Vicky Cristina Barcelona (Woody Allen, 2008)

[exte]

Woody Allen's Spanish diaries.

Brilliant! Just brilliant!

[Antoine Doinel]

VCB will be Woody's first film on BD.

[Forrest Taft]

I have Cassandras Dream on BD, and Match Point is coming out before VCB, so no. But this is still good news. Never got around to see this theatrically.

[royalton]

Finally saw this tonight, really enjoyed it, thought it was excellent. Not sure if I consider it a new masterpiece, but I liked it better than Match Point which I found overrated at the time. It occurs to me that since MP Woody seems much more comfortable with overt, serious eroticism, but then I haven't seen his whole oeuvre so I could be blowing smoke.

I also was surprised in that it could've easily followed the media cliche of "Woody Allen, dirty old man writing about PYTs in a threesome" but instead seemed to me to become a feminist statement, as well as following that quasi Jules & Jim vibe. Juan Antonio never comes off more emasculated and neutralized in the film than when the trifurcated relationship with Cristina and Maria Elena is in full bloom and they are both expressing their own art (which he drew from Maria Elena), and Judy Nash is trying to help Vicky escape her life, which seems to me (when you add in Doug) for all the world to be the kind of existence Woody used to write about without fail: The neurotic urban intellectual. I thought that Vicky was the Woody stand-in, and this time he seemed to be dismissing his old self and the characters he used to put forth. It was as though he was showing where he had been, and what he could never become but loved to dream of. Overall, however, the film felt new and fresh. Remarkably so.

[Antoine Doinel]

Rebecca Hall's rigorous audition process for the film.

[Matt]

Rebecca Hall's rigorous audition process for the film.

I think that's pretty much how he casts all of the actors in all of his films. I remember a similar story from some other actor recently (don't remember who).

EDIT: Here: "My first meeting with Woody Allen lasted 30 seconds," Dianne Wiest once recalled. "He looked at me, said hello, asked someone to take a polaroid, thanked me very much and I was shown the door. When I came out, the woman due after me was still doing the same thing as when I went in. She was shocked - 'What happened?' But that's how it is. My agent had warned me. Not hers. She was stunned."

and here: "Stanley Ralph Ross, a Hollywood writer and actor, remembers auditioning for the role of an interior decorator in Woody Allen's "Sleeper." Mr. Ross says his only contact with Mr. Allen during the audition was through a half-closed door. Each man stood in a separate room. Mr. Ross got the part."

[Dylan]

Download the screenplay. I haven't read through it yet, but it's 141 pages, indicating that there are roughly 45 pages of scenes here that either weren't filmed, didn't make the final cut or are extended from what made the final cut. Should be fascinating for fans.

I'm hoping it gets showered with Oscar nominations tomorrow morning - it's one of the very, very best films of the decade and it deserves it. Oh, and the DVD release is this Tuesday!

[exte]

From what I remember, Hannah and Her Sisters had a ridiculously long screenplay but it's all there on the screen. Maybe it's just Allen's way?

[Antoine Doinel]

Allen is notorious for constantly rewriting his scripts or editing huge portions of the film out of the final cut. There is already a thread on the board for Annie Hall, which is probably the biggest example of this. But there is also the Purple Rose Of Cairo which he shot with Michael Keaton in the lead, before scrapping it and starting over with Jeff Daniels. Manhattan Murder Mystery was built from the murder subplot that was originally meant for Annie Hall and I'm sure there are plenty more examples out there.

[AWA]

I would like to point out that the "script" posted by the Weinsteins more than likely is just a poorly written summary of the film as it was released and not Woody's script. I have it, and from what I've read, it just appears to be some staffer told to write up a "script" so that it could be posted online in an Oscar campaign for Best Screenplay. There doesn't appear to be anything original Woody in the "script". I might be wrong, and I'd love to be proven as such, but it is unlikely that they convinced Woody that his script should be posted online to assist in an Oscar campaign.

Most / all Woody "scripts" I've seen online are nothing more than mere transcriptions of the films as they were released.

[montgomery]

Yeah, I also am pretty sure it's a transcript. For extra proof, check the scene where Woody, according to Johansen, had written a line about her "valise" and she changed it to "luggage." This script says "luggage." It's also doubtful that Allen would have written the spanish dialogue side by side with the on-screen english subtitles.

[Dylan]

I think you guys are right. I skimmed through it for a couple minutes, and I wasn't able to find anything I didn't recognize. The published screenplay for Hannah and Her Sisters is as Woody wrote it, it seems, but I'm still curious as to the source of that since reportedly 90% of that film was re-shot after the first cut, and everything in that script appears in the film.

I would personally love to see the scripted scenes for what was cut out of Everyone Says I Love You and Deconstructing Harry, as well as that early draft of Annie Hall.

[AWA]

I think you guys are right. I skimmed through it for a couple minutes, and I wasn't able to find anything I didn't recognize. The published screenplay for Hannah and Her Sisters is as Woody wrote it, it seems, but I'm still curious as to the source of that since reportedly 90% of that film was re-shot after the first cut, and everything in that script appears in the film.

I would personally love to see the scripted scenes for what was cut out of Everyone Says I Love You and Deconstructing Harry, as well as that early draft of Annie Hall.

There are a few websites that list original Woody scripts as being available to purchase, including a 200+ continuity script of Crimes & Misdemeanors and Deconstructing Harry... but... I don't have the money or the will to gamble on that prospect right now and I keep the faith that someone who does will eventually let a .pdf transfer version leak online. I do know that a fellow Forum member will be putting together a .pdf of the original Annie Hall script as well as possibly Love & Death and Bullets Over Broadway.

But the VCB is a fake transcript for sure.

[Fielding]

The published screenplay for Hannah and Her Sisters is not Woody's script. It's a transcript.

[AWA]

Unfortunately, the staffer ordered to write up the transcript of the film wasted their time - VCB was shut out of any Oscar nominations today. Oh well.

[Dylan]

The published screenplay for Hannah and Her Sisters is not Woody's script. It's a transcript.

Yeah, I figured as much. It's a good, detailed transcript, though, as is the one for Annie Hall floating around.

Unfortunately, the staffer ordered to write up the transcript of the film wasted their time - VCB was shut out of any Oscar nominations today. Oh well.

I'm as thrown as you are, but Penelope Cruz has a very good chance of winning, so at least that's something.

[Fielding]

I'm very happy to report that VCB's worldwide boxoffice takings reached $85.8 million last weekend, putting it $500,000 ahead of Match Point. According to boxofficemojo, it's now the 59th highest grossing film of 2008 out of the 414 released worldwide (including in the US).

Now, Harvey Weinstein has been quoted as saying that VCB will be the first of Woody's films to reach $100 million. With releases in the UK and Argentina and a highly likely Oscar win for Penelope Cruz still to come, I think it's a distinct possibility.

[kaujot]

Go, Woody, go.

[domino harvey]

I like how between his role here and in Melinda and Melinda, Zak Orth is somehow Woody Allen's go-to guy for the minor role of vaguely uninteresting white friend.

[pianocrash]

I like how between his role here and in Melinda and Melinda, Zak Orth is somehow Woody Allen's go-to guy for the minor role of vaguely uninteresting white friend.

I had initially thought that the voice over in VCB was Orth (aka Monk Jablonski) himself, but was a little downed when he appeared in that scene, hence the conflict of character vs. VO interest. Almost, li'l dude!

[AttitudeAJM]

Hell this is my first post on this site and I hope to post thing more often. I just saw Vicky Christina Barcelona and wanted to give my take on the film. Please let me know what you guys think of my response. (BTW it may contain spoilers.)

After hearing the cast and locale of the film, I couldn't help but be excited about this film. It screamed of romance and interesting yet strange personalities, which tends to be what Woody Allen is best at. The movie was shot beautifully using Barcelona as an amazing canvas. All of the actors, even the not so good looking ones, looked great and were popping off of the screen. As for the story, I found it to be loose, slightly pretentious, and utterly unromantic. Maria Elena's lines about Christina when she decides to leave best describe the two female leads best. They are "spoiled little ****'s." The typical American portrayal in most films seems to be one of confusion and dissatisfaction. Vicky and Christina are no different. They are accosted by Juan Antonio who seemingly sweeps them off of their feet, and in Vicky's case, kicking and screaming. Instead of growing from their experiences, they seem to fall into themselves more and more after the events of their first trip. All of the romance disappears after Juan Antonio's seduction of Vicky. Christina falls right into his arms, a point that you could see happening the moment the characters meet. However, after this brief instance of passion, Vicky second guesses her entire life.

The problem is not necessarily how they act but instead is the portrayal of the "stupid American who doesn't know what they want." It is done in a way where almost all of the Spanish characters, even if they don't fully enjoy the life they are living, are accepting of life as it comes. Vicky constantly bickers with herself over a husband that she loves but doesn't love (a point not explored nearly enough in the film) and Christina, the character who ends up in the best situation sabotages herself over an uncertain adolescent moment of doubt. What I ended up taking from the film was that these two American tourists traveled to a "far off land" where they willingly placed themselves in romantic situations yet were not accepting of the consequences that came with it. I found myself hating both Vicky and Christina by the movie's end, wishing to have an extra hour on the extraordinarily interesting relationship between Juan Antonio and Maria Elena.

Just my opinion of the film. I was wondering if anyone else felt the same or differently.

[Antoine Doinel]

Speaking pretty broadly, most of Allen's films involve Americans who don't know what they want.

[AttitudeAJM]

Very true but for some reason I found these women to be much more annoying than your usual lost Woody Allen character.

[Le Feu Follet]

Allen's previous films that were set in the UK were widely derided for having an American tourist eye view of the UK, with red buses, houses of parliament, etc (I didn't see them). VCB is set in Barcelona and it clearly takes an American toutist eye view of that city, featuring it's most obvious and best-known places, and plenty of Spanish guitar music. I wonder whether people from Barcelona are inclined to deride it as much as the Brits derided the films set in London.

I enjoyed it because I thought the cast were pretty good, and I liked

Spoiler

the central idea of a relationship that can only be stable with the participation of a third party.

The rest - the voice over, the perfunctory background music, the excessively beautiful sets wtih an orange filter to impart and permanent evening light I thought were lazy. With more effort it could have been a better film.

I do very much respect Allen, who has never been sucked into Hollywood and has done his own thing for such a long time, sticking to his guns. Also, he is an artist who believes that one shouldn't sit around waiting for inspiration, but press on with the next project. I sympathize with that, although this may be a project which may have benefited from a little more time and work.

[colinr0380]

I enjoyed it because I thought the cast were pretty good, and I liked

Spoiler

the central idea of a relationship that can only be stable with the participation of a third party.

Spoiler

Isn't that why people have children though?