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Iranian-born director Ramin Niami loosely adapted the Maxim Gorky play The Lower Depths for this ensemble character study set in modern-day New York City's Lower East Side. Sandra Bernhard stars as Betty, a remarkably introverted and lonely therapist hungering for a male companion. In her apartment building, several other residents also have emotional, career, or romantic issues. Chinese student Lu Lu (Bai Ling) wants to stay in the U.S, so she interviews prospective husbands in hopes of obtaining a green card. Marta (Ornella Muti) is forced to sexually service her building's fat landlord daily in exchange for a free room, but she's in love with Frankie (Robert John Burke), an inept thief. Che (Paul Anthony Stewart) is a rich kid trying to incite a worker's revolt from his basement headquarters, while Graham (Peter Stormare) is a gay Shakespearean actor looking for love. Their stories intersect in the film's finale, which involves the kidnapping of former New York mayor Ed Koch (who plays himself). ~ Karl Williams, Rovi

Product Description

The upbeat, downtown comedy SOMEWHERE IN THE CITY was a theatrical Art House hit in over 40 cities and features the diverse talents of actors SANDRA BERNHARD("Without You I'm Nothing," "The King of Comedy"); PETER STORMARE ("Fargo," "Minority Report," "The Big Lebowski"); BAI LING ("Star Wars: Episode III," "Wild Wild West," "Red Corner," "The Crow"); ROBERT JOHN BURKE ("Confessions of a Dangerous Mind," "The Unbelievable Truth," Stephen King's "Thinner"); and the Italian starlet ORNELLA MUTI ("Swann in Love," Lucas Belvaux's "An Amazing Couple"). Accompanied by an original Score by Velvet Underground co-founder John Cale, the film also features the music of Yoko Ono, Ani DiFranco, Sandra Bernhard, Arto Lindsay and The Voluptuous Horror of Karen Black. Director Ramin Niami draws from his documentary filmmaking past and long time residency in the East Village to orchestrate "The kind of film Woody Allen might be making if he were 40 years younger--all full of New York angst and lust!" (Entertainment Today)

SOMEWHERE IN THE CITY deftly threads the overlapping stories of six eccentric residents of a funky Lower Eastside building in New York City. These cramped apartments can barely contain the big dreams of their inhabitants: Betty (Bernhard) is a self-absorbed and self-appointed "food therapist," desperately seeking the right guy. Then there is Lu Lu (Bai Ling), a young Chinese exchange student looking for a green card marriage. There's also Marta (Muti), who endures the twice-daily caresses of the overweight super of the tenement-like apartments, but dreams of running away with Frankie (Robert John Burke), the dashing but incompetent crook who lives upstairs. Down the hall is poor Graham (Peter Stormare), the gifted Shakespearean actor who also dreams of finding Mr. Right and his big break while subsisting on demeaning commercial work.

Of course, all these hopes and dreams will prove irrelevant if the revolution being planned in the basement by Che (Paul Anthony Stewart) succeeds. Che endures calls from his Park Avenue mom, and succumbs to the seduction of Lu Lu, all while plotting to kidnap former Mayor Ed Koch (played by "Hizzoner" himself).