Word: barcelona
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Dates: during 2000-2009
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...thing, he dreamed the character up; for another, Bardem doesn't have to work hard to radiate the sensitive machismo of a man who doesn't use women so much as he allows them to briefly fulfill their dreams in him. Visually, too, the movie is in love with Barcelona, its gnarled Gaudi buildings, and with the countryside of Ovieto, a hundred shades of glorious earth tones. (The cinematographer is Javier Aguirresarobe, who has shot films directed by Pedro Almodovar, Victor Erice and Alejandro Amendabar.) It is in Ovieto that Vicky meets Juan Antonio's ancient father, who writes beautiful...
...still has loyal admirers in Europe, though, as was proved by the urgent mob waiting to see Vicky Cristina Barcelona, and by the warm applause when it ended. After the screening we ran into one of his champions: Michel Ciment, the doyen of French critics. "You still go to Woody Allen films?" asked Michel in mock or mocking surprise. He was just setting us up for a pronouncement: that whatever Allen's current reputation, years from now people will take a retrospective look at the 40 - some films he's made and proclaim him as part of a holy trinity...
...title characters are two American women and a one very romantic city. Vicky (English stage actress Rebecca Hall, who was the beguiling pawn of two magicians in The Prestige) wrote her master's in Catalan Identity. Before marrying businessman Doug (Chris Messina), she has come to Barcelona to spend July and August with a welcoming relative, Judy (Patricia Clarkson), and Judy's husband Mark (Kevin Dunn). Vicky has brought along her friend Cristina (current Woody muse Scarlett Johansson), who is restless emotionally and artistically. She has the impulse to be creative - she starred in and directed a 12min. film...
...liaisons too seriously. That is the movie's sunny strength and its ultimate limitation - since life is not perhaps simply a series of bed partners from whom we discover that the greatest wisdom is realizing we always have more to learn from others, and about ourselves. But Vicky Cristina Barcelona is so engaging so much of the time that we can entertain Allen's proposition. It's certainly evidence that a summer in Spain can do wonders for a writer-director who may not have outlived his prime...
...Gilles Jacob and Thierry Fremeaux, who choose the Cannes slate, seem to recognize this problem. That's why they pack their program with American items from Oscar-winning directors. This year Clint Eastwood brings Changeling, starring Angelina Jolie, and Woody Allen has Vicky Christina Barcelona, with Oscar-winner Javier Bardem, Oscar-nominee Penelope Cruz and Woody's latest muse, Scarlett Johansson. Steven Soderbergh is presenting the 4-1.2-hr. Che, with Benicio del Toro as the sexy South American insurrectionist...