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Nine
Arrogant, self-centered movie director Guido Contini finds himself struggling to find meaning, purpose, and a script for his latest film endeavor. With only a week left before shooting begins, he desperately searches for answers and inspiration from his wife, his mistress, his muse, and his mother.
2009 · Directed by Rob Marshall · 118 min · Drama · Music · Romance · Screenplay in the scene database · 18 frames
Tagline
This holiday season, be Italian.
Plot
In 1965, Guido Contini is an Italian filmmaker at the Cinecittà movie studios in Rome. Having turned 50 and developed writer's block, he conjures all the women in his life, both alive and deceased, for inspiration, including: Luisa (née Acari), his wife; Claudia Jenssen, his star actress; Carla Albanese, his mistress; Liliane "Lilli" La Fleur, his costume designer and confidant; Stephanie Necrophorus, an American fashion journalist from Vogue; Saraghina, a prostitute from his childhood; and his Mamma ("Overture Delle Donne").
Having not yet formulated an idea for his new movie, Guido evades reporters' questions. In his mind, he wishes for both youthful naiveté and the wisdom of age ("Guido's Song"). Escaping to the Bellavista Spa Hotel on the coast, he receives a seductive call from Carla while a doctor examines him ("A Call from the Vatican"). She comes to stay with him, but he hides her in a shabby pensione instead.
Dante, Guido's producer, brings much of the film's crew to work at the hotel. When Guido confesses to Lilli his dilemma, she urges him to use his film to entertain, inspired by the Folies Bergère where she "learnt her art" ("Folies Bergère"). Guido remembers Saraghina, a prostitute he and his schoolmates paid to teach them the joy of life's sensual pleasures (the art of love and sex) by dancing for them on a beach when he was nine ("Be Italian") before he was caught by the priests and whipped.
Plot summary from Wikipedia, CC BY-SA.
Crew
- Screenplay: Michael Tolkin, Anthony Minghella
- Cinematography: Dion Beebe
- Edited by: Claire Simpson, Wyatt Smith
- Music: Andrea Guerra
- Production design: John Myhre
- Produced by: Marc Platt, Harvey Weinstein, John DeLuca, Rob Marshall
Cast
- Daniel Day-Lewis as Guido Contini
- Marion Cotillard as Luisa Contini
- Penélope Cruz as Carla
- Nicole Kidman as Claudia
- Judi Dench as Lilli
- Sophia Loren as Mamma
- Kate Hudson as Stephanie
- Fergie as Saraghina
- Ricky Tognazzi as Dante
- Enzo Cilenti as Leopardi
Production
- Country: United States of America
- Language: English, French, Italian
- Studios: Relativity Media, The Weinstein Company, Marc Platt Productions, Lucamar Productions
- Budget: $80,000,000
- Box office: $53,825,515
- Themes: creative crisis, melancholy, musical, memory, sidewalk cafe, room key, driving a car, coastline, stairway, search for meaning
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