Summer Movies: Vicky Cristina Barcelona
by Latoya Peterson
Have you ever watched a movie, and then wished you could have seen it from another character’s perspective?
That was the feeling I got while watching Vicky Cristina Barcelona, the most recent Woody Allen film that is actually quite enjoyable – as long as you don’t mind having two dimensional female characters and you are fine with the whole foreign locale/exotic-natives as a backdrop for the growth of the white protagonist kind of thing.
So yeah, you have to swallow a lot to enjoy the film.
Then again, I watch films like Transformers. Obviously, I don’t have problems suspending disbelief.
I sat in the theater and allowed the story to wash over me. In broad strokes, the third party omniscient narrator explains the thoughts and travels of two friends – Vicky and Christina.
(Warning: After this point, there are spoilers.)
Wikipedia already has the plot synopsis, so I will crib from them:
Vicky (Rebecca Hall) and Cristina (Scarlet Johansson) visit Barcelona for their summer, staying with Vicky’s distant relative Judy (Patricia Clarkson) and her husband, Mark Nash (Kevin Dunn). A Narrator (voice of Christopher Evan Welch, present throughout the film, describes the two friends: Vicky is practical and traditional in her approach to love and commitment, and is engaged to the reliable but unromantic Doug (Chris Messina). She is in Barcelona getting her masters in Catalan Identity, a project spawned by her love of the works of Gaudí, and is emotionally moved by Spanish guitar. Cristina, on the other hand, is spontaneous and unsure of what she wants in life. She is just out of a relationship and wants to get over the bad time she had making a 12-minute film about Love.
At an art exhibition, they notice the artist Juan Antonio(Javier Bardem). Cristina is impressed with him at first sight, and grows intrigued when Judy and Mark tell the girls that the artist has suffered a violent relationship with his ex-wife, María Elena (Penélope Cruz). Later that night, the pair notice him across the room in a resturant. He and Christina exchange glances, and he approaches their table, asks Christina’s eye color, and abruptly invites them to accompany him to the town of Oviedo, where they will sight-see, drink wine and, hopefully, make love. Christina accepts at once, but Vicky is skeptical and refuses. She is eventually convinced, and the pair accompany Juan Antonio to Oviedo on a small private plane during a storm.
This all happens in the first twenty minutes.
As per type, the brunette Vicky is the calm, sensible one who has a fully formed life plan and Cristina is standing in for the flighty blond. The two do accompany Juan Antonio to Oviedo, where the girls are experience a role reversal – the normally uninhibited Christina falls ill and is unable to enjoy Juan Antonio’s seduction, while the curt and occasionally abrasive Vicky finds herself giving into the moment and sleeping with Juan Antonio. After the three return to Barcelona, Juan Antonio takes up with Cristina, leaving Vicky to ponder the unraveling of all her carefully laid plans.
The movie progresses in this way, told by the narrator and providing small glimpses into the lives of the characters. The film receives a much needed shot of spark much needed shot of spark once María Elena arrives on the scene.
Now, initially, I was concerned about the role of María Elena. I am not too familiar with Woody Allen’s work, but it would appear that he doesn’t really work with (or write about) women of color. And the idea of a tempestuous Spanish sexpot was veering dangerously close to stereotype territory. Yet, Penelope Cruz manages to take a somewhat limited role and infuse it with fresh air.
Her character speaks rapidly in Spanish, often in defiance of Juan Antonio’s pleas to speak English for the benefit of Cristina. While she can occassionally be seen as vulnerable, María Elena is often more cocksure and confident, tormenting Juan Antonio about his ridiculous habits and his need for her, as well as proclaiming herself as the true genius in their relationship. (Later in the movie, Juan Antonio admits to Cristina that he was more inspired by María Elena’s style than he would like to admit.) She is interesting, passionate, and determined.
Which makes it even more of a pity that this film fails the Bechdel test.
For those, unaware, The Hathor Legacy breaks it down:
The “Dykes to Watch Out For” test, formerly coined as the “Mo Movie Measure” test and Bechdel Test, was named for the comic strip it came from, penned by Alison Bechdel – but Bechdel credits a friend named Liz Wallace, so maybe it really should be called the Liz Wallace Test…? Anyway, the test is much simpler than the name. To pass it your movie must have the following:
1) there are at least two named female characters, who
2) talk to each other about
3) something other than a man
Vicky Cristina Barcelona fails this test in the most frustrating way possible. Occasionally, the female characters do have conversations about life and art and architecture. We know this because the omnipresent narrator describes what they are talking about, rather than let Vicky, Cristina, or María Elena actually speak directly to each other. When they do speak to each other, they are talking about men.
Sigh.
The rest of the movie meanders on, the plot comes to a close, nothing is really resolved, everything ends pretty much as it began. It was a fairly enjoyable summer movie, one that is light in tone and easy to watch, made even better by walking down the street and grabbing some sangria afterwards. Yet, it wasn’t remarkable. And the characters weren’t very novel, paper thin representations of a certain type of womanhood and middle/upper class anxiety.
However, if we were instead watching María Elena’s life – complete with suicide attempts, frustration in art, two volatile love affairs, and a penchant for paint and firearms – I think I would have been more intrigued.
(Note: The title of this post reflects when I started writing it – in August. Oy…)
Carmen Van Kerckhove is co-founder and president of
DivergentDana wrote:
Would I be veering off topic if I called into question if a Spanish woman would be considered a WOC?
Posted 12 Nov 2008 at 7:25 am ¶
Jess wrote:
Are you so sure about the racial dynamic of this? You describe Penelope Cruz and Javier Bardem both (implicitly) as non-whites, but they are both Spaniards, no?
I mean, I get the exotic location thing — but Paris could have been chosen too, and you could have written exactly the same movie there. It’s not like Spain isn’t in Europe, though maybe it shows that you can exoticize any country if you try.
The other reason I have issues with it is because you end up racializing language a bit. “It’s Spanish, it isn’t white people.” I know that for an American audience Spanish is associated primarily with the countries to the South, but a Spaniard would differ with you on describing Cruz as a PoC. Heck, I never thought of her as Latina, but again, that’s because she is Spanish, not Mexican or Argentinian.
That said, I think you’re spot on about the way Woody Allen sets up his female characters. Unlike, say, Almodovar, he seems to be nursing a lot of hurts about women generally. I always got the sense that women were a little opaque to Allen in a way that they aren’t to Alomodovar. (Almodovar seems to have a lot more fun writing about women, but maybe that’s just my perception of it, being a fan of both).
Posted 12 Nov 2008 at 8:44 am ¶
ieishah wrote:
i’m not so sure the ‘white adventurer using brown people as backdrop’ holds up here, for two reasons.
the first is that spain, *especially* catalunya is not a country of brown people. if nothing else, having been an actual brown person here for a year now, has made this clear. i can’t stress enough – - *especially* in catalunya. a catalan will actually tell you, ‘we’re have more in common with northern europeans than with the rest of spain’. perhaps you could make the case in other parts. maybe. but in catalunya, it’s a stretch.
second, for me, penelope cruz played backdrop to no one in that film. even spanish people, who are notorious ‘pé- haters’, agreed: she made them ALL look like amateurs, her performance successfully subverting that dynamic.
when i saw this movie in september, the theater was packed. everyone was laughing their asses off. we found it so funny. why? this flick is a sunday soup of stereotypes. he just throws every cliché up in there and plays on the fact that most people will not know the difference.
the *hot* *fiery* latin woman and the don juan, latin lover. the wide eyed american girls, who come looking to ’soak up’ culture, fall in love to the sounds of fucking flamenco guitar strings– hold up–flamenco guitars?? try sardana, the real national dance/music of catalunya and about as ‘latin’ and ‘hot’ as the damn maypole.
even though cruz was amazing, that portrayal had nothing to do with catalunya. neither bardem nor cruz was believable as a catalan. most importantly, because they were not speaking catalan!! a famous, emergent catalan artist, speaking castellano in his own home?
franco outlawed catalan during his dictatorship, so once he died and catalunya declared itself an autonomous region, it was all catalan, all the time. if there were to be a film about cruz’s character, the hot, latin, fire cliché would disintegrate in the face of 3-dimensionality. that is to say, how you gonna flesh out a character whose very conception is dependent on a misconception?
the naive, traveling-adventurer, american girl, however, does exist. she lands in el prat, like, 5000 times a day, but within a few months, she too realizes that catalunya and the things we associate with spain from afar, do not really correspond.
what i can’t tell, is if allen meant this film for people who know the difference, or people who don’t.
Posted 12 Nov 2008 at 8:54 am ¶
Eric wrote:
Fascinating take from a woman’s perspective! I found all of the male characters to be just as flimsy / two-dimensional as the women, and I thought that’s what Woody was going for.
Every “character” was purely an archetype, and he was documenting the interactions between personality types in broad stokes, allowing him to tell a light, obvious, yet enjoyable story while emphasizing the beauty of Spain.
Great review!
Posted 12 Nov 2008 at 9:15 am ¶
Latoya Peterson wrote:
@all –
Yes, I am aware that racial dynamics in the US do not neatly export themselves to other countries. I believe that Azadeh Moaveni, the author of Lipstick Jihad, wrote about her confusion of racial categories upon coming to the US, noting that Iranians thought of themselves as “tanned europeans.” Which, I thought was apt, as it provides a little insight into dynamics that aren’t so clearly delineated into black and white.
However, two things seemed clear to me: (1) the two Spanish characters were designed to fit with preexisting stereotypes about Latinos in the US, and (2) both Bardem and Cruz’s characters were to be the others by design – if not, if the girls weren’t so enchanted with their difference from their staid norms, the plot wouldn’t have moved.
I specifically referred to Cruz two ways – as nonwhite, as her positioning was mainly in contrast to the white heroine and as a woman of color, used a bit more broadly than I normally use it. When I said “I am not too familiar with Woody Allen’s work, but it would appear that he doesn’t really work with (or write about) women of color” – it was, in essence, any woman that does not fit into the idea of American whiteness, in its various forms. A while back I linked to this post, about Woody Allen’s Asian Problem, where the Jennifer Tang notes (bold emphasis mine):
Apply this idea to the film.
Posted 12 Nov 2008 at 10:08 am ¶
Latoya Peterson wrote:
@ieishah –
second, for me, penelope cruz played backdrop to no one in that film. even spanish people, who are notorious ‘pé- haters’, agreed: she made them ALL look like amateurs, her performance successfully subverting that dynamic.
when i saw this movie in september, the theater was packed. everyone was laughing their asses off. we found it so funny. why? this flick is a sunday soup of stereotypes. he just throws every cliché up in there and plays on the fact that most people will not know the difference.
the *hot* *fiery* latin woman and the don juan, latin lover. the wide eyed american girls, who come looking to ’soak up’ culture, fall in love to the sounds of fucking flamenco guitar strings– hold up–flamenco guitars?? try sardana, the real national dance/music of catalunya and about as ‘latin’ and ‘hot’ as the damn maypole.
1. Agreed on Penelope Cruz, but I do not think that was by design of the film. She added a depth of character that I do not believe would have been originally written into the script.
2. When I saw this movie in August, I went to a very different part of town in order to see it – it only played at two theaters. My friends and I were the only blacks in the theatre, which is not unusual for that area and that film house. And most of the post movie buzz was about Vicky and Cristina and the viewers own memories of travel when they were young, which seemed to dovetail with the themes in the movie.
I can’t speak to what Woody Allen sought to convey in this film, particularly as Cruz seemed very aware of the stereotypes being played to by all characters, which emerged in her lines. But the other characters did not show that kind of self awareness, hence me wondering if Cruz was able to exert her influence on her character outside of what was intended.
Posted 12 Nov 2008 at 10:17 am ¶
rumble wrote:
How strange was it that Vicky, a woman getting her Masters in Catalan Identity, didn’t even speak Spanish? Much less Catalan?
Posted 12 Nov 2008 at 11:12 am ¶
ieishah wrote:
@latoya
on your second point:
the weekend woody allen, with pé and javi in tow, came to premier the movie, streets were blocked. it was a huge deal. is it possible he expected catalan people to subscribe to the same preexisting notions of j-lo and watered down hemmingway that americans have? highly unlikely.
the fact remains that vc bcn featured not just the preconceptions of americans, but their inability to see their way out of them enough to say, ‘dude, that doesn’t even exist!’
i point out the details because the space between the reality and the film is even greater, even more marked than the space between reality and your preconceived notions. i’m going to go out on a limb and say this is intentional.
furthermore, i’m not convinced that woody allen’s asian problem is woody allen’s black problem is woody allen’s spanish problem . . . i’m not ready to conflate them all. i’d rather work with details.
on pé: that said, i agree that penelope cruz’s takeover by contrast wasn’t written into the script, and something she took and ran with. i don’t think woody allen stupid, but i don’t think he’s that smart either.
Posted 12 Nov 2008 at 11:38 am ¶
drispe wrote:
Bardem and Cruz are always going to be exotic entities to Hollywood, with their inescapable looks and accents. Also, let’s not forget that Vicky was petrified of a vanilla life with her uber-WASP fiance. The stereotyping here doesn’t end at race, though. Allen’s film includes broadly drawn stereotypes about artists who live impulsive and neurotic lives with unconventional relationships. Someone needs to coin an ism that applies to people’s chosen paths in life.
Posted 12 Nov 2008 at 1:29 pm ¶
Joanna Eng wrote:
Maybe I was reading further into it than Woody Allen even thought of…. But I thought the whole film was making fun of the stereotypes presented. All of the characters were caricatures, and I thought that was the point of the movie. That’s what made it ironic and funny and light-hearted, and it was enjoyable but I couldn’t be too sucked in emotionally, knowing that it was all meant to be a silly game.
Did anyone else interpret it that way?
Posted 12 Nov 2008 at 4:11 pm ¶
ieishah wrote:
@ joanna- yes. you made my point a lot more simply. i think he was making fun of what he knew were american stereotypes and misconceptions.
Posted 12 Nov 2008 at 5:19 pm ¶
Erica M. wrote:
@ Jess
“Heck, I never thought of her as Latina, but again, that’s because she is Spanish, not Mexican or Argentinian. ”
Argentines are for the most part white as 97% of Argentina is white.
Posted 12 Nov 2008 at 6:04 pm ¶
Jess wrote:
@ERica M-
Yeah, I realize that Argentina and Chile in particular are very white, but if you ask most people here the word “latina” would probably include those two as well. It isn’t a neat conflation, but none of this stuff ever is.
But again, that’s why I got into the bit about racializing language some. I’m not completely buying Latoya’s racial thesis about the movie in part because it’s in Europe, and if you replaced the whole thing with a plot in France you’d likely end up with the same thing — many of the stereotypes about women, passionate lovers, and all that jazz apply there as well.
But I’ll have to watch the thing and think about it more. I have seen enough Woody Allen to know that the guy has a real issue with non-whites in his movies — I mean, as one commenter elsewhere has pointed out it’s like Sex in the City where everybody lives in the same area of Manhattan. Christ, I live in Manhattan and if I wanted to be around whites only I couldn’t do it.
Posted 13 Nov 2008 at 9:06 am ¶
michael wrote:
Javier Bardem and Penelope Cruz are both european spaniards. In other words, they’re white, and consider themselves as such.
The entire thesis of this piece was flawed from it’s inception.
Posted 13 Nov 2008 at 9:32 pm ¶
Mieko wrote:
great review, glad i stumbled upon it.
check this out –> according to Penelope Cruz, Woody Allen’s work is extremely popular and critically acclaimed in Spain, and she has watched his movies from a young age and been a fan. apparently while he was there he had rock star status, with crowds gathering at shoots and shouting for him and Scarjo. (source-patricia clarkson interview, chuckthemovieguy)
exoticizing a culture that finds your art familiar and relatable -awkward much? – reminds of this quote ‘a writer’s job is to make the exotic familiar and the familiar exotic’ – debatable- did allen do this? or just the opposite? (kept the exotic exotic and the familiar familiar)
fun: javier bardem discusses their awareness during the making of the film of that exoticism and stereotyping, referencing bardem’s scene in a satin red shirt (around 3:07, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vd-xN2Qm-9w)
the wife thing – I think Allen’s interest in psychoanalysis and Freud is a fun way to look at this. *and what about allen’s own ethnicity, which is a major part of his work?
So if you take Keaton & farrow are examples of shiksa women (as many interpret them as) he was equally fascinated with but always felt lesser than (themes in his movies with them) and thus the source of his artistic inspiration seems to be trying to capture them, show his relationship or understanding of them because he ultimately feels he cannot hold onto them and that they will leave him (cause he’s jewish, cause he’s not macho, not a doctor, too neurotic, from brooklyn, not sexy…etc)
whereas with an asian fetish, white guys are fascinated, but ultimately feel they ‘own’ the woman, so there’s no striving to understand – a fetishizer doesn’t really want to understand, that would defeat the purpose. mystery evaporating and whatnot. an asian fetish also completely affirms the fetishizers desires and sense of entitlement to their fetishized partner, allen is tormented in his relationships with gentile women as to entitlement (he should get them because he’s not supposed to and stick it to whitey, he shouldnt get them because they’re deep down somewhere their anti semitic)
relationships in allen’s universe are strained by the protagonist’s ultimate fear that for all his wit or loveable/despicable shortcomings, he’ll never be good enough for these blonde, wasp women. this theme can’t emerge in his current relationship if he’s got an asian fetish because 1) a fetishizer cant come to grips with his own racism, that would shatter their world and the relationship and 2) allen’s writing ability is all based on his ability to self analyze. therefore – it just cannot compute.
Posted 14 Nov 2008 at 12:54 pm ¶
Latoya Peterson wrote:
@Mieko –
Thanks for adding to the discussion – and adding in the video.
exoticizing a culture that finds your art familiar and relatable -awkward much? – reminds of this quote ‘a writer’s job is to make the exotic familiar and the familiar exotic’ – debatable- did allen do this? or just the opposite? (kept the exotic exotic and the familiar familiar)
Hmm…I’m not sure. (Especially not after hearing Bardem’s take.) We often talk here about how sometimes people seeking to poke holes in stereotypes by showing how absurd they are in a very direct manner can often end up reinforcing those ideas. And much of that is due to audience perception. So I’m not sure.
I think if I had been in a theater with Ieishah I might have had a different impression of the movie – but my perception was also influenced by the discussions afterward – which are independent of Allen’s own vision. Hmm, hmm, hmm…
relationships in allen’s universe are strained by the protagonist’s ultimate fear that for all his wit or loveable/despicable shortcomings, he’ll never be good enough for these blonde, wasp women. this theme can’t emerge in his current relationship if he’s got an asian fetish because 1) a fetishizer cant come to grips with his own racism, that would shatter their world and the relationship and 2) allen’s writing ability is all based on his ability to self analyze. therefore – it just cannot compute.
Good summary of the other avoidance issue.
Posted 14 Nov 2008 at 1:20 pm ¶
mkat wrote:
Hmm, interesting point. I agree that Woody Allen’s universe is pretty limited on character types, but I guess I wouldn’t look to him for thoughtful commentary on race. To me, this was just a typical Woody Allen movie with a different backdrop. He’s been working in Europe lately because he has an easier time finding funding there than in the US, since many of his last films tanked financially. The city of Barcelona and the Catalan region were investors in the film. because it promotes the region. Anyway, to me, his films are basically hard-ons dedicated to very conventional forms of inaccessible desire – being the perfect rich person on the Upper East Side, getting the bodacious babe of the moment – which is funny considering that he’s a skinny Jewish kid from Brooklyn, one of the most diverse places in the world. On that note, I didn’t see much discussion on Jewish identity in this string… And I guess I find it strange to criticize Woody Allen’s lack of representation of women of color or other types of people without remembering that Woody Allen has only built his career by writing about Jewishness. Last I knew, Jews can be a type of persecuted people… But that is another can of worms! About not using Soon-Yi as his muse, what about the shitstorm all those years ago when she was revealed as his mistress? Don’t forget that she was Mia Farrow’s adopted daughter, which is pretty fcked up, in my opinion. His feet were held to the fire on that, and it was a huge question whether his career would ever recover. So I would not hold him to task too much on that… Perhaps Woody and Soon-Yi decided to play down their relationship, in the wake of that scandal. Or maybe she doesn’t care about acting. Who knows. In closing, look for some of Woody Allen’s books, like Without Feathers. That sht is funny and way better than his latest films. Ciao!
Posted 14 Nov 2008 at 6:40 pm ¶
wendi muse wrote:
re: the who is latino/a question, a lot of south americans don’t consider themselves latino…obvi not all, but it seems to be a moniker more typically reserved for spanish speaking countries closer to the states (i.e. central and caribbean portions of latin america)
but even then, i know mexicans who dont consider themselves latino…it seems to be almost a creation of the american imagination because we like to create categories
spaniards are most def. not latinos
they are europeans
but i think in this case, we create race through language, thus putting them in a different category…even though french is just as much a latin language as spanish or portuguese…
anyway, i saw the movie last week while here in brazil
and i thought it was light entertainment…esp because i am one of those wide-eyed americans in a foreign land (gasp). but i, too, felt that allen was poking fun at the tourist gaze of the girls visiting spain and almost found his narration and general perspective to be one of patronization, which we all need every now and then to wake up
Posted 19 Nov 2008 at 3:46 pm ¶
Joz wrote:
It never really explained why he asked for Christina’s eye color, unless I missed something in the movie. Why not just look at her eyes?
Posted 14 Feb 2009 at 10:08 pm ¶