It bodes ill when a film opens with the lead
character sitting in his therapist's office complaining about something that
has happened in the very recent past. The viewer already has the feeling that
they missed something. That they're not in on a joke, a story, a fairy tale.
Catching up with the tale may be "Inconceivable!"Sorry. I just had to sneak that in. In
Rifkin's Festival the "annoying neurotic" is back.Here, not portrayed by Woody Allen in the
role but by great character actor Wallace Shawn (hence the "Princess
Bride" reference). He does the genre proud.
Reminiscent of "Manhattan", the
film centers around the relationship between Mort Rifkin (Wallace Shawn), a
failed novelist who pines over the days he was happiest - teaching cinema, and
the much younger, former student he's married to - Sue (Gina Gershon). The
action takes place at the San Sebastian Film Festival in Spain. Sue, a
publicist, represents a much-lauded French film director, Philippe (Louis
Garrel), who's new film is the talk of the festival. One can't help but think
about another Allen film "Stardust Memories" wherein Allen, as
director Sandy Bates, attends a retrospective festival of his films, complains
the whole time and has his hands full with multiple women and memories.
One of this film's problems was just
described. Much of what we see and hear we've heard before from this director.
I don't think there are many poor Woody Allen films but this just doesn't stand
up. The characters are caricatures. Philippe is a handsome, charming, shallow,
lothario. A reporter at the post- screening Q&A states: "There's a
rumor that you had an affair with the French Minister's wife." Philippe
replies: "I heard that same rumor, yea" to the laughter of the female
reporters.
Philippe and Mort do not get along. Mort
suspects his wife has a "crush" on her client. Mort is ignored during
the uncomfortable times the three spend together. Running into an acquaintance
at the festival, he discovers his wife lied to him about what she was doing and
was seen by the acquaintance walking on the beach with Philippe.
Eventually the stress scares Mort into
thinking he may be having a heart attack. Another acquaintance gives him the phone
number of a cardiologist and Mort makes an appointment. To Mort's surprise, Dr.
Jo Rojas turns out to be a gorgeous woman (Elena Anaya) whom Mort develops a
crush on. And off we go. He finds every excuse he can to get to the lovely
doctor's office and avoid his wife and Philippe.
Likeable characters here are few and far
between. It's a film festival; what's to be expected? An early scene when Sue
and Mort arrive in time for Philippe's post-screening Q&A is peppered with
quick bon mots such as this between a director and a lovely actress: "In
my new movie about the Eichmann trial you would be PERFECT to play Hanna
Arendt."Two gentlemen: "You
know tonight at eight o'clock there's a special screening of an old Three
Stooges movie. The director's cut." Female reporter to a porn star:
"In the movie were all your orgasms special effects?"
Philippe is asked by a besotted female
reporter: "...War is hell; and you came out and said it." To which the vapid director replies: "Well you
know, some wars are good and some wars are bad, and sometimes wars are
justified."When asked what his
next film will be he responds: "Well, in my next film I'm taking on the
turmoil in the Middle East... and, uh, (crossing his fingers) hopefully, uh,
offer some solution for reconciliation between the Arabs and Israel." Yikes!
Woody Allen hasn't lost his sense of irony or
his desire to tilt at the windmills of hypocrisy, deflate over inflated egos
and rage against the tripe that movie-goers will rave over. He's kind of
misplaced his through line however. Maybe, and I may be wrong, he's taking a
poke at all of today's blockbusters. With them there's barely a plot, no
subplot, only a couple of lines of dialogue to get to the violent (but
bloodless) action. Music video directors suddenly becoming the latest
"artiste" or "enfant terrible." Yes, MCU and DC, he's
aiming at you.
This film is predictable by half. However, there are some great moments; i.e.
when Dr. Jo gives Mort a tour of San Sebastian. Her car gets a flat. There's no
spare. They walk and hitch to the home/studio she shares with her philandering
artist husband Tomás (Enrique Arce) to catch him in in flagrante delicto with
one of his models. Arce's breakdown is a treat to watch.
Terrific performances in short roles and
scenes are offered up by Richard Kind and Nathalie Pozza as Mort's parents and
Christoph Walz as Death with a chessboard. Yea... Ingmar Berman makes an
appearance in another Woody Allen film. As I've related; we've seen a lot of
this stuff before.
Despite the film’s flaws, there are worse
ways to spend ninety minutes. Like most Woody Allen films, this is well cast
and well performed. In a case of life imitating art (or possibly the other way ‘round),
"Rifkin's Festival" was first screened at the San Sebastian Film
Festival in September of 2020 and released in Spain a few weeks later.
("Rifkin's Festival" will open in theaters and on-demand on January 28.)