Romance & Cigarettes (John Turturro, 2005)

[Antoine Doinel]

I'd forgotten about the film until today when it was announced that Turturro would be self-distributing the film after the whole MGM/Sony merger/buyout left it in limbo.

Has anyone seen it?

[ugobo]

I've seen it at the Festival du Nouveau Cinema two years ago in Montreal. All i can say is that it's a completely crazy movie! Kind of a cross between a musical and a bad thriller on drugs! Very funny.

[pianocrash]

Still available for cheap on amazon uk, if you'd like.

[Antoine Doinel]

More on Turturro's struggles to get the film released including support from none other than Adam Sandler. From the NY Times:

[quote]The Actors Sing, the Director Suffers, the Film Survives

By FRANZ LIDZ
Published: September 2, 2007
FOR the actor turned filmmaker John Turturro the low point in the twisty tale of “Romance & Cigarettesâ€

[Barmy]

This actually is in my Top 10 for 2007 (for now).

[gubbelsj]

including support from none other than Adam Sandler.

We're all put on earth for a reason....

[Belmondo]

The reviews are all over the place. Ebert and others say it is wonderful. Others say it is unwatchable in its awfulness.
Why is it getting a limited release now and who do I have to screw to get to see it?

Sounds like it is right up my alley - a profanity laden sort of musical with plenty of sex, slime, and let's sing along. Can't beat the cast - James Gandolfini, Susan Sarandon, Kate Winslet (talkin' dirty), Steve Buscemi, and Christopher Walken.

Is this supposed to be the type of noble semi-musical failure that doomed ONE FROM THE HEART and PENNIES FROM HEAVEN? Somebody help me out here, because this movie sounds intriguing.

[Musashi219]

It's playing at the Music Box in Chicago on December 8th with John Turturro in attendance for Q&A. All I know is a friend bought tickets and I'm going.

[Noir of the Night]

I saw this movie a few years ago on an airplane. It's been awhile, but I was in the camp of people who thoroughly enjoyed it. They did a good job of making the musical scenes natural--you get the sense that spontaneously breaking into covers of old classics was to only way to express these emotions. And of course, it was fun to see Walken doing a music number, not so much because of his weirdness but because of his theatre background (well, okay, partly because of his weirdness). I guess I can understand some of the negative reviews, but it's status as rotten on rottentomatoes.com took me by surprise, as did some of the extremely negative reviews; I don't understand how you could hate this movie. At the very least, it tries to do something a little different.

[Awesome Welles]

I saw this film a few years ago with a John Turturro Q&A after. I enjoyed the film but it is very flawed. The film begins and it's great, Gandolfini, Sarandon, Winslet they all make it work wonderfully. Gandolfini singing A Man Without Love is simply wonderful. And the great thing is that Turturro let's his actors sing and there is no effort to make their voices sound good and it is because of this that it's all the more enjoyable, we really do get the sense we're watching people who are enjoying singing (like the dance scene in Band of Outsiders - we enjoy it because they are). Turturro related the physical 'movement' of the characters in the film to that of accidents and a naturalness that we all find inherently funny, when someone slips and they try and catch themselves we laugh at them catching themselves. And he certainly achieves this in the film.

The problems with the film begin around the mid point and settle in by the third act. Turturro said later in conversation that this film had been gestating in his mind for ten years and we get the feeling that he has changed as a person over that time and this has become infused in the film, his sentiments seem to change by the end, leaving the audience confused, I can't quite remember why now, but I remember feeling this way. Anyway, despite its flaws, the film is enjoyable and for Christopher Walken singing Tom Jones' Delilah in the style of Elvis is worth the price of admission alone.

[skuhn8]

This is a big hit on the dvd market over here in Hungary. good to see some praise, I'll have to go check this out. Still unavailable in the US. Strange.

[Belmondo]

Antoine - sorry for posting this as a new topic. I did Search first ... is it because I wrote " Romance and" instead of "Romance &" ?

I still intend to see the movie if it plays within 93 miles of Cape Cod (Boston being 94 miles away).

[Belmondo]

Finally saw it - into the DVD player, out of the DVD player, and now taking its rightful place on my ever longer shelf of "interesting failures".

Damn little romance, plenty of cigarettes, and more evidence (not that any was needed) that we still may have a way to go as we attempt to re-imagine the conventional musical genre. I've been hearing that Westerns and Musicals are dead for longer than I've been alive. It has never been true for Westerns, but Musicals continue to struggle through a mist of hairspray as they reach across the universe to grab a few pennies from heaven and give us one from the heart even while landing with a thud in Chicago. Do I have to hire my own singing detective to figure out why no one can attend the tale?

I didn't want to put ROMANCE & CIGARETTES on my bottom shelf. I wanted to put it beside the BUSBY BERKELY box.
That ain't happening.

[Cold Bishop]

Damn little romance, plenty of cigarettes, and more evidence (not that any was needed) that we still may have a way to go as we attempt to re-imagine the conventional musical genre. I've been hearing that Westerns and Musicals are dead for longer than I've been alive. It has never been true for Westerns, but Musicals continue to struggle through a mist of hairspray as they reach across the universe to grab a few pennies from heaven and give us one from the heart even while landing with a thud in Chicago. Do I have to hire my own singing detective to figure out why no one can attend the tale?

Take that back...

(And I assume you meant the Singing Detective remake)

[Belmondo]

Yes, the "Singing Detective" remake with Robert Downey Jr.
I do love "Pennies from Heaven", which I saw in the theater even after reading respected reviews to the effect that it was "an audacious failure".

[domino harvey]

Guys, the musical's already been saved by Jeanne and the Perfect Guy. Just joking.

[tavernier]

Armond would agree with you....and he's not joking.

[domino harvey]

I still thought you were joking but then I learned the horrifying truth

[John Cope]

Overall I didn't much care for this but I wanted to acknowledge one thing that Turturro did extraordinarily well, and that would be negotiating the gradual turn of his narrative from ribald comedy to passive and introspective dramatic tragedy. There's no way that this should have worked as well as it did or been as effecting and it therefore goes a long way toward establishing that Turturro does, in fact, have a very firm handle on his material.

It should probably also be noted that part of the reason this turn has the ultimate impact it does has much to do with it being so opposed in tone from the first half, the tone of which was the very thing I disliked the most. My problem with that part of the picture has less to do with its actual effectiveness and more to do with my own cultural prejudices I suppose. Quite frankly I just couldn't get into the whole salt-o-the-earth working class milieu. It's the same sort of thing that keeps Amarcord near the bottom of my favorite Fellinis. The vague echoes of Dennis Potter and Terence Davies and even Cop Rock managed to keep it all watchable enough and I appreciate the fact that, given the absence of Alan Rudolph from the cultural scene, someone should satisfy the need for eccentric and sincere dramatic comedy; but Turturro's adherence to a notion of relentlessly crude verisimilitude worked to keep me at a distance. Still, the payoff is then that much more unexpected and profound. The last shot in particular is great.