Puccini for Beginners

directed by Maria Maggenti

with Elizabeth Reaser, Gretchen Mol

This screwball comedy for the 21st Century follows Allegra, an opera-loving lesbian novelist on the rebound, as she unknowingly hooks up with both a (male) philosophy professor and his soon-to-be-ex girlfriend. Filmed around Manhattan on digital video in only 18 days, this sophomore effort from the director of The Incredibly True Adventure of Two Girls in Love was a huge hit at Sundance. Maggenti's intellectual bedroom farce is widely compared to Woody Allen at his witty best. With its Greek choruses of sushi chefs and Allegra's ex-lovers, hot polysemous sex scenes, and farcical plot twists, Puccini for Beginners "may be the best lesbian romantic comedy ever made." (Eric Lurio, Greenwich Village Gazette) 35mm.
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2007, color, 1 hour 22 minutes, USA