Q:Build a movie plot around this: Who returns to his element? Guido
A:
Nine tells the story of Guido Contini (Daniel Day-Lewis), a world famous film director as he confronts an epic mid-life crisis with both creative and personal problems. He must balance the many women of his life, including his wife (Marion Cotillard), his mistress (Penelope Cruz), his film star muse (Nicole Kidman), his confidant and costume designer (Judi Dench), an American fashion journalist (Kate Hudson), the whore from his youth (Fergie) and his mother (Sophia Loren).Guido Contini is a gifted Italian filmmaker who, at the age of fifty, has developed writer's block and urges all the women in his life, alive and dead, to help him with it - his mind wanders to his unfinished set, where dozens of dancers and the films leading ladies appear first Claudia Jenssen, his leading lady; then his wife Luisa; his mistress Carla; his costume designer and confidant Lilli; his beloved Mamma; Stephanie, an American fashion journalist from Vogue; and finally Saraghina, a prostitute from his childhood; ("Overture Delle Donne"). It is 1965, and at the famous Cinecitta movie studios, in Rome, 'everyone has questions for Signor Contini.'At a press conference at the Hotel Excelsior on the Via Veneto, hes charming and colorful, avoiding any clear answer on his new movie - his ninth with producer, Dante, - tentatively entitled "Italia". Here he meets Stephanie, a Vogue fashion journalist, with whom he begins a flirtation. Escaping the biting probes of the reporters, he creates an elaborate fantasy, which becomes ("Guidos Song") where he explains that he wishes he was young and energetic once again, since his talent was better then.He escapes the press conference, the reporters and his producer and arrives at the Bellavista Spa Hotel. While being examined by the doctor, he receives a call from Carla, his mistress ("A Call from the Vatican"). She describes her desire for him, as he excitedly listens on the other end. She arrives at the spa, expecting to share his suite, but is upset to find that shes staying in a shabby pensione...