For (good) titles instead of (bad) films

Daniel Kasman

To grasp just how uncinematic Vicky Cristina Barcelona is, one doesn't even need to see it to appreciate it's one brilliant conception: the movie's title. What is it about Allen's title that seems so pithy, so fluid and easy? The ungrammatical run-on of proper nouns? The slender increase in length of words as the title unspools (think the build-up to Full Metal Jacket)? The diagrammatic list of the two main characters and principle location, unhurried, matter-of-fact, and casual? The slight sense of introduction ("Vicky...Cristina...meet Barcelona.")? The playful sense of interchangeability and different-sides-to-the-same-coin, of two meeting one, of the three moving around each other, swapping sides and approaches? Or not that at all, but rather a progression, a growth, a vector towards an end point, moving from people (or at least characters) to an ineffable place, something physical and intangible at once, a setting and also a spirit? I don't know what it is, but it is beguiling: mysterious, simple, welcoming, and fresh. Could any movie live up to such a title?

Don't miss our latest features and interviews.

Sign up for the Notebook Weekly Edit newsletter.

Tags

Quick Reads
0
Please sign up to add a new comment.

PREVIOUS FEATURES

@mubinotebook
Notebook is a daily, international film publication. Our mission is to guide film lovers searching, lost or adrift in an overwhelming sea of content. We offer text, images, sounds and video as critical maps, passways and illuminations to the worlds of contemporary and classic film. Notebook is a MUBI publication.

Contact

If you're interested in contributing to Notebook, please see our pitching guidelines. For all other inquiries, contact the editorial team.