10 Secret Techniques Films Used To Ensure Perfection

For John Tuturro’s third film as director - his first as the sole writer - he chose to develop a musical about married, middle-aged working class New Yorker Nick Murder, his embattled wife and family and his mistress, a passionate redheaded Englishwoman named Tula.

It’s an oddly sweet movie that hinges upon the unlikely relationship between Murder (The Sopranos’ James Gandolfini) and Tula (Kate Winslett, cheerfully playing against type). That chemistry was important - you needed to see why Nick was prepared to risk his family and his marriage for his bit on the side.

True to form, however, Tuturro wanted something a little different for the love scene: Tula on top, inventively urging Nick on as the scene became more and more outrageous and frenetic. But there was a problem. Sex scenes were tricky at the best of times, but here Tuturro couldn’t get the sense of wild abandon he needed because Winslett had ripped all the ligaments on the left side of her foot.

Then he had an epiphany. It’d be easier to get the performances he needed if he shot the two of them separately. And that’s how Kate Winslett found herself, at 3am, bouncing on an exercise ball, one leg up in a cast, with a crew member on either side supporting her.

When it came to shooting Gandolfini’s side of the scene, he simply shot him from above and waved a wig in front of the camera to simulate Tula’s energetic participation. The results, bizarre as they are, speak for themselves.