Vicky Cristina Barcelona
Written by Joe D on August 26th, 2008
I can’t believe it myself! I actually really liked this film, I went to see it with low expectations, hoping to get some views of Barcelona and enjoy Javier Bardem and Penelope Cruse but the movie was great! Wonderful story, beautiful locations, great actors. My only nitpicks are as follows: too much narration from some unknown narrator and a lot of out of focus shots. I don’t mind a few but it seemed like half the shots were soft! I read an interview with Woody and he mentions how he loved foreign films from the 60’s and they’re always out of focus, so the question is was this an intentional homage or did he spin that story into the press to make up for the buzzy focus? You decide. Javier Bardem is a wild artist sort of like the guy in Turkish Delight, if you’ve seen that film.
Trying to forget his lost love by jumping into bed with everyone he can. Scarlett Johansson and Rebecca Hall are two young American chicks spending a summer in Barcelona. They are both excellent as well/ But Penelope Cruse has the Dr. Wu part. That’s a part ( according to Orson Welles) where everyone talks about the mysterious person for the first 20 minutes of the film (or play) , they all keep saying how incredible Dr. Wu is, what a genius etc, so when he finally shows up, the audience really believes he is the greatest. It works! Penelope Cruse doesn’t show up till about 20 minutes in and she is the most memorable character in the film. See for yourself! I recommend seeing this in the theater while you can, it’s worth it.
18
AM
I confess I’m curious about this one! If only because there was a lot of hubbub in our local press, ha, ha
My only “but” is that the popular locations are likely to be seen as in a half deserted and beautiful places where the streets, architecture can be fully appreciated, when actually traffic had to be stopped and streets had to be closed to give that false impression: it is more likely that they will be filled with tourists, LOL!
18
AM
I’m sure you’re right but movies are fantasies so we can all dream of wandering around a sparsely populated Barcelona, being able to enjoy the architecture without the masses of tourists. I love Spain, the food, the music, the architecture, the people, the customs, Viva Espana!
8
AM
I didnt care much for this movie to be honest. Decent fare I suppose, and Scarlett was looking pretty