Cold Souls

(USA, 101 mins)

35mm

Producers: Dan Carey, Elizabeth Giamatti, Paul Mezey, Andrij Parekh, Jeremy Kipp Walker
Screenwriter: Sophie Barthes
Cinematographer: Andrij Parekh
Editor: Andrew Mondshein
Cast: Paul Giamatti, David Strathairn, Dina Korzun, Emily Watson

• Trailer

Imagine life’s stress is weighing you down. You find an advertisement for a business that offers to extract and store your soul with the promise it will temporarily alleviate your suffering. Would you do it? As an actor in the middle of taking on a grueling role, Paul Giammatti, in true-to-life pathological form, reluctantly gives it a try—his only caveat that his soul not be stored in Jersey. Unfortunately, as with so many trades dealing in precious valuables, a thriving black market has arisen, so it’s almost expected—and amusingly surreal—when Giammati discovers his soul has been smuggled into Russia for a lackluster soap actress, no less, who suddenly displays Giammati’s fine acting chops.

With excellent pseudo-future production design that sustains credibility in the seemingly absurd plot, Sophie Barthes' first feature film is wildly original and telling. Along with being a stark satire full of wit, the existentially layered film also cautions against society’s egregious hunger for quick fixes and the dangers of treating ourselves as the ultimate commodity.

With special guest attendee Paul Giamatti

-- Christine Davila

Host UCLA Extension Entertainment Studies & Performing Arts/Women In Film

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