RSS
Home
Romance & Cigarettes: a homemade musical
Print
Email
RSS
Subscribe
.jpg)
In Romance and Cigarettes people do horrible things to the ones they love and, although they are forgiven, they still suffer for their mistakes. Most of the characters are crude and vulgar, but they would have to be, in order to deal with the sweat and grime accumulating in their relationships. It seems that for each to be in love with their spouse, they must have an equal amount of hate. In John Turturro’s third movie James Gandolfini plays Nick Murder, a bridge worker, who comes from a long line of “whoremasters”. At the start of the movie, Murder keeps the streak going by having an illicit affair with Tula, played by Kate Winslet. When his wife Kitty (Susan Sarandon) finds out, she physically attacks him and Murder hastily retreats to outside the house. Here is where the movie becomes atypical: as soon as Murder steps one foot outside the door he begins to say the opening lines of Engelbert Humperdink’s song, “Man Without Love”. He follows it up with the instrumentation, which cues the entire neighborhood to join in a hilariously choreographed dance number.
In Romance, the characters constantly speak about songs, play instruments, and get lost in what is usually considered the passive act of listening. There’s been buzz about the fact that the actors aren’t actually singing the songs, but merely lip synching to the lyrics. This seems unimportant due to the fact that the movie is not about the performance of pop songs; the songs are primarily important in understanding the roles of the characters, however they are sung. Songs are the means by which emotion is demonstrated to the audience, which is more effective in showing pain than any scream. Here each character brings his personal value to an otherwise commercial sound. Every important event in the character’s lives is followed by a song: on Nick and Kitty’s first date they went to an Ethel Merman concert. In Romance a song is used as a tangible thing, connecting a person with reality.
At times you can be unsure whether to laugh or take the movie seriously but this cannot be mistaken for weakness. We laugh not because the characters are acting silly, but because they are playing their parts so truthfully that it seems like we have accidentally walked in on a private moment, which exposes them as they really are, and you can’t help but grin. In a typical Hollywood movie Nick Murder would be a nice guy who accidentally let the wrong head think for him, but Turturro turns the character into an embarrassing slob. Murder’s decision to get circumcised, an attempt to prove his love for Tula, only ends up insulting Kitty and his children. Even when reconciliation occurs between Nick and Kitty their problems are not simply patched up. They live together but their trust is severed, and it will take more than a simple sorry to earn it back.
Romance & Cigarettes reminds us that life is not what we make of it, but rather what we make of the hand we are dealt. What we want is not necessarily what we get, but the strong don’t let that cripple them and instead try to shape their situation into something they can work with. This story offers no excuse for why Murder cheats on his wife and does not make you sympathize for him. What it does do is allow us to see a person, like ourselves, who realizes the mistakes he made too late, but still tries to correct them in hope to get back what he took for granted in the first place.
(Although the director, John Turturro, completed the picture in 2005, it didn't receive a theatrical release till 2007 and even then distribution costs had to be paid for by the director. It was released on DVD several months ago.)
Related Articles:
Add a Comment
