Radovan Karadzic, Sarajevo is not your city, and you have no right to say that it is, just as you do not have the right to say in public, even if it’s in court, that someone has dug up bones around Bosnia and brought them to Srebrenica to make a fake graveyard. This is insulting.
‘Vicky Cristina Barcelona’
| 27 November 2008 |
The girls soon discover the true charm of the Old World when a painter Juan Antonio, played by Javier Bardem, invites them to spend a weekend of lust outside the city. While flirtatious Cristina is instinctively drawn to his Spanish charm and openness, by a series of accidents it’s Vicky that ends up in the arms of Juan Antonio. The plot further evolves with the arrival of Maria Elena, Juan Antonio’s former wife, creating a complex love triangle.
Allen’s trip to the heart of European-ness is rewarding. The brilliant dialogues subtly and without prejudice deal with the contrast between de-personalised desire, as expressed by the Americans, and the lust for life in Europe’s warmest region.
The characters are portrayed with various degrees of intensity. Johansson, after three films with Allen obviously his new muse, forms the weakest link. But even her performance has some quality. Bardem is finally able to live out his true Spanish self. But it’s a masterful Penelope Cruz, playing the role of destructively passionate muse as Antonio’s Maria Elena, who sets the screen on fire.
All her acquired American-ness becomes invisible when living out a role in her mother tongue, and we see the raw beauty of the actress made famous by Bigas Luna’s film Jamon Jamon, in which she first met Bardem. Her passionate cynicism, which Allen skilfully guides between destruction and eroticism, makes this the best performance in her career. Hollywood rumours say it will be hard for the Oscar for Best Supporting Actress to go to anyone else.
Allen is not visually obsessed with images of Barcelona, as are so many other filmmakers, using it instead as a setting for confronting two principles, the American and the European. The film deals with these through some humour that at the same time reveals the depth of these cultural differences and shows how significant to both relationships and the perception of the self they can be.
Whoever doubted Woody Allen can really function outside New York now has the answer. Fantastic crew, excellent script and insightful direction are strong recommendations for Vicky Cristina Barcelona to become a part of your must-see films list.
