Kristen Stewart in Woody Allen's Café Society: A Glimpse of the New Woman

In Woody Allen's new movie, Café Society, Kristen Stewart plays a girl from Nebraska who tries her luck in 1930's Hollywood, an era of big stars like Barbara Stanwyck and Joan Crawford. Jesse Eisenberg plays a boychick from New York who tries his luck in L.A. too, working with his uncle Phil, a big time agent played by Steve Carell. Jesse's Bobby falls for Kristen's Vonnie at first sight, and why not? Close ups of her--Vittorio Storaro's wonderful cinematography makes this film special in Woody Allen's already outstanding oeuvre--show Kristen Stewart's transcendent appeal, a look that's old glamor, and new. This movie, one of Allen's most poignant on the subject of youthful dreams, love, marriage, and missed chances, should establish Stewart as the actress of her generation.

At the Paris Theater premiere, writer/actor Doug McGrath who has a cameo, said, if Hollywood looked the way Storaro filmed it, he would have gone there long ago. The exuberant party moved on, to where else? The Café Carlyle, where Woody Allen fronts a big draw nightclub act with his jazz band. Carol Kane, Richard Kind, and Patti Smith were among the well-wishers. Against her glamorous Café Society type, and in the heat of New York summer, Kristen Stewart wore a leather bomber jacket over leggings, and a pink beanie, a look that shouted rebellion to movie star allure. Going head to head with Patti Smith, a rocker who famously redefines feminine beauty, she spoke about a short film she was directing, revealing ambition beyond her acting career. Stewart is clearly not just another pretty face, with a wide leg homeboy stance to prove it. Her co-star Jesse Eisenberg is also an artist with several irons in the fire. In London for the production of a play he's written, he could not make his swank New York premiere at all.

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