Ambivalent London: "Match Point", Woody Allen

Résumé du document

Match Point is a movie which was directed by Woody Allen in 2004. It was shot in London. This movie tells the story of Chris, a man looking for a new life. Throughout the movie he seems to find it. As a coach in a private tennis club, he becomes friend with Tom Hewett before going out with his sister, Chloe. Rapidly he became integrated in their family, a wealthy British one, and obtains a high-powered job in the City. But his attraction towards Nola, Tom's ex-fiancée, is uncontrollable. When she asks him to leave his wife, Chloe, he finds himself in an awkward situation especially when Nola, and then Chloe, tell him they are pregnant. He uses desperate means to keep Nola quiet. In the context of this movie, I am going to study the following subject: “Ambivalent London”. In order to understand the subject properly let's start off by defining the term “ambivalence”: we say about someone that he is ambivalent if he does not know or does not make it clear whether he wants or does not want something, or whether he approves of it or does not approve of it.

Extraits

[...] That leads us to another ambivalence: does he want to grow up or to remain a child? His social ascension may show the image of a blooming man, but it also evocates the fulfilment of a child's dream: becoming rich. With Nola, he acts as a child: he jeopardizes his couple, seems unable to take responsibility for his acts and to make a choice between his wife and his lover. When Chloe talks to him for the first time about the possibility for him to work in her father's company he appears to be afraid. [...]

[...] We do not know which of Chloe or Nola he sincerely loves. For several months, he has lived a double life. Before marrying with Chloe, and as Nola was still Tom's fiancée, he began an affair with Nola. After her break up with Tom, a serious relationship begins. They see each other very often and Chris tries to spend as much time as he can with her. As if he lived from love and fresh water with her. Nevertheless, he keeps it secret and shares the conjugal bed with Chloe. [...]

[...] He cannot resist her. Yet his love as well as his attention are dedicated Nola. He cannot live without her and avoids his wife who wishes to have a baby. He is like a teenager who lives his first love and forgets absolutely everybody he is committed to: his wife, his father-in-law, people at work. About Chloe, he says "she is very sweet". She has to gauge her temperature before making love But he radically changes when Nola tells him she is pregnant. [...]

[...] He lives in a loft with a splendid view on the Tames and on Parliament, he has a driver, he spends his week-ends in the secondary residence of the family, he buys V-neck cashmere jumpers, he has lunch in beautiful restaurants at his expense , etc, and he confesses to his friend he could not ever live otherwise. Chris is torn between two vices, the one of the flesh, and the one of the wallet. His union with Chloe had more to do with the opportunity to get a good job in her father's company than it has to do with his feelings for Chloe. By marring the sweet and innocent Chloe, he is taken into the vicious circle of money. [...]

[...] The Londoner aristocracy London brings a social dimension to Woody Allen movies. Great-Britain is an aristocracy where social classes are always well-marked and thus permits Woody Allen to take an interest in characters coming from working- class, nourished by the ambition of a social ascension which makes us commit the worst. In the movie, as in reality, what divides people is their relationship with culture. Working-class people undergo a cultural apprenticeship (Russian lectures for Chris) before integrating the class which makes them dream. [...]