''Blue Jasmine'' is a 2013 American
comedy-drama film written and directed by
Woody Allen
Heywood "Woody" Allen (born Allan Stewart Konigsberg; November 30, 1935) is an American film director, writer, actor, and comedian whose career spans more than six decades and multiple Academy Award-winning films. He began his career writing ...
. The film tells the story of a rich
Manhattan
Manhattan (), known regionally as the City, is the most densely populated and geographically smallest of the five boroughs of New York City. The borough is also coextensive with New York County, one of the original counties of the U.S. state ...
socialite (
Cate Blanchett) who falls on hard times and has to move into her working-class sister's (
Sally Hawkins
Sally Cecilia Hawkins (born 27 April 1976) is an English actress who began her career on stage and then moved into film. She has received several awards including a Golden Globe Award and the Berlin International Film Festival's Silver Bear fo ...
) apartment in San Francisco.
The film received a limited release on July 26, 2013, in New York and Los Angeles, before expanding nationwide on August 23, 2013. The film was met with critical acclaim, particularly for Blanchett's performance.
Blanchett won the
Academy Award for Best Actress
The Academy Award for Best Actress is an award presented annually by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS). It is given to an actress who has delivered an outstanding performance in a leading role in a film released that year ...
, and Hawkins and Allen were nominated for
Best Supporting Actress and
Original Screenplay, respectively. Blanchett also won the
Golden Globe Award, the
SAG Award
Screen Actors Guild Awards (also known as SAG Awards) are accolades given by the Screen Actors Guild-American Federation of Television and Radio Artists (SAG-AFTRA). The award was founded in 1952 to recognize outstanding performances in movie an ...
, and the
BAFTA Award for Best Actress in a Leading Role. The film was also a box office success, earning $99.1 million worldwide against a budget of $18 million.
[
]
Plot
Jasmine Francis disembarks in San Francisco after a flight from New York City. She takes a taxi to her sister Ginger's apartment, where Ginger is dismayed to learn that Jasmine traveled first class despite claiming to be broke. Jasmine has recently suffered a nervous breakdown
A mental disorder, also referred to as a mental illness or psychiatric disorder, is a behavioral or mental pattern that causes significant distress or impairment of personal functioning. Such features may be persistent, relapsing and remitt ...
, and having incurred heavy debts, has been forced to seek refuge with her sister.
A series of flashbacks reveals that Jasmine's husband, money manager Hal Francis, was arrested for defrauding his clients. Ginger and her husband, Augie, were among Hal's victims; he swindled them out of $200,000 in lottery winnings that Augie had wanted to start a business with, and their marriage fell apart. Hal dies by suicide in prison after being publicly disgraced. Jasmine's stepson Danny subsequently dropped out of Harvard and severed all ties with Jasmine. Following Hal's death, Jasmine began drinking heavily and abusing anti-anxiety
An anxiolytic (; also antipanic or antianxiety agent) is a medication or other intervention that reduces anxiety. This effect is in contrast to anxiogenic agents which increase anxiety. Anxiolytic medications are used for the treatment of anxiet ...
medication. She also developed a habit of talking to herself about her past.
Ginger is now dating a mechanic called Chili, whom Jasmine detests for his lowbred and coarse manners. Jasmine considers becoming an interior designer
Interior design is the art and science of enhancing the interior of a building to achieve a healthier and more aesthetically pleasing environment for the people using the space. An interior designer is someone who plans, researches, coordina ...
because of her "great taste" and past experience in decorating her homes. She wants to take online courses, but having no computer skills, she decides to take a class in computers to gain basic proficiency. With no income, she grudgingly takes a job as a receptionist with a dentist, who harasses her with unwanted sexual advances. When he assaults her, she fights him off and quits.
Jasmine's situation improves when she meets a wealthy widower, Dwight Westlake, at a party in Marin County north of San Francisco. Dwight is a diplomat aspiring to become a congressman. She poses as an interior designer, telling him that her husband was a surgeon who died of a heart attack. Dwight is impressed by her stylishness and invites her to decorate his new home. Ginger begins a romance with Al, whom she met at the same party. She breaks up with Chili, who begs her not to leave him. Eventually, she discovers that Al is married and reconciles with Chili, realizing she has been influenced by Jasmine to believe Chili was beneath her.
Jasmine develops a romance with Dwight, and he is about to buy her an engagement ring, when they bump into Augie outside the jewelry store. Augie rails at Jasmine about what Hal did to Ginger and him. Augie also reveals that Danny is living nearby in Oakland and is now married. Dwight is outraged that Jasmine lied to him and calls off the engagement. Jasmine goes to Oakland and finds Danny, who tells Jasmine he never wants to see her again because of what she did to his father.
It is revealed that Jasmine finally learned of Hal's many affairs and confronted him. When he told her he wanted to divorce her to be with a 19-year-old ''au pair
An au pair (; plural: au pairs) is a helper from a foreign country working for, and living as part of, a host family. Typically, au pairs take on a share of the family's responsibility for childcare as well as some housework, and receive a mon ...
'', Jasmine, in a moment of blind rage, called the FBI to inform the authorities of Hal's fraudulent business dealings, which led to his arrest, and subsequent suicide.
Jasmine returns to her sister's apartment and finds Ginger back with Chili, who is now moving in. Jasmine and Chili needle each other, and Jasmine is furious when Ginger takes his side. Jasmine lies to Ginger, claiming that she is going to marry Dwight, and tells her she is moving out that day. Leaving the door open as she exits the apartment, she walks to a park bench, sits, and begins muttering to herself.
Cast
Production
In preparation for her role, Blanchett explained, "I did a lot of people watching. I drank my fair share of rosé. In the end I had to play the anti-heroine that Woody's written, but of course I thought about the Madoff scandal, because that's the holocaust of the financial crisis. And there are many, many women like that. I followed them like everybody else did, but as an actress you go back and you're slightly more forensic about those relationships."
The film was shot in 2012 in New York City and San Francisco
San Francisco (; Spanish for " Saint Francis"), officially the City and County of San Francisco, is the commercial, financial, and cultural center of Northern California. The city proper is the fourth most populous in California and 17th ...
. Letty Aronson, Stephen Tenenbaum, and Edward Walson served as the film's producers. Sony Pictures Classics distributed the film, marking the sixth collaboration between the label and Allen.
The outfits for Blanchett's Jasmine were an important part of her character and narrative, but they were difficult to assemble because of a very limited total costume budget of $35,000. To supplement this, costume designer Suzy Benzinger used her and Woody Allen's connections with various fashion houses to borrow some of the more expensive items for the production. These included Fendi
Fendi () is an Italian high-end luxury fashion house producing fur, ready-to-wear, leather goods, shoes, fragrances, eyewear, timepieces and accessories. Founded in Rome in 1925, Fendi is known for its fur, fur accessories, and leather goods. ...
, Chanel, Hermès
Hermès International S.A., or simply Hermès ( , ), is a French luxury design house established in 1837. It specializes in leather goods, lifestyle accessories, home furnishings, perfumery, jewelry, watches and ready-to-wear. Its logo, since ...
, Oscar de la Renta
Óscar Arístides Renta Fiallo (22 July 1932 – 20 October 2014), known professionally as Oscar de la Renta, was a Dominican fashion designer. Born in Santo Domingo, he was trained by Cristóbal Balenciaga and Antonio del Castillo. De la Renta ...
and Carolina Herrera
Carolina Herrera (born María Carolina Josefina Pacanins y Niño; 8 January 1939) is a Venezuelan-American fashion designer known for her personal style, and for dressing various First Ladies, including Jacqueline Onassis, Laura Bush, Michell ...
. Blanchett also helped, by using her relationship with Louis Vuitton
Louis Vuitton Malletier, commonly known as Louis Vuitton (, ), is a French high-end luxury fashion house and company founded in 1854 by Louis Vuitton. The label's LV monogram appears on most of its products, ranging from luxury bags and leather ...
to secure monogrammed luggage for the production, after Vuitton refused Benzinger's request. Karl Lagerfeld
Karl Otto Lagerfeld (; 10 September 1933 – 19 February 2019) was a German fashion designer, creative director, artist and photographer.
He was known as the creative director of the French fashion house Chanel, a position held from 1983 ...
supplied two copies of the white Chanel bouclé jacket which Jasmine wears throughout the film, one brand new for the flashback scenes of Jasmine's affluent life in New York, and one for the San Francisco scenes which Benzinger distressed by soaking in fabric softener
A fabric softener (American English) or fabric conditioner (British English) is a conditioner that is applied to laundry during the rinse cycle in a washing machine to reduce harshness in clothes that are dried in air after machine washing. In con ...
to give it the appearance of overuse.
Release
''Blue Jasmine'' had a limited release at six theaters in Los Angeles and New York City on July 26, 2013, and expanded nationwide on August 23, 2013. Woody Allen refused to release the film in India
India, officially the Republic of India (Hindi: ), is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by area, the second-most populous country, and the most populous democracy in the world. Bounded by the Indian Ocean on the so ...
because the country requires a blurb to be inserted at the bottom of any scenes during which a character is smoking. This is in addition to health warnings that are required to be shown at the beginning and end of the film.
Home media
''Blue Jasmine'' was released on Blu-ray and DVD on January 21, 2014.
Reception
Box office
The film received a slow rollout, modeled after the release of ''Midnight in Paris
''Midnight in Paris'' is a 2011 fantasy comedy film written and directed by Woody Allen. Set in Paris, the film follows Gil Pender (Owen Wilson), a screenwriter, who is forced to confront the shortcomings of his relationship with his materialis ...
''; it was estimated to have grossed over US$
The United States dollar (symbol: $; code: USD; also abbreviated US$ or U.S. Dollar, to distinguish it from other dollar-denominated currencies; referred to as the dollar, U.S. dollar, American dollar, or colloquially buck) is the official ...
600,000 in its first three days, which took place at six theaters in Los Angeles and New York City. It was Allen's "best-ever opening per-screen average" and the year's highest per-screen average, beating ''Spring Breakers
''Spring Breakers'' is a 2012 American comedy crime film written and directed by Harmony Korine and starring James Franco, Vanessa Hudgens, Selena Gomez, Ashley Benson and Rachel Korine. Gomez, Hudgens, Benson and Korine portray four college ...
'' "impressive debut on three screens". The film grossed US$33.4 million in the United States and US$64.1 million in the rest of the world.[
]
Critical response
Rotten Tomatoes
Rotten Tomatoes is an American review-aggregation website for film and television. The company was launched in August 1998 by three undergraduate students at the University of California, Berkeley: Senh Duong, Patrick Y. Lee, and Stephen Wang ...
reported that 91% of 234 critics gave the film a positive review, with an average rating of 8.10/10. The website's critical consensus states, "Woody Allen's ''Blue Jasmine'' finds the director in peak late-period form—and benefiting from a superb cast led by Cate Blanchett." Metacritic
Metacritic is a website that aggregates reviews of films, TV shows, music albums, video games and formerly, books. For each product, the scores from each review are averaged (a weighted average). Metacritic was created by Jason Dietz, Marc ...
assigned the film a weighted average score of 78 out of 100 based on 47 critics, indicating "generally favorable reviews".
Early reviews suggested the film would be rated very highly among Allen's recent offerings, and praised Blanchett's performance as one of her strongest, if not the best of her career: David Denby
David Denby (born 1943) is an American journalist. He served as film critic for ''The New Yorker'' until December 2014.
Early life and education
Denby grew up in New York City. He received a B. A. from Columbia University in 1965, and a master' ...
of ''The New Yorker
''The New Yorker'' is an American weekly magazine featuring journalism, commentary, criticism, essays, fiction, satire, cartoons, and poetry. Founded as a weekly in 1925, the magazine is published 47 times annually, with five of these issues ...
'' stated that "in all, this is the strongest, most resonant movie Woody Allen has made in years". Mick LaSalle
Mick is a masculine given name, usually a short form ( hypocorism) of Michael. Because of its popularity in Ireland, it is often used in England as a derogatory term for an Irish person or a person of Irish descent. In Australia the meaning broad ...
, writing for the ''San Francisco Chronicle
The ''San Francisco Chronicle'' is a newspaper serving primarily the San Francisco Bay Area of Northern California. It was founded in 1865 as ''The Daily Dramatic Chronicle'' by teenage brothers Charles de Young and Michael H. de Young. The ...
'', wrote that "Blanchett in ''Blue Jasmine'' is beyond brilliant, beyond analysis. This is jaw-dropping work, what we go to the movies hoping to see, and we do. Every few years." Andrew Dice Clay
Andrew Dice Clay (born Andrew Clay Silverstein; September 29, 1957) is an American stand-up comedian and actor. He rose to prominence in the late 1980s with a brash, deliberately offensive persona known as "The Diceman". In 1990, he became the fi ...
's performance was also critically praised in the film.
Some critics have argued the film is Allen's response or tribute to the Tennessee Williams
Thomas Lanier Williams III (March 26, 1911 – February 25, 1983), known by his pen name Tennessee Williams, was an American playwright and screenwriter. Along with contemporaries Eugene O'Neill and Arthur Miller, he is considered among the thr ...
play ''A Streetcar Named Desire'', as it shares a very similar plot and characters. It also features cast members who have previously been associated with the play: Baldwin played the role of Stanley Kowalski
Stanley Kowalski is a fictional character in Tennessee Williams' play ''A Streetcar Named Desire''.
In the play
Stanley lives in the working-class Faubourg Marigny neighborhood of New Orleans with his wife, Stella ( DuBois), and is employed ...
on stage in 1992 and in the 1995 adaptation of the play, while Blanchett played the leading role of Blanche DuBois
Blanche DuBois (married name Grey) is a fictional character in Tennessee Williams' 1947 Pulitzer Prize-winning play ''A Streetcar Named Desire''. The character was written for Tallulah Bankhead and made popular to later audiences with Elia Ka ...
in the Australian production of the play staged by the Sydney Theatre Company in 2008. Other critics and cultural commentators theorized that the story of Jasmine as a "shrill narcissist falling apart" and "in a crisis of self-flagellation after living in denial for years" was modeled on Allen's former companion, Mia Farrow
Maria de Lourdes Villiers "Mia" Farrow ( ; born February 9, 1945) is an American actress. She first gained notice for her role as Allison MacKenzie in the television soap opera '' Peyton Place'' and gained further recognition for her subsequent ...
, and that the film is a response to their high-profile and acrimonious break-up.
Accolades
At the 2014 Academy Awards ceremony, ''Blue Jasmine'' had three nominations: Best Actress
Best Actress is the name of an award which is presented by various film, television and theatre organisations, festivals, and people's awards to leading actresses in a film, television series, television film or play. The first Best Actress aw ...
for Blanchett, Best Supporting Actress for Hawkins and Best Original Screenplay
The Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay is the Academy Award for the best screenplay not based upon previously published material. It was created in 1940 as a separate writing award from the Academy Award for Best Story. Beginning with the ...
for Allen. Blanchett was the sole winner. At the 2014 Golden Globe Awards ceremony, the film had two nominations: Best Actress in a Motion Picture – Drama for Blanchett and Best Supporting Actress – Motion Picture for Hawkins, with Blanchett going on to win. Blanchett also won Best Actress at the BAFTAs
The British Academy Film Awards, more commonly known as the BAFTA Film Awards is an annual award show hosted by the British Academy of Film and Television Arts (BAFTA) to honour the best British and international contributions to film. The cer ...
, Screen Actors Guild Awards, and Independent Spirit Awards. Allen's screenplay was also nominated at the Writers Guild of America Awards
The Writers Guild of America Awards is an award for film, television, and radio writing including both fiction and non-fiction categories given by the Writers Guild of America, East and Writers Guild of America West since 1949.
Eligibility
T ...
and the film was nominated for or won dozens of other awards worldwide.
References
External links
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Blue Jasmine
2013 comedy-drama films
2013 films
2013 independent films
Adultery in films
American comedy-drama films
American independent films
American nonlinear narrative films
Articles containing video clips
Films about narcissism
Films about sisters
Films about the upper class
Films directed by Woody Allen
Films featuring a Best Actress Academy Award-winning performance
Films featuring a Best Drama Actress Golden Globe-winning performance
Films produced by Letty Aronson
Films produced by Stephen Tenenbaum
Films set in New York City
Films set in San Francisco
Films shot in New York City
Films shot in San Francisco
Films with screenplays by Woody Allen
Sony Pictures Classics films
2010s English-language films
2010s American films