How is Robert Smith of The Cure not suing Sean Penn for, I don’t know, copyright infringement? Have you seen the Oscar winning actor in promotional images for Paolo Sorrentino’s This Must Be the Place? He’s virtually playing the Goth rocker, only instead of crooning “Pictures of You” or "Friday I'm In Love" he’s hunting the Nazi war criminal who persecuted his father. I know it sounds strange, but the full Place trailer (via BleedingCool likely will explain in greater detail:



In addition to Penn’s performance, which is delightfully quiet and quirky, I’m struck by the imagery in Sorrentino’s cinematography. That shot of an open highway leading into a cloudy sky is gorgeous. There are a number of eye-catching images in the trailer, and I’m not just talking about Goth Penn (though he’s hard to forget).

The story, from Umberto Contarello, is also hard to forget. Penn plays Cheyenne, a 50-year-old former musician who visits his father on his death bed, only to learn that the man’s unfulfilled life quest was to find the Nazi who tormented him in the camps of WWII. Feeling his owes his father something, Cheyenne takes up the mission.

The tone of this trailer calls to Liev Schreiber’s directorial debut Everything Is Illuminated, which also had a WTF bravado that it wore like a badge of honor. I hadn’t heard great things about Place from its film festival stops, but this clip makes we want to see it ASAP. Added bonus: The music of Talking Heads frontman David Byrne, who appears as himself.