Tagline: A love letter to Barcelona.
Woody Allen’s breezy romantic comedy is about two young American women and their amorous escapades in Barcelona, one of the most romantic cities in the world.
Vicky (Rebecca Hall) and Cristina (Scarlett Johansson) are best friends, but have completely different attitudes towards love. Vicky is sensible and engaged to a respectable young man. Cristina is sexually and emotionally uninhibited, perpetually searching for a passion that will sweep her off her feet.
When Judy (Patricia Clarkson) and Mark (Kevin Dunn), distant relatives of Vicky, offer to host them for a summer in Barcelona, the two of them eagerly accept: Vicky wants to spend her last months as a single woman doing research for her Masters, and Cristina is looking for a change of scenery to flee the psychic wreckage of her last breakup.
One night at an art gallery, Cristina, true to form, instantly locks eyes on the most intense and provocative man in the room, Juan Antonio (Javier Bardem), a handsome painter. Cristina is only more intrigued when Judy whispers that Juan Antonio had such an explosive relationship with his ex-wife Maria Elena (Penélope Cruz) that one of them tried to kill the other. Later that night, when Vicky and Cristina are having dinner, Juan Antonio approaches their table with a brazen proposition: fly with him for a weekend trip to the provincial town of Oviedo, where he suggests they explore the cultural wonders, drink fine wine, and make love together. Vicky finds his proposal obnoxious, but Cristina is enchanted by his directness and charisma, and persuades Vicky to accompany her.
During a day of sightseeing and fine dining in Oviedo, Juan Antonio speaks in reverential terms about the magnificent Maria Elena, the great love of his life. Despite their profound connection, their passions ran too high for them to be together. Once, things got so cataclysmic that Maria Elena stabbed him in a mad fit of jealousy.
That night, Juan Antonio invites the girls to his room-an offer Vicky adamantly refuses and Cristina willingly consents to. But just as Cristina and Juan Antonio are about to fall into bed, Cristina becomes ill, and it’s Vicky who spends the remainder of the weekend alone with him. Juan Antonio takes Vicky to meet his father and opens his heart about his childhood hopes and his turbulent relationship with Maria Elena. Perceiving a deeper side to him, Vicky gradually sheds her misgivings, and during the romantic night before they leave Oviedo, Vicky and Juan Antonio make love.
After returning to Barcelona, Vicky can’t stop thinking about Juan Antonio. Meanwhile he directs his romantic attentions to the available and willing Cristina, who soon moves in with him. When Vicky expresses her disappointment, he points out that as she’s engaged, it would cause needless pain for everyone if they continued.
Indeed, Vicky’s fiancé Doug (Chris Messina) arrives in Barcelona early, and the two are soon married. As Cristina and Juan Antonio settle into a dreamy life together, one night he is awakened by an alarming phone call-Juan Antonio’s ex-wife Maria Elena is at the hospital after a suicide attempt. Returning home with the dazzlingly beautiful and tempestuous Maria Elena, Juan Antonio explains to a stunned Cristina that his she will have to stay with them for a few months, as she has nowhere else to go.
Jealous and suspicious, and subject to wild mood swings, Maria Elena misses no opportunity to bicker with Juan Antonio and put Cristina down. In time, she becomes more relaxed and settles into a warmer relationship with Juan Antonio and even mentors Cristina’s pursuit of photography. Maria Elena tells Cristina that she is the “missing ingredient” that allows her to live happily with Juan Antonio. In a transition that is tranquil and natural, the three of them become lovers.
By chance at a party sometime later, Vicky sees Judy kissing Mark’s business partner. After Judy tells Vicky that she hasn’t been in love with Mark for years, Vicky reveals her feelings for Juan Antonio. Determined to rescue Vicky from her own fate, Judy tries to bring Vicky and Juan Antonio together. Meanwhile, Cristina, as always, is starting to get restless. As the summer draws to a close, Vicky and Cristina learn some hard lessons about love-and about themselves.
Set against the luscious Mediterranean sensuality of Barcelona, “”Vicky Cristina Barcelona”” is Woody Allen’s funny and wise meditation on love, in all its romance, exhilaration, heartache, and elusive mystery.
About the Production
“”Vicky Cristina Barcelona”” is a film that is indelibly linked to its location. “When I began writing the script, I wasn’t thinking of anything other than creating a story that had Barcelona as a character,” says Allen. “I wanted to honor Barcelona, because I love the city very much, and I love Spain in general,” he says. “It’s a city full of visual beauty and the sensibility of the city is quite romantic. A story like this could only happen in a place like Paris or Barcelona.”
When the film’s title characters Vicky (Rebecca Hall) and Cristina (Scarlett Johansson) arrive for their summer in Barcelona, they are at very different stages in their lives. “Vicky has a plan ahead of her,” says Hall. “She’s getting married, she’s getting her Master’s, she’s moving out of the city and she’s going to have babies. She feels that everything is falling into place as expected.” Cristina, on the other hand, is completely at loose ends: she just broke up with her boyfriend and has walked away from a short film she worked on for six months (and now hates). “Cristina is kind of a wandering lost soul,” says Johansson. “She’s aimless and doesn’t really know what she wants. She’s exploring her youth with no responsibility and coasting wherever the road takes her.”
Allen sees contrasting advantages and trade-offs for the life choices the two women make. “A person who’s more conventionally middle-class like Vicky, stands to have what most people would consider a happier life,” says Allen. “It’s a more structured, a more stable, and a more well-functioning life. It may not achieve any goals she has that are beyond it, but she’ll have a good life with her husband, who’s a nice guy, and it will be fine. Whereas a character like Cristina has less of a chance of satisfying herself, because she’s always looking, and she only knows what she doesn’t want. But she’ll have a more varied menu, until maybe someday she’ll get lucky and something will drop into her lap.”
In Spain, Vicky and Cristina are drawn into a series of romantic entanglements involving two intense and passionate Spaniards, the painter Juan Antonio (Javier Bardem) and his fiery ex-wife Maria Elena (Penélope Cruz). Despite being head over heels in love, the two of them are always in bitter conflict for reasons neither one of them fully understand.
“They tried many times to be together,” says Cruz. “It always ended in a very bad way, but they keep trying.” The pain from the failure of their relationship hangs heavily over Juan Antonio. “He’s a man with a wound to be healed,” says Bardem, “as a person, as an artist and in his relationship with Maria Elena. It’s like there’s a sign that is flashing over his body all the time. But his way of dealing with his fears is to face them.” Juan Antonio’s most conspicuous quality is his ability to speak with complete candor at all times. “He’s not an ambivalent person,” says Bardem. “That’s why he’s so direct. He needs to tell the truth and that creates some funny and also hard moments for other people.”
While Juan Antonio is a no-nonsense and relatively easy-going person, Maria Elena is a whirling emotional tornado, endangering everyone in her path. “Maria Elena is great at everything-playing the piano, painting-but she can’t really do anything with her life because she’s too nuts,” says Allen. “She’s too full of passion, too full of feeling, and it ruins her from really accomplishing things in a certain sense. He continues, “She’s too full of jealousy and willing to stick a knife in somebody because she feels so deeply about everything.” Penélope Cruz thinks Maria Elena’s problem is that she’s unhappy: “She suffers tremendously. It’s not easy for her to deal with her mind. All the chaos that she brings-I think she can’t help herself. I don’t think it’s something she does just to get attention. It comes from being totally confused in many ways and very scared-and at the same time very brave.”
Continue Reading and View the Theatrical Trailer
Vicky Cristina Barcelona (2008)
Directed by: Woody Allen
Starring: Javier Bardem, Patricia Clarkson, Penelope Cruz, Kevin Dunn, Rebecca Hall, Scarlett Johansson, Chris Messina, Maurice Sonnenberg, Christopher Evan Welch, Patricia Clarkson
Screenplay by: Woody Allen
Production Design by: Alain Bainée
Cinematography by: Javier Aguirresarobe
Film Editing by: Alisa Lepselter
Costume Design by: Sonia Grande
Set Decoration by: Sol Caramilloni, Sylvia Steinbrecht
Art Direction by: Iñigo Navarro
MPAA Rating: PG-13 for mature thematic material involving sexuality.
Distributed by: The Weinstein Company
Release Date: August 15 2008
Visits: 176
