Sweet and Lowdown

Sweet and Lowdown is a 1999 American comedy-drama film written and directed by Woody Allen. The film tells the fictional story, set in the 1930s, of a real life jazz guitarist Emmet Ray (played by Sean Penn) who regards himself as the second greatest guitarist in the world (after jazz icon Django Reinhardt) who falls in love with a mute woman (Samantha Morton). The film also stars Uma Thurman and Anthony LaPaglia. The film, loosely based on Federico Fellini's film La Strada, was one of Allen's best-received dramatic films. Penn and Morton both received Oscar nominations, for Best Actor and Best Supporting Actress respectively. Like several of Allen's other films (e.g., Zelig), Sweet and Lowdown is occasionally interrupted by interviews with critics and biographers like Allen, Nat Hentoff, and Douglas McGrath, who comment on the film's plot as if the characters were real-life people.