celluloidnotes

Woody Allen’s transition out of New York initially felt as though it was bringing about great change in his style. Match Point and Cassandra’s Dream, both filmed in London, felt as though he may be entering a final stage of his career, a dark phase that was bringing about mysteries and suspense tales which take odd turns on his traditional thematic material of love and family.

With Vicky Christina Barcelona it seems that he has taken a step back into the Woody Allen of the 70s. Filmed almost entirely in Spain (with a few cuts into New York City) Allen resurrects the witty love stories of his past. Narratives the delve into familiar questions about the nature of love, it’s origins, and the many approaches humans take to it, each trying to learn and build from another approach. The film takes a standard Allen formula - here is the issue, I’m going to present two different views on this (see Crimes and Misdemeanors, Melinda and Melinda, Cassandra’s Dream, et al) - but breathes new life into the formula.

The film centers around Vicky and Christina, two Americans spending the summer in Spain. Vicky (Rebecca Hall) is a traditionalist, she is engaged to a wealthy young business man, she believes in traditional values of the sacrifices of love. Christina (Scarlet Johansson) believes love should be persistently exciting, that the traditions are for squares, and that a torrid affair offers more than the traditional routes. Their tropes are put to the test as they meet Juan Antonio (Javier Bardem), a Spanish artist who upon first meeting them, invites them on a plane ride to a small Spanish town where they can spend the weekend making love. Naturally, as per their stereotypes, Vicky is repulsed and lets him know, Christina is breathless.

But the binary created by these two characters begins to break down as the film progresses. Despite the binary being boring, unsurprising, and fairly flat, Allen takes a fresh approach to this. He never chides nor praises one character’s action over the other. There are consequences to every action, whether positive or negative, and they are revealed without commentary (well, without much). The dialogue is as sharp as Allen has ever been, and the performances, particularly that of Bardem, as the seductive, couldn’t-give-a-damn-about-anything-but-passion artist, who is phenomenally well suited to the role of this tormented artist (and turns out to be something of a fraud in both art and life).

The film is beautifully shot - which is not always a given with Allen’s films - and brilliantly written. This is Woody Allen at his best in decades. Vicky Christina Barcelona is fantastic film that deserves multiple viewings to allow it to grow and bloom.  

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