Romance and cigarettes. You could make a compelling case that those two ingredients are what the 2005 Toronto International Film Festival is all about. Romance, of course, remains the age-old standby. As for cigarettes, it seems like everyone’s lighting up on screen these days (everyone, that is, except the characters in “Thank You for Smoking,” a satire in which Aaron Eckhart plays an unscrupulous tobacco lobbyist). In keeping with the theme, it seems only fitting that John Turturro’s new film, “Romance and Cigarettes,” should kick off the latest round of award-worthy performances worth pointing out at the festival.
Unlike anything you’ve ever seen, this madcap concoction stars James Gandolfini as a blue-collar schlub who loves his wife (Susan Sarandon) and family, but finds it impossible to resist the oversexed advances of an insatiable redhead (Kate Winslet). Winslet’s absolutely hysterical in the part, playing a young lady who swears like a sailor and screws like she just invented the notion. Meanwhile, Gandolfini spends most of the movie deciding between the best sex of his life and the woman he married, while Turturro turns the world upside-down around him. And just when you think things couldn’t get any stranger, he throws in a musical number for good measure.
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MY romance with the Irish people, and the English language, culture and education began when I was six years old. I remember very well when my illiterate father handed me over to one of the Irish nuns. Though he could not speak a word of English, somehow the nun understood him.
She took my small hand and led me off to class. My heart was thumping so loudly I imagined it was going to jump out of my throat. I was terrified that I wouldn't see my mother ever again.
But I did not cry. It was much later when
Romance and Cigarettes is a story about just that. The first half of the story deals with Nick Murder (James Gandolfini) and the fact that he's cheating on his wife Kitty (Susan Sarandon) with Tula (Kate Winslet). And why not? Tula is a smokin' hot red-headed woman who's got one of the dirtiest mouths I've ever seen on a woman. The things that she said were pretty wild and risque - and the only thing that ruined it was the fact that she was saying them to a guy like Nick. How the fuck did he land a snatch like
A new friend Jacqueline Gordon met at the New Orleans Convention Center told her God was going to send her a husband. That was four days after Hurricane Katrina filled Gordon's home to the roof with water and sent her packing, homeless and penniless.
"I was looking for nobody," Gordon said at Camp Williams Sunday. "I had my mind on surviving."
But maybe her friend, Yolanda Favorith, really was privy to God's plan. In fact, Gordon had already met her future husband.
After traveling two days from her flooded home to
TV mob boss James Gandolfini took a break from filming his hit HBO series, ``The Sopranos,'' yesterday to flog his raunchy musical, ``Romance & Cigarettes,'' here at the 52nd Annual Venice Film Festival.
Also making the red carpet scene at yesterday's world premiere of John Turturro's latest flick – about a long-married couple thrown into crisis by the hubby's affair with a British tart – was the director himself along with co-stars Susan Sarandon and Aida Turturro. The tart, Kate Winslet, was MIA from the premiere.
For Gandolfini, playing
It's early Saturday morning and Antonio Najarro should be asleep.
Instead, the 29-year-old creator of "Tango Flamenco" was dragged out of bed 30 minutes ago and brought to this frigid Detroit television studio. Seems that someone booked him to dance on a popular local morning news show, but no one bothered to tell him.
"Get ready for the tease," the floor manager hisses at Najarro, who hasn't even had time to change out of his street shoes. And so, seconds later, when the camera light flickers red, Najarro - clad in jeans and a T-shirt - is obligated to look delighted and