Institute History
Description
Following the excitement over his films Consequences of Love and Il Divo, we relish the opportunity to present the North American premiere of This Must Be the Place, Paolo Sorrentino’s latest tour de force.
Paolo Sorrentino’s genre-bending comedy of disaffection introduces a whimsical and provocative spin on the narrative categories it counterposes, achieving a wry commentary on modern alienation.
Sean Penn stars as Cheyenne, the bizarre former lead singer of an iconic goth rock band. Though fabulously rich and living in a palatial estate with his wife, Jane—Frances McDormand plays his down-to-earth emotional anchor—Cheyenne is phlegmatic and disconnected. Emotionally distant from his disapproving father since adolescence and facing a midlife crisis, he undertakes to make things right by, of all things, hunting a Nazi who tormented his father in a concentration camp. The resulting detective work and road trip lead the emotionally unmoored Cheyenne to self-realizations, human connections, and a showdown perhaps more surprising than any other in movie lore. At the end of this unpredictable journey, Cheyenne has tracked the Nazi long and far enough that he can finally consider whether deliverance is found in lifestyle, fame, heroism . . . or if, perhaps, it is tucked away somewhere behind the mascara.