Barcelona es Poderosa

The heat of Barcelona permeates through the screen in Woody Allen’s latest passion project, Vicky Cristina Barcelona, a romantic comedy with tragic undertones. But what else can you expect from Woody Allen? Love stories for him always have their sense of tragedy.

The film centers around Vicky (Rebecca Hall) and Cristina (Scarlett Johansson), two friends off to stay in Barcelona for the summer with some distant relatives of Vicky. Vicky is a serious and levelheaded graduate student of Catalan identity and hopes to further her research in Barcelona. Cristina, on the other hand, is looking to escape the end of her latest relationship and the dissatisfaction of another film project. The girls agree on most matters in life, except love, of course. While Vicky desires seriousness, stability, and commitment from a man, Cristina esteems the exact opposite and all-consuming passion.

Insert Spanish hottie Javier Bardem. Bardem’s character is charmingly deadlier in this film with just a look than he ever was with the cattle gun in No Country for Old Men. Bardem plays Juan Antonio, a talented artist who is perhaps best known for his steamy and tumultuous relationship with his brilliant artist ex-wife, Maria Elena (Penelope Cruz). Their marriage came to a screeching halt when one night Maria Elena stabbed Juan Antonio in a crazed rage. Juan Antonio’s insertion into the Vicky and Cristina mix creates a delicious pie of steamy lust that only becomes steamier when Maria Elena is added creating a perpetual “ménage a quatre.”

The entire story is punctuated by our omnipresent fifth character’s (Christopher Evan Welch) sarcastic narration. Not only does he provide necessary exposition allowing the story to progress, but he does it in a way that is subtly funny, increasingly ironic, and slightly neurotic. It’s as if Woody Allen himself were speaking to his audience via the narrator.

All the actors play their parts beautifully. Hall manages to make negative and stern Vicky lovable; Johansson charms the audience as Cristina; and Bardem turns the Latin lover Juan Antonio into more than just a caricature and cliché. Nonetheless, it is Cruz’s portrayal of Maria Elena, the tempestuous, jealous Latin woman, that stole the show and nabbed her that Oscar nomination. Her fiery portrayal is believable and impossibly charming. Where as anyone else would have been contemptuous, Cruz is real and sympathetic. Plus, listening to Bardem and Cruz spew Woody Allen’s neuroticism in Spanish is by far the most amusing aspect of the film.

Of course, who could forget Barcelona itself, which is as much a character than our foursome? The romanticized city brings the characters closer and watches over them, providing the audience another visual perspective. It is always, as the repeated main theme song by Guilia y los Tellarini explains, “poderosa.” The power of the city is hypnotizing.

Beware, watcher. If you are expecting a typical Woody Allen film, you shall be sorely disappointed. The quintessential neurotic-New Yorker-director/writer/artist-type character that you might be keen on seeing is devoid in this film. Woody has grown and developed away from the typical neurotic New Yorker, but not completely since we do see some hints of it. Do not fear, though, there are some of Woody’s other favorite maladjustments: jealousy, cowardice, and infidelity.

Woody Allen is easily one of Hollywood’s most underrated directors. He has brought us so many Hollywood and cult classics (Hello Annie Hall, Manhattan, and Crimes and Misdemeanors) that you’d think it’d be impossible to be this prolific and talented. With Vicky Cristina Barcelona, Woody Allen’s cherry on top of a huge mound of ice cream film, you’ll want to jump right into this tragically comedic story for some Spanish guitar and wine.

And the Oscar goes to...

In lieu of the Oscar Nominations announced on Thursday (Jan 22, 2009), I have thought long and hard about who I want to win and who deserves an Oscar. I have mainly staked my focus on Best Actor, Best Actress, Best Supporting Actress, Best Supporting Actor and Best Picture. After all, these are the only ones people really care about, right?

Actor in a Leading Role

Richard Jenkins - The Visitor

Frank Langella - Frost/Nixon

Sean Penn - Milk

Brad Pitt - The Curious Case of Benjamin Button

Mickey Rourke - The Wrestler

This one was a tough call. Some credence must be given to Frank Langella and Sean Penn for playing two real people so excellently. It's tough making Richard Nixon seem like a sympathetic character when most of history portrays him as nothing but a crook. Yet, it is no easier playing a gay activist as a very heterosexual tough guy. Both performances are stunning though. The audience seems to forget they are looking at two actors playing their roles but rather seem to get a glimpse into history. With that being said, I picked Mickey Rourke because despite Langella and Penn's fantastic portrayals, it is Rourke that outshines the rest with his vulnerability and complete immersion in his character. It was like he was no longer acting, but just being (perhaps he was "being" since the movie seems to almost reflect his acting career). Ultimately, as a spectator that is what you want from an actor, true honesty in the character. Of course, I must acknowledge Brad Pitt and Richard Jenkins in their stellar performances, but I just don't think they hold a wick to Rourke's candle.

Actress in a Leading Role

Anne Hathaway - Rachel Getting Married

Angelina Jolie - Changeling

Melissa Leo - Frozen River

Meryl Streep - Doubt

Kate Winslet - The Reader

What can I say? Kate Winslet is a brilliant actress. In fact, all the actresses nominated did a wonderful job, but it's Kate's vulnerability in her portrayal that sets her apart. Every subtle emotion can be seen with just an expression of her face. She can express a thousand lines with just one glance and that is because she mastered actually feeling those emotions instead of acting them. What's more she portrays a Nazi prison guard so honestly that you can feel the humanity within that character. You want her to win the court case despite the atrocities. Lately it seems everything Kate does turns into gold and this performance is no exception.

Actor in a Supporting Role

Josh Brolin - Milk

Robert Downey Jr - Tropic Thunder

Philip Seymour Hoffman - Doubt

Heath Ledger - The Dark Knight

Michael Shannon - Revolutionary Road

If Heath Ledger had not been nominated, Michael Shannon would have been my pick. He excellently plays a man jaded to the point of insanity by the culture around him. I could sense his madness without coming across as stereotypical or shticky. And for that matter, Robert Downey Jr's hilarious farcical character was so lovable he outshone all of his cast members. Nevertheless, Heath Ledger's performance as the joker was so maniacal and so psychopathic that you never saw Heath Ledger the person in there at all. With that being said, he was never over-the-top. He played this malicious character subtly and so psychologically that you could believe there is a man this evil. My choice is not based on the fact that Heath is gone, but rather on the fact that he truly deserves it as an actor. He delved so deep into the Joker that he ceased being an actor.

Actress in a Supporting Role

Amy Adams - Doubt

Penelope Cruz - Vicky Cristina Barcelona

Viola Davis - Doubt

Taraji P. Henson - The Curious Case of Benjamin Button

Marisa Tomei - The Wrestler

Viola Davis was golden in Doubt. She basically stole the scene from Meryl Streep and that is a very hard thing to do! Her screen time is probably less than ten minutes but her anguishing performance as a mother doing anything for her child, even accepting that he is a homosexual being molested by a priest, is the most memorable and most climactic moment of the film. The pain permeated from the screen and into every mother's heart that has had to deal with doing what's actually right and doing what's right for their child. This underrated actress deserves some recognition for a beautifully crafted portrayal.

Best Picture

The Curious Case of Benjamin Button

Frost/Nixon

Milk

The Reader

Slumdog Millionaire

This choice probably comes as no surprise to anyone. Slumdog's brilliance is incomparable. Danny Boyle, Loveleen Tandeen (co-director: India) and Anthony Dod Mantle (DP) bring a visually magnificent film. The slums of India never looked grander, not to mention as romanticized. Boyle and Tandeen manage to pull performances out of their actors that are truly heart-wrenching and you can't help but want to adopt one of those cute little kids. The storyline itself is original and unique in subtly tracing India's tumultuous history. The love story is never overdone and despite it's expected "Hollywood ending" the means of getting their are exceedingly creative. All the films nominated are, of course, excellent. The special effects of Curious are mind blogging as well as it's innovative plot. The Reader is exceptional in it's treatment of a very sensitive era that seems to be overdone and yet it does not feel that way in this film. Milk is gorgeously filmed (did you see that reflective whistle shot?), but also sympathetic in its portrayal of a history. And Frost/Nixon is so exciting and well-acted that you almost think you are right there helping Frost nail Nixon. In the end though it is Slumdog that captured my heart and I think it deserves the win.

Unresolved Feelings in Cinema Paradiso

After seeing Cinema Paradiso for the second time, I think I enjoyed it even more. As I mentioned in my previous post, movies with atypical endings always appeal to me. These endings do not necessarily wrap the plot up into a neat package. As David Bordwell puts it in his essay "Classical Hollywood Cinema: Narrational Principles and Procedures," the Hollywood "classical ending is not all that structurally decisive, being more or less arbitrary readjustment of that world knocked awry in the previous eighty minutes" (21). Most Hollywood films have made it a point to give its audience a nice pretty ending in order to satisfy, in my opinion, some cathartic need. We would all like to think that if a problem arose in our lives that it would be solved as easily as it is in most films. 

However, Cinema Paradiso presents us with the story of Salvatore Di Vita (Salvatore Cascio), or "Toto,"a little boy obsessed with cinema. He befriends Alfredo (Philippe Noiret), the town's only film projectionist, despite Alfredo's hesitation. We see the growth of this friendship through the years and Alfredo soon becomes a pseudo-father for Toto, who lost his actual father as a child. The story is presented to us as a flashback, but for the most part we do not see a clear cut problem that needs to be resolved by the end of the film. Instead we see Toto as a grown man (Jacques Perrin) remembering his experiences with Alfredo, particularly because Alfredo has died. Ultimately, there is no resolution to this "problem" of Alfredo's death.

Toto's life might have been "knocked awry" as Bordwell puts it by Alfredo's death, but that never gets resolved. Perhaps by the end, it has become even more awry with Toto feeling unsure about the life he has chosen to lead. Years earlier, Alfredo told teenage Toto (Marco Leonardi) to never look back, to never come back to their town of Giancaldo, because in the end the past will only hold you back from going forward. Toto never did go back and he never saw or wrote to Alfredo.  

Structurally, Alfredo's death was not the problem but the starting off point for the plot. By the end, we are not sure if Toto has accepted Alfredo's death, and thus in a way resolves his problem. The movie ends with Toto finally getting all the clipped love scenes that Alfredo had promised him when he was a boy. Their is closure for neither Toto nor for the audience. Alfredo died without seeing Toto ever again and Toto never saw him either. Most certainly, the ending is a bit gloomy. Yet, it seems fitting since other aspects of the film did not get wrapped up either, such as what happened with Elena (Agnese Nano). 

The movie veers from the typical Hollywood ending and leaves us with unresolved feelings. To me, this is more true to life. When someone important in our lives dies we often do not get closure. But I believe the movie ends in the way that it does with the clipped love scenes because ultimately the movie is  about the splendor of film and in leaving these clips for Toto behind, Alfredo reminds him of the bond they shared.