Film: “Rifkin’s Festival,” directed by Woody Allen

Even in a minor Woody Allen film like “Rifkin’s Festival” (2020), there are gems to be found. One is the setting: San Sebastián, one of the most beautiful cities in Spain, if not the world.

The other is Wallace Shawn, who plays Mort Rifkin, a gloomy-gus NYC film school teacher accompanying his publicist wife Sue (Gina Gershon) to the San Sebastián film festival.

I’ve noticed that actors in Woody Allen either consciously or unconsciously imitate WA’s Brooklyn speech pattern (e.g., Kenneth Branagh and Timothee Chalomet.) Shawn doesn’t do that: he brings his own neurotic New York persona to the proceedings. He doesn’t so much as utter his lines but croak them, like a frog. The result is often very very funny.

In this film, Rifkin has reason to be a sourpuss. While in San Sebastián, Sue has been conducting an open affair with Philippe, (Louis Garrel), the sexy French director she is representing. Meanwhile, Rifkin, complaining of chest pains, visits Jo Rojas (Elena Anaya), the beautiful young doctor in town and is promptly smitten.

Scattered throughout the film are references (some clever, some eye-rolling) to films by Bunuel, Orson Welles, and of course Bergman. Christof Waltz has a few funny moments as Death, the chess master from “The Seventh Seal.” Leaving their chess game to attend to “other clients,” he advises Rifkin that if he wants to avoid dying, he should “eat plenty of fresh fruit and vegetables and exercise. Daily. Doesn’t have to be intense.”

Is “Rifkin’s Festival” first-rate Woody Allen? Definitely not; he’s been off his game for a while. But even okay Woody Allen is worth watching, IMHO.

And the line about suing God is worth the whole movie. See for yourself.