Nick (James Gandolfini) has apparently written to his lover. When she confronts him, he vociferously denies everything, but all three of their grown daughters take Kitty’s side, and Nick staggers off, breaking into a rendition of “Lonely Is a Man Without Love” as the local garbage men, welders and electricians join in for the film’s first dance number. In a deliciously perverse performance, Kate Winslet portrays Tula, the “other woman” who has captured Nick’s heart and groin, a saucy English tart with a mouth that would make a soldier blush. Her outlandishness is matched by Christopher Walken as fast-talking Cousin Bo, who swears to help the furious Kitty track down her nemesis and get revenge. Crazy musical numbers rub shoulders with a soundtrack that features Janis Joplin and Tom Jones to tell the age-old story of a love triangle and a family who can't believe their grizzled, overweight father would endanger everything for a flighty foreigner. It’s not all fun and games, however. Turturro has his sights on bigger game and by the end, Romance & Cigarettes evolves into a reverie on love, loyalty and memory.
—Piers Handling, Toronto International Film Festival
FACTOID #219
Daniel Talbot, editor of Film: An Anthology , was the first recipient of the Mel Novikoff Award in 1988. Later he cofounded New Yorker Films, a distribution company that introduced many foreign language films to North American audiences. The Mel Novikoff Award, named after the pioneering San Francisco exhibitor, is given to an individual or institution whose work has enhanced the filmgoing public’s knowledge and appreciation of world cinema.
