The title of Woody Allen's new film refers to two American friends and their summer holiday in Spain. Cristina (Scarlett Johansson) convinces Vicky (Rebecca Hall) to go to Oviedo with Juan Antonio (Javier Bardem). Cristina expects great romance but Vicky is surprised to fall for him also.
Cristina ends up with Juan Antonio when Vicky returns to her fiancé, but then Juan Antonio's ex-wife, Maria Elena (Penelope Cruz) returns. Instead of splitting the new duo up, she just joins in their relationship.
This complicated romance is Johansson's third collaboration with Woody Allen. When she made "Match Point," she was still a teenager. Though the roles remain saucy, the comfort between actor and director has grown.
"I guess it's different in the sense that we know each other better now than we obviously did when we first started," said Johansson. "I think we've maintained the same ridiculous banter, entertaining each other. Certainly I feel at this point that after we've worked together, I think us working together as actors [in 'Scoop'] really solidified our working together because that's a whole other ballgame doing, first a comedy and doing a comedy with Woody. I think that strengthened our communication then. So at this point I feel like we almost have a silent communication or a shorthand between us and it's great. It's wonderful. It's so nice to work with your friends, obviously. It's more enjoyable. We always have a good time."
Now Johansson is the go-to girl for any questions her costars may have about Allen. "She's very funny about him," said Hall. "A lot of her thing with him is to treat him like a person, a normal person and I think that's the truth of it. Ultimately, it's lovely to make films with people because everyone has a common goal which is to tell the story. Whether you're Scarlett Johansson or Woody Allen or whatever, it all kind of comes down a base level of 'We're all here to do this and none of the rest of it really matters.'"
Though billed as another Woody Allen comedy, "Vicky Cristina Barcelona" plays it straight. Indeed, Penelope Cruz did not see the manic-depressive Maria Elena as humorous.
"I never saw the comedy while shooting," said Cruz. "In the back of my head I remembered that we were doing a comedy because I laughed when we were doing the script, but when I was preparing and shooting the character I completely forgot about that. I was doing a very serious drama. When I saw the movie with Cannes with an audience I was actually surprised at how much they were laughing. Woody made all of us forget that we were doing comedy and I think that's very clever of him."
Her leading man concurred. "I think Woody Allen asked us to play a drama because at the end it's a drama," said Bardem. "No? That's my opinion. I don't know if that's what he wanted to do, but I think what he does is to present these stereotypes and clichés - the American tourist, the romantic place, the Latin lover - to put it there, and then make fun of it, destroy them, and see what's behind those cliches and stereotypes, and realize that behind those labels that we all want to put on people and places and all that, there's reality. Reality comes to terms that are always shared by the same people, but by everybody, which is people in the same needs, dependence, fears, goals, and in this case, quest of trying to find out what love is. So yeah, this funny line here, this funny moment there, but in the arc of the story, you see there is kind of insanity here. There's a lot of insanity here in every character."
In "Vicky Cristina Barcelona," Allen allows characters moments to reflect on their relationships, instead of just bantering away about their funny problems. "Those are the best moments, the most fun moments, those silent moments that are captured," said Johansson. "That's what I love about watching movies, seeing those moments captured on film when the character's weakness or thoughtfulness, the silent moments, come through. That's the best time, not having to fuss around with a whole bunch of dialogue."
Hall offered a perspective on how Allen captured so much of the characters when they were not even speaking his words. "Your prep is to find the person, find the voice and all of that stuff," said Hall. "From there the rest of it is not thought about. It's totally instinctive and that's what he's responding to and picking up on. So those little things in the close-ups, you don't know what's going on. You have complete freedom to just instinctively respond to something."
The film even has some dialogue that Allen does not even understand. Juan Antonio and Maria Elena speak Spanish, so he allowed his actors to just speak their native tongue.
"First of all, I think Woody Allen likes to take the credit out of himself," said Bardem. "He doesn't like to take the credit, I think. I heard he's also saying that everything that was said in Spanish was improvised, and that's not true. Most of it was translated literally from the English that he wrote, and then of course, when you are working in your mother tongue, you put that word, and you take that other word, because you know it's going to help the line to be more understood. But you don't dare to change a Woody Allen dialogue. And in this case, the character of Maria Elena and Juan Antonio are kind of extreme at the very end. It comes from a moment where it's kind of insane, what is going on there."
With some of the English language, Johansson helped Allen soften it up from his intellectual conceptions. "It's simple and silly phrases like, 'Woody, I see that it's written here that I should say, "You look through my valise."'" Said Johansson. "He's like, 'People say valise. They say that all the time.' 'No. No, Woody. They don't. No one is going to know what I'm talking about, at least in like half of the theater.' So there are literal things like that of course and just making the dialogue your own contemporary style. Like. Obviously. Style."
Sometimes the actors went overboard with their suggestions. Cruz recalled Allen's support of her backstory. "One day I went up to him with my book of notes of the past of Maria Elena and everything that's happened to her when she was growing up and who told her that she was a genius and how that put her in this victim role and how she can't get out of it," said Cruz. "All these notes and drawings. He was still trying to be very respectful and answer my questions, but he did look at me with a half smile and say, 'But you don't need to do all this for me. Things are going very well. You don't need to do this. But if you need to do it I think it's great.' He's respectful, but he doesn't take you more or less serious depending on which method you use to work, but he gives you the freedom to use the one that you need. I love that. He never loses the humor in it. He's great."
"I guess Juan Antonio is kind of the dream of every man, no?" said Bardem. "That's a cheap thought, but what I mean is that I think that that's what he wants to play with, which is to construct the dream of not only the men, but the women. The man who goes there is very direct, free, secure about himself, whatever. Then deconstruct it. I mean, break it in pieces to see what's in there in order to break the image that we all project to the other person. From women to men, men to men. It's like, 'I would like to be him.' I guess he was talking about the fantasy of being Juan Antonio. That's why he wrote it. I don't know."
Perhaps the Spanish vibe leaked into all of the actors' performances. Hall recalled the unique attitude of the Spanish crew in Barcelona.
"One of the make-up artists who was quite maternal, I suppose, and always looked after us and was just a wonderful, wonderful woman, I remember her sitting me down on a Friday," said Hall. "It was the end of shooting and she was taking off something or cleaning my face or whatever, but she was talking to me and she said, 'That was really good work this week. You've been working really, really hard. Now, you must go out and you must laugh and dance and drink until six in the morning otherwise you'll never be ready for work on Monday.' No other place in the world has that attitude, but she was sort of right. She organized this real emphasis in Barcelona of looking after yourself is not necessarily about going to the gym and eating well and taking vitamins, but it's about having a good time and having spirit and enjoy. That's a great, great way to live your life and I think should be promoted outside of Spain."
"Vicky Cristina Barcelona" opens Friday.
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