Many complain that they now live in a theme-park, and that the entrance ticket is beyond their means. There has been much bad feeling buzzing around Barcelona for the last few years as the locals have felt increasingly overwhelmed by the sell-out success of the Barcelona Brand, which has transformed the city almost beyond recognition, not always for the best.
Others insisted Allen’s film had been no exception and had benefited from the usual range of institutional support offered to filmmakers in Spain. The hot topic was the rumour that it received considerable financial support from local public institutions such as the Generalitat (Catalan regional government), the Spanish Ministry of Culture, and the Barcelona Municipality (the latter to the tune of one million euros or so). Woody Allen’s film Vicky Cristina Barcelona, which was filmed here last year and premiered in the city a few days ago, has generated a lot of controversy along the road. This entry was posted in branding, city, consumer culture, design, general, graphic design, projects and tagged barcelona, computer games, graphics, urban identity, video games, vin diesel, wheelman on Januby Viviana Narotzky. There are plenty of those (Sagrada Familia, Plaza Real, waterfront and palm trees), but thanks to the exacting requirements of the script, bursting with car chases and criminal behaviour, we are paradoxically offered a more realistic version of the city, which includes nail-biting ring-road action, dreary mass-housing neighbourhoods, dusty parking lots and abandoned construction sites. What I’m really liking about this game, is that for once a global product that commercialises the “Barcelona Brand” shows us something other than the usual suspects. It’s due out anytime soon, we’re being told, and while we wait with bated breath we’re being teased with a new trailer. It’s the one where Vin Diesel trashes everything and everyone in sight in “exotic” Barcelona. I told you about the video game The Wheelman in an earlier post. This entry was posted in branding, city, consumer culture, general, publications and tagged barcelona, batman, comic books, comics, film, graphics, popular culture, tourism, urban identity, wheelman on Februby Viviana Narotzky.
And as the image of the city slips away from the tight controlling grip of its institutional and high-cultural minders, we might all be able to reclaim a more open, more complex version of our city – or drown in the endless rehash of half-baked Barcelonese stereotypes. In the case of Batman and The Wheelman, these latest representations of Barcelona will reach an audience that might not care much about architecture, design and molecular gastronomy. This recent spate as a leading city of pop-cultural narrative imagination marks a turning point in Barcelona’s steady climb towards global recognition. But come March, they’ll both be in Barcelona doing their stuff, joining Vicky and Cristina in the latest trend of celebrity tourism: that of film, comic book and video game characters. The food? I doubt that Batman and The Wheelman will be able to spare any time for tapas while they chase the bad guys down the dark alleys of the Gothic Quarter.
I don’t think it’s the nightlife, either.
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