January 4, 2009: Vicky Cristina Barcelona
Vicky Cristina Barcelona is the latest entry from the prolific and very personal filmmaker Woody Allen. Allen was involved with numerous comedic projects although mostly behind the scenes in the 1960s. He rose to prominence as an auteur in the 1970s with a wide variety of films, reaching a critical pinnacle in 1977 with Best Picture winner Annie Hall, which also won him directing and writing Oscars. His films became more grounded and introspective through the 1980s as he exercised his Hollywood fringe power in order to make pretty much anything he wanted – his movies usually being cheap to produce and while not blockbusters, always generating decent box office returns from his loyal following. For the past 20 years, he has gone through significant ups and downs, with some well-respected titles such as Mighty Aphrodite and Match Point, but with a good number of duds sprinkled in there. I’ve seen some of his output through the years but by no means all of it.
Vicky Cristina Barcelona is a story of two young American women spending a summer in Barcelona. Vicky (Rebecca Hall) is strait-laced, engaged to a “perfect catch” (good looking banker-type) who is back in New York, while she researches the Spanish culture in pursuit of yet another graduate degree. Cristina (Scarlett Johansson) is flighty, doesn’t know what she wants to do with her life, and is much better suited to the European style and culture…without feeling the need to study it academically. They are propositioned by a Spanish artist (Javier Bardem, recently seen in No Country for Old Men with a significantly different look and disposition!), who convinces them to go with him to a small town for a weekend out in the country. Cristina likes him, Vicky thinks he’s creepy, things don’t play out as they expect on that weekend, the man turns out to have a still-tempestuous relationship with his ex-wife, and everyone is forced to question what they really want out of life and how much they can really afford to give of themselves to someone else.
Woody Allen, whose films have predominantly been based in and centred around New York City, has seen success in recent years by taking his stories to Europe, including the successful Match Point a few years ago, and now Vicky Cristina Barcelona. The European style is evident in the look of the film, with neat cinematography to boot, including some unusual low-angle shots which really struck me. The overseas location makes available European/American conflict as a point to explore, and I think this really freshens the perspective and opens up new angles to Allen’s tried-and-true take on relationships. It’s great to see him still expanding his scope at this stage in his career, and his being forced to remove himself as the romantic male lead helps us to focus on what the characters represent, rather than trying to figure out how Woody fits in.
Penelope Cruz won a Supporting Actress Oscar for her performance as Bardem’s ex-wife. I suppose it’s a traditional Oscar-trolling performance, with her manic energy and off-the-wall chatter and with just a touch of violent psychopath thrown in, but she’s never really done it for me, so I find it hard to invest myself in this character. The closest I’ve come to appreciating Cruz was a couple of years ago with her Best Actress-nominated lead role in the Spanish film Volver. I wasn’t too happy with this win, given the other nominees in the category, most notably Amy Adams.
Ultimately, this came across to me as a movie about art and artists and what factors need to come together for art to happen. Maybe it’s Woody Allen wryly commenting on his recent past, and how not all the elements always do come together. It is made clear that whatever it is that drives artistic expression, it’s always fleeting.
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