Review #10 – Vicky Cristina Barcelona

Woody Allen's latest, Vicky Cristina Barcelona, screened to popular acclaim at Cinema CNC on Saturday; this is much too big a film for our series, but the local megaplex would never screen it, so there we were!

Before getting to the movie, I feel compelled to discuss the director, because Woody Allen inspires all kinds of comment. While talking up the movie during the week, I had more than one person say something like "a Woody Allen movie? Why? Yuck...." [eyes rolling]... I am somewhat mystified by this response... while much has been made of aspects of his personal life, his choices and all, and some of his movies haven't quite measured up now and then, why do people feel such a strong aversion to him? Woody Allen first awed me when I saw a screening of Manhattan at Cinecenta, the University of Victoria's cinema. Manhattan is spectacular... a clever melange of story, technique, and character, mixed to create a love-document to that great municipality. I have since seen pretty much all of the 40ish films he's made. I had a crush on Barbara Hershey after watching Hannah and Her Sisters, I almost wet myself watching Sleeper, I was fascinated by the technique of Zelig, not to mention the numerous other big and beautiful films he has made. And as for his personal life, most of the prejudice is predicated on his relationship with Soon-Yi Previn, his ex-wife's [Mia Farrow's] adopted daughter... I don't know exactly what went on there, but they have been together for 15 years, ten of them as husband and wife, which is a long time by show-biz standards. All this being said, I hope that when I am 72 years old, I don't opt for a comfortable retirement, but rather make a film as fine as Vicky Cristina Barcelona.

The film opens with an introduction of our three main characters: Vicky [Rebecca Hall] and Cristina [Scarlet Johansson] and Barcelona [Barcelona]. The two women are riding in a taxi and are shown on split screen, with a voice-over [provided by Christopher Evan Welch] explaining why they are there and what their life-views, especially to do with love, consist of. Vicky wants stability and security and appears to have found this... she is engaged to Doug [Chris Messina], a wealthy and seemingly nice young man. Cristina doesn't know what she wants, but does know what she doesn't want... which is Vicky's dream. Cristina has recently made a short film about LOVE, but is unsatisfied and wants to forget it. The third character, Barcelona, provides the romantic context for the challenges of these contrasting world-views. Allen treats the city with some of the same affection he gives New York in Manhattan... however, it is not affection born of years of familiarity and regard as in the earlier film, but rather the thrill of infatuation... the freshness of a new love.

Woody Allen films, even when thin on other elements, always have fascinating characters, often testaments to the actors creating them. He seems to have a knack for bringing out fine performances in his players. Javier Bardem, as Juan Antonio, shows his chops, especially when one contrasts this with his depiction of Anton Chigurh in No Country for Old Men. His haircut is better here, as is his personality... while this film, on description, might come across as some kind of male fantasy piece, with Juan Antonio juggling women [not just Vicky and Christina, but Maria Elena, too... more on her in a sec.], but it becomes much more, largely through the sympathetic depiction created by Bardem. His character, while undeniably benefitting from these women's affections, serves as a passive base on which the female characters act. He is seemingly without guile, but full of passion... he opens contact with Vicky and Cristina by offering to take them on a nice holiday to a remote location where they can see the sights and eat the food and make love, eliciting both shocked and intrigued responses from V and C. He seems genuinely surprised, precisely because he isn't trying any tricks... he is being straightforward.

Maria Elena is Juan Antonio's ex-wife, and, by all accounts, they have had a tempestuous relationship... she is played with great energy by Penélope Cruz as the human embodiment of a tempest... even when she is sitting still and smiling, one still has the impression that tumult in not too far below the surface. Her character does not appear until almost half-way through the movie, but it is hard to forget her impact. Cruz's depiction shows both her talent for character and Woody Allen's talent for eliciting performances from actors.

As in previous films, Allen is quick to pay homage to things he likes in other artists... film and otherwise. We see references to Almodóvar, especially in the outdoor scenes with Spanish guitar... no surprise since his cinematographer is Javier Aguirresarobe, Pedro Almodóvar's cinematographer for Talk to Her. Javier Bardem's dialogue is often pure Ingemar Bergman; when he talks about the reasons for his forwardness, one is reminded of Jøns' line "But feel, to the very end, the triumph of being alive!" from The Seventh Seal, a much darker take on this same discussion about what it means to truly live. The picnic scene in this film reminds me of a scene in a Marilyn Monroe film, with Scarlett Johanssen's wardrobe providing the trigger [I can't remember which film, but the shorts and gingham are definitely reminiscent]. The film Vicky and her friend go to is Shadow of a Doubt, an Alfred Hitchcock film from 1943.

Music plays a prominent role here, as it does in other Allen films, with "Barcelona", by Giulia y los Tellarini, "Entre Dos Aguas", by Paco de Lucía, "Granada", by Isaac Albéniz [played by Emilio de Benito], and "Asturias", by Isaac Albéniz [played by Juan Quesada] featured prominently, providing mood and emotional context. Spanish guitar becomes an internal symbol for the conflict between romantic and pragmatic views of the world.

I don't want to describe too much of the action of this movie, because to do so would be to spoil the delight of discovery; I do, however, want to extoll its virtues and suggest to you that you'd like to see it. Let me know what you think.