SYNOPSICS
Romance & Cigarettes (2005) is a English movie. John Turturro has directed this movie. James Gandolfini,Susan Sarandon,Kate Winslet,Steve Buscemi are the starring of this movie. It was released in 2005. Romance & Cigarettes (2005) is considered one of the best Comedy,Musical,Romance movie in India and around the world.
Nick and Kitty Murder are married middle-aged working class New Yorkers. Kitty catches Nick in an indiscretion when she finds a love poem, extolling the virtues of one specific body part, Nick wrote to his mistress, Tula. The poem is the last straw for Kitty regarding their marriage. Kitty has the support of their three grown daughters - biological or other - her cousin Bo, her pastor and others at the church. They help her with among other things finding and thus dealing with Tula, who she does not know, and looking back at if she made a mistake in choosing Nick over her first love. On the other side, Nick turns to his co-worker Angelo, and a local police officer/ex-military man for advice, which he also gets unsolicited from his tough talking mother. Nick still has Tula, a frank-talking Northern English sex shop clerk, who truly loves Nick's body parts as he loves hers. A little emotional distance may provide Nick and Kitty the best perspective of what their future holds.
Romance & Cigarettes (2005) Trailers
Same Actors
Same Director
Romance & Cigarettes (2005) Reviews
Bold and Beautiful
I just saw this wonderful film at the Toronto Film Festival and what a delightful experience it was. It's so refreshing to see a film-maker who is willing to take the huge, bold risks that John Turturo has taken in his direction. Also, what a treat it was to see James Gandofini, Susan Sarandon, Christopher Walken and Kate Winslet singing and dancing and making outrageous and exciting acting choices. A wonderful selection of music, a charming and literate script and consistently good performance....what else could you ask for in a movie. Watch for Elaine Stritch in a brief role that is should be required viewing for any acting student. Also loved the work of Aida Turturro. This film was a joy to watch!
Great movie - don't be put off by the "musical" tag
John Turturro has created something very special here. Look at the cast list. The names alone make it a must-see for many cinema lovers, yet the description of musical might also put many off. Well don't worry. This film uses existing songs to enhance emotional statements at intervals throughout this gritty film. It mixes them with Brooklyn working life, some sex, lots of humour and pathos and fantastically it all works. The songs are used a la Dennis Potter and seep in and out of the narrative flow as easily as a gentle voice-over. Great performances by everyone but stunners from Kate Winslet (now that's a proper body), Elaine Stritch ("Every breath is a victory") and Christopher Walken, always riveting. James Gandolfini plays a slightly different Tony Soprano but that fits in just right. Quite simply a pleasure from first 'til last. Thank you John.
weird but strangely wonderful
"Romance & Cigarettes" is a flawed but endearing film. Its stylised dialogue -- often stitched together from song lyrics, lines from films and, I think, even a snatch of Beckett's Endgame -- its characters bursting into lip-synched song and dance, its strange, disjointed scenes and its total lack of romance will doubtless annoy a lot of people hoping for something somewhat more straightforward and conventional. Personally, I was hoping for something that might address the issues of love, romance and relationships which the film, instead, prodded gently before dancing and singing around them. I would also have liked to have seen more of Mary Louise Parker, who I thought was cruelly underused. And...Eddie Izzard? And yet...and yet...I really liked this film. It had an inventiveness and a quirky charm, a surreal, loopy approach to narrative and dialogue, was beautifully filmed and -- within limitations of the form -- wonderfully acted. Particular kudos to Kate Winslet, unrecognizably and thoroughly dislikeable, who nonetheless "sings" one of the more heart-stopping numbers, Ute Lemper's version of Cave & Piseks "Little Water Song", while underwater. Meanwhile, adding to his gallery of whacked-out and weird characters, Christopher Walken delivers what must be one of his weirdest performances yet as the Elvis-idolising Cousin Bo. Like a lot of things in this film, you have to see it to believe it, and even then you won't be too sure. I see cultdom beckoning for this little gem, late-night showings, repeated viewings, singalongs and favourite lines of dialogue bandied about like a secret currency. It's unlikely that it would have been made if it wasn't John Turturro writing and the Coens producing, but now it's out there, I recommend it be seen, if only for curiosity value. You either hate it or love it and -- for all its flaws -- I loved it.
Tuturro Faces the Music
Direction duties on the latest Coen brothers release have been entrusted to an able lieutenant in John Tuturro the scene-stealing actor from O Brother, Where Art Thou, Miller's Crossing and The Big Lebowski. In his hands, Romance and Cigarettes embraces all the staple Coen nuances but is unsettlingly gritty less kitsch, more kitchen sink. Predictably, the film is just a fraction beyond offbeat. For starters it is a musical original songs and irreverent covers belch incongruously through the pithy dialogue and, while appearing slightly amateurish at times, in the main it is shot with a grimy panache. The anti-hero is Nick Murder (James Gandolfini) - an overweight, chain-smoking construction worker who is married to Kitty (Susan Sarandon), but having a torrid affair with ballsy English slapper Tula (Kate Winslet). Nick has a trio of daughters (Mandy Moore precocious sex bomb, Mary Louise Parker punk and Aida Tuturro chubby mummy's girl) who pass the time knocking out grungey rock music in their back garden. Plot-wise, that's about your lot - superficially, the movie is about a family coping with adultery, but this is the Coen brothers, so there are always points of interest lurking in the mundane subject matter. If you're going to have a stab at unconventional drama, it is best to arm yourself with some quality to beef up your oddballs. So Tuturro has called in favours from Steve Buscemi who raises more than a few chortles as Nick's philosophising co-worker, and an elaborately coiffed Christopher Walken who lends the fancy footwork he cultured on that Fatboy Slim video to some of the more surreal dance sequences. Weirder still is Eddie Izzard's new age church choir organist who distributes marital advice to Mrs. Murder in between belting out gospel hits. A stellar cast then, and one cannot fault the promotional poster, which is so dominated by Winslet's mountainous, and, let's face it, almost certainly air-brushed breasts (no offence Kate) that it has been crudely censored on the London Underground. The poster hints at Winslet being some sort of femme fatale, but she actually has few scenes to demonstrate anything other than jiggling, pouting and athletic sexual gymnastics. Much of her dialogue (delivered in an ambiguously mid-Pennines northern accent) is absolutely filthy dirty and is, if you close your eyes, uncomfortably evocative of Kathy Staff in Last of the Summer Wine. No wonder I had nightmares afterwards. Winslet is following in the footsteps of Helena Bonham Carter, shrugging off the corset and the irritating "English rose" label by taking increasingly earthy roles. Serious, cerebral critics (their spectacles steaming up with every cleavage shot) will no doubt call this performance "brave", "challenging" or even "career defining". More realistically, she probably saw it as an ideal chance to prance around in hot pants and spout smut breathlessly into a telephone whilst trying desperately not to giggle. Either way, it's obviously some sort of trend among English actresses watch out for Keira Knightley in the new remake of Faster, Pussycat! Kill! Kill! But beneath the silliness beats a mournful heart. The Coens' influence, though undeniably prominent, does not swamp Tuturro's serious side and the last third of the movie sees a significant mood change. Buscemi, Walken and the quirky choreography take a back seat as Gandolfini and Sarandon muscle their way to the fore. It is an impressively gripping finale to a curiously disjointed film, and one which, on balance, just about tips it towards triumph rather than turkey. The story is wafer thin and the musical set pieces veer dangerously between hit and miss. Frankly it's a bit of a shambles at times, but no less enjoyable for that. 7/10
21st century cinema at it's best. Entertaining and original.
A film truly worthy of the Coen brothers. If you like their films, you'll love this one. It was not surprising to see that they were the producers. John Turturro's original script and direction make this a very fresh and enjoyable experience. The actors must have enjoyed making the film as this comes across very strongly. The choice of backdrop - New York suburbs and anonymous looking workers' housing - only serves only to emphasise the colourfulness of each of the characters. Like Robert Altman's films, the banal is turned into the extraordinary using popular music and quite original camera work. Personally, I don't see this film as a "musical" in the sense that the music is not used to tell the story but rather as mood pieces for various scenes. This is one of the few films that I will invest in the DVD as soon as it is out.