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Vicky Cristina Barcelona

Vicky Cristina Barcelona

Date: Nov 05 2008

Themes: Pop Culture, Romance

Intro

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2. Read and Prepare - Read the introduction and prepare to hear the audio.

There’s a saying in English, “Two is company, three’s a crowd.” It can be hard for three people to hang out or work together because one tends to get left out. So imagine if three people all tried to date each other!

Well-respected American oddball director Woody Allen’s new movie is a simple romantic comedy. There’s only one strange thing about it. The romance is a menage a trois.

Javier Bardem plays an artist who gets involved with an American tourist after taking her sight seeing…in a private plane. When his emotionally unstable ex-wife returns, the three become romantically involved together. Unlike Bardem’s character, Devan only likes one of the two women. Strangely, it’s not the who reminds her of herself.

Dialog

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2. Study - Read the dialog again to see how the vocab words are used.

Devan

Devan

Amanda

Amanda

Devan:  I went and saw that new Woody Allen movie.

Amanda:  Which one?

Devan:  Vicky Cristina Barcelona.

Amanda:  Let me guess, Scarlett Johansson was in it?

Devan:  She was and I must say, I absolutely hated her character so much. The whole time I was watching it I couldn’t stand her character and then about three-quarters of the way through the film I realized, “Oh my God, her character is me!” And that was very upsetting.

Amanda:  That’s very self-reflective.

Devan:  I was like, “I hate this character!” And then I realized it was because she reminded me so much of myself.

Amanda:  Yikes.

Devan:  She’s like this like…kind of like indie, hipster-y girl who goes to Spain and she’s kind of like the kind of person who feeds off of like artists and really talented people but she doesn’t have any talent herself and that reminded me of me and that was very upsetting.

Amanda:  I don’t think that’s a bad thing, hun. What was her relationship to Woody Allen in the film? Daughter? Love interest? Protege?

Devan:  Woody Allen is not in the film, actually.

Amanda:  So he wrote, directed, produced?

Devan:  Right. But was not in the film.

Amanda:  OK. So then, who was the other leading actor?

Devan:  Penelope Cruz was in it and she was so funny.

Amanda:  And it was a location piece, right?

Devan:  Yeah, it took place in Barcelona, which was very beautiful and it made me really want to go there.

Amanda:  So pretty visually appealing…

Devan:  Yeah. And Penelope Cruz just stole the show by being so funny.

Amanda:  I don’t really see her as being a comedic actress at all.

Devan:  Well, you should really see this film because she’ll blow you away by how funny she was.

Amanda:  Oh, I look forward to it!

 

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Lesson MP3

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Discussion

In Vicky Cristina Barcelona, Scarlett Johansson plays a woman who surrounds herself with creative people. Devan dislikes her until she realizes she is a lot like her!

Amanda thinks there’s nothing wrong with being someone who hangs out with artists, and she wants to talk about the movie. Devan tells her that the best part is Penelope Cruz because she is very funny.

What do you think of the idea of a relationship with three people?

 

Comments

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pongdang

South Korea

i think it bad idea

06:15 AM Nov 05 2008 |

kaira_harry

Yemen

06:07 AM Nov 05 2008 |

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