Irina Palm

Italy released, PAL/Region 2 DVD: LANGUAGES: English ( Dolby Digital 2.0 ), Italian ( Dolby Digital 5.1 ), Italian ( Subtitles ), ANAMORPHIC WIDESCREEN (1.66:1), SPECIAL FEATURES: Alternative Footage, Behind the scenes, Biographies, Interactive Menu, Photo Gallery, Scene Access, Trailer(s), SYNOPSIS: 'Irina Palm' may be the work of a German-born Belgian director, but it belongs to a sturdy and very British genre: the naughty-granny comedy, in which an older woman is liberated and rejuvenated by an excursion into vice. In this case the iffy activity is sex for hire, which may give the film a jolt of topicality for New York audiences. The workaday London sex shop where parts of 'Irina Palm' take place is decidedly down-market compared with the Emperor's Club V.I.P., but it also may be less tawdry. In this kind of movie, sleaze and salaciousness are quickly banished in favor of sentimental good cheer. Still, 'Irina Palm,' directed by Sam Garbarski from a screenplay by Philippe Blasband and Martin Herron, does rise slightly above the silly clichés embedded in its story. This is mostly because of Marianne Faithfull, who plays Maggie, a middle-class suburban widow preparing to settle into a meek and marginal old age. SCREENED/AWARDED AT: Berlin International Film Festival, European Film Awards, .Irina Palm (2007)