MovieChat Forums > Summer Lovers (1982) Discussion > Remade by Woody Allen as Vicky Christina...

Remade by Woody Allen as Vicky Christina Barcelona

posted 16 years ago by rob-949
8 replies | jump to latest

Seriously. Go watch the film and tell me when Penelope Cruz shows up that Allen hasn't at some point seen Summer Lovers.

Scarlett Johannsen is a blond-blond like Daryl Hannah, who takes photographs all over spain, has a darkroom set up, and enters into a menage a trois with Javier Bardeem and Penelope Cruz.

It's more than that, but for this section of the film it certainly looks like Woody Allen had to have been inspired by Summer Lovers -- as hard as that seems to believe. :)

[–] adresher 16 years ago

I have not seen that movie but you do see Summer Lovers inspirations in lots of films. Although it is a different genre, Summer Lovers reminds me a lot of the film the Warriors. You constantly see inspired comments and commercials from that film as well.

[–] firstwinsgop 15 years ago

There is no doubt Vicky, Cristina, Barcelona gets its inspiration from Summer Lovers, but I think you have the players mixed up. The camera hobby is the only real quality Daryl Hannah and Johannson's characters share. I'd argue that the Rebecca Hall character is based on Hannah, Johannson's character is Peter Gallagher, and Javier Bardeem is Valérie Quennessen.

And I take extreme exception to the idea that it should be "hard to believe" that Allen took inspiration from Summer Loves. Who hasn't been inspired by this masterpiece? Allen's updating is good in several ways, but I still think it falls short of the magic of the original. The main things dragging Allen's film down were the narrator and the substandard acting of Johannson.

[–] fostre 15 years ago

Masterpiece?

It has a 5 in IMDB when any ( decent) crappy movie has at least a 7...I never saw this but it doesn't sound as masterpiece material...

[–] firstwinsgop 15 years ago

So you are going to put your trust in the nitwits that post on IMDB rather than me? Summer Lovers is an absolute masterpiece. Never has the polyamorous relationship ever been examined in such a sophisticated, touching, and poignant manner as in this film. I'm not exaggerating at all when I say that it may change your entire outlook on love and relationships.

[–] 15 years ago

[deleted]

[–] Verdoux-1 15 years ago

So you are going to put your trust in the nitwits that post on IMDB rather than me?

Did you just call yourself a nitwit?

[–] ms-catamaran 15 years ago

very well said

I couldn't hear my own footsteps. It was the walk of a dead man.

[–] jim6263 14 years ago

Very clever wordplay, Chaplin, but totally missing the point: He replied to a commenter who has NOT seen this beautiful film! Did it ever occur to you that, just maybe, this film was made to be/seem innocuous so that it would be allowed to carry a deeper message (i.e., Freedom is great!)??

Speaking of which: Why is ONLY the sh**ty "Pan & Scan" version on DVD, NOT its original WS/LBX format ratio!?? Something in "the bigger picture" that might be even more compelling, perhaps, and/or more P.I. (like too much frontal -- gasp! -- nudity)?? Don't recall well enough to say, I'm very sorry to say, but... I love this film. It's the Summer vacation to Europe I never took, back when I could, and its characters experience a level of personal freedom only the more 'well-to-do' are likely to ever have )or have again) again during this life, in/after today's polluted world! The beauty of the locations alone makes it worth a view (no pun inetnded).

For further enlightenment, see the 'new' docufilm, "Under Our Skin" (2008; recently on Tribecca's Best Short List docs of 2009, Jan. 6)!