The 64th Cannes Film Festival was wowed by Sean Penn's comedy drama This Must Be The Place when it premiered on the 20th May. In the film Penn plays an ageing musician searching for the tormentor of his late father during his time in Auschwitz.
The premise of the film is particularly intriguing and became more and more interesting once the first images of Penn's character were released. You can see above for Penn being decked out in eyeliner, lipstick and huge black hair with the Mystic River and Milk star clearly being inspired by many eighties rockers including The Cure's Robert Smith.
The trailer can be viewed below ..
Penn has clearly inhabited a child like persona for his performance much like his Academy Award nominated role in I Am Sam, but the film still seems like an oddity, albeit a subtly charming one. The relationship between Penn and his girlfriend Frances McDormand looks particularly heartwarming, with some nice bits of humour also on show ("Do you know about the Holocaust?" - "In a general sort of way ...")
The film looks like it could have its fair share of darkness too with Penn's character clearly out looking to commit a murder.
This Must Be The Place is directed by Paolo Sorrentino from a script by Sorrentino and Umberto Contarello and alongside Penn and McDormand Judd Hirsch, Eve Hewson, Harry Dean Stanton and Talking Heads musician David Byrne also co star.
The plot of the film is that Cheyenne, Penn, is a wealthy former rock star who has become jaded and bored in his retirement in Dublin. He travels to New York to reconcile with his estranged father but arrives too late and begins a journey to punish the former SS Officer Aloise Lange who abused his Dad in Auschwitz.
This Must Be The Place is to be released in the UK on 30th March 2012.
