Agent Provocateur

Undercover Investigator

Agent Provocateur's very own Roving Reporter Salima Saxton, meets John Turturro, Writer and Director of 'Romance and Cigarettes'.

"Two things a man should be able to do. Be romantic and smoke his brains out." So says the everyman antihero Nick Murder (James Gadolfini)of John Turturro's new film "Romance and Cigarettes". It's a poignant and witty look at the family man's torrid affair with flame-haired Agent Provocateur shop girl Tula (Kate Winslet).

Turturro's cast blast out their personal sound tracks on their walkmans and jukeboxes and sing or lip-synch along to a guttural mix of rock 'n' roll, folk and funk. Juxtaposing the neighbourhood band's obscenely burgeoning sexuality with Murder's mid-life flatulent crises, "Romance and Cigarettes" plays as a Charles Bukowski tinged Grease. I spoke with John Turturro, writer and director of the film.

Every generation speaks so frankly in the film: from a middle- aged man's fantasies to a grandma reminiscing about her misspent sexual youth. Your writing seemed to revel in our private everyday naughtiness and I think the very ordinariness of it makes so much of the film sexy..

JT: Everyday people use their flights of imagination to escape their reality. That's a fact. They delve into their dreams and that was the spirit in which the film was made. I'm so glad that you can see some of that on screen. That's why it's great that I had a cast who were happy to play and sing along to the soundtrack in the movie. I wanted to get actors who were willing to be human and also allow themselves to be ridiculous. We had a whole process of dance and music rehearsals. I'm also an actor and I'm somewhat uninhibited and so I would often demonstrate and make a fool of myself! We did silly games and exercises and I allowed people to give their own input. Kate Winslet gave me certain ideas and there was definitely an improvement after we had collaborated together.

And I think it was obvious you cast actors who were prepared to forego their ego and work as an ensemble.

JT: That was so important. We were looking at what people might do in the privacy of their own bedroom or kitchen. We all do those funny things in our private worlds and I kept trying to push it further with the actors..

Your sound track literally throws the audience into the character's heads. How did you tap into that process?

JT: The music I used were mainly songs that were in my head when I was growing up in my neighbourhood in New York. That's the location that gave me some inspiration for the film. Actually there's some real British influence: people like Tom Jones and Dusty Springfield. And then of course there had to be some guy-guy singers like Elvis, James Brown and Bruce Springsteen. It doesn't get much better than that, does it?

The film is a brave exploration of male sexuality; Nick's "dinosaur balls" as he calls them; it's rare to see such a brutal embrace of a man's character on screen.

JT: As a man, I tried to be as honest as much as I could be. But I also wanted to be inventive and fun. It was important for me that the men I cast in the movie were not overtly macho. I wanted guys who had a delicate side. Someone like James Gandolfini is so interesting. He's a big guy but he can be so delicate and sensitive. He's great at acting opposite a woman. I wanted Steve Buscemi for similar reasons. In the movie he says such vulgar and coarse things but he plays it so well that the audience are left wondering if it was real or a fantasy. Just borderline.

And you still end up liking the male characters despite their obvious flaws...

JT: None of us are perfect and I hope that came across. All the men have an appealing mix of characteristics. And Christopher Walken of course goes to the beat of his own drum! But still the women are the powerful ones in the movie and the guys are just trying to..

Catch up?

JT: Yes, just that. This stuff interests me endlessly. I put lots of my primal urges in the film!

Obviously! The fantasy sequences particularly intrigued me; my favourite being the firemen putting out Tula's "fire". It could have so easily have been trashy testosteronic madness. But I thought it was gloriously minxy and real..

JT: I didn't want it overly choreographed. I wanted it to seem spontaneous. I wanted it to be like you would do yourself in your own house. It had to work as a fantasy and as a complete musical number. But I didn't necessarily want a beginning, middle and end. I took images and played around. I didn't want a linear line because when you dream it's not like that. There was an image where Kate was pulling a cigarette from between her legs. It didn't make the final cut but those were the kind of things we were playing with. Musical fantasy, that's what I would call the film.

So that's how you'd categorise it?

JT: I'd say it was a down-and-dirty love story with music. A musical that Charles Bukowski would write! Mr Bukowski meets The Honeymooners. The idiom is a fantastical love story spiced with fantasy, music and humour. Classical Greek plays have a Chorus with poetry, music and dance. As does Shakespeare. I drew from those ideas as my background in in theatre. Nowadays you don't often see see those elements coexisting, I used poetry but the poetry of the garbage man. Life isn't a comedy or a tragedy. It's both. The musical numbers are fantastical: they're meant to be the characters' interior monologues. The music is lodged in their subconscious and expresses their unspoken hopes and desires. When people don't have a lot they escape through the movies or popular song. Everyone uses music as a regular way to fantasise; even when you're driving in your car a song can make you remember or vent in a matter of moments. Everyone fantasises when they have a problem.

The film is a delicious mishmash of all that makes up an everyday existence. Did you purposely try to avoid glossing over the contradictions and imperfections of the characters?

JT: People are imperfect. Relationships are imperfect. Nick Murder (played by James Gandolfini) is not a bad guy per se, He hurts somebody in following his primal urges but is really struggling with himself. The girl he's having an affair with has feelings. She wants what he's got. Kate Winslet's character may be a little trashy but..

She still wants to be loved.

JT: And doesn't everybody want that? Tula was a great performance by Kate. I saw her in the movie Holy Smoke. I remember her doing some wild things. For me, she is the total opposite of Madonna. All that control and vogue-ing, whereas Kate is totally free. She can be simultaneously hilarious and moving. Kate sang a beautiful version of the Nick Cave Little Water Song but I used Ute Lemper's version in the end. Kate's rendition will hopefully be on the CD soundtrack.

Although the film is a strong expression of a man's sexuality, there were very gutsy performances from the women in the cast, particularly Susan Sarandon, Kate Winslet and Mary Louise Parker..

JT: I really like women. I love working with women. I 've always had a really close and free relationship with my mum. The women in the movie are the strong characters. They suffer the most but they also live the most . The men either die or they fantasise. I do love working with women. I want to do it more and more. In the acting world the female acting pool is just not exploited enough. The range of what a woman can do often far exceeds what a man can do.

I suppose a woman juxtaposing fragility and strength can be filmically very powerful..

JT: Exactly. I hope the audience can see a little of what I wanted to do . I'm not a woman. But maybe a woman trapped inside a man's body!

And so why did you decide to contextualise Tula (Kate Winslet's character) as an Agent Provocateur shop girl?

JT: We did an exhaustive search of lingerie brands and shops. But there was something arresting about your uniform and style. The girls working there don't necessarily have stacks of money and I liked the dichotomy of that when it came to Tula. I loved the New York Agent Provocateur store and the girls..and then of course Kate Winslet in that pink uniform dress! I bought underwear for some of the women. I bought Susan Sarandon a beautiful bra...

Romace and Cigarettes is written and directed by John Turturro and produced by Joel and Ethan Coen. Soon on general release in the UK.


Salima Saxton x