I can’t think of another example of an iconic director who, after a long career spent making so many good and memorable films, suddenly creates a work of great art. Woody Allen has done just that with Vicky Cristina Barcelona (hereafter referred to as VCB).
Like most of us, I had travelled from film to film with Woody, always hoping for another great one in the mode of Hannah & Her Sisters or Manhattan or Annie Hall or “one of his early, funny ones.” But I can only believe myself to be in the minority when I say that I’ve enjoyed all of them, if some much more than others.
Before I begin a proper analysis of VCB, I’d like to propound a short theory of movie criticism. When we read the Friday movie reviews in our favorite newspapers, websites, or other media, we are almost always ingesting the snap judgments of a critic on deadline, who probably had to watch 2 or 3 or 4 movies in the course of a day or two. It follows that these reviews will be hard-pressed to give us anything more than a plot description and perhaps a checklist for happy/sad, good acting/bad acting, slow-moving plot/action & explosions. This is not to denigrate these reviewers, but to simply remind that film enjoyment can be so much more than the above checklist. And so it really is incumbent upon us, if we seek something more than a well-told story from the film-watching experience (at least once in a while), to equip ourselves with some deeper analysis. This sort of criticism can be obtained from many sources – websites such as Senses of Cinema and Rouge to magazines like Film Comment, CinemaScope, and Film Quarterly. Of course, the trick is to know when to deem a film worthy of further consideration, and the answer is a very humanistic one – whenever any one of us chooses to.
These notions are pertinent to my thoughts about VCB – I headed off to the theater with several Friday reviews chalked up and thinking that I would see some pretty Spanish scenery and pretty girls, as Woody is wont to do. What I did see I was totally unprepared for – so much so that I saw it again two days later.
I tend to forget that Woody isn’t just a joke machine – he really is a Renaissance man in his abiding love of music and paintings, as well as his vast knowledge and love of film history -all of which are evinced in ways obvious and not so obvious (much like Jean-Luc Godard) in VCB. Like Godard, especially in Contempt, Woody both overtly shows us great art, and creates it himself in one painterly tableau after another. Without ever drawing attention to his visual style, it has here blossomed into a fully mature, classical style that can stand comparison with Hawks, Welles, and Mizoguchi. I can’t find a single shot that wasn’t lovingly conceived and filled with wit and beauty and objets d’art. Watch also how he eschews the standard shot-reverse shot method of filming conversations (which has become omnipresent and stultifying in 99.9 % of contemporary film) – instead, Woody transforms a scene that, in other hands, would have been one to simply move the plot along – that between Vicky and Juan Antonio as they discuss what has and what will happen between them. As they speak to each other, the camera gently but purposefully glides around them, all the while keeping both of them in frame – Max Ophuls would have loved it. VCB is full of scenes like this, many with 2 or 3 or 4 characters contained within a frame, caressed by the camera. I’m also astounded by Woody’s masterly eye for design – watch for the day in the Spanish countryside on bicycles. This sequence of shots is like a preternatural evocation of a series of Velasquez paintings, beginning with that jaw-dropping hat perched on Penelope Cruz‘ head.
Finally, I find it continually fascinating how Woody always achieves finely modulated performances from all his actors – even ones he’s never used before (in this case, Javier Bardem, Penelope Cruz, and Rebecca Hall).
Enjoy this story of two American girls in Spain and their awakenings, courtesy of a great Spanish bon vivant and his unforgettable ex-wife, all of it suffused with life and art, as supplied by Woody Allen, Rebecca Hall, Scarlett Johansson, Javier Bardem, and Penelope Cruz. [DVD]
Comedy/Drama/Romance
Rated PG-13
DVD Release Date: 1/27/09
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