4 - Vicky Cristina Barcelona and the Politics of Toxic Female Friendship

Summary

Abstract

The narrative of Vicky Cristina Barcelona (Allen, 2008) revolves, ostensibly, around the relationship between two young American women, undertaking a trip of a lifetime to Barcelona. This relationship, whilst central to the film, is a flimsy and inherently problematic representation of female friendship, which relies heavily on the understanding of female friendship as both competitive and conflict-ridden. The friendship, despite being introduced as a long-standing, close relationship, exists predominantly within the context of male conquest throughout the film. This results in the women's characterisation being contingent upon their relationships with men, rather than each other, and requires that the two women be considered in constant opposition to each other. The tension inherent within Vicky and Cristina's friendship betrays a common (mis) representation of the female friendship that has substantial footing in cinema more broadly, but which comes to bear with distinctive clarity in this film. Allen's camerawork, dialogue and use of narration serve to further undermine each woman's selfhood and identity, which in turn allows for their relationship to be similarly navigated and defined in, as this chapter will argue, reductive and restrictive terms. Beginning with the work of Hollinger (1998) and Tasker (1998) this chapter will discuss the terms under which the film chooses to explore friendship between women, regarding toxicity and competition as integral parts of its representation.

Keywords: friendship, hegemony, representation

Women are meant to be loved, not to be understood.

‒ Oscar Wilde (1891)

Female friendship is a staple of the American cinematic landscape. These friendships take multiple forms and serve multiple purposes, but the female friendship narrative is perhaps most prolific within traditionally ‘femininecoded’ genres such as the romantic comedy or melodrama. These genres explore the bonds between women to varying extents (and with variable results), but in many cases their central friendships manifest as shallow and derivative, even toxic. Exemplary of this is the treatment of female friendship in Woody Allen's Vicky Cristina Barcelona (2008). This chapter seeks to explore the relationship between the film's titular characters – a relationship that is harmful not only to the characters involved but to broader perceptions and expectations of female friendship.