Directed by Paolo Sorrentino • 2004 • Italy
Starring Toni Servillo, Olivia Magnani, Adriano Giannini

In his second feature, Paolo Sorrentino introduced the bravura camerawork and dazzling stylistic flourishes for which he would become celebrated. The director’s frequent collaborator Toni Servillo delivers a typically arresting performance as Titta Di Girolamo, an enigmatic Italian loner living a seemingly mundane life in a hotel in the Swiss city of Lugano. When Titta strikes up a relationship with the hotel’s young barmaid (Olivia Magnani), it’s the first step in a series of events that will expose the dangerous details of Titta’s shocking past.