You got me. I haven’t got much clue what’s going on with this one. It seems not very many people on the Internet do. Not that I can find anyway.
The version(s) of the film I own are both called Los-Angeles Cannes Solo Andata. Which, in no language translates to Ballad of the Nightingale, that’d be “Los-Angeles Cannes One Way” – So no clue where that name even comes from.
The write up I can find about the film (using the Los-Angeles name) is basically the same on every site I came across;
“Mo (Virginia Madsen) is a prostitute living in Los Angeles. Having been badly abandoned by her boyfriend, she decides to change her life after seeing a report on the Cannes festival on TV. She leaves Los Angeles to look for a rich husband in the charming town on the French Riviera. She borrows money from an old family friend, a mob boss, and in exchange she agrees to take a package across the Atlantic. When the package is not delivered, the mafia sends two hitmen to kill her. In the meantime, Mo becomes friends with a young woman (Maria Grazia Cucinotta). The two women fall in love with the same man who will protect her young and naive Mo from the wrath of her underworld. Passions and misunderstandings along the Croisette in a brilliant debut comedy by Guy Greville Morris, director of commercials and video clips”
If I use Google to translate the text on the back of the case it comes back with;
The only other clue I can find about what this film is supposed to be on the Internet is on the iMDB Review Section for the film where user Manuel Pestalozzi tells us;
“This movie is available in Europe in a dubbed Italian version. Apparently it was made during the Cannes film festival of 1997, so there were a few stars at hand. Virginia Madsen actually gives a wonderful performance as a feisty American prostitute who is on the French Riviera for some mob business. Her brother Michael has a small part as a mobster. Virginia Madsen is teamed with Italian actress Maria Grazia Cucinotta who played the female lead in “Il postino”. The two beautiful yet very different ladies would have made a formidable team had the script amounted to anything. Unfortunately the movie is extremely boring and does not amount to much. But all the scenes with Virginia Madsen are great. Character actors like Seymour Cassel and Harry Dean Stanton also have small parts, and there is another attractive woman who looks like Kate Jackson.”
And he only gives it 2/10 anyways.
Though – As a side note – The review he gives the title is “For Die-Hard Virginia Madsen Fans Only”, which stuck with me when I read it a while back, and one of the reasons this site exists. True story. Thanks, Manuel.
I do own this film on DVD, twice. Both copies are different but both only have an Italian language soundtrack. It appears to have been filmed in Italian, but still have been dubbed. Which, is odd. I can only think the actors must have spoken terrible Italian?
Check out this scene to see what I mean. It does look like the actors are speaking their lines, to a degree but they’ve clearly been dubbed as well.
If the film exists on any format with an English soundtrack then I’ve not been able to find it, and trust me I’ve looked. But then again, if it was filmed in Italian then why would it?
I’ve never tried to watch it, there aren’t any subtitles so I’d have no clue what anyone was saying anyway. It’s cast isn’t bad at all either; Maria Grazia Cucinotta, Harry Dean Stanton and another team up with Virginia’s brother, Michael Madsen (she’d also share the screen with Harry and Michael in 1994’s Blue Tiger as well).
ANYWAY – If you can shed more light on this then I’d love to hear from you on it.
Availability:
It isn’t the hardest film to track down on DVD, not freely available but if you go looking then you should come across a copy. Though, it’ll likely be in Italian. While trying to find out more information on the film I have seen the odd copy floating around on VHS as well.
Gallery:
Trailer:
#Nope
🤷♂️
