The Diptych!
Elegy and Vicky Cristina Barcelona are companion films, if you are a Penelope fan. Both feature Patricia Clarkson as well, if you want to make a connection from that angle. (That High Art and Station Agent girl, if your Sundance cred is strong.)
[ I just noticed New Yorker, quite fittingly, reviewed these two movies together. ]
Elegy neatly fills in the gaps left in Philip Roth's brutal narrative (Yes, I did say brutal, though Manohla said it before me) that concentrates and tries to explain current American sexual landscape. It's a treat to see Ben Kingsley act out the complexity of the Roth's character's mindset, through silences, facial features, and his voice. Apparently, both aging masters (Roth and Updike) are releasing two new novels this fall. Roth seems to be sitting on a high altar and analyzing his observations on American culture over the last 50 or so years, the years he is most familiar with. Something one can afford to do after 60 years of age.
Woody Allen seems to be doing the same in Vicky Christina Barcelona. His musings on the concept of love, the modern perspectives and the contradictions, all neatly wraped in a cute little travel-porn package, populated with beautiful people in it. This would have turned sour in less capable hands. I wish the voice-over were by Woody Allen himself.
I loved watching it at one of last remaining independent theatres in LA - The lovely Crest.
Speaking of old masters making commentary on sex/love, there is Claude Chabrol, whose new film - A Girl Cut in Two - eluded me. The critics are, as usual, raving about it.
