Vicky Cristina Barcelona Analysis

Vicky Cristina Barcelona

Written & Directed by: Woody Allen

Starring: Javier Bardem, Scarlett Johansson, Penelope Cruz, Rebecca Hall

Vicky and Cristina are best friends, who visit Barcelona and they meet a painter, Juan Antonio, who finds both of them attractive. He is recently divorced, and yet he is still enamored with his ex-wife Maria Elena, who's a gifted artist. This film has a world view that there are no rules in love, and it can happen to you at anytime, with any number of people and it doesn't even have anything to do your relationship status. Woody Allen's films have had this recurring motif that love isn't something where you draw lines. It's surprising young people aren't making such films on love and it takes someone like a Woody Allen to have such radical, non-conformist world views. It's a big revelation to me by looking at Woody Allen's work that you can still have the same passion on love and art even when you are old and usually we look at old people as they are largely unimpressed by a lot of things. But the ability to get inspired by things is a testament to the passion with which you want to enjoy life.

Art is a big element in this film, almost all the characters are artists. The dialogue is brilliantly interwoven into the narrative, we don't have dialogue as a filler for the plot. The plot is revealed through dialogue, we see character arcs through dialogue and here the actions of the characters are what they say. Maria Elena's relationship with Juan is so interesting and rightly said, it isn't something you can describe easily. Juan's father is a poet and he feels that in spite of these many years of civilization, we haven't learnt to love. The most interesting thing about this film is, in very less duration Woody Allen manages to introduce them as people and even give them certain arcs. Usually films take a lot of time to establish characters and yet sometimes they feel one-dimensional. The film uses music brilliantly, to capture the milieu of the location and more than everything, it inspires us to pursue art, love and have fun in life.

Woody Allen has pursued cinema throughout his life, by making 1 film every year since more than 50 years. Imagine, a film career lasting more than half a century. We have very few people who have managed to do that, we have Manoel de Oliveira with a career lasting 86 years. Woody Allen stuck to the kind of films he makes, occasionally he experimented but largely he does what only he can do, he makes films which are often an extension of his personality. He says that he finds a lot of time, apart from doing 1 film a year. He also plays music in a band. It's inspiring that he has same passion on life and art even at this age and that's the goal, I guess.