Penelope Cruz in "Vicky Cristina Barcelona" vs. "Volver"

I inherited my mother’s love of movies, although I hardly ever like the same movies as she does. Mentally I always keep a list of favorite movies and favorite actors. Undoubtedly Woody Allen is among my favorite filmmakers. To this day, I have yet to find someone else except for my husband who matches me in my preference for Woody Allen’s films.

It is therefore no surprise that I went to the theater to see “Vicky Cristina Barcelona” when it came out – Michael and I were among the few people in the theater, as Woody Allen’s films never attract big audiences. It is therefore also no surprise that I was absolutely delighted that this movie won Penelope Cruz an Oscar award as best supporting actress. I totally loved the movie, especially since I was in Barcelona not too long ago as a tourist. Although I was sick from a cold the whole trip (obviously induced by the enormous stress of finding out at the San Diego airport that Michael’s passport expired, which delayed our trip by three days), which did dampen my enthusiasm for Spain, I was still delighted to see the familiar sights of Barcelona in the movie. Written by Woody Allen, it was positively delightful and funny, and of course crazy at the same time. Penelope Cruz played a neurotic avant-garde Spanish artist, quite convincingly.

Penelope Cruz in "Vicky Cristina Barcelona"

Thrilled as I was at Penelope Cruz winning the award for her great performance in this movie, I could not help remembering her best performance so far – the lovable and earthy Raimunda in Pedro Almodovar’s “Volver”. In “Vicky Cristina Barcelona”, Cruz spoke a mixture of English and Spanish, and was directed by an American director. The performance was strong and funny, but in no way does it match the power of her performance as a quintessentially Spanish woman, speaking Spanish, acting Spanish and exuding her Spanishness thoroughly in the Spanish movie directed by the most acclaimed Spanish director. Maybe there is something about acting in a Spanish film that brings out that most vivacious and enlivening essence of Cruz’s persona. In “Volver”, she did not only give a great performance, she lived and breathed as Raimunda, as if she were Raimunda all her life.

There are of course many reasons why foreign actors never seem to be at their best when they act in American films. For one thing, American films are often rather bland and formulaic, leaving little room for talented actors to shine. But I do believe that the culture in which these actors grew up has affected them so profoundly that only by acting in their native tongue can they do something truly extraordinary. To some extent, it is almost as if they cannot feel their characters by speaking English, irrespective of their English proficiency. It is as if the naked feelings need to be expressed directly by their native tongues, in order to maintain the freshness, the urgency and the authenticity. Much is lost in translation when they act in English-speaking films, as was the case with Penelope Cruz in her many Hollywood films, Zhang Ziyi in the much-anticipated but ultimately disappointing “Memoirs of a Geisha”, and Juliette Binoche in “The English Patient”, which won her an Academy Award but felt extremely flat to me.

Come to think of it, the best can only be brought out of us, when we are in our own element. That abstract-sounding “element” could be a cultural context in which we feel completely at home, or an emotional milieu in which we feel viscerally alive or expressive, or an intellectual exchange in which we are inspired to demonstrate, however transiently, a flash of wisdom or insight that astounds even ourselves.