Saturday, August 6, 2011

Hannah and Her Sisters (1986)

Director: Woody Allen. Cast: Mia Farrow, Dianne Wiest, Michael Caine, Barbara Hershey, Woody Allen, Carrie Fisher, Max Von Sydow, Julia Louis-Dreyfus, J.T. Walsh, John Turturro, Daniel Stern, Richard Jenkins, Sam Waterston. 103 min. Rated PG-13. Comedy/Romance.

Heralded as one of Allen's best; but I've seen much better by him. The story of three sisters (Farrow, Hershey, Weist) and their cross-matching husbands/lovers is narrated in parallel to the story of Allen's own neurotic persona in search of a God (or lack thereof) - but I was never convinced what the connection between the two stories was, other than lengthening movie time or providing an opportunity for Allen's forever-welcome comedic presence. Makes you wish he acted more often.

PS: Older readers may disagree, but compared to the Woody Allen of the 70s and 80s (Annie Hall and Manhattan included), I find the Allen of the new century (Vicky Cristina Barcelona, Match Point, Midnight in Paris) much more interesting.

Mo says:

2 comments:

  1. I agree with you that recent works of him are more absorbing than old ones,however , whenever I see Woody ‘s movies, it makes me thoughtful for a few days to any concept he tried to tell the audience …even details …even minor characters like Father & mother of 3 sisters draw my attention to analyze their personalities which are not ordinary most of the time and often are complicated and weird. He tells some bitter facts so bravely that makes me speechless. About some life that is going on by such big lie and Hannah won't be informed of this lie by none of two people who are supposed to be the closest one to her !and at the end all pretend nothing happened and try to be happy again and life goes on as usual !

    The other think that almost is amused for me is Woody thinks that people change as quick as possible. I personaly don’t believe in such speed! But he believes ...maybe since his main character is always neurotic or overall are emotionaly-based they are easy to change …

    Anyway, intelligent & Lovely moviemaker and concepts ..

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  2. The curious thing about Allen is that he makes 1-2 movies a year, his movies almost never sell very well, and still we always want to watch his next movie or try one of his older movies, just because we always want to know what else he has to say. There's rarely a filmmaker out there ready to challenge so many small but grand new ideas.

    (Herzog is another filmmaker with similar work features that comes to mind.)

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