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The Florentine (1999)

Name: The Florentine
Genre: Comedy, Drama
Released: 1999-04-19
Duration: 104 min
Rating: 5.7
Cast: Michael Madsen, Chris Penn, Virginia Madsen, Jeremy Davies, Luke Perry

The Florentine (1999), directed by Nick Stagliano, starring Michael Madsen and Chris Penn.

04/19/1999 BR Comedy and Drama 1h 44m

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Synopsis

A slice-of-life story unfolds inside The Florentine, a bar in a Pennsylvania steel town whose brightest days are behind it, leaving behind many of life's disillusioned "losers." Its owner, Whitey, is deep in debt to the town's loan shark, Joe McCollough, and desperate for a path forward which won't cost him the bar. His sister, Molly, is days away from her long-awaited nuptials, and then her former fiancé, Teddy, shows up in town for the first time since leaving her at the altar years before. Ne'er-do-well Billy Belasco runs a con on Frankie to steal the money for the wedding caterer, while long-time regular Bobby becomes a patron-cum-inhabitant as he hides from his fast-crumbling marriage to Vikki. Every plot in this multi-layered story seems to be at its nadir just as a pair of unlikely heroes emerge out of the backdrop to turn everything around.

Stephen KazmierskiCinematography
Nick StaglianoDirector, Producer
Plummy TuckerEditing
Francis Ford CoppolaProducer

About the film

The Florentine is a 1999 American drama film directed by Nick Stagliano and produced by Francis Ford Coppola's American Zoetrope. It stars Jeremy Davies, Michael Madsen, and Chris Penn.

The film was shot in the Lehigh Valley in Pennsylvania in the cities of Allentown, Bethlehem, Easton, and in the Lehigh Valley borough of Hellertown.

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The Florentine is a 1999 American drama film directed by Nick Stagliano and produced by Francis Ford Coppola's American Zoetrope. It stars Jeremy Davies, Michael Madsen, and Chris Penn.

The film was shot in the Lehigh Valley in Pennsylvania in the cities of Allentown, Bethlehem, Easton, and in the Lehigh Valley borough of Hellertown.

Plot

As the owner of the Florentine—a working-class bar in an economically depressed town—Whitey (Michael Madsen) dispenses drinks to a number of troubled locals. Among the regulars there are compulsive gambler Bobby (Chris Penn) and Whitey's sister, Molly (Virginia Madsen), who is preparing to get married when her old flame, Teddy (Tom Sizemore), returns to the area. Whitey and Bobby must contend with a no-nonsense mobster who is squeezing them both for money.

Cast

Reception

With a conspicuous heart on its sleeve, "The Florentine" can't break away from its verbose theatrical origins. Helmed by multifaceted industry vet Nick Stagliano, this paean to small-town American values is painfully earnest and determinedly old-fashioned in style and themes. While it's raised above the norm by a cast full of thesp heavyweights, pic is ultimately undone by a distracting spread of novelistic story strands and a deadly, repetitive series of two-character dialogue scenes. A distrib may end up going for this quaint, besotted bit of Americana, but the gabfest will be restricted to English-only markets, with betterafterlife on vid.

References

External links

The Florentine at IMDb

Text from The Florentine (film) on Wikipedia, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Florentine_(film)

Trivia

The production budget was US$ 2.3 million.
It premiered on April 19, 1999, a Monday.
It runs 1h44 — a typical feature length.
As of September 20, 2026, it is available in Brazil by subscription on Lionsgate+ Amazon Channels.
This film's quiz has 12 questions — enough to play more than once without repeats.

Production

StudiosInitial Entertainment Group, American Zoetrope, NAZZ Productions, March First
CountriesUnited States
LanguagesEnglish
BudgetUS$ 2,250,000
StatusReleased

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Pennsylvania

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Cast

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Crew

Stephen Kazmierski Cinematography
Nick Stagliano Director
Plummy Tucker Editing
Francis Ford Coppola Producer
Nick Stagliano Producer
Steven Weisman Producer
Marco Beltrami Original music
Damien Gray Writer
Tom Benson Writer

Questions about this film

What is The Florentine about?

The Florentine: A slice-of-life story unfolds inside The Florentine, a bar in a Pennsylvania steel town whose brightest days are behind it, leaving behind many of life's disillusioned "losers." Its owner, Whitey, is deep in debt to the town's loan shark, Joe McCollough, and desperate for a path forward which won't cost him the bar. H…

Who directed The Florentine?

The Florentine was directed by Nick Stagliano in 1999.

Who stars in The Florentine?

The cast of The Florentine includes Michael Madsen, Chris Penn, Virginia Madsen, Jeremy Davies and Luke Perry.

How long is The Florentine?

The Florentine runs for 104 minutes, or 1h44.

Where can I watch The Florentine?

The Florentine is available on Lionsgate+ Amazon Channels, Apple TV Store and Google Play Movies. Availability changes often: the list on this page is the most recent we received.