'This Must Be The Place' Clip: Sean Penn Goth In Sorrentino Film

With just a quick glance, you might think you're looking at a poorly aged Robert Smith, emo-goth king and voice of The Cure. Instead, heavily caked in lifeless white makeup and accessorizing his mourning with tear-ready black eyeliner is Sean Penn, stripped of his Haitian hero grit to his most vulnerable self.

In a brief clip from "This Must Be The Place," Penn stutters, both uncertain and determined, to a trip that he, in the persona of his retired rockstar character, hopes will firm his voice and bring him peace. Disaffected and bored, Penn's Cheyenne learns that his just-passed Holocaust-survivor father was tortured by a Nazi soldier, and that the soldier is still alive and living in the United States. Seeking closure, he sets out to find the elderly fascist and avenge the long-ago brutality.

A scene from the beginning of Paolo Sorrentino's film, we see Penn's Cheyenne bidding farewell to Frances McDormand, who appears to be a friend and caretaker of sorts for the damaged star. Sorentino and the Oscar-winning pair will debut the film at Cannes Film Festival, where they hope to take on the coveted Palme d'Or.

Penn has a second film debuting in the festival, as well, in Terrence Malick's "The Tree of Life." In that highly anticipated drama, he plays the grown up son of a harsh Brad Pitt; "Tree of Life" is also hotly tipped to contend for the Palme.

WATCH:

Comments

[ummm]

02:10 PM on 05/10/2011

stutters-to a trip? what-does that mean? 'tripping' while-stuttering? / when-did 'rockstar' become one-word?

[leftbehind2000]

01:49 PM on 05/10/2011

Robert Smith? I was thinking more Lily Tomlin.

[philly282]

01:41 PM on 05/10/2011

omg...is he playing taylor momsen in a movie? their pictures 'happened' to be next to each other

he's hotter then her

[Rich Bronson]

01:26 PM on 05/10/2011

I have to see this movie just based on the picture. I thought it was from an SNL skit at first.

[american-dolt]

01:07 PM on 05/10/2011

Didn't they already run this Story?

[stagebandman]

12:22 PM on 05/10/2011

Who was it who said, "never let 'em catch you acting"? Well that's all we've seen from this overrated bore since "Taps"! The minute you consider yourself the greatest actor, you become the worst, and that's what's happened to him. Everything is so over the top he's not even interesting anymore.

[CrankyGal]

11:18 AM on 05/10/2011

Good Grief!

I thought he was homely as a guy!

He's a three bagger as a woman!

[stealur]

11:16 AM on 05/10/2011

I can't believe they allowed Malick to make another film. After The New World and Thin Red Line, I will never watch another slow paced piece of garbage with his name on it.

[TruEngineHearing]

12:31 PM on 05/10/2011

I sorta envy the certainty of your contempt. I hate to hate a movie, but I couldn't sit through this one - yet I know of many who adored it. So I dunno, maybe I was just outraged at having to sit there and wait for the obvious to prevail.

[TruEngineHearing]

12:42 PM on 05/10/2011

...ooops, the movie I was referring to was "The New World".

[stealur]

02:47 PM on 05/10/2011

The problem I have is that he likes to incorporate gorgeous shots, for the sake of including gorgeous shots. He'll show a zoom in of a gopher during a battle scene, just because it looked good on film. It adds nothing to the story, only detracts from it. Brutal. Absolutely brutal.
I went to the opening night of Thin Red Line--that movie had about 6 potential endings--the theater was full when it started and empty by the ending. Never have I sat through a movie that bad. Made Glitter look like a best picture contender in comparison.

[MahatmaCoat]

10:26 AM on 05/10/2011

Why does he speak like he's mentally challenged? (i.e. Goth My Name Is Sam)

[Devontate]

08:11 AM on 05/10/2011

"In a brief clip from "This Must Be The Place," Penn stutters, both uncertain and determined, to a trip that he, in the persona of his retired rockstar character, hopes will firm his voice and bring him peace."

What?

[e172]

10:38 AM on 05/10/2011

I have no clue what the sentence means, either.

[wolfiegirl]

08:09 AM on 05/10/2011

If Cher had married a plumber and raised three kids in a raised ranch in Jersey, this is what she'd look like today.

[max08]

07:26 AM on 05/10/2011

"Disaffected and bored, Penn's Cheyenne learns that his just-passed Holocaust-survivor father was tortured by a Nazi soldier, and that the soldier is still alive and living in the United States. Seeking closure, he sets out to find the elderly fascist and avenge the long-ago brutality."

Oh no. Another movie about this?

[e172]

10:39 AM on 05/10/2011

Nazis: the gift that keeps on giving (to Hollywood).

[Gemma08]

06:47 AM on 05/10/2011

biography?

[hema333]

06:46 AM on 05/10/2011

am waiting to see this movie and The Tree of Life...
his voice is very very strange her...
i did not recognize it is his voice...