A down-and-dirty musical love story set in the world of the working class. Nick is an ironworker who builds and repairs bridges. He's married to Kitty, a dressmaker, a strong and gentle woman with whom he has three daughters. He is carrying on a torrid affair with a redheaded woman named Tula. Nick is basically a good, hardworking man driven forward by will and blinded by his urges. Like Oedipus at Colonus, he is sent into exile and searches to find his way back through the damage he has done. In an imaginative, humorous, and touching way, Romance & Cigarettes explores the cost and value of a relationship through life and death. When the characters can no longer express themselves with language, they break into song, lip-synching the tunes lodged in their subconscious. It is their way to escape the harsh reality of their world - to dream, to remember, and to connect to another human being.

Director: John Turturro
Writer: John Turturro

Cast:
Kate Winslet ... Tula
James Gandolfini ... Nick Murder
Susan Sarandon ... Kitty
Steve Buscemi ... Angelo
Bobby Cannavale ... Fryburg
Mandy Moore ... Baby
Mary-Louise Parker ... Constance
Aida Turturro ... Rosebud
Christopher Walken ... Cousin Bo
Barbara Sukowa ... Gracie
Elaine Stritch ... Nick's Mother
Eddie Izzard ... Gene Vincent
Amy Sedaris ... Frances

Released on: September 6, 2005 (Venice Film Festival)

Posters, Promotional Stills, On the Set, Trailer Captures and Screen Captures

During her last week of filming, Kate Winslet twisted her ankle while doing a dance sequence at a hotel suite with James Gandolfini.

Susan Sarandon's singing voice is dubbed.

The movie was delayed for almost two years because of James Gandolfini's commitment to The Sopranos.

Writer-director John Turturro chose the songs featured in this film before he had secured their rights. While waiting for Gandolfini to be free from shooting The Sopranos, the director went around to secure these rights from their songwriters and singers.

"It's a wonderful John Turturro film. It's only weeks after Joe was born, no idea how I did it. But I play this hot-headed, red-headed strumpet, James Gandolfini's mistress. Susan Sarandon's playing his wife. Anyway, most of the time I do scenes in this ridiculous flimsy little skirt and Agent Provocateur bra and, let me tell you, the breast-feeding helped with the look! I was looking at the stills thinking, 'My God! They are actually mine! They need their own credit!'."

• Official site