Blue Jasmine (Woody Allen, 2013)

[Jeff]

Tweets from tonight's press screenings suggest that this is the Woodman's best in 20 years, Oscar for Blanchett, Dice is great, etc.

[warren oates]

That would certainly be nice if it's true. I'm kind of tired of working up my excitement for his supposed returns to form via what turn out to be mediocrities like Midnight in Paris and Match Point.

[knives]

Cassandra's Dream though is a flat out masterpiece as must be stated every time people start complaining.

[warren oates]

Well, it's underrated to be sure, but I wouldn't go that far.

[albucat]

Cassandra's Dream though is a flat out masterpiece as must be stated every time people start complaining.

Couldn't agree more. I watched it three times in theaters and probably another half a dozen since. My favorite modern Woody.

[mfunk9786]

Since when is Match Point a mediocrity? Also, I realize I liked Midnight in Paris more than most on this board, but a mediocrity? Come on. It was widely critically acclaimed and made a ton at the box office... history certainly won't remember it as such.

[knives]

I think both are better than mediocre, but I'm sure an argument could be made (Allen did Dostoyevsky riff better with Crimes and Misdemeanors for example). Certainly making money and being acclaimed in the moment has never meant long term critical holding.

[mfunk9786]

I still need to rescue Cassandra's Dream from kevyip hell. One of the only modern Allen films I haven't seen.

Also, I realize opinion is largely subjective - I thought Vicky Cristina Barcelona was merely okay despite its critical fervor, and actually rather enjoy Scoop despite the pans. But I think when Allen's legacy is looked back on, I can't imagine history ignoring Midnight in Paris merely because some folks on the internet didn't care for it. It was nominated for Best Picture and Best Director, for goodness' sake.

[knives]

So was Skippy though and when was the last time that was brought up (hell just look at The Descendents). I'm just playing devil's advocate because I agree with you.

[mfunk9786]

But talking about films from an acclaimed director is a whole other story. There are always, say, 5 or 10 films that'll be mentioned in obits for someone with a huge body of work, and I think we'll see Midnight in Paris in a lot of them when Allen goes.

[knives]

Well I hope that's not too soon.

[Matt]

Since when is Match Point a mediocrity? Also, I realize I liked Midnight in Paris more than most on this board, but a mediocrity? Come on. It was widely critically acclaimed and made a ton at the box office... history certainly won't remember it as such.

I'm with warren oates on this one. And there are lots of movies that are widely critically acclaimed that made a ton at the box office and are still mediocre or worse.

[dustybooks]

I don't think I've ever grinned as broadly for the duration of a movie as I did in the theater for Midnight in Paris -- but at least half of my friends hated it. Not sure why but something about Allen's aesthetic just inherently works for me; I nearly always at least enjoy his films. But I still feel skepticism when I hear "return to form" for every film he makes, partially because I don't think he's really lost it and it sometimes seems like a story in search of a problem.

[domino harvey]

Academy Award Nominee Andrew Dice Clay

[tavernier]

Annie and Her Sisters

[mfunk9786]

Academy Award Nominee Andrew Dice Clay

Alec Baldwin was on Stern this morning and said "I was astonished when I saw [Blue Jasmine], because even though I enjoyed working with him on set, Dice was one of the best things about the entire film."

I continue to be astonished.

[Matt]

Louis C.K. said the same thing about Clay on The Daily Show last night. Hey, if Robin Williams, Whoopi Goldberg, and Mo'Nique can win Oscars, why not him?

[Professor Wagstaff]

Academy Award Nominee Andrew Dice Clay

One of the things that's always bugged me about Woody Allen is his tendency to portray the working class as overly ethnic goons who lack common sense or decorum ("Hey! It's Alvy Singer!"). What's sort of remarkable about Dice's performance is that it never veers into that territory and he plays his role as Sally Hawkins' ex with quiet dignity. He and Blanchett are both victims of Alec Baldwin's criminal practices but his loss of his livelihood and family overshadows that of Jasmine. He's compelling in all of his scenes and I'm sorry that there's not more of him because he far from the brutish Stanley Kowalski type you'd expect. Kudos to whoever had the inspiration to cast him.

[Dylan]

I thought this was brilliant, one of Woody Allen's very greatest films. Never has such a tragic downward trajectory been so funny at the same time. And Cate Blanchett might be giving the greatest performance in any Allen film ever. The supporting cast is also brilliant. And being his third film in 2.35:1, it once again demonstrates his extraordinary eye for location shooting.

One significant detail I wanted to discuss that I found really interesting -

Spoiler

The final flashback reveals that Jasmine called the FBI on her husband after he confessed to being in love with the teenage au pair. I had to think about that for a minute. Okay, so he's leaving her and she calls the FBI to get him arrested. Ah ha! What this scene communicates without having it actually be spoken is that she knew all along that her husband was stealing money but she chose to ignore it. In a distant way, she was an accomplice to all of the crime he was committing - she knew perhaps for many years that he was a criminal and ruining other people's lives through embezzlements (and who knows what else) but she looked the other way, and only when it came to him leaving her did she pull the plug on him. So this must mean that she knew (more or less) that he would embezzle the money from her sister's husband when she suggest that he invest with Hal. This one detail may reveal more about her condition than anything else in the film. Anybody with me on this?

[wigwam]

Feels like the film Woody's been trying to make for at least a decade, if not the end of his Mia Farrow/Orion era. General praise for everyone's performances (Alec Baldwin is especially great and is easy to miss when more showy performances like Blacnhet's or surprises like Dice Clay can take the spotlight), and for how honesty and deceit can be so thematically tense and captivating, and how the editing - especially early on - is enigmatically jarring as if this were still multiple stories ala To Rome wth Love yet its Greek tragedian agenda earns its place as the story progresses... but really I think much of why I loved it was that it was all fresh to me and I hadn't seen any previews or knew anything about it. One of the year's best.

[wigwam]

Spoiler

The final flashback reveals that Jasmine called the FBI on her husband after he confessed to being in love with the teenage au pair. I had to think about that for a minute. Okay, so he's leaving her and she calls the FBI to get him arrested. Ah ha! What this scene communicates without having it actually be spoken is that she knew all along that her husband was stealing money but she chose to ignore it. In a distant way, she was an accomplice to all of the crime he was committing - she knew perhaps for many years that he was a criminal and ruining other people's lives through embezzlements (and who knows what else) but she looked the other way, and only when it came to him leaving her did she pull the plug on him. So this must mean that she knew (more or less) that he would embezzle the money from her sister's husband when she suggest that he invest with Hal. This one detail may reveal more about her condition than anything else in the film. Anybody with me on this?

I was thinking about this too and

Spoiler

it seems like there's a progressive chronology in the flashbacks, where she could just as easily have been unaware at that point, getting suspicious in the scene where she asks about the lawyer quitting, and by the end knowing about it completely thus her position to make that call - she's blatantly haughty about her sister's visiting especially how it ties her back to the class she came from so she seems in earnest to want to also better her sister, which is why she asks him if he can do well for them, or what else is she doing with that question to him? feigning ignorance to him too? hmmm... that's one of the most interesting and mysterious aspects that I wanted to know more about even though I felt the film was perfect as it was, leaving so many things to consider, this being one of them...

[Dylan]

Feels like the film Woody's been trying to make for at least a decade

Yes. This kind of drama was attempted with You Will Meet a Tall Dark Stranger, but that film was a bit too harrowing for its own good, not even close to finding balance between the witty and tragic like this does, I'm talking about (spoiler for those who haven't seen Stranger):

Spoiler

Josh Brolin stealing the manuscript from somebody he thought had died and becoming famous & successful then discovering that the person he stole from wasn't dead but in a coma and is waking up, or Anthony Hopkins marrying a bimbo and having somebody who's screwing her not only impregnate her but beat him up, Naomi Watts losing her chance for a passionate love affair & her mother backing out of giving her money to start a small business, etc.

- it was interesting to watch because it was so intensely awful to see such mortal characters fall so hard, but that was the lasting impression - 100% downer.

Woody Allen attempted to overtly cross comedy and tragedy in Melinda and Melinda, and while I really enjoyed that film (as I did, too, You Will Meet a Tall Dark Stranger despite how tough it was), I agree with the common thumbnail reviews that while it was a great idea to have the "comedy" be sad at points and the "tragedy" funny at points, by the end they started to run together & there wasn't really enough to distinguish them. As much as I liked that film, I always thought it should've been one comedy-tragedy story rather than splitting the "comedy" and "tragedy" up and mixing them.

The character of Ginger also has shades of Rebecca Hall's character from Vicky Cristina Barcelona,

Spoiler

settling for what is expected of her from her class rather than the kind of life that really moves and excites her.

Speaking of which, I have a theory that an earlier draft of VCB (when it was called Midnight in Barcelona) was just about one woman who

Spoiler

vacations and finds passion and art and awakens her sexuality in a foreign land, but in the end goes back to where she came from and marries into a dull existence. The film supports this because Scarlet's character is pretty undistinguished and her denouncement of leaving the threesome isn't motivated while Rebecca Hall going back to NYC and to what her class expects of her is a good (albeit sad) motivation to leave the excitement and Romance of Barcelona. I could be wrong but that's what occurred to me while watching. I still like this film a lot.

All of these were solid, even great in certain areas, but while the many disparate dramatic situations were fascinating their development seemed to lack weight, and in Blue Jasmine he really gets close to the heart, the drama developing, deepening, and blooming to its full glory. Blue Jasmine is much more succinct, nuanced, and confidently handled than the aforementioned. It's masterful.

Woody Allen said in an interview, a long time ago, how fascinated he was by women (similar to Jasmine) he knew personally who were dependent on their extremely wealthy husbands and who lost everything when their husband did, ending up (again, like Jasmine) selling shoes or waiting tables to the people they used to host parties for. I think he was talking about this in relation to Alice (which I've always found to quite wonderful, one of his most underrated and one of the best 80s/90s fantasy films). It was great seeing this character get her own movie, Jasmine's real life inspiration(s) having interested and moved Woody Allen for a long time.

Another thing, Jasmine always referring to the song "Blue Moon"

Spoiler

and having it appear on the soundtrack not diegetic but not exactly non-diegetic as the music is quite clearly playing in her mind, the psychological trauma causing her to actually hear the music while reminiscing. This is similar to A Streetcar Named Desire when Blanche is first talking about the tragedy and having the carnival music play & in both too the music in the character's head comes back for the final scene.

"Blue Moon" for blue Jasmine is a wonderful touch.

And Jasmine

Spoiler

randomly blurting out things she said in past conversations (dating years back according to the flashbacks)

was rather haunting.

It amazes me how well every aspect of this movie is handled. It shouldn't surprise me - Woody Allen is my favorite living filmmaker - but I'm floored anyway.

[Dylan]

Spoiler

or what else is she doing with that question to him? feigning ignorance to him too?

Yes, that's what I was thinking.

Spoiler

Jasmine resents her past and is embarrassed by her sister "settling" for a kind of man & class she doesn't like or respect. Never once, even (especially?) in the present day scenes, does Jasmine actually seem to love her sister, so she definitely wasn't holding onto much feeling for Ginger when she still had Hal. I believe, yes, that Jasmine knew exactly what crimes Hal was committing but felt safe and secure with him (and loved him, probably) and to do away with any possible suspicion Hal may have had that Jasmine knew about the crimes, willingly handed Ginger's newly wealthy husband over to him so he could embezzle the money. This in turn would make Jasmine and Hal richer & mightier while Ginger and her husband would hit the gutter harder than ever before. That said, I don't believe Jasmine is deliberately pathological. It's pretty clear to me that she always had a condition and that her trauma wasn't caused by Hal losing everything, only ballooned and brought to the surface by it. Without bearings or comfort her condition became more overtly severe and external. It was this same panic and fear of losing her security that made her decide to call the FBI on Hal in the first place (which, of course, she wouldn't have done had she known exactly what would come out of it). Of course, calling the FBI was also self-destructive, mirroring (to an extent) her lying to Peter Sarsgaard's character in the present day scenes - huge lies about her past and present that he would surely find out if he met anybody from her previous life (and based on his first impression of her before they started dating, these were all lies she didn't need to tell him in the first place, which makes that part more tragic).

Meanwhile, it's clear to me by the time the film ends that Jasmine will probably become a (likely) homeless person who loudly talks to herself on street corners while randomly lashing out on people. So beyond his fascination with the wives of husbands who lost everything, this film seems to also answer another question I believe was on Woody Allen's mind during the writing: "that homeless woman over there who's talking to herself and yelling at everyone, how did she get that way?"

I would love to hear Woody Allen talk more about his inspiration behind this script because a lot of it really does seem pulled from numerous solemn and very real observations he's had over the years.

[wigwam]

Right, that's sound reasoning, Dylan, and I agree abt what's alluded to with the ending and what would follow

[Professor Wagstaff]

Did anyone else feel like Cate Blanchett was channeling Judy Davis in this performance? A lot of what she does with Jasmine's performance (the voice and inflection in particular) seem so similar that I half expected to find out Davis dubbed the part.