Vicky Cristina Barcelona

Vicky Cristina Barcelona
by Woody Allen

Vicky Cristina Barcelona

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DVD details

Actor: Javier Bardem, Kevin Dunn, Penelope Cruz, Rebecca Hall, Scarlett Johansson
Director: Woody Allen
Brand: Genius
DVD: Region Code 1
Audio: English (Original Language); English (Subtitled); Spanish (Subtitled)
Format: Color, NTSC, Subtitled, Widescreen
Running Time: 96 minutes
DVD Release Date: 2009-01-27
Audience Rating: PG-13 (Parental Guidance Suggested)
Studio: The Weinstein Company

DVD Reviews of Vicky Cristina Barcelona

DVD Review: WOODY ALLEN: ALWAYS REFRESHING!
Summary: 3 Stars

Vicky and Cristina, two American college students, decide to spend the summer in Barcelona, Spain. During their visit they meet a bohemian Spanish painter named Juan Antonio who's recently separated from his wife Maria Elena after a stormy relationship. The plot thickens in several directions when both women find themselves attracted to Juan Antonio! Once again Woody Allen proves his mastery at writing and directing original and refreshing stories. The three women: Rebeca Hall, Scarlet Johansen and Pen?lope Cruz look beautiful. Cruz won a well-deserved Academy Award for playing Maria Elena. Good show, don't miss it.

DVD Review: Allen Finds His Romantic and Artistic Muse in Spain with a Sharp, Eclectic Cast
Summary: 4 Stars

From a thematic standpoint, Woody Allen's second 2008 film offers nothing we haven't already seen in his earlier work like Manhattan and Hannah and Her Sisters. Like those classics and several lesser efforts, this 2008 romantic dramedy is a distilled examination of why men and women long for romance and how we fluidly fall in and out of love as a result, often with dire consequences and not without personal humiliation. What makes this entry particularly welcome is the full-blooded infusion of Spanish art and architecture that brings an emotional ripeness to the story. It also helps that Allen has gathered a more eclectic cast than usual to inhabit the richly developed characters. This is easily the most enjoyable film he has made since going abroad and probably his funniest since at least 2000's Small Time Crooks.

The plot focuses on two American college friends, polar opposites on the subject of love, as they vacation in Barcelona for the summer. As the conservative one who values stability and devotion, Vicky is there to study "Catalan Identity" as she waits to return to the states to marry Doug, an ambitious young man who maps out their future with a stifling lack of spontaneity. Failed filmmaker Cristina, on the other hand, is a romantic adventurer who craves unbridled passion with no limits. Their differing perspectives on love clash immediately when they both catch the eye of renowned abstract painter Juan Antonio. He makes a supremely self-confident proposition to Vicky and Cristina to join him on a romantic weekend trip to Oviedo, a picturesque town near the northern coast. Naturally, Vicky is appalled and makes no bones in telling him so, but Cristina is excited by the idea of being seduced by him. They agree to go with him and face unexpected consequences. Things get even more complicated when Juan Antonio's tempestuous ex-wife Maria Elena shows up and forces him to face his weaknesses.

Part of the resulting roundelay feels like a throwback to Allen's A Midsummer Night's Sex Comedy, but there is also a palpable sense of melancholy more reminiscent of his mid-period films like Crimes and Misdemeanors and Husbands and Wives. What remains consistent throughout is the filmmaker's incurable romanticism, a freshly optimistic viewpoint that makes the film thoroughly pleasurable despite the familiar set-up. The performances are terrific beginning with Rebecca Hall, a surprising find as Vicky, a young woman who thought she knew what she wanted only to find out too late that it's not what she wants at all. As a typical Allen heroine, Hall lets her initially strident manner as Vicky give way to a resonating sadness. As for Scarlett Johansson, the third time's definitely a charm. In Match Point, Allen exploited her effortless sensuality, while he tried to make her a fumbling Diane Keaton copy in Scoop. As Cristina, however, she gets to blend together her carnal allure and comic insecurity in a more seamless fashion. She has a wonderfully funny moment when she just can't control her titillation at Juan Antonio's proposal in the restaurant.

For those who have only recently been introduced to his mesmerizing work by way of his maniacal killer in the Coen Brothers' No Country for Old Men, Javier Bardem is completely convincing as Juan Antonio, a man who effortlessly controls the fates of the three women enraptured by his sensual manner and open soul. Unlike a shallower actor like Antonio Banderas, Bardem manages to move between smoldering and vulnerable with fluency. As Maria Elena, Pen?lope Cruz finally comes into her own in a non-Almod?var film. Taking the concept of a tortured artist to an extreme, the actress blazes with dangerous vitality, even though the role is relatively minor. She brings visceral life to the combative relationship between her and Juan Antonio, and at the same time, displays a sharp Allenesque wit, especially when she slyly ridicules Cristina in Spanish during their tension-filled conversations. The always-reliable Patricia Clarkson is quietly effective as a family friend of Vicki's with secrets of her own, while Chris Messina conveys the right level of unctuous smarminess as Doug.

The film is beautiful to look at thanks to the luscious, sun-dappled cinematography by Javier Aguirresarobe. With Gaudi's most famous work on display, Barcelona could hardly look more appealing on film. Just as evocative is the atmospheric music by a bevy of contemporary Spanish composers. The one aspect that doesn't work quite as well as intended is Christopher Evan Welch's stentorian narration, which lacks the right level of irony to make the ploy worthwhile. Most of the time, it comes across as a conceit to explain parts of the narrative that seem clear enough from the scenes. Regardless, this is a genuine return to form for Allen and well worth seeing for fans.

DVD Review: better than usual Woody Allen
Summary: 3 Stars

Maybe this is why they still let Woody Allen make films after all those really terrible movies?
I hate the voice over narration in this film. A really good film maker lets the
action speak for itself?
The acting was OK and the Spanish setting was very good,
but the subject matter of American women tourists and a Spanish painter
just was kind of sexually trite as a subject?
It seems every one wants a slightly crazy Latin artist
as a lover: some sort of New York status symbol maybe?
Real painters and artists are sometimes more practical than businessmen
in their life choices ( mostly because they have to be).
Still the result is better than the last two Woody Allen films
I've seen, but still not up to his classic comedy style.

DVD Review: Amazing movie...I feel I visited Barcelona already!!
Summary: 4 Stars

I am very happy I bought the movie. I liked Penelope's character. I really enjoyed the music, the beautiful spaces in Barcelona where the movie takes place.

DVD Review: (+) The genuine article
Summary: 4 Stars

I bought VCB on DVD a couple of months ago, but delayed watching it as I wasn't sure what to make of the mixed reviews and also because I wasn't sure if my wife (who generally doesn't like Woody Allen films) would enjoy it. I needn't have worried because VCB is easily Woody Allen's best film comedy since Husbands and Wives. Everyone in our household enjoyed it immensely.

When I say 'comedy' I don't mean mildly amusing, I mean laugh-out-loud funny. Admittedly it does take a while to get into its stride, but the scenes between Javier Bardem and Penelope Cruz in the second half of the film are absolutely hilarious in exactly the same way that the unfaithful husband and his embarrassing astrology-obsessed girlfriend were funny in Husbands and Wives. I think overall this is what impressed me most about the film: it marks the return of Woody Allen as the razor sharp observer of human frailty, something we have seen too little of in recent years. Watching the film also made me realise why Allen struggles to find a mass audience these days. Far more than other directors, he uses body language - or to be more precise the discrepancy between what a character is thinking (privately) and what he or she says - rather than the screenplay to create dramatic tension and drive the narrative forward. We have grown so used to directors who spoon feed us with special effects or obvious plot devices that we are fast losing the ability to appreciate those who use more subtle techniques.

The central theme of the film is the nature of erotic desire, its connection to art and, more specifically, the conflict between erotic desire as the longing for something wild and seemingly unattainable and erotic desire as the bond which nurtures loyalty and long term relationships. This is essentially the same theme that Allen explored so adroitly in Hannah and Her Sisters and Husbands and Wives. Vicky does genuinely love her fiance, but he can't satisfy her longing for aesthetic fulfilment; in the end, she has to make a choice and she chooses to remain unfulfilled. Cristina is more bohemian and experimental, but eventually realises she is in way over her head in a complex menage-a-trois that isn't working. Some critics complained that, at the end of the film, Vicky seems to have learned nothing from her experience, and that this is a weakness. I think this misses the point. Vicky has learnt that she is much more like Cristina than she initially imagined. Cristina has benefited from her experience but is (one suspects) sufficiently American in her values not to want to repeat it. Both girls are left with a longing for something that remains out of reach. The film appears to lack a clear resolution because that it what real life is like. If Woody Allen had been making a conventional romantic comedy, it would presumably have ended with a wedding scene in which the bride abandons her 'worthy but dull' husband-to-be for the man she really loves. We can all feel grateful that he chose instead to make a film about the restlessness of the human condition.

The key message for Woody Allen fans who haven't yet seen VCB is that the critics who praised this film on its release were right: it does represent a genuine return to form. It is not as strong or assured as his best films from the '70s and '80s, but it is recognisably by the same director and exhibits most of the qualities that made those films so special. For most of us, that will be more than enough.

Description of Vicky Cristina Barcelona

Oscar winner Javier Bardem (No Country for Old Men), Oscar nominee Penelope Cruz (Volver) and Golden Globe nominee Scarlett Johansson (The Nanny Diaries) light up the stunning city of Barcelona in this sexy romantic comedy. Vicky and Cristina are two young Americans spending a summer in Spain, who meet a charming Casanova and his beautiful but volatile ex-wife. When they all become romantically entangled, the smoldering sparks begin to fly in hilarious fashion. Critics rave, Vicky Cristina Barcelona is one of Woody Allen s finest films, with bravura performances from its incredible cast (Jeffrey Lyons, Reel Talk/NBC).

It must be true that getting out of town can do a fellow a lot of good, because Vicky Cristina Barcelona is the best movie Woody Allen has made in years. Okay, you're right, 2006's Match Point already claimed that honor and, as Allen's first film made in England, established the virtues of getting away from overfamiliar territory (namely Manhattan). But the Woodman's first film made in Spain matches the ice-cold Match Point for crisp authority, and yields a good deal more sheer pleasure besides. Rebecca Hall (Vicky) and Scarlett Johansson (Cristina) play two young Americans, best friends, spending a summer in Catalonia. Vicky is going for a master's in "Catalan identity" (though her Spanish is shaky); Cristina is going along for, oh, just about anything. That soon includes celebrated abstract artist Juan Antonio (Javier Bardem), who's anything but abstract in his forthright proposition that the two join him in his private plane, his travels, and his bed. That he has an insane ex-wife, Maria Elena (Pen?lope Cruz), who may or may not have tried to kill him is not really an issue until the wife reappears and ... well, consider the possibilities.

Vicky Cristina Barcelona isn't exactly a comedy, at least not in the manner of Allen's "early, funny ones," but it's informed by a rueful wit that finds its fullest expression in reflective voiceover commentary. Spoken by Christopher Evan Welch, but surely on behalf of the 73-year-old auteur, this element of the film is neither (as some have charged) patronizing nor uncinematic; rather, it's integral to the movie's participation in a venerable European literary tradition, the sentimental education. Instead of Bergman or Fellini, this time Allen is invoking the Fran?ois Truffaut of Jules and Jim and Eric Rohmer in his many meditations on the game of love. The entire cast is terrific (both Hall and Johansson get to play "the Woody part" at different points), with Bardem and Cruz especially delightful as exemplars of Old Worldliness. Cinematographer Javier Aguirresarobe honors every drop of Catalonian sunlight and glint of Gaud? architecture. --Richard T. Jameson

Stills from Vicky Cristina Barcelona (Click for larger image)

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