A Man in Love

Coyote plays an American film star, Steve Elliott, who falls for his young co-star (Scacchi) while in Rome to play the lead in a film about the writer Cesare Pavese. She, infatuated, walks out on her French fiancé, Elliott's suspicious wife (Curtis) threatens to turn up, the director throws tantrums, and Elliott's assistant (Riegert) engineers escape routes for his boss. It sounds farcical, but the opulent interiors, rousing score by Georges Delerue, and the embarrassment of unrestrained petting, give this tale of adultery a heavyweight romanticism it can't carry. The film (shot in English, incidentally) wins points on other scores: Riegert's wry detachment from the drama is wonderfully appropriate and often hilarious, and Pigozzi's bombastic director is perfect.