IMDb > Cold Souls (2009)
Cold Souls
Quicklinks
Top Links
trailers and videosfull cast and crewtriviaofficial sitesmemorable quotes
Overview
main detailscombined detailsfull cast and crewcompany creditstv schedule
Awards & Reviews
user commentsexternal reviewsnewsgroup reviewsawardsuser ratingsparents guiderecommendationsmessage board
Plot & Quotes
plot summarysynopsisplot keywordsAmazon.com summarymemorable quotes
Fun Stuff
triviagoofssoundtrack listingcrazy creditsalternate versionsmovie connectionsFAQ
Other Info
merchandising linksbox office/businessrelease datesfilming locationstechnical specslaserdisc detailsDVD detailsliterature listingsNewsDesk
Promotional
taglines trailers and videos posters photo gallery
External Links
showtimesofficial sitesmiscellaneousphotographssound clipsvideo clips

Cold Souls (2009) More at IMDbPro »

Photos (see all 14 | slideshow) Videos (see all 10)
Cold Souls (2009) -- Paul Giamatti plays an actor named Paul Giamatti. Stumbling upon an article in The New Yorker about a high-tech company that extracts, deep-freezes and stores people’s souls, Paul very well might have found the key to happiness for which he’s been searching.  But, complications arise when he is the unfortunate victim of "soul-trafficking." Giamatti’s journey takes him all the way to Russia in hopes of retrieving his stolen soul from an ambitious but talentless soap-opera actress.
Cold Souls (2009) -- Here's a clip from the movie Cold Souls.
Cold Souls (2009) -- Trailer for this comedy about a man who chooses to rid himself of his soul
Cold Souls (2009) -- AllTrailers.net - Trailer (Flash)

Overview

User Rating:
7.2/10   732 votes
MOVIEmeter: ?
Up 2% in popularity this week. See why on IMDbPro.
Director:
Writer:
Sophie Barthes (writer)
Contact:
View company contact information for Cold Souls on IMDbPro.
Release Date:
13 November 2009 (UK) more
Genre:
Tagline:
A soul searching comedy.
Plot:
Paul is an actor who feels bogged down by his participation in a production of Chekov's play, Vanya. | full synopsis
Awards:
1 win & 4 nominations more
NewsDesk:
(173 articles)
The apocalypse goes "1970s pop sci-fi" in The Arcadian
 (From QuietEarth. 24 November 2009, 11:38 AM, PST)

2012 brings Indian summer to UK box office
 (From The Guardian - Film News. 17 November 2009, 7:38 AM, PST)

User Comments:
One man's chickpea is another man's relic more (31 total)

Cast

  (Credited cast)

Paul Giamatti ... Paul
Dina Korzun ... Nina

Emily Watson ... Claire

David Strathairn ... Dr. Flintstein

Katheryn Winnick ... Sveta

Lauren Ambrose ... Stephanie

Boris Kievsky ... Oleg
Oksana Lada ... Sasha

Natalia Zvereva ... Anastasia
Rebecca Brooksher ... Yelena

Yevgeniy Dekhtyar ... Hotel Receptionist

Floanne Ankah ... Ballerina

Fabrizia Dal Farra ... Ballerina

Polina Gorokhovskaya ... Sophisticated Prostitute
rest of cast listed alphabetically:

Michael Aronov ... Mafioso
Seth Austin ... Androgynous Person

Marie-Pierre Beausejour ... Sonya
Kevin Cannon ... Angry Protestor

Erin Cronican ... Assistant to Director
Alexandra Donhoeffner ... Ballerina

John Farrer ... Dream Sequence Violinist

Gabriel Furman ... Russian Soap Doctor

Laura Heisler

Ted Koch ... INS Officer

Gregory Korostishevsky ... Yuri

Eliezer Meyer ... Russian Airline Passenger

Armand Schultz ... Astrov

Stella Stark ... Paul's young mother
Wendy Rich Stetson ... Soul Storage Mother

Michael Stuhlbarg ... Hedge Fund Consultant
Michael Tucker ... Frank- Director
more
Create a character page for: ?

Additional Details

MPAA:
Rated PG-13 for nudity and brief strong language.
Runtime:
101 min
Country:
Language:
Color:
Aspect Ratio:
1.85 : 1 more
Certification:
USA:PG-13 (certificate #44960) | Canada:PG (British Columbia/Ontario) | UK:12A | Ireland:12A | Australia:M | Argentina:13 | Netherlands:9

Fun Stuff

Trivia:
The film was inspired by a dream in which Woody Allen discovers that his soul looks just like a chickpea. more

FAQ

This FAQ is empty. Add the first question.
One man's chickpea is another man's relic, 17 September 2009
8/10
Author: uk6strings-1 from The Twin Cities, Minnesota

In an amusing and subtle stroke of genius, Paul Giamatti plays "himself" in Cold Souls. The many film critics who claim that all Giamatti does is play himself in any film get a rude awakening to their absurd claim when they see him clearly not playing himself as he is playing himself in Cold Souls, the first feature film from writer/director Sophie Barthes.

Paul has a problem: while working on the play "Uncle Vanya," he has absorbed too much of the character into his daily life and feels weighed down, depressed, and unable to do his work on stage. His agent gives him a bizarre solution: soul extraction. That's right: if you are feeling too low to bear it one more day, just go to Dr. Flintstein (played by David Strathairn) and he will take your soul away. Strathairn is the film's salesman - trying to sell the film's science fiction element of soul extraction and storage - and his sales pitch is a hit. Flintstein convinces the desperate Paul to extract his soul to unburden him - and it works, sort of. The weight is gone, the burden is gone, and the pain is gone; however, as Dr. Flintstein says, "soullessness has its own peculiarities."

Heaped on top of his frustrated amazement that his soul looks like a chickpea, Paul is not himself any longer: he cannot feel, he cannot perform, and he cannot love his wife - all of which distresses him. Paul eventually gets fed up with not being himself, but when he returns to Flintstein to have his soul put back in his body he finds that it is missing - lost somewhere in the ever-popular Russian black market for American souls. Traveling with Russian soul-trafficker Nina (Dina Korzun) and running a borrowed soul of a Russian poet, Paul goes in search of his soul before it is forever lost.

Cold Souls is similar to writer/director Sophie Barthes previous short film Happiness, where a woman buys happiness in a box; the ideas of identity, persevering through life's weight, and playing God are told through the film in a very surreal dark comedy way. The film's aesthetics are representative of a cold and soulless state with its dim lighting and mellow coloring (where no color clearly exposes itself) while also letting the quirky side of the film come through at the same time.

The film's poignancy is complimented very well by the extremely effective comedy that can be credited both to the flat-out funny sets of dialogue and Paul Giamatti's performance. The character is obviously not simply a mirror version of Giamatti. How can Giamatti be playing himself in the film in the first place? He is playing himself with no soul and then a different soul - that's not "playing oneself," one has to act and get into a role that does in fact differ from his or her own person. Giamatti arrives at a high level of acting in the film perfectly handling the comedic and vulnerable sides to the character (even giving us something extra with his "Vanya").

The soul is important to us human beings; whether one believes that humans have a soul or not, people view things that "have soul" as desirable and substantial while things that are "soulless" are viewed as undesirable and are void of life and feeling. With quirk and cold, Cold Souls takes a look at how the soul defines us as individual human beings and how important it is to not let that go. Cold Souls might look and feel cold and dreary but is very much alive thanks to the vision of Sophie Barthes and the vibrant performance from Paul Giamatti.

Was the above comment useful to you?
more (31 total)

Message Boards

Discuss this movie with other users on IMDb message board for Cold Souls (2009)
Recent Posts (updated daily)User
Picture of elephant tied to stake? teaspoon35
Your interpretation of the ending? LauraLuvsBacon
Anyone know name of French singer on soundtrack? rasmussed001
Song at the end of the film? imdb-17815
Didn't like it lnbuchanan
Microphone in Frame! iandrob-1
more

Recommendations

If you enjoyed this title, our database also recommends:
- - - - -
Synecdoche, New York Porky's II: The Next Day State and Main Bikur Ha-Tizmoret Game 6
IMDb User Rating:
IMDb User Rating:
IMDb User Rating:
IMDb User Rating:
IMDb User Rating:
Show more recommendations

Related Links

Full cast and crew Company credits External reviews
News articles IMDb Comedy section IMDb USA section
Add this title to MyMovies

You may report errors and omissions on this page to the IMDb database managers. They will be examined and if approved will be included in a future update. Clicking the 'Update' button will take you through a step-by-step process.