Cool Short: Watch Clive Owen in Paolo Sorrentino’s Killer in Red

Campari Red Diaries is a multi-layered campaign that brings to life the powerful ethos that “every cocktail tells a story”, celebrating cocktails as a powerful vehicle for expression by shining a light on the influences that inspire bartenders to share their craft. Killer in Red, the pivotal piece of the project, is a short film written and directed by the Italian internationally-renowned award winner, Paolo Sorrentino (Youth, The Young Pope) and starring Hollywood actor, Clive Owen.

Set in a high-end bar, the typically Sorrentino-esque noir sees Golden Globe winner Clive Owen move from ordinary man to take on the guise of Floyd, a notorious bartender back in the early 1980s, as Clive’s character imagines the story behind the creation of the eponymous cocktail creation, the Killer in Red. The film moves between two time periods, brilliantly portraying the high-energy zeitgeist of the time using a cast of more than 170 and through the use of original costume from the era.

According to legend, Floyd has a talent for reading his clients and crafting them with the perfect cocktail for their character – as the story unfolds this so-called talent soon introduces him to the ‘Lady in Red’, played by French/Swiss actress, Caroline Tillette. Yet, as the story develops, the audience begins to suspect that the ‘Lady in Red’, is far more complex than Floyd could ever have expected. As with many of Sorrentino’s films, the film’s ending leaves the audience with the intrigue to draw their own conclusions with the bartender serving as the narrator.