Barcelona (1994)

Save pure voyeurism, it's difficult to see the entertainment value in a film which simply portrays the pedestrian, sublunary vicissitudes of ordinary people who are probably less interesting than ourselves. "Barcelona", a journeyman light comedy/drama indie, features postcard shots of the title city, a bevy of babes, and two pretty ordinary guys who just banter incessantly about the most uninteresting stuff. Flawed and with plotholes aplenty, "Barcelona" is a film in need of a story and fails to distinguish itself in any significant way. Passable, forgettable stuff though the auteur may be a work in progress with potential.

Fmovies: This film is shallow because we never really get to know any of the characters very well. Out of the blue, they say whatever dumb thing is on their mind and we are supposed to think it is so clever. The dialogue is very "preppy", not real speech that normal human beings engage in. A man does not discuss his shaving habits with the girl he has just had sex with. Toward the end of the film, we are supposed to think it is so clever that we can enjoy the shaving joke again because an American government official comments on it.

As for the women in the film, we really get no insight at all. They are just tools for these shallow nerdy men to bounce off of. For men so fascinated by women, you would think that there would be more depth in the relationships that we are watching. This is not to be. What is so fascinating about these shallow men that would attract all these women?

There is no real interaction with the American characters and the fabulous city they are in. They might as well be meeting in Siberia rather than Spain. All through this film, one never gets the feeling that I care about these people. In fact, I was delighted when the so-called anti-American shoots the one guy. At least, there was a little drama at last.

Do yourself a favor and avoid this film at all cost.

Okay, the good stuff first.

1) Pretty location, although we don't get to see very much of it. In an early scene, the two characters (the rest are just extras) go on a car tour of Barcelona, but except for the first stop, all we ever get to see is their blank faces inside the car. Talk is cheap; film is expensive.

2) Beautiful young women, several of them, but they are never given any significant dialogue, nor are they actually called upon to act. They walk on. They walk off. Occasionally one or another of them hops into the sack with one or the other cousin, pretty much interchangeably, and with no discernible passion or emotion. Not their fault, of course. It's the director, stupid, who evidently thinks of women the same way as did a lascivious architect I worked for in the 1960s -- as part of the decor.

And that was the good stuff.

This piece of work would have failed as the pilot for a sitcom. The whole thing is a running bicker between two snappish, immature, American preppie cousins. To borrow a line from Dorothy Parker, their performances "ran the whole gamut of emotions from A to B." I knew (and loathed) guys like this in college, full of their vanity, their boarding school repartee, their shallow ignorance of the world, and their cool disdain for the people -- especially the women -- who tried to care about them. I suppose one should not blame the actors, since presumably they were delivering the performances the director asked for, while said director clearly was not busy offering guidance to any of the other performers. Yes, sadly, these two characters are somewhat realistic, but puerile poseurs are no fun to watch, either on or off the screen. 4/10

Barcelona fmovies. This movie is hilarious. I have seen it at least a dozen times and I still crack up repeatedly. Stillman managed to give a glimpse of his genius in "Metropolitan", and he failed badly in the subsequent "Last Days of Disco" (that was a lazy effort with a few hilarious joking references to the two previous movies, but it's a huge disappointment), but this time he hits the right tone. The story is about two cousins in Barcelona one summer, and the text of the movie is entertaining enough, but what is wonderful is the way he steps back and shows the absurdity of these characters while still allowing you to have some affection for them. The final scene in the movie where the two cousins and a friend stare out over the lake in fatuous contentment is sheer perfection.

I have not looked at this movie in over a year, yet it is still so fond to my recollection...that I have to stop here and share my thoughts.

First, this is a genuinely warm film and some of the sunniness of the setting, I think, permeates the mood it creates and the feeling that is left with the viewer. And this is despite the sterility of Ted Boynton's work and the comparable hollowness of his sales "ethos." I know what people say about Whit Stillman's films (ie. that they are peopled with talking heads and not much feeling is generated)....but this is absolutely NOT the case with BARCELONA. In spite of Ted Boynton's pragmatic and brainy approach to life, he is still shown the value of love and life...and learns some of the humility he has been so sorely lacking. It has to do, also, with his consciousness of being a foreigner: he has lowered his expectations to the point where the slightest display of kindness (by Montserrat and her friends) is a revelation to him. I think anyone wanting to work abroad should see this film first!

There is much to admire in here: the crispness of Stillman's dialogue, the excellent performance by Taylor Nichols and his comic, verbally-sparring, exchanges with Chris Eigeman. It teaches us to never lose our wonder and become complacent when becoming established in a foreign country. It offers a lesson to intellectuals and would-be intellectuals everywhere that there is still plenty to be learned where the human heart is concerned. I liked this movie a lot and rate it as Stillman's clearest and most entertaining work to date.

Back when I wasn't really into buying films on video, I bought this one. The humor is subtle, understated, ironic, and tremendously well-written. It is just ending as I write this. Every time I see it I notice a few more things that make me laugh. None of it is the shocking, laugh-out-loud style of humor, but there are several intellectual chuckles.

For some people, it will seem too intellectual and therefore it will strike them as pretentious. That is not a criticism at all, only a warning. I don't find it pretentious at all.

The best part is the interesting characters. They are written as complete, well-developed people who have wildly different outlooks on Spain-U.S. relations. While Whit Stillman does a great job of analyzing these relations, the central focus of the movie is how these characters relate to each other in the arena of these larger ethnic relations.

I firmly believe that anyone who enjoys dialogue-driven, non-action-oriented films will love this one. I gave it a "10."