This is actually quite a beautiful film thanks to Vittorio Storaro. And it could have worked if the character is played by someone that looks
like Marcello Mastroianni or if it has to be Wallace Shawn, then the character has to be a billionaire Rupert Murdoch type media mogul, with a younger wife who has dragged him to San Sebastian film festival. That way the bald little 78 year old's attractiveness to women could be plausible.