Woody
Woody Allen in Spain
Originally uploaded by IncogNEAToEmily. We went to see Woody Allen’s new film (Vicky Christina Barcelona) last night, and I had forgotten that part of it was filmed in Oviedo (to be honest, not much more than a couple of scenes of Scarlett Johanssen and Javier Bardem lounging against some orange stone that could have been anywhere, and a few scenes from near the market, and a couple more from the coast. Where was the cider? Where were the bagpipes?). The eponymous Vicky and Christina are invited for a weekend to Oviedo and the initial reaction is ‘where?’ and the first reason given for not going was ‘nobody’s ever heard of Oviedo’. The packed audience chuckled at that one (it was packed becuase it was a bit dull and it was a bank holiday yesterday). The rest of the film was set in Barcelona, and it was quite good, but the characters were a bit cardboard, rich folk who don’t need to worry about anything but their relationships.
Still, the description of Oviedo as small and pretty was perfectly accurate. Just how small is illustrated by how often you bump into people you know. Yesterday, walking back from film we met one of my students out walking her dog. When you do meet someone in the street you’ve got two options. One is to stop and chat, this is the default setting for most people here, in fact, more than stop and chat, if you see someone and they haven’t seen you, you should shout, wave and generally make it impossible for them to miss you. If you truly haven’t got time then you greet someone with ‘goodbye’ and even then you might have to exchange a couple of words before you drift apart.
Tags: film
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