DAY 3 – CANNES 2008 – VICKI CRISTINA BARCELONA

(BY ALI NADERZAD) The film everyone wanted to see today Friday was le nouveau Woody Allen. Journalists and cinephiles lined up patiently for a seat inside the Debussy and later Bazin theatres. How to qualify this new film by the director whom the French revere so much? A trifle that entertains for an hour a half, a spicy romance that develops between Vicki (Rebecca Hall) and Cristina (Scarlett Johansson) and Juan Gonzalo (Javier Bardem) and which courts laughs amany. Allen has lost touch of what an audience is supposed to do, apparently. With Vicki Cristina Barcelona it seems he underestimates it, too. How can he think that the banalities surrounding a menage a trois, albeit set against the very luscious backdrop of Barcelona, can maintain his public’s attention for ninety minutes? Yes, there were laughs to be had but the audience can only learn to do so many new tricks. And although the crowd gathered tonight inside the Bazin theatre sounded like it was having a roaring good time of it, something tells me that by tomorrow, the smoke and the mirror will have started fading away into the past. I will not be precious and say that after this I will return to New York to watch Annie Hall and weep, but Allen would do well to lower his output a little, leave sightseeing for his private life and consider once again what the audience is desirous of.