AFP
Press Conference: “Vicky Cristina Barcelona”
Woody Allen was back in Cannes today with the out-of-competition screening of "Vicky Cristina Barcelona".
Woody Allen was back in Cannes today with the out-of-competition screening of Vicky Cristina Barcelona. Present with the director at the press conference were actresses Rebecca Hall and Penelope Cruz. Unfortunately, Scarlett Johansson could not be in Cannes because of scheduling conflicts, and Javier Bardem for personal family reasons. Highlights follow.
Penelope Cruz on using both Spanish and English in this film:
“We have to go back forth from Spanish to English, because Javier’s character constantly gets mad at me for not speaking English in front of people who only speak English and are living with us in the house, so I love that Woody gave us that freedom to go back and forth in both languages and improvise. But in English I was too afraid of changing anything; you don’t change a Woody Allen line!”
When asked if living a threesome had always been one of his fantasies, Woody Allen answered, “You know it’s hard enough to get one person… When trying to figure out solutions in life, two tends to make it more complicated than one, so the characters in this movie, the chemistry was right and they were able to handle this situation. In real life most people could not survive that kind of situation in any serious way. In a film you can do it because I’m dealing with larger-than-life characters.”
Woody Allen on why Barcelona:
“Really because people from Barcelona called and asked me if I would be interested in making a film there. They would finance it. I said, ‘Sure.’ I love Spain; I love Barcelona…so I wrote something I could shoot in Barcelona.”
The actresses on their characters:
Rebecca Hall:
“I suppose it is interesting to start a part from the perspective of a stereotype or a perceived type of person and then find what is stereotypical about it – the complete opposite, the antithesis – and that’s what interested me about her. I think Woody writes ambivalent like that quite well.”
Penelope Cruz:
“When I read the script, I laughed a lot, but then when I started to prepare, I only saw the drama. I was getting more and more into her head and all this darkness and all this pain. I forgot I laughed when I read it and I think that has to happen. So later when I saw the movie, those things made me laugh and I felt the same way I felt when I read it. But Woody made me completely forget about that when we were shooting… He’s so respectful to all the ways an actor can have to work. I’m grateful that he pushed me in that direction, because a lot of the comedy in those scenes has to bring that chaos. As an actor, I have to be not aware of that and he made me not be aware of the comedy thing. That can only happen when your director is a genius. He makes you do things without you even realizing it. .”
Woody Allen on why he made this film so romantic:
“I made it romantic because I wanted the tragic part to sneak up on you. I wanted you to enjoy a romantic story and see a romance between people and I wanted some laughs in the movie too, but at the end of the movie, I wanted a feeling of rueful sadness…I didn’t want to make it out and out tragic, but tragic in a more subtle way.”
