By: debbie lynn elias
Many may recall that I have never been a huge Woody Allen fan. His material has always been hit or miss, more on the miss side as a rule. However, as Allen has aged, his material has become more resonating and he has excelled at blending generational actors, mixing mature established talent with young upstarts, and capturing a level of magic that warms the heart with laughter. With TO ROME WITH LOVE, Allen has achieved casting perfection with chemistry, energy, likeability, and performance timing. Topping that off is his visual aesthetic which, with this film, is stunning thanks to a perfect collaborator with cinematographer Darius Khondji – light, bright, open, airy – very freeing and engaging, while his script is filled with humor, social commentary (including a wonderful tongue-in-cheek nor to reality tv/paparazzi with Roberto Benigni’s storyline) and fun. Beautifully crafted, TO ROME WITH LOVE is comprised of very distinct and different slices of life for very different people, but all with a common thread. Each story could easily stand on its own as a short film, but thanks to skillful editing and Allen’s cohesive thematic writing, the stories blend beautifully and comfortably – and all without the mandatory intersection of characters that we have been getting of late from Garry Marshall. If I had never seen a Woody Allen film or knew of his work until seeing TO ROME WITH LOVE, I would have to call him a consummate storyteller who taps into the fabric of human nature.
With a cast that includes Alec Baldwin, Roberto Benigni, Penelope Cruz, Judy Davis, Jesse Eisenberg, Ellen Page, Alison Pill and Greta Gerwig, we meet a cast of characters that are truly characters – an architect reliving his youth, a youth who wants to be a famous architect, a regular Italian Joe who suddenly becomes a celebrity, a young Italian couple from the provinces who arrive in Rome to meet the husband’s family and get entangled with a hooker with a heart instead, an American student in Rome who falls in love with Roman god, the quirky parents of the American student, the loving warm family of the Roman god who just happen to be morticians with a dad who is an incredible opera singer, but only in the shower. In crafting this story, Allen admits, “I thought, ‘It’s a funny idea that the guy sings in the shower and it’s a funny idea that some guy wakes up one day and suddenly he’s famous and doesn’t really know why. And two young people come to Rome and they’re just married, and they get involved in the situation.”
Surprising me is Allen’s own performance as American in Rome as Jerry. Given it’s been some time since we’ve seen him in front of the camera (six years ago in Scoop), this is one time we can be glad that he wrote a part he could play. “When I write a script, if there is a part for me, then I play it.” Quite often, his frenetic quirkiness becomes irritating, but here, as Jerry, he is beyond funny in a very quirky flustered older parent way. Enhancing Allen’s own performance is his chemistry with Judy Davis who plays wife Phyllis. She is flawless. As for Davis, half of the fun in watching her is her visual expressiveness thanks to the wifely faces she makes. Hysterical!!
And who doesn’t love Alec Baldwin. Shrewdly casting Baldwin to play John, a character that embodies the very aura and persona of the Baldwin we have all come to know and love, is perfection. Pairing Baldwin and Jesse Eisenberg in a storyline of old generation/young generation architects who meet up in Rome with Baldwin’s John becoming a visual imagined conscience for Eisenberg’s Jack, is inspired. The two play off each other so well. And when it comes to Eisenberg, his character construction is entertaining – wimpy simpy and tossing in more than believable puppy dog adoration for Ellen Page’s Monica, best friend of Jack’s girlfriend Sally. As Sally, Greta Gerwig does what Greta Gerwig does best – adds a frenetically confident layer to her character. Almost awestruck in speaking about the experience of shooting TO ROME WITH LOVE, making this film was a dream come true, “I was so honored to be there. I loved doing it and I loved the other actors in it.”
In Alessandra Mastronardi, America has just met one of the freshest faces and personas to come from Italy since Sophia Loren. She is a gem. Her face is bright and fresh like the sun. Her innocent naivete as Milly is sweet, priceless. Her gushing insecure fan adoration to an acclaimed Italian actor whom she meets, is preciously perfect. And when playing a scene with herself in a mirror, she is too funny. I look forward to more American directors casting this Italian masterpiece for many years to come.
But I have to say, the jewel in this crown is Penelope Cruz. As Anna, the hooker with a heart (move over Julia Roberts, there’s a new gal in town), she is hysterical perfection! It is impossible not to laugh every time she appears on screen. Beyond great comedic timing with dialogue delivery, she has turned into a nuanced physical comedienne as well.
Being a film set in Rome and given the storied history of the Roman gods, Allen gives us two modern days gods in the form of Flavio Parenti’s Michelangelo and Fabio Armiliato’s Giancarlo. Parenti is absolutely gorgeous, and as for Armiliato, opera singer turned actor, I could listen to him sing all day long. Surprisingly, he brings an effortless subdued ease to his acting, a lovely contrast to his strong emotive operatic voiding. As Allen opines, “We searched for a long time to find somebody who could actually sing opera and could speak a little English and could act a little bit. And then, all of a sudden, we met this guy [Fabio Armiliato] and he was great. He had all those qualities. He had lived in New York for a year of his life, he spoke English pretty well, he was a pretty good actor and he had a lovely singing voice, so we were very lucky.”
Written and directed by Woody Allen, one of the great strengths in TO ROME WITH LOVE are some of the performances he elicits from his adoring cast. Allowing, and even encouraging, improvisation, “I have great faith in the actors. When they improvise, it always sounds better than the stuff I write in my bedroom.” And what about those written words? Returning to his earlier comedic styling with broad, slapstick humor, according to Allen, “The stories in this picture just require, in the telling of those stories, a certain amount of that broader, slapstick kind of humor. Not much of it, but a certain amount of it is required. You can’t tell the story and avoid, you just can’t tell the story properly without doing that.” Celebrating the fact that “in film, you control everything that’s going on, so you can indulge the most fantastic, romantic, escapist feelings and fantasies. You can do anything you want”, Allen embraces the magic and beauty that the legend of Rome has always promised.
Technically, the film is beyond reproach. Long a favorite of mine, cinematographer Darius Khondji exquisitely sets a visual tone with his lighting and framing. Describing TO ROME WITH LOVE as ” very fun and really direct. The images are very sunny and warm, and at times very sensuous, lush and glamorous”, Khondji celebrates the muted pastels of the ancient brick homes and the natural minerals in the colors of paint, the soft brightness of the sun, the cool greens of trees and light blue of the sky. The entire tonal bandwidth of the film is one of open airy freedom. For Khondji, the comedy of the films breaks into four segments – two which follows Americans in Rome and two which follow Romans in Rome. To achieve the necessary looks for the former, Khondji used Cooke S5 lenses to allow for wider angles and cooler light, lending to sharper imagery. As for the Romans in Rome sequences, Khondji used the same Cooke Speed Panchro lenses that Panavision had refurbished for his last collaboration with Allen, Midnight in Paris, lending to a more saturated imagery a la “Kodacolor”. Key to the look of TO ROME WITH LOVE is the fact that Khondji shot on film – 35mm 4-perf – which provides larger negative space, thus the expanded frame of visual beauty.
A 38 day shoot, lensing vacillated between Steadi-Cam and dolly tracks with the bulk of shooting performed on the latter, allowing for energetic pacing within a scene that mirrors the energy of Rome itself. Nicely played are some contrasting elements of small closed rooms, such as that of Benigni’s character, which not only allowed for some fine hand-held work, but serve as the perfect counter to the character development when he is thrust into celebrity. Metaphorically lovely. Describing his collaboration with Allen “wonderful”, Khondji is quick to point out that once Allen trusts you, “he lets you design the shots.”
Big applause to Allen and Khondji on their selection of locations within The Eternal City. Discussing how they might shoot a particular scene in a certain location opened the door to determining the final shooting locations. Notable is that Allen and his team selected areas of the city where preservation and restoration of fountains, buildings and streets has taken place. For the past decade or so, Rome has been trying to clean and preserve its fountains and landmarks which had turned “gross” from age, bad water and, let’s face it, pigeon poop. Thanks to careful sandblasting and preservation techniques, the true beauty of the city has come to life, once again becoming clean and inviting and in the case of the fountains, crystalline, all of which are exquisitely and invitingly showcased by Khondji’s cameras.
Further celebrating the look and feel of the Eternal City is Anne Seibel’s production design, Raffaella Giovannetti’s set decoration, Luca Tranchino’s art direction, and notably, that for the Pagliacci opera which is gorgeous, lush and richly apportioned with color and costume, the complete antithesis of the rest of the film, making it wonderfully surreal and fantastical.
Beyond the performances, the story and the breathtaking visuals, the score and soundtrack is a joyous blend of Puccini, Verdi, Leoncavallo and works by other Italian composers through the years. Adding its own element of important to the film, the music here gives another layer of liveliness and magic to the film. For Allen, “Music, for me, is a very big thing in films and I use it unashamedly…I’m a big believer in music in movies. It covers a multitude of sins.”
A feast for the cinematic senses, after watching TO ROME WITH LOVE, I can honestly say that I’m just wild about Woody.
Jerry – Woody Allen
Phyllis – Judy Davis
John – Alec Baldwin
Jack – Jesse Eisenberg
Anna – Penelope Cruz
Sally – Greta Gerwig
Monica – Ellen Page
Hayley – Alison Pill
Milly – Alessandra Mastronardi
Giancarlo – Fabio Armiliato
Michelangelo – Flavio Parenti
Written and Directed by Woody Allen.
