What filmmaking techniques does To Rome with Love use?

CineCode breaks down 5 techniques in To Rome with Love (2012): Interwoven Storylines, Deadpan Absurdism, Fish-Out-of-Water Comedy, Externalized Inner Voice and Real Locations as Character.

Who directed To Rome with Love?

Woody Allen directed To Rome with Love, released in 2012. CineCode also covers Take the Money and Run (1969), Bananas (1971), Everything You Always Wanted to Know About Sex *But Were Afraid to Ask (1972), Sleeper (1973), Love and Death (1975), Annie Hall (1977).

What films are similar to To Rome with Love?

Films that share techniques with To Rome with Love include Some Like It Hot (1959), The Big Lebowski (1998), Hail, Caesar! (2016), Romancing the Stone (1984).

Comedy · Romance

To Rome with Love

Woody Allen, 2012

Four separate stories play out in Rome: a young couple whose night goes wrong, a funeral director who can only sing in the shower, an ordinary man who becomes famous for nothing, and an architect who trails a young man living in his old building. Worth watching for how Allen uses a tourist's Rome as a stage for four small farces.

4 Narrative 1 Cinematography

At a glance

To Rome with Love is a 2012 comedy and romance film directed by Woody Allen. This breakdown covers 5 techniques (4 narrative and 1 cinematography), each with the scene where you can see it. If you like how it is made, Some Like It Hot uses several of the same techniques.

Narrative

Interwoven Storylines

Running several separate storylines side by side, sometimes leading them to collide, so each thread comments on the others and the whole becomes a larger picture.

How this film uses it

The film follows Hayley and her opera-director father, newlyweds Antonio and Milly, the sudden celebrity Leopoldo, and the architect John. They never really share one plot. Together they show different sides of the same idea, which is how strange and fleeting fame, love and talent can be.

Where to see it

The four stories. Each opens on its own characters, including Hayley's family arriving to meet her Italian fiance.

Narrative

Deadpan Absurdism

Showing extreme, violent or surreal events while the characters react as if nothing unusual is happening. That mismatch is funny and unsettling at the same time.

How this film uses it

Giancarlo sings beautifully only in the shower, so Jerry stages an opera concert with him washing on stage. The audience and the opera world take it seriously. Leopoldo wakes up famous for no reason, and the press follows his every move as if that were normal.

Where to see it

The shower opera. Giancarlo performs at the Teatro dell'Opera while soaping himself in an on-stage shower, and it is a hit.

Narrative

Fish-Out-of-Water Comedy

Dropping a character into a world whose social rules they don't understand. The comedy, and some insight too, comes from the constant mismatch between them and everyone around them.

How this film uses it

Milly gets lost in Rome, loses her phone and ends up at a film shoot. A prostitute is sent to Antonio's hotel room by mistake. The couple from a small town is out of its depth in a big city.

Where to see it

The hotel mix-up. Anna is sent to Antonio's room by mistake, and he asks her to pretend to be Milly in front of his relatives.

Narrative

Externalized Inner Voice

Giving a character's conscience or split self a visible or audible form, so inner conflict plays out as dialogue with another presence.

How this film uses it

John, an architect, walks into the life of Jack, a student who lives in John's old building. John seems real to Jack in some scenes and imaginary in others. He makes frank comments on Jack's affair with Monica. You can read him as Jack's older, wiser self.

Where to see it

The affair with Monica. John comments on Jack's choices while Jack falls for his girlfriend's friend.

Cinematography

Real Locations as Character

Filming in recognizable real places so the setting acts like part of the cast. Streets, buildings and landscapes shape the mood of the story.

How this film uses it

The stories take place around Rome, from Giancarlo's shower opera at the opera house to a film shoot where Milly ends up. The city is a postcard backdrop that tempts characters into silly behavior.

Where to see it

Milly lost in Rome. She wanders the city, loses her phone and ends up at the shoot where she meets the actor Luca Salta.

Questions

To Rome with Love: quick answers

What filmmaking techniques does To Rome with Love use?: CineCode breaks down 5 techniques in To Rome with Love (2012): Interwoven Storylines, Deadpan Absurdism, Fish-Out-of-Water Comedy, Externalized Inner Voice and Real Locations as Character.
Who directed To Rome with Love?: Woody Allen directed To Rome with Love, released in 2012. CineCode also covers Take the Money and Run (1969), Bananas (1971), Everything You Always Wanted to Know About Sex *But Were Afraid to Ask (1972), Sleeper (1973), Love and Death (1975), Annie Hall (1977).
What films are similar to To Rome with Love?: Films that share techniques with To Rome with Love include Some Like It Hot (1959), The Big Lebowski (1998), Hail, Caesar! (2016), Romancing the Stone (1984).

Keep watching