REVISED JAN 19, 2009
Although this blog is basically a Torah commentary one, there is an "Etc." in its title, and what follows is going to be in the latter category, an interpretation of a Woody Allen film called Vicky Cristina Barcelona.
I had just been to a group viewing of this film where a discussion followed, led by an expert on film. My problem was that, IMHO, neither he nor apparently anyone else in the room understood the film, and I left with a sense of great frustration at being powerless to expound my theory of this movie in a manner more detailed than a brief comment which everyone felt free to ignore. If that sounds pompous, I'm sorry; it's just that movies are very complex when you really look at them, and there's often a lot to say.
However, I don't want to get into overly lengthy exposition, either, so, just for the record, I am going put down in very short form what I think this film is about.
In point of fact, this will be a revision of the previously existing blog on this topic because, as I often do, I've thought more about the movie, and, I think, have gained a more complete perspective on it. I'm still just sketching it out, though.
CLASS AMERICA: The Triumph of Affluence and Privilege over Lower Class Urges
The film is a fable -- told with a narrator, in story book manner -- of two privileged women who go through an odyssey in which -- as is reassuring to those of us children hearing the story who also want to grow up to live the American Dream -- they overcome weaknesses and doubts, and then carry on, wiser, stronger, and better in their rightful places as upper middle class affluents.
That they represent the affluent upper middle class life is pretty obvious. Vicky is studying Catalan art [?? forgive any spelling errors; I've not had the luxury to get involved academically with this pointedly esoteric pursuit], and Cristina, well, she's just drifting comfortably, trying to figure out what to do with her life, and, sure, a trip to Spain, that fills the bill. Her actual financial situation escapes me, right now, but the point is, she acts rich. The two of them remind me of the George Bernard Shaw character, John Tanner, in Man and Superman, who signed his name with the title abbreviation, "M.I.R.C." following, which stood for "Member of the Idle Rich Class."
But, dear children, pitfalls await in Barcelona which threaten to derail them from the life of comfort and privilege which is their birthright. Those pitfalls are the demons of this fairy tale -- artists, lovers, -- Europeans (!) -- who try to tempt our girls away from their rightful place, and drag them down into the maelstrom of things decidedly lower class, viz. passion, sex, down and dirty emotions, cynicism, doubts, free spiritism.
And, yes, agonizingly, they do succumb! Initially. Are they lost forever? Can it be? Ah, but -- to cut to the chase, -- let us remember that this is a fairy tale.
Just as monsters under the bed seem real to children, so do the infatuations experienced by Vicky and Cristina in Spain seem real to them, as they descend into this world of demons. Vicky is ready to dump her doting American upper middle class fiance because she has felt something with her demon lover of one night, Juan. She is now wracked with doubt, questioning her entire set of values. Cristina picks up the slack and moves right in with Juan.
Poor (!) Vicky and Cristina. They are like a child experiencing a terrible fever. It burns and rages within them, making them forget who they are. They descend into lower class Hell with Juan and his witch hag (though deceptively beautiful) ex-wife, Maria Elena.
Perhaps they have forgotten the goodness of their conventional lives because they have not yet been tested, and have not yet achieved that certain level of strength and maturity required. This, then, is their rite of passage.
Vicky especially is now estranged from her former life. She thinks it's a nightmare, empty, bereft of love and meaning, not suspecting that the real nightmare is her believing that her previous life was a nightmare. Sweet child, sweet angst.
Cristina is bewitched and held in a spell by the evil, fatalistic, hopeless, hapless, yet devilishly handsome and charming Juan and his hellishly manipulative, weird, suicidal, and threateningly beautiful and talented ex, Maria Elena, in a menage-a-trois which drags her down, captures her soul, as the two demons feed on her.
Ah, but dear children, don't worry. Fevers are self-limiting. They burn intensely, and then, having accomplished their task, they recede.
And so, after the fever and all the unlikely connections and dramas reach their peak, miraculously -- and, naturally, -- Vicky and Cristina spontaneously return to themselves.
As Vicky emphatically states about her suddenly former passion for Juan, "It's over." She says this convincingly, with force and finality, having attained the personal strength and growth her ordeal was designed for.
Cristina, too, having come to her senses, good girl, makes the conscious decision to leave her menage-a-trois with Juan and Maria Elena, leaving the wicked witches hissing and spitting vexedly at each other in the street, hapless and hopeless again, without their escaped victim to feed on.
And so while many who see the film may think that Vicky and Cristina end up personally where they started, nothing could be further from the truth. They have undergone an odyssey which has taken them through regions first of doubt, and then personal growth, an odyssey which has taken them to the next level, a life with less doubt, fewer monsters, and a greater strength and appreciation of normality. The circumstances they return to may be the same but they have changed internally. They have grown. They have been through the crucible of temptation and doubt, and they have emerged whole, and, thank goodness, are ready to rejoin the upper middle class.
The happy ending of the fairy tail is simply them returning to their stations in life, stations far more comfortable than the passion and pain of the artists they have left behind. Class will out, says Mr. Allen. It will trump passion and the lure of the streets. Vicky and Cristina may not have found new directions but they have returned to their senses, glad to be living a life that is far more stable and secure than to endure the uncertainty suffered by less fortunate human beings. Such is America, to the privileged. Welcome home, prodigal daughters, with your renewed allegiance to your rightful places. The temporary insanity is over. What doesn't kill you, makes you stronger.
So, remember, boys and girls, the good life is never lost. When faced with doubts, remember Vicky and Cristina, and how they overcame, and sleep tight, for all is well.
