Âmes en stock

Original title: Cold Souls

IMDb RATING

6.4/10

10K

YOUR RATING

Emily Watson, Paul Giamatti, and Dina Korzun in Âmes en stock (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 peopleÂ’s souls, Paul very well might have found the key to happiness for which heÂ’s been searching. But, complications arise when he is the unfortunate victim of "soul-trafficking." GiamattiÂ’s journey takes him all the way to Russia in hopes of retrieving his stolen soul from an ambitious but talentless soap-opera actress.

Play trailer2:17

9 Videos

96 Photos

Comedy Drama Fantasy Sci-Fi

Paul is an actor who feels bogged down by his participation in a production of Chekov's play, Vanya.Paul is an actor who feels bogged down by his participation in a production of Chekov's play, Vanya.Paul is an actor who feels bogged down by his participation in a production of Chekov's play, Vanya.

See production info at IMDbPro

IMDb RATING

6.4/10

10K

YOUR RATING

See production info at IMDbPro

Awards
- 4 wins & 9 nominations total

Videos9

Trailer 2:17

Cold Souls

Clip 1:14

Cold Souls: "Soul Extraction"

Clip 1:14

Cold Souls: "Soul Extraction"

Clip 1:41

Cold Souls: Side Effects

Clip 0:38

Cold Souls: Stimulator

Clip 2:01

Cold Souls: Confrontation

Clip 1:13

Cold Souls: Soul Storage

Photos96

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Storyline

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Did you know

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Trivia
The film was inspired by a dream Sophie Barthes had in which Woody Allen discovers that his soul looks just like a chickpea. Barthes wrote the first draft with Allen in mind for the lead role.

Goofs
At the beginning of the film, when Paul is reading the article about Soul Storage, you can see that parts of the article repeat, an obvious way to pad out the printed page without writing new material. Then, when he searches Soul Storage in the Yellow Pages after, you see the listings also repeat, for similar reasons.

Quotes
Giamatti - Paul: Are you telling me, my soul is a chick pea?

Connections
Featured in The Tonight Show with Conan O'Brien: Jack Dagger & Tonya Kay/Paul Giamatti/Regina Spektor (2009)

Soundtracks
Kalitka
Written by A. Obukhov, A. Budishchev (traditional)
Performed by Larisa Bell

User reviews62

Featured review

Impressive Giamatti Performance in Futuristic Dark Comedy

This dreamlike dark comedy starring Paul Giamatti is strangely hilarious at times and at other times it is moving. Paul Giamatti who plays himself in the film, is an actor in misery that is struggling with acting a soulful character in a Chekov play. He reads an article in The New Yorker about a company that can extract souls and preserve them, so one can live without a soul. Giamatti being curious decides to check it out. David Strathairn plays the soul doctor and is hilarious. Giamatti's first visit is full of humorous dry jokes as he is convinced to have his soul extracted. After feeling hollow and empty without a soul, Giamatti decides to borrow the soul of a Russian poet. Unsatisfied, all he wants is his own soul back, however it has been borrowed by the soap opera actress wife of a Russian mafioso. The way the film is portrayed is very surreal and the director did an excellent job capturing this feel. Giamatti steals the screen as he is humorous and yet can believably portray such complex emotion.