Amour Fou (The Sopranos)

"Amour Fou"
The Sopranos episode
Episode no.	Season 3 Episode 12
Directed by	Tim Van Patten
Teleplay by	Frank Renzulli
Story by	David Chase
Cinematography by	Alik Sakharov
Production code	312
Original air date	May 13, 2001
Running time	60 minutes
Guest appearance(s)
see below

"Amour Fou" is the thirty-eighth episode of the HBO original series The Sopranos and is the twelfth of the show's third season. Its teleplay was written by Frank Renzulli from a story idea by series creator, David Chase. It was directed by Tim Van Patten and originally aired on May 13, 2001.

Starring

• James Gandolfini as Tony Soprano
• Lorraine Bracco as Dr. Jennifer Melfi
• Edie Falco as Carmela Soprano
• Michael Imperioli as Christopher Moltisanti
• Dominic Chianese as Corrado Soprano, Jr. *
• Steven Van Zandt as Silvio Dante
• Tony Sirico as Paulie Gualtieri *
• Jamie-Lynn Sigler as Meadow Soprano
• Robert Iler as Anthony Soprano, Jr. *
• Drea de Matteo as Adriana La Cerva *
• Aida Turturro as Janice Soprano *
• Federico Castelluccio as Furio Giunta
• Robert Funaro as Eugene Pontecorvo
• and Joe Pantoliano as Ralph Cifaretto

* = credit only

Guest starring

Episode recap

Carmela Soprano and Meadow are spending time in an art museum when Carmela begins spotting blood. She asks for a tampon and goes to the restroom. When she returns, Meadow is looking at paintings. Carmela is brought to tears when she sees Jusepe de Ribera's The Mystical Marriage of Saint Catherine of Alexandria. Later, while watching something sentimental on television, Carmela begins to cry but quickly regains her composure when she realizes it is only a commercial for dog food. She later takes confession with a priest who is pursuing a doctorate degree in psychology, who tells her to learn to live with "the good" of her life and ignore her husband's sins, and also to visit an OB-GYN.

Tony continues to see Gloria Trillo, even as her erratic behavior continues. When he tells Dr. Melfi about his passionate love-and-hate relationship with Gloria, she uses the term "amour fou" (crazy love). The situation escalates when Tony gently breaks up with Gloria and she responds by threatening to tell Carmela and Meadow about their affair. When an enraged Tony tackles her and starts strangling her, she begs him to kill her. But Tony is able to stop himself long enough to leave her gasping but alive, and he warns her to never contact him again before he drives away.

Jackie Aprile Jr. and his friends Carlo Renzi and Dino Zerilli decide to rob Eugene Pontecorvo's game, after getting a bizarre pep talk from Ralph Cifaretto about the time he and his low-level mob friends robbed a connected game and earned a lot of respect (and money) in the process. The three don ski masks and enter the Aprile crew hangout where the poker game is taking place. The dealer, "Sunshine", keeps heckling the would-be robbers and is fatally shot by a panicking Jackie. A firefight breaks out: Furio is shot in the thigh by Jackie, and Christopher shoots Carlo in the forehead, killing him instantly. Dino and Jackie Jr. run for the street, but their getaway wheelman, Matush, had fled out of fear after hearing the gunshots. Jackie boosts an oncoming car and high-tails it out of the area, leaving Dino to face an angry Christopher and Albert. Dino tries to level with them by mentioning he's with Ralph, but that does not help. Chris and Albert promptly shoot Dino in the face, killing him. In the waiting room of the doctor operating on Furio, Christopher warns Tony that he knows Jackie Jr. was the escaped robber and that he has to be killed.

At the pork store the following morning, Ralph meets Tony to discuss the fate of Jackie, Jr. Ralph wants to give him a "pass". Tony tells Ralph it is his decision because the game was under his protection, but strongly implies that Ralph will never get the respect he so desperately wants if he declines to kill his stepson.

Patsy Parisi and Gloria go for a test drive in a new Mercedes. Patsy pulls the car over on a deserted side street and holds a horrified Gloria at gunpoint. When she tries to talk, Patsy tells her to shut up and lays down the law: if she ever tries to contact Tony or his family again, they will end up "scraping your nipples off this fine leather seats" and pointedly adds that the last face she ever sees will be his, not Tony's, adding that her death will "not be cinematic".

Deceased

• "Sunshine": a card dealer for the mob who was shot during the poker robbery by Jackie Jr.
• Carlo Renzi: shot by Christopher in the face during the poker robbery.
• Dino Zerilli: shot in the head outside of the Aprile hangout by Christopher and Ally Boy Barese.

Title reference

• The translation from French is "crazy love", a term Dr. Melfi uses to describe the conflicted relationship between Tony and Gloria. Tony later mispronounces it "Our mofo."
• This could also been seen as a reference to the conflicted relationship between Tony and Christopher. During this episode, Christopher expresses his frustration with Tony's application of Omertà which he perceives to be "hypocritical" after Tony denies him the approval to kill Jackie Jr. even though Jackie shot Furio, a made man.

Production

• The working title for this episode was "Stepping Up".
• On the commentary on the season three DVD, David Chase affirms that this episode features "the biggest gunfight we ever shot."^[1]
• The tiny shell casings which can be seen striking the pavement after Chris executes Dino outside the card game were added into the scene in post-production using CGI.^[1]

Other cultural references

• Jackie and Dino are seen watching the famous "leg cross" scene from the film Basic Instinct on television.
• During a violent argument, Gloria Trillo grabs a corkscrew to use as a weapon in self-defense against Tony, reminiscent of a scene between James Gandolfini and Patricia Arquette in True Romance, wherein his character is stabbed in the foot with a corkscrew.
• Tony tells Dr. Melfi that Gloria reminds him of a princess in a Spanish painting, a "Goyim." He means to refer to Goya.
• Tony calls Gloria's Buddha statue "a real Captain Marvel".

Music

• This episode opens with the same music that closes the previous episode, "Pine Barrens" – the aria "Sposa son disprezzata" from the opera Bajazet by Antonio Vivaldi, sung by Cecilia Bartoli.
• Return To Me (Ritorna Me) by Dean Martin is playing while Ralphie tells Jackie Jr. and Dino about when Tony and Jackie Sr. robbed Feech LaManna's card game.
• The Bangles' song, "Walk Like an Egyptian", is playing in the Ooh-Fa Pizzeria, a regular hangout of Chris, when he sits down with Jackie and Dino.
• The music played when Ralph returns home to comfort Rosalie is a Bob Dylan cover of a Dean Martin song, "Return To Me". It was recorded for this episode at Dylan's request, as he is an admitted fan of the series [David Chase mentions this in the DVD/Blu-ray audio commentary for this episode].
• While Tony Soprano is with Gloria, she turns on the song "Affection" by Little Steven and the Lost Boys. The same song is played over the end credits. Lead singer Steve Van Zandt plays Silvio Dante on the show.

Awards

James Gandolfini won his second Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Lead Actor in a Drama Series for his performance in this episode.

References

External links

• "Amour Fou" at HBO
• "Amour Fou" at the Internet Movie Database
• "Amour Fou" at TV.com