This Must Be the Place (film)
Encyclopedia
This Must Be the Place is a 2011 drama film directed by Paolo Sorrentino
, written by Sorrentino and Umberto Contarello. It stars Sean Penn
and Frances McDormand
. The film deals with a middle-aged wealthy rock star who becomes bored in his retirement and takes on the quest of finding his father's tormentor, a Nazi war criminal who is a refugee in the United States.
The film was an Italian majority production with co-producers in France and Ireland. Principal photography began in August 2010. Filming took place in Ireland, Italy, as well as the states of Michigan, New Mexico and New York. The film played in competition at the 2011 Cannes Film Festival
.
said Sean Penn
told him he wanted to work with him after seeing Sorrentino's film Il Divo
at the 2008 Cannes Film Festival
, where Penn headed the jury. With Penn in mind, Sorrentino wrote the screenplay for This Must Be the Place with Umberto Contarello. Sorrentino had for a long time been fascinated by Nazi war criminals who had managed to keep their former crimes secret, and went on to live ordinary lives. To add an element of irony to a story about such a person, Sorrentino came up with Penn's character: "a slow, lazy, rock star who was bored enough and closed in his self-referential world to the point of being, seemingly, the last person who would embark on a crazy search for a Nazi criminal, probably dead by now, across the United States." Sorrentino was attracted to this juxtaposition as it would add a great risk of failure, which he considers vital for the prospect of a story to be good. The name of the rock star and his band, "Cheyenne and the Fellows", was inspired by Siouxsie and the Banshees. The director looked for a name that sounded authentic. He then thought of one of the most inspired names in rock star history, Siouxsie and the Banshees, and changed it slightly to "Cheyenne and the Fellows". The look of the character was inspired by Robert Smith
of The Cure
. Sorrentino had seen The Cure perform several times in his youth, and when he went to see them again in 2008, he was fascinated by the fact that Smith, even off the stage, still wore the same kind of attire as in the past: "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." As soon as the screenplay was finished, Sorrentino sent it to Penn, who accepted to star.
This Must Be the Place was Sorrentino's first film to be shot in English. The film had a production budget of US$
28 million. Production was led by the three Italian companies Indigo Film, Lucky Red and Medusa Film. Italian bank Intesa Sanpaolo
invested €
2.5 million ($3 million) in the film, while Eurimages
provided €600,000 ($750,000) in funding. The film also received funding from France and Ireland.
Principal photography
began on 16 August 2010 in Dublin, Ireland. In September, production moved to Michigan
where filming took place in Bad Axe, Ubly
, Kinde
and Sterling Heights
. Filming in New Mexico
began in October and took place in Bingham, Alamogordo, Carrizozo, Eagle Nest
, Red River
and Questa. In late October, filming took place in New York City
. Post-production took place in Rome.
Original music for the film was written by David Byrne
of Talking Heads
. The title of the film is a tribute to the Talking Heads song "This Must Be the Place (Naive Melody)
". The original songs for the film are co-written with indie singer-songwriter Will Oldham
. New York-based singer Michael Brunnock sings these songs. The songs were not sung by Penn but by another person in the film.
.
called This Must Be the Place "that rare film directed by a non-American that gets not just the locales but also the cadence of the language absolutely right, with a script full of great lines and images of lingering beauty." Weissberg continued: "Like all great directors who make a road movie
, Sorrentino captures the physical location as well as the inner transformation[.] ... Sorrentino's America is a varied nation, one where Barack Obama
and Sarah Palin
spring from the same soil, and where narrow-minded history teachers (Joyce Van Patten) and welcoming war widows (Kerry Condon) have an equal place. He gets it, just as he gets the Holocaust's omnipresence in the lives of those affected ... , revealing the tragedy without dwelling on the horror." Regarding the acting, Weissberg wrote that "Penn's flawless performance has none of the mannered intensity that can mar his work, transcending the masklike qualities of eyeliner and lipstick with deadpan, childlike candor."
Paolo Sorrentino
Paolo Sorrentino is an Italian film director and screenwriter. He was born in Naples.Sorrentino's first film as screenwriter, Polvere di Napoli, was released in 1998. He began directing several short movies, like L'amore non ha confini, in 1998, and La notte lunga, in 2001...
, written by Sorrentino and Umberto Contarello. It stars Sean Penn
Sean Penn
Sean Justin Penn is an American actor, screenwriter and film director, also known for his political and social activism...
and Frances McDormand
Frances McDormand
Frances Louise McDormand is an American film and stage actress. She has starred in a number of films, including her Academy Award-winning performance as Marge Gunderson in Fargo, in 1996...
. The film deals with a middle-aged wealthy rock star who becomes bored in his retirement and takes on the quest of finding his father's tormentor, a Nazi war criminal who is a refugee in the United States.
The film was an Italian majority production with co-producers in France and Ireland. Principal photography began in August 2010. Filming took place in Ireland, Italy, as well as the states of Michigan, New Mexico and New York. The film played in competition at the 2011 Cannes Film Festival
2011 Cannes Film Festival
The 64th annual Cannes Film Festival was held from May 11 to May 22, 2011. American actor Robert De Niro served as the president of the jury for the main competition and French filmmaker Michel Gondry headed the jury for the short film competition...
.
Plot
Cheyenne (Sean Penn) is a wealthy former rock star, now bored and jaded in his retirement in Dublin. He travels to New York to reconcile with his estranged father during his final hours, only to arrive too late. After learning the true extent of his father's humiliation in Auschwitz at the hands of former SS Officer Aloise Lange, Cheyenne begins a journey across the country to track down Lange, who is now hiding out in America.Cast
- Sean PennSean PennSean Justin Penn is an American actor, screenwriter and film director, also known for his political and social activism...
as Cheyenne - Frances McDormandFrances McDormandFrances Louise McDormand is an American film and stage actress. She has starred in a number of films, including her Academy Award-winning performance as Marge Gunderson in Fargo, in 1996...
as Jane - Judd HirschJudd HirschJudd Hirsch is an American actor most known for playing Alex Rieger on the television comedy series Taxi, John Lacey on the NBC series Dear John, and Alan Eppes on the CBS series Numb3rs.-Early life and education:...
as Mordecai Midler - Eve Hewson as Mary
- Kerry CondonKerry CondonKerry Condon is an Irish television and film actress.She was born in Thurles, County Tipperary, Ireland. Her roles include Victoria in Unleashed , and Kate Kelly in the 2003 film Ned Kelly...
as Rachel - Harry Dean StantonHarry Dean StantonHarry Dean Stanton is an American actor, musician, and singer. Stanton's career has spanned over fifty years, which has seen him star in such films as Paris, Texas, Kelly's Heroes, Dillinger, Alien, Repo Man, The Last Temptation of Christ, Wild at Heart, The Green Mile and The Pledge...
as Robert Plath - Joyce Van PattenJoyce Van PattenJoyce Benignia Van Patten is an American stage, film and television actress.-Personal life:Van Patten was born in New York City, the daughter of Josephine Rose , an Italian American magazine advertising executive, and Richard Byron Van Patten, a Dutch American interior decorator.She is the younger...
as Dorothy Shore - David ByrneDavid ByrneDavid Byrne may refer to:*David Byrne , musician and former Talking Heads frontman**David Byrne , his eponymous album*David Byrne , Irish footballer*David Byrne , English footballer...
as himself - Olwen FouéréOlwen FouéréOlwen Fouéré, born in Ireland of Breton parents, is an Irish/French actress and theatre artist whose work occupies a central position in contemporary Irish theatre and crosses the boundaries of many art forms. She has performed with most major theatre companies in Ireland and the United Kingdom...
as Mary's mother - Shea WhighamShea WhighamFranklin Shea Whigham, Jr. , best known as Shea Whigham, is an American actor notably starring as Elias "Eli" Thompson on the HBO dramatic series Boardwalk Empire.-Early life:...
as Ernie Ray - Liron Levo as Richard
- Heinz LievenHeinz LievenHeinz Lieven is a German actor.-Life and work:Heinz Lieven grew up in Blankenese. In 1948 He began an actor's training with the actors Helmuth Gmelin and Bernhard Minetti. He married a makeup artist in 1966 and has two sons with her.Heinz Lieven started his stage career as actor at the Theater im...
as Aloise Lange - Simon DelaneySimon DelaneySimon Delaney is an Irish television and theatre director, whose works include the RTE series Bachelors Walk as one of three bachelors living together in a flat on the quays in Dublin....
as Jeffrey - Kristine Graverson as Saks 5th Shopper
Production
Paolo SorrentinoPaolo Sorrentino
Paolo Sorrentino is an Italian film director and screenwriter. He was born in Naples.Sorrentino's first film as screenwriter, Polvere di Napoli, was released in 1998. He began directing several short movies, like L'amore non ha confini, in 1998, and La notte lunga, in 2001...
said Sean Penn
Sean Penn
Sean Justin Penn is an American actor, screenwriter and film director, also known for his political and social activism...
told him he wanted to work with him after seeing Sorrentino's film Il Divo
Il Divo (film)
Il Divo is a 2008 Italian biographical drama film directed by Paolo Sorrentino. It is based on the figure of former Italian Prime Minister Giulio Andreotti. It competed at the Cannes Film Festival in 2008, where it was awarded the Jury Prize...
at the 2008 Cannes Film Festival
2008 Cannes Film Festival
The 61st Annual Cannes Film Festival was held from May 14 to May 25, 2008. In addition to films selected for competition this year, major Hollywood productions such as Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull and Kung Fu Panda had their world premieres at the festival.The British press...
, where Penn headed the jury. With Penn in mind, Sorrentino wrote the screenplay for This Must Be the Place with Umberto Contarello. Sorrentino had for a long time been fascinated by Nazi war criminals who had managed to keep their former crimes secret, and went on to live ordinary lives. To add an element of irony to a story about such a person, Sorrentino came up with Penn's character: "a slow, lazy, rock star who was bored enough and closed in his self-referential world to the point of being, seemingly, the last person who would embark on a crazy search for a Nazi criminal, probably dead by now, across the United States." Sorrentino was attracted to this juxtaposition as it would add a great risk of failure, which he considers vital for the prospect of a story to be good. The name of the rock star and his band, "Cheyenne and the Fellows", was inspired by Siouxsie and the Banshees. The director looked for a name that sounded authentic. He then thought of one of the most inspired names in rock star history, Siouxsie and the Banshees, and changed it slightly to "Cheyenne and the Fellows". The look of the character was inspired by Robert Smith
Robert Smith (musician)
Robert James Smith is an English musician. He is the lead singer, guitar player and principal songwriter of the rock band The Cure, and its only constant member since its founding in 1976...
of The Cure
The Cure
The Cure are an English rock band formed in Crawley, West Sussex in 1976. The band has experienced several line-up changes, with frontman, vocalist, guitarist and principal songwriter Robert Smith being the only constant member...
. Sorrentino had seen The Cure perform several times in his youth, and when he went to see them again in 2008, he was fascinated by the fact that Smith, even off the stage, still wore the same kind of attire as in the past: "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." As soon as the screenplay was finished, Sorrentino sent it to Penn, who accepted to star.
This Must Be the Place was Sorrentino's first film to be shot in English. The film had a production budget of US$
United States dollar
The United States dollar , also referred to as the American dollar, is the official currency of the United States of America. It is divided into 100 smaller units called cents or pennies....
28 million. Production was led by the three Italian companies Indigo Film, Lucky Red and Medusa Film. Italian bank Intesa Sanpaolo
Intesa Sanpaolo
Intesa Sanpaolo is a banking group resulting from the merger between Banca Intesa and Sanpaolo IMI based in Turin, Italy. It has clear leadership in the Italian market and a minor but growing international presence focused on Central-Eastern Europe, the Middle East and North Africa Intesa Sanpaolo...
invested €
Euro
The euro is the official currency of the eurozone: 17 of the 27 member states of the European Union. It is also the currency used by the Institutions of the European Union. The eurozone consists of Austria, Belgium, Cyprus, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Ireland, Italy, Luxembourg,...
2.5 million ($3 million) in the film, while Eurimages
Eurimages
Eurimages is the Council of Europe fund for the co-production, distribution, exhibition and digitisation of European cinematographic works. It aims to promote the European film industry by encouraging the production and distribution of films and fostering co-operation between professionals....
provided €600,000 ($750,000) in funding. The film also received funding from France and Ireland.
Principal photography
Principal photography
thumb|300px|Film production on location in [[Newark, New Jersey]].Principal photography is the phase of film production in which the movie is filmed, with actors on set and cameras rolling, as distinct from pre-production and post-production....
began on 16 August 2010 in Dublin, Ireland. In September, production moved to Michigan
Michigan
Michigan is a U.S. state located in the Great Lakes Region of the United States of America. The name Michigan is the French form of the Ojibwa word mishigamaa, meaning "large water" or "large lake"....
where filming took place in Bad Axe, Ubly
Ubly, Michigan
Ubly is a village in Huron County in the U.S. state of Michigan. The population was 873 at the 2000 census. The village is within Bingham Township.On February 25, 2004, a wolverine was spotted in Michigan for the first time in over 200 years near Ubly....
, Kinde
Kinde, Michigan
Kinde is a village in Huron County in the U.S. state of Michigan. The population was 534 at the 2000 census.The village is located on the boundary between Dwight Township and Lincoln Township, with about half of the village in both...
and Sterling Heights
Sterling Heights, Michigan
Sterling Heights is a city in Macomb County of the U.S. state of Michigan, and one of Detroit's core suburbs. As of the 2010 census, the city had a total population of 129,699...
. Filming in New Mexico
New Mexico
New Mexico is a state located in the southwest and western regions of the United States. New Mexico is also usually considered one of the Mountain States. With a population density of 16 per square mile, New Mexico is the sixth-most sparsely inhabited U.S...
began in October and took place in Bingham, Alamogordo, Carrizozo, Eagle Nest
Eagle Nest, New Mexico
Eagle Nest is a village in Colfax County, New Mexico, United States. The population was 306 at the 2000 census. Situated on the Enchanted Circle Highway, Eagle Nest is a small summer-home and resort area...
, Red River
Red River, New Mexico
Red River is a resort town in Taos County, New Mexico, United States located in the Sangre de Cristo Mountains. The population was 484 at the 2000 census.-History:...
and Questa. In late October, filming took place in New York City
New York City
New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...
. Post-production took place in Rome.
Original music for the film was written by David Byrne
David Byrne
David Byrne may refer to:*David Byrne , musician and former Talking Heads frontman**David Byrne , his eponymous album*David Byrne , Irish footballer*David Byrne , English footballer...
of Talking Heads
Talking Heads
Talking Heads were an American New Wave and avant-garde band formed in 1975 in New York City and active until 1991. The band comprised David Byrne, Chris Frantz, Tina Weymouth and Jerry Harrison...
. The title of the film is a tribute to the Talking Heads song "This Must Be the Place (Naive Melody)
This Must Be the Place (Naive Melody)
"This Must Be the Place " is a song by New Wave band Talking Heads, released as the second single from their fifth album Speaking in Tongues...
". The original songs for the film are co-written with indie singer-songwriter Will Oldham
Will Oldham
Will Oldham , better known by the stage name Bonnie 'Prince' Billy, is an American singer-songwriter and actor. From 1993 to 1997, he performed and recorded under variations of the Palace name, including the Palace Brothers, Palace Songs, and Palace Music...
. New York-based singer Michael Brunnock sings these songs. The songs were not sung by Penn but by another person in the film.
Release
The film premiered on 20 May 2011 in competition at the 64th Cannes Film Festival2011 Cannes Film Festival
The 64th annual Cannes Film Festival was held from May 11 to May 22, 2011. American actor Robert De Niro served as the president of the jury for the main competition and French filmmaker Michel Gondry headed the jury for the short film competition...
.
Critical response
Jay Weissberg of VarietyVariety (magazine)
Variety is an American weekly entertainment-trade magazine founded in New York City, New York, in 1905 by Sime Silverman. With the rise of the importance of the motion-picture industry, Daily Variety, a daily edition based in Los Angeles, California, was founded by Silverman in 1933. In 1998, the...
called This Must Be the Place "that rare film directed by a non-American that gets not just the locales but also the cadence of the language absolutely right, with a script full of great lines and images of lingering beauty." Weissberg continued: "Like all great directors who make a road movie
Road movie
A road movie is a film genre in which the main character or characters leave home to travel from place to place. They usually leave home to escape their current lives.-History:...
, Sorrentino captures the physical location as well as the inner transformation[.] ... Sorrentino's America is a varied nation, one where Barack Obama
Barack Obama
Barack Hussein Obama II is the 44th and current President of the United States. He is the first African American to hold the office. Obama previously served as a United States Senator from Illinois, from January 2005 until he resigned following his victory in the 2008 presidential election.Born in...
and Sarah Palin
Sarah Palin
Sarah Louise Palin is an American politician, commentator and author. As the Republican Party nominee for Vice President in the 2008 presidential election, she was the first Alaskan on the national ticket of a major party and first Republican woman nominated for the vice-presidency.She was...
spring from the same soil, and where narrow-minded history teachers (Joyce Van Patten) and welcoming war widows (Kerry Condon) have an equal place. He gets it, just as he gets the Holocaust's omnipresence in the lives of those affected ... , revealing the tragedy without dwelling on the horror." Regarding the acting, Weissberg wrote that "Penn's flawless performance has none of the mannered intensity that can mar his work, transcending the masklike qualities of eyeliner and lipstick with deadpan, childlike candor."