Yeah, I know you remember this title, because we already wrote about this one, but Paolo Sorrentino‘s upcoming This Must Be The Place is definitely one of those projects that always keeps our full attention.
And no, not just because legendary Sean Penn is in it, but because this film is also scheduled to premiere In Competition category at this year's Cannes Film Festival and last but not least we have a clip from the movie!
At the beginning, here's the synopsis part: “Cheyenne is a former rock star. At 50 he still dresses ‘Goth' and lives in Dublin off his royalties. The death of his father, with whom he wasn't on speaking terms, brings him back to New York.
He discovers his father had an obsession: to seek revenge for a humiliation he had suffered. Cheyenne decides to pick up where his father left off, and starts a journey, at his own pace, across America.”
As you already know, Sean Penn stars as the titular Cheyenne, and the rest of the cast includes Frances McDormand, Judd Hirsch, Eve Hewson, Kerry Condon, Harry Dean Stanton, Joyce Van Patten, David Byrne, Olwen Fouéré, Shea Whigham, Liron Levo, Heinz Lieven and Simon Delaney.
Director Paolo Sorrentino co-wrote the screenplay together with Umberto Contarello, and here's what he had to say about Sean Penn's character:
“Cheyenne is childish, but not capricious. Like many adults who remain anchored in their childhood he has a knack of maintaining only the limpid, touching and bearable qualities of kids. His prematurely quitting the music scene, due to a trauma, has obliged him to live a life that he can't bring into focus.
It drags along, oscillating between boredom and slight depression. He floats. And for men who float, irony and lightness are often the only acceptable way of dealing with life. This attitude is directly reflected in the way other people see him. Cheyenne is a genuine, unwitting source of joy. And when in the film he says in a naïve, flip way that “life is full of beautiful things,” we almost believe him. Because it is a little boy talking and, deep down, it's reassuring to think that kids are always right.”
And while we're still here at this character, let us also mention that Sean Penn definitely looks awesome as that ‘childish' former rock star. Director Sorrentino had an interesting explanation for that, too, so check out what he had to say about him:
“The look is inspired by that of Robert Smith, lead singer of The Cure. I saw The Cure perform several times when I was a kid. Then, three years ago, I went to see them again and there was Robert Smith, now fifty, looking exactly like he did when he was twenty. It was “shocking”, in the positive sense of the word. Seeing him close-up, backstage, I understood just how beautiful and touching contradictions in a human being can be. Here was a fifty-year-old who still completely identified with a look which, by definition, is that of an adolescent.
But there was nothing pathetic about it. There was just this one thing that, in the movies and in life, creates an incredible feeling of wonder: the extraordinary, a unique and thrilling exception. Months later I had the same extraordinary experience when, on a very hot July day in New York, we did the first makeup and costume tryouts with Sean Penn.
A minor miracle happened before my eyes as I silently watched the actor Sean Penn being steadily transformed, step by step, first with lipstick, then with mascara and the costumes, and finally as he moved around – in a natural way but at the same time different from the way he usually moves – and becoming a completely different person: Cheyenne.”
Movie was filmed partly in Dublin, because, as Sorrentino explained: “quite simply, Dublin is both beautiful and melancholy, two qualities that can be combined to great effect in a movie.”
We wish Sorrentino's team good luck and nice time at Cannes!
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GOgF4xrx_h0[/youtube]
This Must Be The Place Clip
