Four Lovers and a Festival

A Warm Welcome for Woody in Cannes

18.05.08 / Last night’s premiere of Vicky Cristina Barcelona met with a standing ovation that wouldn’t stop, and a lot of those cheers were for Woody Allen. Cannes has a lot of love for Woody (so much that nobody seems to have noticed that one of the stars of his new film, Scarlett Johansson, decided at the last minute not to show up). And Woody seems to feel the same about Cannes. While celebrities of his stature are usually more comfortable somewhere above and away from the festival fray, the 72-year-old director and his family have been staying in middle of everything at the Carlton. He seems to be enjoying his stay, and why shouldn’t he? Vicky Cristina Barcelona has pleased the crowds and the critics, and – after filming his last four movies in Europe – Woody has made a sort of homecoming, having begun shooting his newest project back in his native New York.Helping Woody have fun in Cannes are Vicky’s other main stars, Javier Bardem, Penelope Cruz and Rebecca Hall, who along with Johnansson make up the film’s love-confounded foursome. The film tells the story of two wholesome American girls, Vicky (Hall) and Cristina (Johannsson), who come to Barcelona and get mixed-up with an amorous artist (Bardem) and his dangerous ex-wife (Cruz). It’s a lot of fun to watch. Bardem is sure to regain his sex-symbol status, which had been dealt a potentially lethal blow by the demented serial-killer haircut he sported in No Country for Old Men. The pre-release buzz has been (understandably) all about the threesome action between Bardem, Cruz and Johannsson.Without giving too much away, we can say that Vicky Cristina Barcelona features one of the hottest love scenes ever to be cut short by a bout of food poisoning. — R.K.