Romance & Cigarettes
By Cyril Pearl -- Video Business, 2/4/2008
To celebrate the Feb. 12 DVD release of Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner 40th Anniversary Edition, Sony held a film screening at the Armand Hammer Museum in Los Angeles on Feb. 11.
The stars of The Jane Austen Book Club greeted fans at Barnes & Noble at The Grove in Los Angeles on Feb. 5.
Warner Home Video launched a retail event to celebrate it's 85th anniversary with a party on the studio's lot on Feb. 5.
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SONY
Street: Feb. 12
Prebook: now
> John Turturro’s working class musical features an all-star cast and a score of familiar hits.
John Turturro’s Romance & Cigarettes is a tale about love and infidelity, served up in the style of a modern-day musical wherein the performers break into dance and song, mostly lip-synching to a selection of numbers by such performers as Bruce Springsteen, James Brown, Dusty Springfield, Tom Jones and Nick Cave. The loosely-knit story revolves around a philandering Brooklyn construction worker Nick (James Gandolfini), his sultry lover (Kate Winslet) and his betrayed wife, Kitty (Susan Sarandon). Adding another dimension to the triangle are Nick and Kitty’s angry daughters, played by Mary-Louise Parker, Aida Turturro and Mandy Moore, and Kitty’s weirdo brother, Bo (Christopher Walken). We don’t have to tell you that there’s a whole lot of talent involved in the very offbeat film, which isn’t for everyone’s tastes. But if you ever wondered what Tony Soprano would look like warbling an Englebert Humperdinck song and busting a move alongside an ensemble of neighborhood garbage men, then this is your title.
Shelf Talk: This 2005 film’s troubled history—changes in studio management kept Romance & Cigarettes from being completed and distributed—is finally in the past with its arrival on DVD. Its on-again, off-again story has gotten a lot of ink over the past year, which has put it in the mind of those who peruse entertainment news. And, of course, fans of Turturro and lovers of musicals are well aware that it’s out there. As for those who’ve never heard of Romance & Cigarettes, the box art features a sexy shot of Winslet’s body, a cigarette dangling from her hand and a red bra adorning her chest, which should pique the interest of eyes wandering the new release shelf. And those who flip the box are sure to be bowled away by the impressive cast, pictures of whom adorn the back the flipside.
Musical, color, R (mature themes, language, sexual situations), 105 min., DVD $24.96
Extras: director/writer’s introduction and commentary, featurette, deleted scenes
Director: John Turturro
First Run: L Int’l., 2006, NA