Rebecca Hall & Scarlett Johansson in Vicky Cristina Barcelona
In her last film with Woody Allen, Johansson shared the screen with Rebecca Hall, Penelope Cruz, and Javier Bardem in a comedic love triangle. Vicky (Rebecca Hall) and Cristina (Scarlett Johansson) are pursued by famous artist Juan Antonio (Javier Bardem) while vacationing.
Javier Bardem, Rebecca Hall & Scarlett Johansson in Vicky Cristina Barcelona
Allen’s casting on this film insured him of a sexually vibrant pyrotechnic powered display of musical chairs that culminates with Juan’s mentally unbalanced ex-wife, Maria Elena (Penelope Cruz) showing up. Cristina is fire while Vicky is ice, but Juan Antonio is a seasoned lothario with the patience for the seduction of both young women. Barden is in his element as he patiently pursues both Vicky and Cristina. It is among Allen’s best efforts and manages to bring back the screw ball comedy with a delightful showcase of talented performers.
Penelope Cruz & Scarlett Johansson in Vicki Cristina Barcelona
The Other Boleyn Girl (2008)
Directed by Justin Chadwick
Scarlett Johansson & Natalie Portman in The Other Boleyn Girl (2008)
Released in the same year, The Other Boleyn Girl is a very different kind of triangle. Based on the bodice ripper by Philippa Gregory. Although not adhering to reality, she applies what we have learned from what Chaucer and Boccaccio have demonstrated: it’s easier to digest facts when administered within tawdry tales!
Scarlett Johanssonin The Other Boleyn Girl (2008)
Although lost in a pot boiler, both Johansson and Portman manage to pull the story out of the pot before it can boil over. Portman is in top form with a relaxed royalty and Johansson with an outward thrust of feelings in her reactions that clearly reveal the character’s complicated emotions.
Scarlett Johansson & Natalie Portman in The Other Boleyn Girl (2008)
Facts, Rumors & Hearsay
Vicky Cristina Barcelona
Javier Barden (Juan Antonio) and Penelope Cruz (María Elena) play a divorced couple in the film. In reality, they started a relationship while working on the film and married in July 2010. However, they didn’t meet on the set of this film; they met on the set of Cruz’ first feature, Jamon Jamon (1992) when she was 16.
This is the second movie Rebecca Hall and Scarlett Johansson starred in together, the other being The Prestige
The Other Boleyn Girl
The cast includes Oscar winners: Natalie Portmen, Mark Rylance, and Eddie Redmayne as well as Oscar Nominees: Scarlett Johansson, Benedict Cumberbatch, Dame Kristen Scott, and Andrew Garfield.
The sighting of Anne’s ghost has been documented many times in the tower of London where she was executed and also at Hever Castle, her childhood home.
Scarlett Johansson & Bill Murray in Lost in Translation (2003)
In 2003 Johansson also appeared in the astonishingly popular Lost in Translation with Bill Murray. An unconsummated Spring/Winter love affair that begins in a hotel bar in Japan is both morose and comforting. Getting the irony of the title leads us to A Love Song for Bobby Long (2004).
Scarlett Johansson, John Travolta & Gabriel Macht in A Love Song for Bobby Long(2004)
Alcohol is not a medicine for melancholy, as is certainly made clear in this strangely gripping romantic tale of a disillusioned writer and one of his past students as they swelter away in a fog of denial. Pursy (Scarlett Johansson) arrives and brings some sort of sanity to a situation that is cloyingly self destructive as the three bond into a nearly functional family unit.
Like Ghost World, A Love Song for Bobby Long is character driven with actors that demand your attention with finely honed performances. Pursy becomes the center of this universe from the moment she enters the film, gliding around Travolta’s and Macht’s characters with a confidence that is unburdened by expectation.
Scarlett Johansson in A Love Song for Bobby Long (2005)
Some narratives burn, some broil, but under Shainee Gabel’s direction the story simmers like a jambalaya. Gabel’s screenplay, based on the novel by Ronald Everett Capps, takes its time and lets the characters move naturally. There is not a scene or a sentence that is out of place. This is another showcase for Johansson’s talent that pits her opposite actors that she not only keeps up with, but surpasses.
LEFT: Scarlett Johansson & John Travolta RIGHT: Gabriel Macht, Scarlett Johansson & John Travolta in A Love Song for Bobby Long (2004)
The Perfect Score (2004) is a misfire with a talented cast. Fortunately, it didn’t hold anyone back. Both Johansson and Chris Evans survived to act another day.
The Perfect Score (2004)
The Island (2005), directed by Michael Bay, stars Johansson as Jordan Two Delta and Ewan McGregor as Lincoln Six Echo in a future that is as sterile as the the script. The leads are the only thing the film has going for it. It is yet another fiery distraction by the director that brought you Bad Boys II.
LEFT: Ewan McGregor & Scarlett Johansson RIGHT: Ewan McGregor, Scarlet Johansson & Steve Buscemi in The Island (2005)
Her next film is the first of three films she would appear in directed by Woody Allen. In Match Point (2005), Johansson is opposite Jonathan Rhys Meyers and Emily Mortimer in what turns out to be a mystery with a strong Dial M for Murder vibe.
LEFT: Emily Mortimer & Jonathan Rhys Meyers RIGHT: Scarlett Johansson &Jonathan Rhys Meyersin Match Point (2005)
In her second film with Allen, she is again drawn into a mystery, but this time Allen stars as a hokey magician who inadvertently gets involved in an investigation instigated by a deceased reporter. The film also features Hugh Jackman. As usual, Allen manages to pull it off with a flourish.
Woody Allen, Scarlett Johansson & Hugh Jackman in Scoop ( 2006)
Scoop (2006) succeeds as light comedy that features Johansson as the one doing the investigating and dragging Allen’s character deeper into the fray. Allen wrote the script with Johansson in mind. It was because while working with her on Match Point, he saw a comedic side to her that he wanted explore.
Scarlett Johansson, Josh Hartnett & Hilary Swank in The Black Dahlia (2006)
Brian De Palma, much like Quentin Tarantino sometimes becomes so focused on what he is emulating that he fails to ever reach the heart of the matter. Their so called homages are just quick copies that retain the luridness and violence but reproduce none of the substance. Such is the case with De Palma’s The Black Dahlia (2006); a disappointing criss cross of a film noir that confuses plotting with shuffling cards. Scarlett Johansson is wasted, and even Hilary Swank’s incredible performance can’t save the film.
Speaking of shuffling cards, Christopher Nolan’s dazzling The Prestige (2006), brings the magic back in a big way with a well written and produced story of competing magicians. Johansson turns in another fine performance along with Michael Caine, Hugh Jackman, Christian Bale, Piper Perabo, Rebecca Hall, Andy Serkis, and David Bowie.
LEFT: Michael Caine & Scarlett Johansson RIGHT: Scarlett Johansson & Hugh Jackman in The Prestige (2006)
Facts, Rumors & Hearsay
Match Point
Match Point is Woody Allen’s favorite of his own films.
In a nod to Alfred Hitchcock, a playbill showing Woody Allen’s face in deadpan is briefly seen as Chris Wilton (Jonathan Rhys Meyers) arrives at the Tate museum to meet Nola Rice (Scarlett Johansson).
The painting of a girl with a red balloon on the wall that Chris walks along was done by Banksy, the graffiti artist from Bristol.
Scoop
Sidney Waterman (Allen) foreshadows his own death the evening that he and Sondra Pransky (Johansson) follow Peter Lyman (Jackman), whining that he won’t drive in London because he’s “…afraid he’ll die in a crash.”
The Island
Robert S. Fiveson, director of The Clonus Horror (1979), filed a copyright infringement suit against DreamWorks and Warner Brothers. The lawsuit cited almost one hundred points of similarity between Clonus and this film, and the court ruled that Fiveson made a prima facie case for infringement. DreamWorks settled before the case could go to trial, for an undisclosed seven-figure amount.
The original script was set one hundred years in the future, but they kept bringing it closer to the present for budgetary reasons.
The Prestige
Prestige originally meant a trick, from the Latin praestigium, meaning illusion.
This is one of three 2006 movies to feature magic and magicians as main characters. The other are The Illusionist (2006) and Scoop (2006), which also starred Scarlett Johansson and Hugh Jackman.
