400 Screens, 400 Blows - Picking Vicky
Filed under: Columns, 400 Screens, 400 Blows
400 Screens, 400 Blows is a weekly column that takes an in-depth look at the films playing below the radar, beneath the top ten, and on 400 screens or less.
Woody Allen's Vicky Cristina Barcelona (221 screens) has earned some good reviews, but not particularly great ones. I'm not sure many critics have really understood its significance. I think they just stayed on their usual pro- or anti-Woody Allen bandwagon and reviewed it according to how funny or not funny it was, or how Woody Allen-ish the dialogue sounded. Or worse, they brought Allen's private life into it and attacked it for its supposedly twisted sexuality. But Vicky Cristina Barcelona is a major step in the career of this tricky artist, more so than the critical darling Match Point three years ago.
One drawback to Allen's career is that he started out as a blatant comic filmmaker with films like Bananas, Sleeper and Love and Death. Then, movies like Annie Hall, Manhattan and Crimes and Misdemeanors cleverly melded comedy into dramatic situations, but the damage had been done: he was once and always "just" a comedian, forever lower on the scale than his contemporaries (Altman, Scorsese, Coppola, etc.). His other drawback is that he keeps making "Woody Allen" movies, in which the credits always look the same, the musical choices are always the same, the cinematography always looks great, and everyone talks the same. Often, but not always, the same actors appear. Who does this remind you of?
In my review of Vicky Cristina Barcelona, I compared it to the work of Yasujiro Ozu, who is perhaps the greatest of all Japanese filmmakers. Ozu is very highly revered for at least one film, Tokyo Story (1953), which routinely ranks near Citizen Kane as one of the greatest films of all time. Yet it becomes greater still the more familiar one is with Ozu's other works (to date 15 Ozu films are available on Criterion DVDs). Ozu almost always used the same opening titles, the same cinematography and editing, the same actors, the same stories and even the same titles (even fans have trouble telling the difference between Late Spring, Early Summer, Late Autumn and The End of Summer). In working through the same themes again and again, Ozu was able to plumb much deeper into them than any other filmmaker could do with a single film. While he often dealt with family issues, his ultimate conclusion was that families break up, that life is disappointing, and that there's a kind of comfort in realizing and accepting that.
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Posted at 11:16PM on Oct 9th 2008 by Serge
3. Jeff... This is one of the few smart analysis on Woody Allen I've read in months. Critics (as you said) are really predictable when it comes to analyse Allen's recent work.
In general I feel Allen is not being taken as seriously as he deserves. He is a true american artist.
Posted at 11:23PM on Oct 9th 2008 by Billyboy
4. I too couldn't believe how much current critics were willing to bring in the last 40 years (and especially the last 15-20) of Woody Allen's career and personal life into their analysis of this film. It seemed rather unfair. This was a fantastic, explorational film, it's similar thematically to his earlier films, but approached in a different way. It's surprisingly contemporary, but more of a case study of age old questions and personality types. If there were any justice, many of the actors could get Oscar consideration (I thought Rebecca Hall gave a breakout performance), but there's still some bitterness about the Soon-Yi saga. To be fair, it's a pretty damning personal issue, but his sins are not as bad as Roman Polanski, who they just gave a freaking Oscar too.
Posted at 12:26AM on Oct 10th 2008 by Ethan Stanislawski
5. Jeff,
Good stuff. I'll link to you at Good Small Films.
The Ozu connection is rarely raised, but clearly there. I'm shocked by how few people are making the Jules et Jim connection, as well.
Sadly, Allen's crowning moment of praise and critical acceptance will come posthumously. It's too fashionable to dislike him; there is too much disinformation regarding Soon-Ye Previn...
Posted at 11:21AM on Oct 10th 2008 by DW
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1. I look forward to seeing this movie simply because I have been a fan of older Woody Allen movies, with the exception of the ones he has made in the past ten years. Speaking several months back with a criticized film critic (Armand White), he noted that the emotions of filmmakers often parallel with the movies that they produce. This can be better observed by filmmakers who have been around for a number of years.
Posted at 6:59PM on Oct 9th 2008 by evan