User reviews

It isn't a great film, but I enjoyed spending time watching Wallace Shawn reciting Woody Allen's genius words about the meaning of life, the pretentiousness of art and the adrenaline of new love. Allen rarely disappoints... and this late-life crisis hits most of the classic notes.

A tribute to cinema, existentialism and Woody Allen's career.

Great story, great lines, great directing but I think casting wasn't good enough. We all know that after the allegations against Woody Allen (and I have no doubt of his innocence) casting would be a little hard to do.

Wallace Shaun isn't cogent being a couple with Gina Gershon, but he's delivered a good interpretation.

At the end, is a clear tribute to Bergman, with some points of Godard, Truffaut and Woody Allen's career.

Possibly more clever than outrightly funny, Woody Allen's charming RIFKIN'S FESTIVAL stars Wallace Shawn as a geeky film studies teacher who's attending the San Sebastian Film Festival with his wife (Gina Gershon), who's a publicist. As in his STARDUST MEMORIES, Allen shows he has little interest in box office, press conferences, fake glitz, and the self-anointed.

While Shawn trudges around the festival which promotes, in his opinion, garbage, he re-casts the situations in which he finds himself in scenes from his favorite films (but with the actors in this film). So we see these 4:3 B&W inserts of films by Truffaut, Bergman, Bunuel, Godard, Fellini, and a funny CITIZEN KANE bit.

Oy vey! Not as star studded as in days of yore, but some familiar faces show up, including Christoph Waltz as Death, Steve Guttenberg and Tammy Blanchard as Rifkin's brother and his wife, Richard Kind as Rifkin's father. We also get Elena Anaya as the doctor, Louis Garrel as the "star," and Douglas McGrath as Gil.

And Wallace Shawn does well as Woody's alter-ego, but he can't deliver a line or a joke with Woody's aplomb.

Woody Allen revisits many themes viewers have seen before in his earlier films, and spoofs of scenes from famous European filmmakers. The 2 female leads are very good and the scenery is gorgeous.

Romantic city. Gyspsy jazz. Film talk. Infidelity. The usual. It's well written, well acted and well-trodden. But not bad! The various 'homages' to classic filmmakers shows Woody can still have fun with his ideas. The cinematography by Vittorio Storaro is a massive improvement from the last Woody project ("Rainy Day in NY") which was dreadful to look at. It seems the production went smoother this time around.

There are many fleeting characters that deliver quality lines throughout the vignettes. Some of their stories would have been worth pursuing. Carmen Salta appears on screen for 10 seconds, but I wish the film was about her.

I agree with other critics that Wallace Shawn (a fine character actor) is miscast in the lead. His pairing with Gina Gershon doesn't work on any level. Neither perfomer can overcome the romantic chasm between them. At no point did I believe they were ever lovers, let alone married.

Gershon acts well, but Shawn delivers his lines glacially, often in an ironic tone which doesn't gel with the rest of the cast. For some reason he has cheap, ill-fitting clothes in every scene. I'm sure he's capable of playing a confident writer, or even an esoteric lady's man, but Woody directs him as a daydreaming loser who can barely dress himself.

Overall, it is an episodic, trivial romance, lacking the spark of better works like "Vicky Cristina Barcelona". But, it's gently amusing and still worth a watch.

One of Woody's better artistic achievements after a few disturbingly disappointing movies he made over the last years.

Wallace Shawn might not be the perfect actor in the lead, and as a fan of Allen's work it's easy to recognize all his repetitive motifs, but somehow the beauty of the locations and the camera work, the charming aspects of the story worked out for me here. I can totally see how much Allen loves the European Cinema of the last century, it's clear he mourns that this kind of cinematic art is slowly getting lost in our times of ignorance and stupidity, and his parodistic sequences of citing Fellini, Bergman, Lelouch, Godard, Bunuel and Truffaut are funny and a bit melancholic to watch at. But of course to fully enjoy it you need to know the artists and films he's referring to.

No, just no. Please, Woody, stop here. It's ok, you have done more than much in your life, you are one of the most important icons in movie history. I grew up worshipping you. You should now take a well deserved rest, or retirement, call it how you prefer, just please stop making sloppy movies. I know that you believe that all your movies are sloppy, so you might think "Who cares? One more bad thing won't make any difference". It does. Your 27th work was Deconstructing Harry, a masterpiece, like many others before: but after that we have seen 22 useless exercises, steadily decreasing in quality over the years, and now with this thing you really have started to dig in the dirt. If this movie was delivered as final work for a cinema class, the student would be rejected. The dialogues are flat, not funny. The screenplay is a repetition of previous subjects (were you so unhappy with Stardust Memories? I thought you liked it! Why did you make this tired and sad reboot?). The casting is so wrong that you could improve it just by randomly switching the roles among the actors, with the lone exception of Cristoph Waltz who was great, for the two minutes he was on screen, so I will award a star for every minute of him doing Death, but this is it.

Entertaining with the beautiful city of San Sebastián as a backdrop.

The latest comedy from writer-director Woody Allen is an odd one from the get-go: Wallace Shawn stands in for the leading man (in what would normally be the typical Allen role) of an essay writer/film history teacher/would-be novelist who must accompany his press agent wife to Spain for the San Sebastian Festival. There, she becomes smitten with a "pretentious film director" from France while disparaging her husband's neuroses, while he harbors chest pains and harks back to his past disappointments by dreaming himself into various scenarios which emulate Welles, Fellini, Truffaut, et al. Despite his age (he was 75 or 76 when this film was shot), Shawn is more than capable at carrying a comedy--his instantly identifiable voice is a pleasure to listen to. However, this type of comedy--one centering on the relationship of a married couple (one wherein the husband is busy pondering the Meaning of Life and the wife is played by glamorous Gina Gershon)--is not a proper fit for Shawn. The actor's ultra-casual clothes and balding head are probably meant to be endearing, but when his character expresses the same old Woody Allen hang-ups (such as the eternal "Why are we here?"), one can't help questioning this man's agenda...has he been asking "Why are we here?" all this time? The lack of really sharp one-liners makes itself felt, but the supporting cast is fine, the production is handsome, and Allen keeps a smooth, jaunty pace. ** from ****

I enjoyed this film. Allen speaks through Wallace Shaun whose character says he was happiest at being a film teacher. His respect and love of classical European film directors come face to face with today's and he finds today's lacking. One of my favorite scenes from Breathless is shown. Some scenes are hilarious. I found myself laughing out loud. Something I haven't done in a while. In particular, Louis Garrel character as a contemporary film director finds himself being interviewed at the festival by journalists and then the bongo drum scene. The San Sebastián location is magnificent. Lot of references to Paris and New York. When he says there's nothing like walking down Boulevard Saint-Michel in the rain - you know what he means.

Even if it's the same Woody Allen's topics of all these years, It's better than I thought. Has some dull parts in the middle, but its pace improves towards the end, specially with the acting of the lady playing doctor Jo Rojas and the crazy Sergi Lopez cameo. Rifkin's character gains some depth, too, as the movie approaches to the end. And the scene with Waltz is absolutely hilarious, maybe the only good jokes of all the movie.

Loved the black & white, as well, but I keep wondering if Allen will surprise his public again with a final masterpiece. We can always hope.

Full of quotes from old movies and this one is very cool, but beyond that the movie has no bite. Really really flat film that deals with the theme of love in a banal and obvious way without any twist or thing that makes it interesting. Moreover, we feel the tremendous lack of the character of Woody Allen who would have given more color to the film. But in the end it remains a good movie.

I am wanting like crazy to see this movie. I keep looking for it and I keep reading about it, and seeing video previews of it, but nothing is out yet. Why isn't Amazon showing it?

What I do see is that most reviewers on Rotten Tomatoes and elsewhere are prejudicially rating this very low, and clearly the reason is peer pressure. Since the absurd "hatchet job" documentary as Woody calls it "Allen V. Farrow" was released with HBO's name on it people are afraid to say anything good about Woody or his movies, and certainly will not release them without some kind of fight. This is a whole national witch hunt - but directed at one very famous and prominent American genius of a filmmaker. It is just not right.

This is so unfair and prejudicial that I feel totally correct and justified to give "Rifkin's Festival" a 10/10 stars to attempt to do my tiny part to rebalance the ratings just a little bit. I believe Woody.

The idea that Woody after 2 investigations and another to determined if he and SoonYi were fit to adopt children would have molested Dylan Farrow while an entire household of people were told to keep an eye on him,for 10 minutes in an attic, that is so small that even if a train set was up there even a little kid could not even fit up there - it's ridiculous. 30 years later he is still being dogged but these absurd accusations. Even Mia Farrow did not hold Roman Polanky guilty for drugging and raping a 13 year old girl ... so, this is all about Mia and her festering hate and vengeance.

So, as soon as I see this movie, if I need to I will return and adjust the rating should need be, but Woody's movies are so great I doubt the occasion will arise.

Summary

Another "Mozartian" but more melancholic and autumnal comedy from the master Woody Allen, with many cinephile dates, crises of uneven couples and some darts against film festivals.

For various reasons, for some time some of the critics have been quite ruthless with Woody Allen, demanding an uninterrupted succession of masterpieces. No prolific author like him is capable of it, but Allen continues to give us undeniable glimpses of his usual genius in this film.

Review

Mort Rifkin (actor and playwright Wallace Shawn) is a mature former film professor and writer who is attending the San Sebastian Festival with his wife Sue (Gina Gershon). Sue is a press agent for Philippe, a young filmmaker (Louis Garrel), and maybe something else...

Mort (another clear alter ego of the director) feels displaced in Sue's attention by the petulant and beautiful Philippe and certain circumstances make him meet a Spanish woman (Elena Anaya) to whom he feels immediately attracted.

More than once I have called Woody Allen the Mozart of filmmakers: several of his films can be equated, in style, treatment and theme, with masterpieces by the composer such as Cosi fan tutte, The Marriage of Figaro or Don Giovanni. Couples in crisis, jealousy, crosses, misunderstandings, with touches of humor, but brimming with humanity. And this is the case with this film, at least partially. Furthermore, he is a prolific director like the composers of that century.

In this film, the comedy is more shifted towards melancholy, focusing on the age difference between a mature man and his younger wife (and young women in general) and perhaps for the first time in his filmography, in a reverse situation too. The theme, of course, is recurrent in the work and life of the director, but here it occurs in a more frank and autumnal way. It would also seem deliberately that Allen chose a physically unattractive actor like Shawn to reinforce that contrast. Without reaching the forcefulness of his other films, the fearsome scenes of the director's matrimonial bedroom, in this case, however, fulfill his mission very well. Note that several scenes are filmed in still shots or sequence shots, which reinforces their naturalness.

Through Shawn, the director manifests his cinephile predilection for the great masters of European cinema of yesteryear, whom he "quotes" with uneven wit, but always quite literally in several passages of the film. It must be said that one of those quotes is remarkable and marks one of the highest points of the film; others are resolved in a more humorous way. Allen also doesn't shy away from throwing in quick, pointed comments here and there about current film festivals.

The leading quartet of actors is very good in their roles and the beauty of San Sebastian is transformed into another of the characters in the film.

For various reasons, critics have been quite ruthless with Woody Allen for some time, demanding an uninterrupted succession of masterpieces. No prolific author is capable of it, but Allen continues to give us undeniable glimpses of his usual genius in this film.

At 85, Woody ALLEN is no longer reinventing the wheel, but he can still beautifully pay homage to his revered master directors BERGMAN, FELLINI, GODARD, LELOUCH, RESNAIS, TRUFFAUT, WELLES.

A frumpy Woody Allen character (this time played by Wallace SHAWN), who is of course married to a much younger beauty (Gina GERSHON), attends the San Sebastian Film Festival. His wife does press work for a gifted young director (Louis GARREL) from France, the old Zausel has nothing to do. He just has to fall for an extremely attractive doctor (Elena ANAYA), who is also married to a crazy painter husband (Sergi LOPEZ as a poor man's Picasso). You then re-enact famous scenes from film history in your dreams.

Wonderfully over-the-top, ALLEN offers what it has been offering for 45 years: nothing new, but very charming and exaggeratedly neurotic! In other roles there is a reunion with Steve GUTTENBERG and ACADEMY AWARD winner Christoph WALTZ, who creates a small monument to Max von SYDOW. Allen's fans are noticeably fewer, so that so far only 3,956 tickets have been sold in the German box office. But it was still amusing!

Mort (Wallace Shawn) is Irritatingly Funny. His visits to Dr Rojas (Elena Anaya) are like a Teenage Crush. Feisty Scenes with Wife (Gina Gershon) and Phillipe (Louis Garrel) Filmed in Spain. It's a Woody Allen Movie with Jazzy Soundtrack. I Love to attend Film Festivals but have yet to make it over the Pond.

In Woody Allen's 'Rifkin's Festival' Wallace Shawn's character meets 'Death'. 'How long do I have?', Shawn asks. "You a smoker?' Death answers.

Ok. Now that I've told you the only thing worth watching in Allen's latest, you won't have to watch the rest. I did you a favor. I gave you ninety-two minutes with which you can do something worthwhile. Or not. It's your life, after all.

The 'Rifkin' in this film (Shawn as stand-in for Woody) is married to a much younger and highly attractive woman, played by Gina Gershon. And if this ain't Woody-enough for you, Rifkin is in love with, and fantasizing about, and for all we know almost bedding, an equally attractive young woman who is also his doctor. That Allen has not learned that this older-man younger-woman dynamic has worn thin amazes me. Or that it plays into the hands of his angriest critics. But Allen seems tone-deaf to the real world goings-on around him. And this makes me sad.

Oh, the film. Impossibly terrible dialogue. A story that goes nowhere. Wooden (no pun) performances; so wooden you'd swear the actors are truly made of wood. This is awful stuff.

But if somehow you want, you need, some other more-recent Woody? Ok. Try these. Blue Jasmin. Midnight in Paris. Vicky Christina Barcelona. Deconstructing Harry. Match Point. All good. Some great.

There, I did you another favor.

Though "Rifkin's Festival" can't compare with Woody Allen's greater works, it is nonetheless full of intelligent observations and polished direction. Wallace Shawn is a weak leading player and the film would have been a lot stronger had Woody himself played the part. Gina Gershon fares better as the ditsy, distracted wife, though viewers will find themselves picturing previous female partners in the role. The fantasy sequences - loving tributes to classic films - enliven what at times becomes rather slow going. The glorious San Sebastian scenery alone is worth watching.

I'm a lifetime Woody fan, and I went into "Rifkin's Festival" with a lot of goodwill, but it felt really stodgy and dated. The actors do a uniformly great job, and it looks great courtesy of the legendary cinematographer Vittorio Storaro, but I felt like this was the kind of thing Woody could write in his sleep, because it was the same dialogue (especially tinny-sounding this time) and themes we already know from fifty of his other movies, and in a kind of uninspired way. I also cringed a little when Wallace Shawn kept hitting on the pretty doctor, Elena Anaya, even after she initially turned him down. We're definitely lucky that we still have this masterful filmmaker delivering a film once a year, but I wish this one had been much better.

I just read an article suggesting Woody Allen should retire because he no longer makes good movies and so on. I am not a film critic, but as a film fan that has been enjoying his films at least once a year for quite some time, I beg to differ.

It would have been easy for him to make a film every 7 years give or take like many do and discard everything in between. In my opinion the way he has done things is braver and his fans are thankful for that.

Yes, perhaps he is an ageing "star" but for people who have grown used to his humor and literary and cinematic references, watching his films is still more enjoyable than the random Hollywood offering.

Perhaps this film is not one of his strongest ones, but these times are surely trying, and perhaps, even more for him. Even then, once a year, I still count on him.

I'm a big Woody Allen fan, and I'm losing faith. I'm hard pressed to find a worse movie of his, although that doesn't mean it is awful. I don't regret watching it. The cinematography and sense of place is quite beautiful, in a postcard type of way. As far as the rest of the artistic camera use, well, it was absent...inert. It is possible they were trying to save a bunch of money, but MANY of the scenes have the camera closing in on a dolly as opposed to reaction shots.

The acting was meh, I'm a Wallace Shawn fan, and I own a copy of My Dinner With Andre. But. At this age, the guy is a gollum. So to see him in multiple romantic story arcs with very attractive women is unbelievable and distracting. C'mon, I'm sure there are plenty of good European actors. Frankly Richard Kind, Alec Baldwin, or Christoph Waltz would have been far more interesting in the lead.

As far as the jokes, many fall flat. They miss the Woody Allen type timing, but there are so many it is still kinda funny.

All the "insider" artistic movie references are at best quaint. Although the Seventh Seal stuff with Waltz is pretty good.

C'mon woody, I'm really looking forward to one more masterpiece. Something on par with Match Point, or Midnight in Paris and you can retire.

This is actually quite a beautiful film thanks to Vittorio Storaro. And it could have worked if the character is played by someone that looks like Marcello Mastroianni or if it has to be Wallace Shawn, then the character has to be a billionaire Rupert Murdoch type media mogul, with a younger wife who has dragged him to San Sebastian film festival. That way the bald little 78 year old's attractiveness to women could be plausible.