Café Society (2016)
Directed by Woody Allen
The story of a young man who arrives in Hollywood during the 1930s hoping to work in the film industry, falls in love, and finds himself swept up in the vibrant café society that defined the spirit of the age.
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The film’s cinematographer is Vittorio Storaro (“The Last Emperor,” “Last Tango in Paris,” “Apocalypse Now”), who evokes the past in a way that looks like reality dipped in memory, just a little more rich and clear than it ever could have been.
Café Society offers at least one fresh element to latch onto: It’s Allen’s first feature with revered Italian cinematographer Vittorio Storaro (Apocalypse Now, Last Tango In Paris), and the first time both artists have shot a feature on digital instead of celluloid.
Café Society is his first film shot digitally and his first with noted cinematographer Vittorio Storaro (Apocalypse Now, Last Tango In Paris).
Stewart delivers an almost absurdly luminous performance, caressed by the golden hues of legendary cinematographer Vittorio Storaro (of “Last Tango in Paris” and “Apocalypse Now”), who raises Allen’s game immeasurably.
A repetition of gun murders ordered by Bobby’s brothers brings Allen’s direct shooting style close to that of Alan Clarke’s dispassionate “Elephant.”
Amazingly, numbers forty-one (“Midnight In Paris”) and forty-three (“ Blue Jasmine ”) were total gems – and Oscar winners!
Eisenberg’s role is one Allen might have played years ago, but unlike in the case of John Cusack (“Bullets Over Broadway”) and Owen Wilson (“Midnight in Paris”), Allen chooses a surrogate less appealing than his younger self.
Allen’s personal failings aside (and he did himself zero favors with his pre-Cannes interviews), his movies have been consistently mediocre for a while now; I didn’t even much like Midnight In Paris or Blue Jasmine , the ostensible exceptions from the past few years.
It doesn’t hammer this point on the head (like Allen did with Midnight in Paris’) but it doesn’t really pay it off properly either.
If Allen used a fantastical and self-conscious past to make telling points about fiction, nostalgia and celebrity in Zelig, The Purple Rose of Cairo and, more recently, Midnight in Paris, here he is merely dropping historical names.
Woody doesn't have to star in his own films - Owen Wilson was a terrific stand-in for him in Midnight in Paris (2011).
There’s a scene in Café Society, Woody Allen’s umpteenth film, in which a nightclub entertainer sings the Louis Armstrong classic Jeepers Creepers.