Romance & Cigarettes (2005)

Directed by: John Turturro | 115 minutes | comedy, romance, musical | Actors: James Gandolfini, Kate Winslet, Susan Sarandon, Steve Buscemi, Kumar Pallana, Christopher Walken, Mandy Moore, Aida Turturro, Mary-Louise Parker, Eddie Izzard, Elaine Stritch, Adam LeFevre, David Thornton, Barbara Sukowa, PJ Brown, Cady Huffman, Tonya Pinkins, June Stein, Brian Ach, Bobby Cannavale, Craig Castaldo, Michael Devine, Ivan Fatovic, Robert Feeley, Tony Goldwyn, Daria Hardeman, Wendy Johnson, Laurent Lambert, Elizabeth H. Parkinson, Amy Sedaris, John Selya, Valerie Striar, Amedeo Turturro, Diego Turturro, John Turturro, Ryan Webb

The tagline of ‘Romance & Cigarettes’ is simple but promising: ‘A Savage Musical’. Now there are many different kinds of music films that can be called ‘musical’, but director John Turturro (who has a number of more and a number of better films to his name as an actor than as a director) takes it very seriously in ‘Romance & Cigarettes’. unconventional to. He uses existing songs from pop music, from exuberant sing-alongs (‘Piece of My Heart’ by Bems and Ragavoy) to alternative tearjerkers (‘Little Water Song’ by Nick Cave and Bruno Pisek). In a postmodernist disorder, the actors often express themselves through quotations and – when it all gets too emotional – they burst out singing these existing songs. Turturro does stick to the traditional ensemble of singing and dancing within the musical genre, so you can feast on police officers jumping around and pregnant women rocking in sync.

In the beginning, it is even quoted from the hit musical ‘Westside Story’: a group of men climbs a fence and a group of women shakes their buttocks seductively. ‘Romance & Cigarettes’ is therefore not so much a musical, as a hybrid form in which musicals are parodied in order to be able to deal with heavy and less heavy emotions. All that maddening spectacle is extremely comical. Christopher Walken and Kate Winslet in particular shine; he as an Elvis fanatic who tells his love story by singing Tom Jones’ “Delilah” and she as an insatiable slut looking for true love from fat Nick. It is a pity, however, that they disappear from the story in a rather easy way, especially Walken’s role seems mainly intended as a funny snack. More actors are not used enough, for example, Steve Buscemi’s role is generally limited to some foul mouth. Hilarious perhaps, but also clearly intended only as a humorous extra. Some storylines are cut to be left unfinished, such as the storyline of Nick’s daughter Baby (played by pop pulp star Mandy Moore), who wants to marry her horribly wrong neighbor. In the first scenes it is also clearly shown that the three daughters of Nick and Kitty have a tape, but that tape is hardly used.

The main problem in the storyline, however, is the sudden break, as the film focuses on the ‘cigarettes’ part. The tone changes, which is to be expected with a transition from sex to death, but unfortunately this topic isn’t tackled nearly as strongly as the first. It gets less time, less songs and less parody, but again it doesn’t have a completely unique style. As a viewer you start to wonder how long the film will last (never a good sign) and what its purpose is (also rarely a good sign), with which the last part of the film becomes such a strange duck in the bite that it would have been better left out.

So ‘Romance & Cigarettes’ has its flaws, but at the same time the film is so entertaining that it is still recommended. It is noticeable that the Coen brothers have become involved in ‘Romance & Cigarettes’: bizarre situations, unusual humor and well-hit camera angles. However, the film is less suitable for the younger audience, it is bursting with sex and horniness. At the same time, the film also shows how women and true love have the upper hand in this. Always wanted to see a catfight in a lingerie store between two star actresses? Or very curious about Walken’s rendition of ‘Delilah’? Then go see ‘Romance & Cigarettes’.