Recently, Allen's films have served as a guide to Europe. First Spain (Vicky Cristina Barcelona), then France (Midnight in Paris), now the roads have led to Italy, Rome.
In the official Russian release, the film is called "Roman Adventures", although the literal translation would be "With love for Rome." In fact, the tape is more likely not about the great city - the capital of the empire, but about the fact that not everything in life corresponds to our ideas. Allen starts a game of association with the audience. He says black and then shows white. He says: attractive intellectual, actress, thief of hearts (you already introduced, right?), And in the frame appears … Ellen Page ("Juno", "Lollipop"). Or here's another: the sex symbol of Italian cinema … balding Antonio Albanese with a huge belly, not very well known to the Russian audience.
Throughout the film, the director plays a game with the characters themselves. So, the gray mouse - the office clerk Roberto Benigni ("Life is Beautiful", "Out of the Law", "Coffee and Cigarettes") is outraged why no one is interested in his opinion. The very next day he is occupied by crowds of journalists who ask what he prefers for breakfast and what panties he wears.
“Roman Adventures” is five short stories from the life of ordinary people, townspeople and guests of Rome, saturated with good irony. Allen himself has not appeared in his films for a long time, and here he again appears before the audience in his usual role: an intellectual dreamer, ironic about everything. The cast can be called stellar: in addition to the named actors, Alec Baldwin, Penelope Cruz, Jesse Eisenberg ("The Social Network", "Welcome to Zombieland") starred in the film. All of them are ordinary students, clerks, architects, workers. The director makes fun of the intellectual class, the cultural "elite". A kind of culmination is the performance of an opera singer on stage.. in a shower cubicle. According to the film, critics speak unflatteringly about the production, which was staged by the hero of Allen himself. “They called me imby … what is it … imbicilli! You see how lucky you are to be married to imbicilli!”He says to his wife.
