Barcelona (1994)

User Rating:

6.6/10   

Director:

Whit Stillman

Writer:

Whit Stillman (writer)

Release Date:

29 July 1994 (USA)

Genre:

Comedy | Drama | Romance

Tagline:

Americans. Anti Americans. In Love

Plot:

Ted, a stuffy white guy from Illinois working in sales for the Barcelona office of a US corporation...

Plot Keywords:

US Navy | Ménage À Trois | CIA | 1980s | Coma

Awards:

1 win

Cast

Taylor Nichols	...	Ted Boynton
Chris Eigeman	...	Fred Boynton
Tushka Bergen	...	Montserrat Raventos
Mira Sorvino	...	Marta Ferrer
Pep Munné	...	Ramone
Hellena Schmied	...	Greta
Núria Badia	...	Aurora Boval
Thomas Gibson	...	Dickie Taylor
Jack Gilpin	...	The Consul
Pere Ponce	...	Young doctor
Laura López	...	Nuria (Ted's assistant)
Francis Creighton	...	Frank Robinson
Edmon Roch	...	Javier
Diana Sassen	...	Woman (shootings in America)
Àngels Bassas	...	Woman (jazz)

Runtime:

101 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English | Spanish

Color:

Color (Technicolor)

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Sound Mix:

Dolby

Certification:

Australia:M | Singapore:NC-16 | Argentina:13 | Spain:7 | UK:12 | USA:PG-13 | Iceland:L

Filming Locations:

Barcelona, Cataluña, Spain

Company:

Castle Rock Entertainment

Quotes:

Fred: Maybe you can clarify something for me. Since I've been, you know, waiting for the fleet to show up, I've read a lot, and...
Ted: Really?
Fred: And one of the things that keeps popping up is this about "subtext." Plays, novels, songs - they all have a "subtext," which I take to mean a hidden message or import of some kind. So subtext we know. But what do you call the message or meaning that's right there on the surface, completely open and obvious? They never talk about that. What do you call what's above the subtext?
[...]

Movie Connections:

Referenced in "Seinfeld: The Secretary (#6.9)" (1994)

Soundtrack:

Everybody Limbo

Charming

This very unusual movie exudes such charm and creates a great well of sympathy for its anxious and innocent central characters.

They find themselves throughout in worlds they find alien - a world of puerile anti-Americanism, of foreign women, and either commercial sales or the Navy ("well, you were ROTC, weren't you?" said disparagingly to a former bond trader now Navy officer).

The movie is very funny, the main American characters very likeable, naive, impressionable and voluble, the Spanish male character and several of the Spanish female characters, enjoyably detestable in every way.

There were two things I particularly enjoyed. First, every American who has lived in Europe for any period of time will find the movie rings all kinds of bells of memory - the woeful ignorance but insufferable patronizing tone of Europeans discoursing on American history and politics (e.g., the whole discourse on the "terrible union AFL-CIA that subverted democratic movements in Europe" is a hoot). Many young Europeans have exhibited since the War such an astonishing combination of ignorance, facile categorization and jealousy toward American life, history and policy that the American finds himself suddenly overwhelmed by both uninformed European prejudice and an astonishing unwillingness to be educated about a country that Americans obviously know far better than the lecturers. This movie is almost a tribute to that suffering.

Second, this movie is a nice antidote to the usual pedestal-placing of women, particularly foreign women, as the pawns of men. In this, the women are FAR more predatory and exhibit a deceit that is commonplace in most movies about male wolfishness. It's nice to see the tables turned.

The movie is also quite good on the relationship between two young Chicago men - and the way in which their lives as children affect their continuing view of each other - and how that changes.

The movie is off-beat, and has a peculiar pace. Do pay attention because there are about 5 female characters who are easy to confuse. Do see it- you'll enjoy it. (Oh, and in contradiction to the reviewer below, I think it quite normal, though funny, for a man to happen to speak - even though still in bed - to a girlfriend about his worry that he may be shaving the wrong way).