Great Character: Maria Elena (“Vicky Cristina Barcelona”)
In November, guest columnist Jason Cuthbert looks at five significant female characters in Woody Allen movies. Today: Maria Elena in the 2008 comedy Vicky Cristina Barcelona, written and directed by Woody Allen.
“Summer Love” is that unexpected romance that occurs during that heated season while traveling abroad; filled with the passionate urgency of a temporary visit that will inevitability bring the sensual excitement to a close. Screenwriter/director/apparently immortal filmmaker Woody Allen released his version of this summer holiday affair with Vicky Cristina Barcelona in 2008, featuring three lady lovers and one super lucky man. Rebecca Hall and Scarlett Johansson filled the bill as the Vicky and Cristina portion of Vicky Cristina Barcelona that Javier Bardem’s artistic bachelor Juan Antonio enjoys immensely during their July-August trip to Spain. But the “Barcelona” portion of Woody’s complex romance belongs to Penélope Cruz’s character Maria Elena, the spicy Spanish ex-wife Juan Antonio seems destined to remain connected to — whether he wants to or not.
Vicky Cristina Barcelona from IMDB:
Two girlfriends on a summer holiday in Spain become enamored with the same painter, unaware that his ex-wife, with whom he has a tempestuous relationship, is about to re-enter the picture.
The vivacious actress Penélope Cruz has been nominated for an Academy Award for both Volver and Nine. But it was Woody Allen’s alluring roles for women that garnered Cruz her first Oscar win for the explosive emotional elevator her character Maria Elena travels up and down on in Vicky Cristina Barcelona. Couple this prestigious achievement with the fact that Maria Elena doesn’t show up until the last 43 minutes of the film and you have even more of a celebratory performance.
Maria Elena’s impact hovers over the mystic eroticism that circulates around Juan Antonio during his simultaneous courtship of both Vicky and Cristina. Although he has the gusto to openly pursue these internationally traveling friends with full disclosure and transparency, it is his past with Maria Elena that becomes the frequent topic of conversation. Even after a blade-yielding break-up and a tumultuous divorce, Maria Elena remotely has her influential fingernails entrenched in Juan Antonio’s heart.
MARIA ELENA: You’re still searching for me in every woman.
JUAN ANTONIO: That is not true, Maria Elena. I was in Oviedo some weeks ago with a woman who was the antithesis of you. An American, and something beautiful happened with her. So you’re mistaken.
MARIA ELENA: You’ll always seek to duplicate what we had. You know it.
This puts Cristina in a lurch, considering she now is living with Juan Antonio and her buddy pal Vicky has already reached sexually outside of her own engagement to her fiancé Doug, and is debating a further pursuit of Juan Antonio. But even after a recent attempted suicide, it is Maria Elena that gets Juan Antonio out of bed with Cristina and into a new living arrangement with him and his live-in lover.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M0MG7pMpX9s
There is much more than just complicated reminiscing going on as Maria Elena utilizes Juan Antonio’s sympathy for an opportunity to rekindle the fire between them. After being told she was a genius in art school, Maria Elena has clung onto this uplifting observation and turned it into a literal revelation. Maria Elena waves her supposed genius around like it was the flag to her own private island. She feels validated by vicariously living her creative dreams through Juan Antonio’s more established success.
CRISTINA: Do you paint also?
MARIA ELENA: Ask him. Ask him. He stole everything from me, his whole style.
JUAN ANTONIO: She likes to make up these stores.
MARIA ELENA: Antonio, your whole way of seeing is mine.
Maria Elena isn’t just Juan Antonio’s ex-wife and artistic muse, but she is also his overprotective bodyguard. Is her mistrust of Cristina simply the rational doubt of a stranger’s honesty or the disruptive ploy of jealousy? Frankly speaking, it all depends on what kind of mood Maria Elena is in.
MARIA ELENA: Who knew what I would find there? How could I be sure you were not going to hurt me? After all, I had thoughts of killing you.
Ironically, it is Cristina’s departure from their Three’s Company domestic unit that seems to enrage Maria Elena the most. After sharing her love, her lover, her advice and her wounded heart with Cristina, she is suddenly abandoned. Maria Elena’s infuriated reaction opens up some insight into her erratic state. No longer can she be reduced to negative generalizations like “selfish,” “insane,” “needy” and “unrealistic.” The adjective “traumatized” can enter the conversation. Her fear of rejection has expanded beyond her ex-husband, and it is crippling her inside and out.
http://static.movieclips.com/embedplayer.swf?shortid=7j2mz
For her red-hot passion, her influential magnetism and her unpredictable psychological complexity — Maria Elena is another of Woody Allen’s GREAT CHARACTER concoctions.
Maria Elena is a Trickster, caught up in her own personal melodrama, an ally this minute, an enemy the next. the combustible nature of her personality as well as they strength of her emotions make her a fascinating subject.
Thanks once again to Jason! You may follow him on Twitter: @A2Jason.
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