When Paolo Sorrentino was dreaming of making his first English language film he must also have been dreaming of success on at least two continents, and there’s a chance that this dream might be realized. He’s at least off to a good start – his “This Must Be The Place”, with Sean Penn and Frances McDormand topped the Italian box office yesterday with 226,448 euro earning it a grand total, to date, of 1.449.721 euro for the film about a aging rock star Cheyenne (Penn), who goes on a hunt for the Nazi who tormented his father.
It premiered at Cannes and I haven’t had the chance to see it but the reviews are very mixed; some call it brilliant – others confusing. Whether the concept of a guy, a celebrity that has almost achieved a Michael Jackson level of weirdness, is believable might not even be the point – as he sets out on the journey to avenge his father’s humiliation at the hands of a monster maybe Sorrentino is more interested in his journey.
Said Sorrentino: …”Umberto Contarello (screenplay) and I eliminated the possibility of an “institutional” Nazi hunter and gradually arrived at the complete antithesis of the detective: a slow, lazy, rock star who was bored enough and closed in his self-referential world to the point of being, seemingly, the last person who would embark on a crazy search for a Nazi criminal, probably dead by now, across the United States. The background of the tragedy of tragedies, the Holocaust, and its juxtaposition with the diametrically opposite world of pop music (fatuous and frivolous by definition) and one of its protagonists, seemed to me to be a “dangerous” enough combination to make for an interesting story. Because I think that a story only truly comes alive when there’s a danger of failing. And I hope I haven’t failed.”
Me too Paolo – Can’t wait to see how it does when it opens in the US in December.
The trailer from Cannes:
I Love Italian Everything 