Romance & Cigarettes: Hot ‘n Nasty
Romance & Cigarettes, a movie probably not coming soon to a theater near you, is a messy, juicy stew of a movie about sexual lustâ€â€the kind that upends marriages and, in the words of Muddy Waters, “makes a preacher put his bible down.†It also happens to be over-the-top hilarious.
Written, directed, and completed by John Turturro two years ago, the movie was held up in a legal dispute between Sony and MGM, and Turturro has finally released the movie with his own money. Romance & Cigarettes tells the story of Nick Murder (James Gandolfini), a middle-age crazy Queens steelworker who falls hard for red-headed Tula (Kate Winslet) a filthy-mouthed sexpot. Nick’s wife (Susan Sarandon) goes on the war path, assisted by her aging rockabilly cousin (Christopher Walken). Steve Buscemi is in there too, as Gandolfini’s buddy and font of sexual wisdom. This all-star troupe of actors is having a ball, needless to say.
But wait, there’s more! Romance & Cigarettes is a musical. An odd kind of musical, in the style of The Singing Detective or Pennies From Heaven, except that some songs are lip-synched, some aren’t, and sometimes the actors’ voices blend with the original version. From the opening version of Engelbert’s Humperdinck’s A Man without Love, you know you’re in unusual territory. The actors sing and dance their way through churning, burning versions of Tom Jones’ Delilah; Bruce Springsteen’s Red-Headed Woman; several versions of Take Another Little Piece of My Heart; and my personal favorite, James Brown’s It’s a Man’s Man’s Man’s World.
Despite the mile-wide humor, the story takes a somber turn at the end. You could say it’s dissonant, but it’s not exactly a clunker. Romance & Cigarettes is a bawdy love song to the working class: the people who live next to airports but have never been on a jet; who live in faded pink and blue Cape Cod style homes because they can’t afford any better; whose teenage kids practice their angry punk rock in the backyard to the drone of cars on the turnpike.
Early reviews of Romance & Cigarettes have been mixed; people seem either to love it or hate it. I give it two thumbs up. If you have a healthy libido and the occasional desire to burst into cheesy song, complete with back-up singers and choreography, you will too. Look for Romance & Cigarettes on DVD soon.
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