Blue Jasmine Analysis

Blue Jasmine (2013)

Written & Directed by: Woody Allen

Cate Blanchett Won the Oscar for Best Actress, Nominated for Best Original Screenplay.

Woody Allen's films manage to flesh out multiple characters in such a short time span, we usually rave about films which even have one character which is written well. This film and in Hannah and her Sisters too; we see four characters and we know a lot about them from the third scene in which they appear. In this film, he does that through contradicitons - the characters contradict with what they say and stand for multiple times that it makes them more human. The other couple in this film, played by Sally Hawkins and Bobby Cannavale - they break up and fight madly in the previous scene and in the next scene after we see what Jasmine goes through, we see that they're cuddling. Jasmine is a woman who wants to be passionate about something, who wants to be productive, who wants to work hard and get tired by the end of the day to get some sleep - but she just can't. It is one of the best characters I've seen in film. She wants to learn interior designing, as she is told by a friend that she could be good at it and since she wants to do that course from home - she first enrols in a Computers class to be good with technology. That makes no sense, but that's that I guess. This story is set across two timelines and they seamlessly cut to here and there; when we see how her son has ended up and what she has turned into by the ending - it feels tragic. She is at a stage where, she doesn't have money but she can't afford to cut down her costs as well because she associates her lifestyle to her self-worth. She is broke; but how could she not travel in 1st class. I'd say it's a dark film if you get deep into her state of mind, Woody Allen talks about such dark subjects and doesn't even make us realize about it. He wraps all of his intellect under the disguise of the rom-com genre; but he is talking about way more things that relationships. The cinematography and editing, are similar to his other films in the 2010s - these are just invisible. 

When the men initially approach Jasmine and Ginger when they're sitting at a restaurant, Ginger's friend comes and forcefully kisses Jasmine on the cheeks. This scene resembled the scene in Vicky Cristina Barcelona where Juan Antonio hits on Vicky and Cristina and one of them is totally into him and the other is repulsive - but the repulsive one ends up hooking with him earlier. I was wondering if something like that would happen here too; but I'm always in awe of Woody Allen - he writes and directs one film every year - most of his films are 90-100 mins long and yet we see easily 3-4 characters in every film who we can't forget. I will take one of his scripts and break it down and try to figure out what he does, but I'm sure it won't be that easy to understand his magic. Watching his work, studying and analyzing his work should be equivalent to a film course, for the volume of work he has put out.