Vicky Cristina Barcelona

Vicky Cristina Barcelona

‘Vicky Cristina Barcelona’ is a romantic drama directed by Woody Allen, starring Rebecca hall and Scarlett Johansson. The film is the tale of two Friends with clashing personalities that escape from their normal life and head for Barcelona. Once there an exotic painter comes into place along with his crazy ex-wife. The themes that are shown in this film are love, friendship, betrayal, art, lies, and money. The director uses different techniques to tell this story through mise-en-scene, cinematography, sound and editing, also adding to the effect and impact of this film.

Sound is used in this film to tell a story and construct meaning especially through the narrative, where by parts of the story are explained through a background voice of someone we do not know and isn’t related to the story of the film. This creates an effect on the audience where they take a step back from the film and don’t get as engaged as they usually would to therefore appreciate the plot of the film and specific details that occur. Sound is also used in the film to express characters emotions through the use of specific music for example on Juan and Vicky’s date there was the traditional Spanish acoustic guitar playing in the background to show that there is romance between the two.

Mise-en-scene is used in this film to construct meaning and tell a story in many ways. For example the prop of the pistol used at the end of the film to symbolise why that three way relationship between Juan, Cristina and Maria was so important in stabilizing Maria. The gun represents Cristina destroying what the couple had by leaving them. The Gun is also used to show the vast contrast between Vicky and Juan and explains to the audience why they are not meant to be together. Also the use of art shown in the frames of the film also tells a story and constructs meaning as we see from whoever painted it what they are internally feeling at the time. For example when Maria was painting before the threes relationship, we could see from the stroke of her brush and the look of the painting that she was very angry and tense, showing us that she therefore didn’t like the relationship between Juan and Cristina. Also the costume is also used to construct meaning and crate characters, for example Juan’s red shirt symbolises his fiery, foreign personality giving us an insight as to what might happen.

Editing is also used to construct meaning and tell the story in this film. For example right at the beginning of the film with the two lines of action between the two girls on the phone, both on their way to the airport. This use of editing instantly gave the audience the idea that these two girls are completely different, one liking to explore and live and the other wanting to settle down.

Cinematography is also used in many ways, for example  with the shots through Cristinas camera we get a true understanding of what photos she’s actually taking and how good she is at it. also the high angled shot of Maria taken from upstairs, while she is painting gives us a sense of empathy as we feel how she feels like Juan and Cristina are looking down on her after she tried to kill herself.