The Circuit

by John Hopewell
Woody Allen has such a sad quavering voice that it’s only when you got up close to him at San Sebastian - in other words, saw him on TV - that you could see that he actually looked rather happy.

He should have been. While his first British pic got the bird from many U.K. crix, Spanish reviewers were largely happy for Allen in “Vicky Cristina Barcelona” to set up stereotypes of Spanish character - such as Javier Bardem’s macho, passionate paint-flinging painter - and then show the humanity behind the facade.

The festival audience also thought the ignorance of Spain shown by American tourists Vicky (Rebecca Hall) and Cristina (Scarlett Johansson) -- "they’d never heard of Oviedo!"*  -- was a hoot.

Pic got good reviews: “Some genius (and ingenious) touches,” glowed daily newspaper El Pais.

And at his press conference Allen delivered, making the kind of bathetic off-the-cuff retort without which no Allen appearance would be complete:

Enthusiastic U.S. journalist: “I’m from New York and I live in Oviedo. I live near the statue that has been erected there in your honor. So every time I go to the news stand I have a chance to see you. And I just wanted to mention that your monument is the most visited monument of any monument in Oviedo.

Allen: Is that by pigeons or people?

* Oviedo is the capital of Asturias, a lush rural region in Northern Spain. Read Variety’s Asturias Spotlight here.


The Variety España team is on the ground in Spain, bringing regular dispatches throughout the San Sebastian Film Festival.