Woody Allen's preference for New York is well known, and his preference for Europe is no less, but there are clear differences between the two. To New York is like to a wife, to praise frankly and straightly; to Europe, like to a lover who cannot be asked for, to praise quietly, obscurely. This gave me the illusion that whenever Europe was mentioned, the old man was inferior and ashamed.
This time, I want to talk about the old man's "Midnight Barcelona", "Midnight Paris", "Love in Rome" these three movies, from the name can be directly seen that the story takes place in Europe, such an obvious setting, I believe that the old man is definitely not just for the sake of telling stories, there must be his complex in it.
Let's start with Midnight in Barcelona, the oldest of the three films and the first Woody Allen movie I've seen, and the old man's exploration of love patterns has left my mind in a mess.
The film begins with a slowly unfolding street graffiti that looks like this, with a large area of color contrast and collision.
With the presence of a director known for his tone and composition, I dare not say that Woody Allen has any obvious personal characteristics in the picture, but this work, you can feel that the old man has worked hard in this regard, and every scene is the texture of the oil painting, and the smooth mineral feeling throughout.
The story takes place in a summer, summer vacation, two American girls go on vacation in Barcelona, one is the bride-to-be Vichy who is about to get a master's degree, and the other is Christina, an "unemployed nomad" who is pursuing the true meaning of love. The two are good friends and share the same views on many issues, but only have a very different attitude towards love.
After arriving in Barcelona, the two went to Vicky's relatives' house, the hostess Judy, and the hostess Mark. At lunchtime, everyone chatted, and Mark asked what the girls did, and asked Christina, who mentioned the theme of a "movie" she was making: why love is elusive. Thank you guy for telling the audience the theme so directly!
Here is an interjection, from the dialogue can feel that Mark for the "profession" is too real, he said several times "so what can be used for", first to give everyone a wake-up call, we will also talk about him later.
A few days later, Mark and Judy took Vicky and Christina to the gallery to see the exhibition, and it was in this artistic place that our male protagonist Juan appeared. Scarlet loose shirt, lazily leaning on a pillar, lonely, not so gregarious, eyes sweeping around as if on a hunt, giving the impression of mystery seductive but dangerous.
Listen to the other people's people, he is indeed the number one dangerous person, and Christina, who pursues excitement and courage to take risks, has clearly been attracted.
Coming out of the gallery, Vicky and Christina go to dinner at a restaurant, where they run into Juan again. Juan came forward to talk, invited the two to Oviedo for the weekend, and bluntly expressed some of his thoughts on other aspects.
After hearing this, Vichy and Christina reacted completely differently. Christina playfully asks where Oviedo is; Vicky is clearly offended by these words and organizes a long series of logical and thoughtful language to fight back.
Juan further expressed his views, making some novel points. Christina was undoubtedly fascinated by the man's uniqueness, expressing her willingness to spend the weekend in Oviedo, and answering Juan's previous inquiry about the color of her eyes, which was very provocative.
After Juan left, Vichy and Christina had a conversation about Juan's views on the person and this invitation, and the two people's attitudes towards love were really vivid.
At this time, Vicky's fiancé Doug called, pay attention to Vicky's current expression and tone, it is sweet and happy, this will be mentioned again later.
After the three of them came to Oviedo, all they had to do every day was to keep admiring the city. There are so many small towns in Barcelona, as a director, Woody Allen chose this one for his own work, arranging such a trip for his protagonist, we temporarily believe that Woody Allen has a special feeling for it, as for what it is, the space we imagine is really not limited!
In the course of the tour, the director has the privilege of using a large number of scenes to show the audience the miniature of Barcelona in his heart, and does not have to focus on the protagonists at all times. Let's take a look at the old man's view of the town of Oviedo.
There are also Javier Baden and Scarlett Johansson in the eyes of the old man.
At this point in the story, Woody Allen arranges an unexpected plot: Christina, who has always been attracted to Juan, has to stay in the hotel to rest because of a stomach ulcer, and Vichy, who has always been disgusted with Juan, spends the rest of the day accompanied by him. The two visit Juan's poet father together, and the car pulls into a small courtyard that has appeared many times in Woody Allen's works, such as "Magic Moonlight" and "The End of the Race", and he has also said that he likes the manor, and even arranged for the appearance of traditional Chinese gardens in the 2017 movie "Ferris Wheel".
Juan and Vichy talked about their father, but wrote poems but refused to publish them, because of their disdain for the world and their disdain for the world. From this, the theme of the film, "love", is mentioned. It was juan's father's paranoia, and it was also a paranoia of Woody Allen.
This film can be seen as a kind of assumption and exploration of the old man's mode of love together, and he repeatedly said things like "missing a certain element" and "something missing" in the film. Juan is aware of this too and is also exploring, and he finds Vichy and Christina. In the conversation, he did not hide or deny that he still had a fiery love for his ex-wife, but the two just couldn't be together because something was missing from their relationship.
After getting to know Juan, Vicky also became obsessed with the romantic man, and at this time her attitude towards her fiancé also changed. In the evening, the two of them had dinner together, and Doug called again, and we mentioned that Vicky answered the phone once before, and Vicky's attitude here was just in contrast to the previous one.
Vichy didn't tell Christina what had happened that night with Juan. On the way back to Barcelona, Vichy is distraught, and Christina apologizes excitedly for thinking she's swept away. I have to say that in the works of the old master, not only do you see his shadow in the male characters, but also the female characters. At this time, Scarlett Johansson was simply possessed by Woody Allen.
The night in the small town of Oviedo was also an attempt by Vicky, and she chose to continue to wait for the marriage with her fiancé after this attempt, which had always been very rational. She didn't dare to take risks, she knew that the life that was coming after marriage was what she had been yearning for before the past weekend, and she was afraid that the change made by a little stimulation would make her lose everything. So Vichy and her fiancé Doug married in Barcelona, and Christina moved in with Juan and began to run a formal relationship.
Christina loves her days with crazy and passionate artists, and here's a voiceover about her, from which we can glimpse Woody Allen's views on the "American" group, the innate sense of superiority of Europeans, and the way of life that she aspires to.
It was then that Elena, who could not be with Juan because of the lack of some element, returned, a sexy and beautiful talented painter who played Elena as Penelope Cruz. (She's a special thing!) When I first watched this movie, I didn't know Scarlett Johansson's click, and before Penelope came out, I couldn't feel who Vichy and Christina were, until she appeared, and the powerful aura made me think she was the heroine! ）
The three of them began to live together, at first Christina was very concerned about Elena's intervention, slowly she watched Elena's creation, heard that Elena played the piano level enough to open concerts, knew her artistic talent in many aspects, and was a little ashamed of herself. At a picnic, she expressed her shame in a stoic way, which seemed to be the regret in the heart of the old man.
After listening to Christina's heartfelt words, Elena told her not to be presumptuous and encouraged her to continue photography, saying that she was very talented in photography. The next day, the two took to the street together to take pictures, here is a clip of Elena modeling for Christina, once again exclaiming: Penelope is really so delicious!
Christina seems to have found inspiration and intends to focus on photography, and Elena and Juan built a darkroom for Christina to use to develop photos. It was in this darkroom that the love between Elena and Christina naturally sprouted. For a long time after that, the three lived harmoniously together, Juan and Elena found the missing element, and Christina found the thrill she had been seeking.
Christina is proud of the perfect relationship between the three of them, and when she talks about the relationship with the Vicky couple who have returned from their honeymoon, there is no lack of maverick and unusual superiority in her expression.
So far, the characters in the film have found a perfect life pattern as they wish, and everyone seems to be happy. But the old man was not willing to stop like this.
Soon, Christina is swept away by the sense of slack after being stimulated, and proposes to Juan and Elena to end the relationship, and the relationship between the two is also broken by the lack of elements again.
Vicky found Mark's wife Judy and her husband's client cheating at a party, and afterwards Judy asked Vichy to go out for coffee, remembering that we said we would talk about Mark again, this is it. Judy tells Vicky that she is not betraying Mark, but that she has long lost her passion for Mark, and she sees a shadow of Mark in Vicky's husband, Doug, who is boring and dull, and always pragmatic. This is also evident from Mark's obsession with "what the hell can be used for" when they first met.
After exchanging hearts with each other, Vichy tells Judy about the entanglement between herself and Juan. Judy was very excited when she heard this, and she encouraged Vicky to pursue it bravely, otherwise she would regret it when she reached the same age as her. Sympathy and pity for Judy became Vicky's motivation to contact Juan again, and in Juan's house, reason and emotion confused her. At this time, the crazy Elena appears with a gun, and the argument hurts Vichy. Vichy couldn't bear it any longer, and with her anger at her own ape, anger at Juan, shame on her husband, and helplessness about her current chaotic life, she roared!
In the end, it all came to an end, everyone's attempts were fruitless, and everyone returned to the original pattern.