| Director | Rob Marshall |
|---|---|
| Genre | drama film, melodrama, musical film, romance film |
| Runtime | 118 min |
| Country | Italy, United States |
| Budget | $80 million |
| Box office | $54 million |
In 1965, Guido Contini is a gifted Italian filmmaker at the famous Cinecittà movie studios in Rome. Having turned 50 and developed writer's block, he conjures all the women in his life, both alive and deceased, for inspiration, including: Luisa (née Acari), his wife; Claudia Jenssen, his star actress; Carla Albanese, his mistress; Liliane "Lilli" La Fleur, his costume designer and confidant; Stephanie Necrophorus, an American fashion journalist from Vogue; Saraghina, a prostitute from his childhood; and his beloved Mamma ("Overture Delle Donne").
Having not yet formulated an idea for his new movie, Guido evades reporters' questions. In his mind, he wishes for both youthful naiveté and the wisdom of age ("Guido's Song"). Escaping to the Bellavista Spa Hotel on the coast, he receives a seductive call from Carla while a doctor examines him ("A Call from the Vatican"). She comes to stay with him, but he hides her in a shabby pensione instead.
Dante, Guido's producer, brings much of the film's crew to work at the hotel. When Guido confesses to Lilli his dilemma, she urges him to use his film to entertain, inspired by the Folies Bergère where she "learnt her art" ("Folies Bergère"). Guido remembers Saraghina, a prostitute he and his schoolmates paid to teach them the joy of life's sensual pleasures (the art of love and sex) by dancing for them on a beach when he was nine ("Be Italian") before he was caught by the priests and whipped.
At dinner, Luisa surprises Guido, recounting having abandoned her acting career to be his wife ("My Husband Makes Movies"). Carla arrives, so Luisa storms out; Guido orders Carla back to the pensione, alone and heartbroken. Failing to pacify Luisa, Guido meets Stephanie in the hotel's bar, who confesses that she adores his movies' style rather than their substance ("Cinema Italiano"). She takes him to her room, but while watching her undress, he realizes he still cares for his wife.
Returning to Luisa, he promises to discontinue cheating. As she embraces him, he is called away to help Carla, who has overdosed on pills in attempted suicide. Guido stays with her and dreams of his mother singing him a lullaby when he was young ("Guarda La Luna"), advising him to repair his life. He leaves as Carla's husband Luigi arrives in the morning and returns to find Luisa gone while the film crew leaves for Rome.
Filming in Rome, Guido phones Luisa to come that evening. When his leading lady, Claudia, senses there is no script, he confesses he needs her to inspire one. His idea for the film resembles his own ordeal: a man lost and in love with so many women. Claudia responds that this man is incapable of love and that, while she loves him, she cannot keep playing the same part in his films or his life ("Unusual Way").
While Guido is reviewing screen tests, Luisa arrives and is devastated to see him interact with an actress exactly as when he first met her. After an argument and an angry, imagined striptease ("Take It All"), she permanently leaves him. Finally acknowledging the truth, Guido cancels the film, now abandoned by all those he has selfishly been exploiting ("I Can't Make This Movie"). He admits to the crew that there never was a movie to make, and has the set destroyed before he leaves Rome.
Two years later, at a café in Anguillara, Guido sees an advertisement for a play starring Luisa, whom he sees leave the theater with another man. Lilli suggests he make another movie, but Guido's only idea is a man trying to win back his wife. Sometime later, Guido is making that very film, directing actors representing younger versions of himself and Luisa, living in a small apartment and deeply in love.
Guido's younger self assembles the cast of his entire life on the scaffolding behind him ("Finale") as Luisa arrives and watches from the shadows, happy that Guido has returned to his former self. The younger Guido runs to sit on the elder Guido's lap as fantasy meets reality, and the mature Guido calls, "Action!"