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Rating: Misoneist or not? That is, to be resistant to everything new or to uncritically accept every novelty? This is the question that arises every time I watch an Allen film, not only because the musical choices for his films' soundtracks are inspired by that jazz d'antan, preceding the advent of be bop style (and therefore from Charlie Parker onwards), but also due to the attention given to characters (mostly artists or intellectuals) in the midst of delicate phases of their existence and clearly uncomfortable in the face of emerging newness. And Woody's latest film ("Rifkin's Festival, in fact) does not deviate from this scheme, rich in brilliant dialogues and jokes.
Specifically, the story revolves around the vicissitudes of a certain Mort Rifkin (a university professor of film history working on the drafting of a weighty book halfway between the autobiographical and the philosophical treatise on the great themes of life) who accompanies his wife to the San Sebastián festival. His wife is the press agent of a very presumptuous young emerging director (to the point of declaring his next film so important as to make a decisive contribution to the solution of the Israeli-Palestinian issue, imagine that...). Mort rightly suspects that there's an affair between the two and feels disoriented to the point of having incredible dreams inspired by salient scenes from famous films (perfectly rendered in the dazzling black and white photography of the great Vittorio Storaro) and experiencing various mostly non-existent ailments. On the advice of acquaintances, he consults a local doctor (30 years younger than him) for a medical opinion and ends up discovering a whole series of incredible elective affinities. But the movements of the heart can deceive, and subsequent events will take an unexpected and bitter turn...
Stated in extreme synthesis, the chain of events (without spoiling the pleasure of discovering the final developments) seems to echo those salient themes of Allen's work. Meanwhile, the setting favors tourist destinations in Europe of great appeal, only that in "Rifkin's Festival" (unlike the more successful "Midnight in Paris"), the location of San Sebastián is just a fleeting pretext to focus attention on the existential dilemmas of the characters, especially the protagonist (sort of an alter ego of Allen) who senses he's in crisis. Only, he will not be able to get out of it, will be incapable of accomplishing a new great project (in this case a weighty book), and will be very disoriented by the new situations of his existence. Furthermore, like others, he too will have to acknowledge the fleeting nature of feelings (due to which one often falls for unsuitable people) as well as the instability of romantic relationships.
In this chaotic universe, therefore, emerges once again Allen's mood, imbued with a robust skepticism towards everything new and conducive to instability. His reference in this film to all the auteur cinema that made cinematic art great in the twentieth century is therefore justified, and here the references to Welles, Fellini, Truffaut, Godard, Lelouch, Bergman, Bunuel are excellent and abundant, and constitute a strong point for "Rifkin's Festival".
The impression is that Allen hesitates not, even in this work, to suggest not resetting the past, as it could prove to be a precious compass to guide us in an increasingly chaotic world. Therefore, the eighty-five-year-old director can appear to be a sort of old wise man or, as sometimes I feel, a somewhat aged aunt who, receiving us at home for a cup of afternoon tea, tells us of the good old days when age was not burdensome and present and future were bright. This can be instructive, but it's certainly not the only way to spend our free time...
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