Café Society (2016)

In the 1930s, a Bronx native moves to Hollywood and falls in love with a young woman who is seeing a married man.

Director:

Woody Allen

Writer:

Woody Allen

Stars:

Jesse Eisenberg, Kristen Stewart, Steve Carell

7 nominations.

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
Steve Carell	...	Phil Stern
Sheryl Lee	...	Karen Stern
Todd Weeks	...	Oscar
Paul Schackman	...	Al
Jodi Carlisle	...	Maid
Jeannie Berlin	...	Rose
Ken Stott	...	Marty
Richard Portnow	...	Walt
Jesse Eisenberg	...	Bobby
Sari Lennick	...	Evelyn
Stephen Kunken	...	Leonard
Laurel Griggs	...	Evelyn's Daughter
Corey Stoll	...	Ben
Saul Stein	...	Ben's Hood
Gabriel Millman	...	Ben's Hood

Storyline

In 1930's Hollywood, the powerful agent, Phil Stern, is attending a party and receives a phone call from his sister living in New York. She asks for a job for her son and Phil's nephew, Bobby, who decided to move to Hollywood. Three weeks later Phil schedules a meeting with Bobby and decides to help him. He asks his secretary Veronica "Vonnie" to hang around with Bobby, showing him the touristic places. Bobby immediately falls in love with Vonnie, but she tells that she has a boyfriend, a journalist that travels most of the time. However, Vonnie's boyfriend is indeed a married man that is also in love with her and soon she has to make a choice between her two loves.

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Plot Keywords:

hollywood on hollywood | 1930s | uncle | high class | older man younger woman marriage | 

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Taglines:

Anyone who is anyone will be seen at Café Society.

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Genres:

Comedy | Drama | Romance

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Motion Picture Rating (MPAA)

Rated PG-13 for some violence, a drug reference, suggestive material and smoking

Did You Know?

Trivia

This is Woody Allen's first film shot in 2:00:1 aspect ratio, which is commonly used by cinematographer Vittorio Storaro.

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Goofs

The grand piano in the first club scene was a Sojin, a Korean brand. Sojin pianos were not imported to the US until 1981.

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Quotes

[first lines]
Narrator: When the sun starts to dip on the Hollywood hills, the light often takes on the saturated loveliness of color by Technicolor. The homes of the movie stars, in the late 1930's, said to be fabulous, were. An the cocktail and dinner gatherings saw the film colony's creme de la creme draining high balls, exchanging rumors, making deals and trading gossip. No 'A' list affair was complete without the presence of Phil Stern, one of the town's most high powered agents, and his lovely wife,...

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Connections

References Swing Time (1936)

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Soundtracks

More Than You Know
Composed by Vincent Youmans, Billy Rose & Edward Eliscu
Performed by Benny Goodman (as Benny Goodman Trio)
Courtesy of RCA Records
By arrangement with Sony Music Licensing

User Reviews

Café Society

Set in the 1930s, a young Bronx native moves to Hollywood where he falls in love with the secretary of his powerful uncle, an agent to the stars. after returning to New York he is swept up in the vibrant world of high society nightclub life.

Café Society opened this year Cannes Film Festival and is the latest film directed by Woody Allen. It's a story that mixes various parts of the Allen back catalogue to varying degrees of success. A film that wants more than anything to entertain. In many ways Café Society could be said to restate almost all of the key ideas and themes of Woody Allen's films in one way or another: life, chance, fate, love and guilt.

It also comes from the movie providing the performances. Jesse Eisenberg is so seamlessly cast as the prototypical Allen protagonist that when the film shift from Allen's voice over to Bobby speaking it feels continuous. Bobby's broken heart has caused him to undergo a Bogartian growing up: from a gauche boy to a mature disillusioned man, trapped in the wrong marriage. Moreover, Kristen Stewart sad eyes, throaty delivery and slightly heartbreaking aura make her almost interesting, ad an easy chemistry between her and her third-time co-star Jesse Eisenberg and he fits perfectly into his role while she simply overflows the screen.

But if Café Society is Allen quoting Allen, sometimes literally, at least he's quoting his better bits. Surprise comes from the movie providing the honeyed cinematography by V. Storaro which uses silhouette, graphic compositions and glowing close ups in an often genuinely breathtaking manner. "Life is comedy, but it's one written by a sadistic comedy writer" says Bobby. The comedy writer Allen on display here is more wistful and nostalgic for the very concept of unfulfilled true love, for the heyday of the Hollywood star system, for a New-York of gangsters and back alley craps game and stolen kisses at dawn in Central Park. And all of that nostalgia is okay. Because we were getting pretty nostalgic for the good odd days of warm, witty, fond and funny Woody Allen too.

Make no mistake Café Society is still late-period Allen. Men are described in terms of their characters and complications, while women are still described in terms of their beauty and their effect on said men. When Blake Lively's character motherhood becomes the butt of an exchange between two men, about how women who become mothers devote way too much time to their children (and ultimately not enough to their husband); it's a sour note that reminds us that Bad Allen is always there, underneath.

Overall, this film is Woody Allen's most charming film since Midnight in Paris and maybe most beautiful to look at, maybe ever. It's a little pretty little reminder of what once was

Details

Official Sites:

Official Facebook Official site [France]

Country:

USA

Language:

English Hebrew

Release Date:

5 August 2016 (USA)

Also Known As:

Café Society

Filming Locations:

New York City, New York, USA

Box Office

Budget:

$30,000,000 (estimated)

Opening Weekend USA:

$359,289, 17 July 2016

Gross USA:

$11,103,205

Cumulative Worldwide Gross:

$43,763,247

Company Credits

Production Co:

Gravier Productions, Perdido Productions, FilmNation Entertainment

Technical Specs

Runtime:

96 min

Color:

Color (ACES)

Aspect Ratio:

2.00 : 1