Vicky Cristina Barcelona

N

Nazanin

New member
I watched this film yesterday, and I have to say, it's fantastic! I wasn't expecting great things, but after the Golden Globe win I thought I'd check it out to cheer myself up after an operation.

Really great story about two girls and their summer in Spain with some great performances, particularly by Penelope Cruz. I haven't been able to get the film out of my head for the past 24 hours!

I'm really looking forward to seeing this in the cinema, where I think it'll have an even bigger impact.
 
I get turned off by any film that uses a fill-in-the-gaps voice-over as a quick-and-easy exposition. (Hideous memories of the patronising voice-over in Little Children!)

Aside from that, though, I thought it was a good film. I was especially impressed by Rebecca Hall and Penelope Cruz - and can certainly see why Cruz has been gobbling up the critics' awarRAB this season. So fiery! To think this is the same actress as the one in Vanilla Sky. :eek:

The ending felt a bit cut-short, though. Open endings can be frustrating sometimes. ;)
 
I watched this on saturday night and I really enjoyed it. I wasnt expecting to like it but its a good film. I would give it 8/10
 
This is being rated highly by a lot of people. Just saw another good review of it on television by Mark Kermode. I'd like to see it.
Apparently Penelope Cruz is very good in it.
 
I saw the trailer for it on telly. Funny how they have chosen not to mention the name Woody Allen anywhere. I hear it's good and I quite like Cruz and Johansen so I'll probably try and get to see this one.
 
You can hear Woody Allen's style in the dialogue but since almost all the main characters are female it doesn't come across as a typical Woody Allen film. Strangely Penelope Cruz gets a few Allenesque lines and Rebecca Hall gets to play the repressed, neurotic New Yorker, leaving Javier Bardem to play it straight.

It's not the best Woody Allen film by a long chalk, but the locations (and Cruz) are beautiful and the story, though slight, is entertaining.
 
So did anyone watch Scoop on TV this weekend? After all the criticism I was expecting a real mess but it's not bad at all. It's much closer to old-school Allen circa Manhattan Murder Mystery than Vicky Cristina Barcelona and Scarlett Johanssen is quite good in it, but best of all there are dozens of shameless one-liners. Why didn't it get a cinema release over here?
 
Me too. What a pleasant surprise.:D

I too wasn't hopeful, but I gave it a go and found it to be a very enjoyable film.

I just don't get why there was a lot of criticism of this before, because there's been so many really terrible films much much worse than this.

I really liked it and I thought Scarlett Johansson was absolutely brilliant.
I thought it was very entertaining and one of Woody Allen's 'lighter' films with which the main purpose to serve was to simply be enjoyed.

I don't think it's supposed to be a grandiose Oscar nominated worthy film. I just think it's supposed to entertain. I think it's one of his little gems which I'm quite fond of.
I enjoy these little lighthearted crime/mysteries he sometimes makes.

I think in recent times it's become a bit of a trend to keep talking about Woody Allen's supposed 'return to form' and go for him harder than people would for much lesser films.

Maybe there's something wrong with me but I'd certainly watch this again on a rainy day when I feel like a smile.


:)
 
Saw it today. Loved it. Penelope Cruz is phenomenal, I don't know what it is he does, but it really captured my imagination :lol:

Both Scarlett and Rebecca are v good too.
 
I watched this movie about a month ago. It will be popular due to it's subject matter. I am not a fan of the term chick flick as I often really like movies that are often termed this way. However, in this instance i would have to attach the term "Chick Flick" to Vicky Cristina Barcelona.

It was an OK film with some fantastic acting and some standout moments but it is certainly not a movie that I could or want to watch a 2nd time.
 
I used to admire Woody Allen - and some of his classic films are... classics.

BUT, his recent films are almost universally dreadful, It's almost as if he's trading on his former fame and reputation to make tired, formulaic films.

Match Point and Scoop are filmic versions of an American tourist's weekend in London. Cassandra's Dream is a little better (mainly because the cast has some substance to it).

Vicky Christina Barcelona is better still - not least for getting away from London. I hated the voiceover - it was completely unneccesary - as it always is for film for adults. The acting was strong enough to lift the plot, but I wanted to see Cruz like she was in Volver - strong, protective & mad - and she didn't quite get there for me.
 
What I've found is that when somebody is very good indeed at what they do, and is highly rated, and is doing something not considered to be part of the mass mainstream, what tenRAB to happen is that they get compared to themselves, not to everything else.

So they get accused to being formulaic and retreading old ground, whilst everybody else can go ahead and be as formulaic and hackneyed as they like with no complaint.

About 90% of films are like each other, use the same tricks, tell the same stories, use the same techniques, use the same styles of production, all blend into each other. But people don't complain about it.

The same thing translates across to music as well when somebody is operating on the outskirts of mass populist culture, and isn't part of a bandwagon who are all singing from the same hymn sheet, but is yet blamed for copying themselves.
 
excellent post and well argued. If I may, I think Woody Allen is a man for whom the phrase I prefer his earlier work could have been invented. And when I saw VCB it seemed to me that he may well want to sh*g Scarjo, but putting her in a movie and having her play the slut was playing out his own fantasy a bit too far; and the tedious lumpen voice-over, and the setting it in barcelona gaudi miro with some artyfarty to legitimise it, was just killing me. They can all act, and PenCru seemed to shine despite the script. It's easy to knock, but in a year when say slumdog millionaire took storytelling and direction and unknowns great acting to a new level, I think its time to call emperors new clothes on woody allen and VCB
 
I can't believe I'm replying to someone who uses expressions like Scarjo and PenCru but I've been suspicious of Woody Allen's motives in casting attractive women since Mighty Aphrodite. In that film, not only does he dress Mira Sorvino in tight clothes that emphasise her breasts, but he gives her some of the most embarrassingly inappropriate dialogue I've heard in an ostensibly intelligent comedy drama.

Yes, Pen
 
I thought the acting was great.....however, I can't say that I was blown away with the storyline. In fact, I was a bit disappointed and found it a bit annoying and just wanted it to hurry up and end....long before the end. :o
 
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