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Barcelona (film)

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Barcelona
Theatrical release poster
Directed byWhit Stillman
Written byWhit Stillman
Produced byWhit Stillman
Starring
CinematographyJohn Thomas
Edited byChristopher Tellefsen
Music byMark Suozzo
Production
company
Distributed byFine Line Features
Release date
  • July 29, 1994 (1994-07-29)
Running time
101 minutes
CountryUnited States
LanguageEnglish
Budget$3.2 million
Box office$7.2 million[1]

Barcelona is a 1994 American romantic comedy-drama film written, produced, and directed by Whit Stillman. Set in Barcelona, the film stars Taylor Nichols, Chris Eigeman, and Mira Sorvino.[2][3]

Barcelona is the second film—after Metropolitan (1990) and preceding The Last Days of Disco (1998)—in what Stillman calls his "Doomed Bourgeois in Love" series. The three films are independent of each other except for the cameo appearances of some common characters. Barcelona was released by Fine Line Features on July 29, 1994. The film received positive reviews from critics and grossed $7.2 million against a $3.2 million budget.

Plot

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In 1987, Ted Boynton is a Chicago salesman living and working in Barcelona. Ted's cousin, Fred, a naval officer, unexpectedly comes to stay with Ted. Fred has been sent to Barcelona to handle public relations on behalf of a U.S. fleet scheduled to arrive later.

The cousins have a history of conflict since childhood. Ted and Fred develop relationships with various single women in Barcelona and experience the negative reactions of some of the community's residents to the context of Fred's presence. Ted also faces possible problems with his American employer and with the concept of attraction to physical beauty.

Cast

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Reception

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On the review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, Barcelona holds an approval rating of 84% based on 37 reviews, with an average rating of 6.8/10.[4] Metacritic, which uses a weighted average, assigned the film a score of 74 out of 100, based on seven critics, indicating "generally favorable" reviews.[5]

Roger Ebert gave the film 3 out of 4 stars in the Chicago Sun-Times, comparing it to the works of Woody Allen and described the plot as being "as lighthearted as a Scott Fitzgerald short story, all about young people skimming the surface of the pond of life, flitting here and there, making small talk and flirting." Finding it to be deeper following a second viewing, Ebert concluded his review by writing that the film "give[s] voice to a generation. If there is one part of American society that American movies are usually not interested in, it is the wage-earning, 9-to-5, ambitious, competitive, white collar society of business and management. Watching this movie, I realized that although I’d seen a lot of amazing things on the screen before, I’d hardly ever seen young WASPs earning a living."[6]

Year-end lists

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References

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  1. ↑ "Barcelona (1994)". Box Office Mojo. Retrieved September 27, 2022.
  2. ↑ Brody, Richard (August 6, 2014). "Movie of the Week: "Barcelona"". The New Yorker. Retrieved June 12, 2022.
  3. ↑ "Barcelona". The Criterion Collection. Retrieved June 12, 2022.
  4. ↑ "Barcelona". Rotten Tomatoes. Retrieved July 22, 2025.
  5. ↑ "Barcelona". Metacritic. Retrieved January 29, 2024.
  6. ↑ Ebert, Roger (August 5, 1994). "Barcelona movie review & film summary". Chicago Sun-Times. Retrieved September 22, 2026 – via RogerEbert.com.
  7. 1 2 Strauss, Bob (December 30, 1994). "At the Movies: Quantity Over Quality". Los Angeles Daily News (Valley ed.). p. L6.
  8. ↑ Anthony, Todd (January 5, 1995). "Hits & Disses". Miami New Times.
  9. ↑ Webster, Dan (January 1, 1995). "In Year of Disappointments, Some Movies Still Delivered". The Spokesman-Review (Spokane ed.). p. 2.
  10. ↑ "The Year's Best". The Atlanta Journal-Constitution. December 25, 1994. p. K/1.
  11. ↑ Pickle, Betsy (December 30, 1994). "Searching for the Top 10... Whenever They May Be". Knoxville News-Sentinel. p. 3.
  12. ↑ Lyons, Jeffrey (host); Medved, Michael (host) (January 6, 1995). "Best & Worst of 1994". Sneak Previews. Season 20. WTTW. Retrieved February 20, 2024 – via YouTube.
  13. ↑ King, Dennis (December 25, 1994). "SCREEN SAVERS In a Year of Faulty Epics, The Oddest Little Movies Made The Biggest Impact". Tulsa World (Final Home ed.). p. E1.
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