17/05/2008

Woody Allen presented his latest work from his “European tour” yesterday at Cannes. After making three films in the UK, the US filmmaker moved to Catalonia, Spain to shoot Vicky Cristina Barcelona [+see also:
trailer
film profile], shown out of competition.

Received to mix reactions by the international press, but certainly proof of the renowned director’s return to form, the comedy plays with the clichés of the sentimental encounter between American tourists and hot-blooded locals. The result is a quite successful confrontation between a top-notch cast issued from both sides of the Atlantic: Scarlett Johansson (the director's current muse) and Rebecca Hall against Javier Bardem and Penélope Cruz.

Two young Americans, the sensible Vicky (Hall) and the sexually adventurous Cristina (Johansson), decide to spend the summer in Barcelona. There they meet Juan Antonio (Javier Bardem), a local painter with a fiery reputation, who invites them both on a weekend in Oviedo – and his bed. Cristina accepts but falls ill at the last moment, so Vicky, initially reticent, secretly leaves with him.

When Vicky's nice American fiancé arrives with a surprise wedding in mind, Vicky accepts and Cristina has to play the part of Juan Antonio’s girlfriend. Maria Elena (Penélope Cruz), the painter's explosive ex-wife, also moves in with them after an attempted suicide.

Thus begins a bohemian set-up, where a relationship between Cristina and Maria Elena evolves into a threesome with Juan Antonio. In the meantime, Vicky has doubts about her bourgeois marriage, when compared to Spanish passion.

Allen is funny in Spain as well, and pulls the best from of his actors, simultaneously taking a bow to European spirit ("she felt closer to European artists in their dramatic and romantic conception of life") and contrasting it to American materialism and Puritanism.

Produced by Spain's Mediapro and Antena 3 Films, Vicky Cristina Barcelona is being sold worldwide by France’s Wild Bunch.

(Translated from French)