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A rare occurrence took place on Sunday afternoon in Los Angeles. The notoriously publicity-shy Woody Allen held a press conference for his new comedy "Vicky Cristina Barcelona." The story wasn't necessarily that Allen took questions, but that he did so for a complete hour. A little hard of hearing at 72, Allen looked fit and was sharp as a tack. In fact, he probably could have gone on for another hour if the studio's publicists hadn't practically dragged him away.

His latest film, which premiered at this year's Cannes Film Festival, centers on two American friends, Vicky (Rebecca Hall) and Cristina (Scarlett Johansson), with contradictory views on relationships. The girls decide to spend the summer in Spain with Cristina's distant relative, Judy (Patricia Clarkson). Early in their visit they meet Jose, a charming painter played by Javier Bardem, who sweeps both girls off their feet. When Jose's ex-wife, Maria (an absolutely fantastic Penelope Cruz), shows up, the two friends get caught up in the crossfire of the couple's passionate on-again, off-again relationship.

Allen recalls, "I had the idea about two women going away on a summer thing someplace and then someone called from Barcelona saying, 'Would you like to make a picture here? We'll finance it.' And that's always the hardest part of making any film ... the financing. Writing it, directing it, anything else is easier than getting the financing for it. So, I said, 'Sure, I'll do it.'"

The filmmaker admits he was stuck on how to proceed until he got a call from Cruz. The "Volver" actress was in New York and heard about the "Barcelona" deal and wanted to participate. Soon, Bardem and Allen favorite Johansson (it's their third film together) were added to the mix. Allen then wrote the screenplay (the most important part of the production, in his view) around his actors' strengths.

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Allen says he had been to the city several times before, but concedes he didn't have a vast knowledge of it. Thankfully, his crew did. He notes, "You get help from people. Everybody on the crew cooperates and says, 'They would never speak this way.' 'They would never go to this restaurant if they were 25 or 30 years old.' Gradually you do it and it looks like you know Barcelona or you know London, when in fact you're faking and you don't."

A continuing theme of Allen's conference was how amusing he found his "serious" actors in the film: Bardem and Cruz.

"Like Robert De Niro, they think they are great because they do all that work on the part and all that, but they are born great," Allen says. "They are great when they wake up in the morning and they wouldn't have to do all that work and they would [still] be great. That's why I never rehearse with any of the actors. Never talk to them about the part. I just show up and do it and I get a lot of great performances simply by hiring great people."

Allen continues, "Javier could walk into this room, having never seen any of this before, act the part that we gave him and he'd be charismatic and mesmerizing. It's just built into him. The same way Robert De Niro could or Jack Nicholson."

With "Whatever Works," his next film (with Larry David and Evan Rachel Wood), already in the editing room, Allen seems to have moved on from "Barcelona," but it will be interesting to see what the public's reaction on this side of the Atlantic is. The picture has the ingredients to be a late summer sleeper, but a lot is counting on the Weinstein Company to get the word out, which hasn't been one of their strong points. Can Allen surprise again? Honestly, he is probably amused that anyone even cares.

"Vicky Cristina Barcelona" opens nationwide Aug. 15.