Woody Allen is my idol; I love his work and I know more about him than any other filmmaker, though there are plenty of directors I think are better. His 43rd film as a director is Vicky Cristina Barcelona; we saw it yesterday at Bay Street, where they had some difficulty projecting it correctly but eventually figured it out. It should not have been such a challenge to frame it up, but anyway.
I am pleased to report that it's his best work in ten years, surpassing Match Point, and certainly blowing away everything (and Anything) else he's done since at least Sweet and Lowdown. Apart from that film's brilliant performances and lush design, I find its structure lacking; VCB is probably better overall, in its breezy, romantic good humor and consistency. Not that this kind of ranking is particularly meaningful except for Woodyphiles like myself but, knowing his work as I do, I automatically try to fit each new film into the oeuvre.
Even his low points, and there have been many in the last couple decades (in my opinion, his last great film was Husbands and Wives in 1992), have some interest for me as I see him shuffling and reshuffling his deck of conceits, jokes, characters, tics, locations, traits, situations, themes and conversations with each film. In VCB he pulls a pretty good hand, with fine, sexy performances, consistent humor throughout, light, deft direction and the inspiration of a luminous new setting.
And I enjoyed this piece, from the New York Times, very much. Classic stuff.
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