Critically panned in Cannes. Shut out from North American premieres in Toronto and Telluride, it appeared as if Paolo Sorrentino's This Must Be the Place wouldn't find a festival tent let alone a distrib home in the U.S. but an unlikely candidate in the Weinstein Co. have grabbed the rights. Already scratching their heads on how to handle the release for Madonna's sophomore film, My Week with Marilyn and The Details, TWC probably recieved the Italian/French/Irish co-prod at a deep discount, and more than likely slated for a release in 2012, the pic will next be presented to critics at the London Film Festival.
Gist: Co-written by Sorrentino and Umberto Contarello, this is about Cheyenne, a wealthy former rock star (Sean Penn), now bored and listless in his retirement embarks on a quest to find his father’s persecutor, an ex-Nazi war criminal now hiding out in the U.S. The rest is about reconciliation and self discovery and the revenge portion of the film is indeed one of the rare noteworthy points worth discussing.
Worth Noting: Penn does make the occasional leap into Euro-films that fizzle - his last was Thomas Vinterberg's It's All About Love (2004).
Do We Care?: What I remarked about audience reactions was that the small percentile of folks that liked the film, actually loved the picture and the French appear to be the first in the world to have released the pic and critically cuddled up to it. We remain fans of Sorrentino, but look forward to what he might be working on next.
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