Portrait of a Lady on Fire<\/a>). The two are accosted by paparazzi and lots of self-important Italians at the airport, which, like most of the movie\u2019s locations, resembles a Cinecitta set made by people who\u2019ve been experimenting with way too many hard drugs.<\/p>\n\n\tIndeed, Eddie soon finds herself holed up in a dilapidated Roman apartment that looks like a squat for filthy rich heroin addicts \u2014 a fact confirmed when she meets her neighbors, who are employed on her movie as special effects artists (a reference is made to the great Carlo Rambaldi, who won Oscars for his work on Alien and E.T.). Soon enough, they\u2019re all having a drug-fueled orgy that includes the famous octopus creature from Possession, leaving Eddie in an even worse state than when she arrived.<\/p>\n
\n\tAfter appearing on a zany Italian talk show in which the live audience wear distorted ape masks, Eddie finally makes it to set to play Rowina, \u201cthe rock star of the art world\u201d in a futuristic Rome circa 2026. A few nods to our troubled times (including President Donald Trump) are made in that movie-within-a-movie, though it\u2019s hard to understand much of what\u2019s happening beyond the crazy vibe, which Mandico captures in high-contrast black-and-white, employing superimpositions and other classic effects.<\/p>\n
\n\tRoma Elastica works better when it centers on Eddie\u2019s frenzied state and fading health, whether mental or physical. Hidden behind aviator glasses whenever she\u2019s off set and sporting creepy contact lenses whenever Eddie steps in front of the camera, Cotillard is the perfect vehicle for Mandico\u2019s twisted look at the agony and ecstasy of stardom \u2014 or rather, cultish stardom of the Z-grade variety. Actresses-losing-their-shit flicks like Opening Night and Sunset Boulevard come to mind at times, although this film is less invested in psychology than in both psychodrama and psychedelics.<\/p>\n
\n\tThat can be fun for a stretch, but the non-stop antics become exhausting for anyone searching for something deeper, or perhaps tamer. Mandico makes no concessions with his latest feature, which will probably please his loyal fan base more than anyone else. Like his heroine, who claims she dies in every film she stars in, the director takes his cinema to the limit here, going out in a blaze of glory and gore.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Italian giallo horror flicks, American slasher flicks, Andrzej Zulawski\u2019s Possession, Fellini\u2019s Satyricon and a film-within-a-film described as \u201cAntonioni…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":438746,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[27],"tags":[194121,14400,156,53855,409,111,139,224276,69],"class_list":["post-438745","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-movies","tag-cannes-2026","tag-cannes-film-festival","tag-entertainment","tag-marion-cotillard","tag-movies","tag-new-zealand","tag-newzealand","tag-noemie-merlant","tag-nz"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/438745","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=438745"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/438745\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/438746"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=438745"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=438745"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=438745"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}