My pick is Another Woman, which I rescreened a few days ago. It's got the best supporting cast, most in peak form (Sandy Dennis, Martha Plimpton, Ian Holm, the late John Houseman, a riveting Gene Hackman), making up for a ridiculous scenario and real howlers (Gena Rowlands to Ian Holm: "Would you ever think of making love to me on the kitchen floor?"). Good use of Erik Satie too.
Interiors is too schematic to entertain; it rouses itself only when Maureen Stapleton channels Shelley Winters ina blood-red dress. September feels like 10th grade Chekhov.
― Alfred, Lord Sotosyn (Alfred Soto), Sunday, 25 June 2006 22:06 (nineteen years ago)
― chap who would dare to be a nerd, not a geek (chap), Sunday, 25 June 2006 22:11 (nineteen years ago)
― scott seward (scott seward), Sunday, 25 June 2006 22:12 (nineteen years ago)
― Alfred, Lord Sotosyn (Alfred Soto), Sunday, 25 June 2006 22:25 (nineteen years ago)
― horseshoe (horseshoe), Sunday, 25 June 2006 23:40 (nineteen years ago)
― Alfred, Lord Sotosyn (Alfred Soto), Monday, 26 June 2006 00:11 (nineteen years ago)
― timmy tannin (pompous), Monday, 26 June 2006 00:17 (nineteen years ago)
― Alfred, Lord Sotosyn (Alfred Soto), Monday, 26 June 2006 00:33 (nineteen years ago)
― latebloomer aka rap's yoko ono (latebloomer), Monday, 26 June 2006 00:45 (nineteen years ago)
― Marmot 4-Tay: forth-coming, my child. forth-coming most righteous champion (mar, Monday, 26 June 2006 00:57 (nineteen years ago)
The creation of a distinct mood, atmosphere & ambience is always something that draws me to a film, and I think that these films build that psychological environment better than any of his works. "September" is probably his most clever sound design, and really makes you feel like you're "in" the movie more than most films I've seen. Interiors is just haunting & unsettling, incredibly dark & cold & empty. Yes, it's Allen-doing-Bergman, but I would argue that he does it just as well with this film (dare I say, maybe even better--it reminds me quite a bit of "Through a Glass Darkly", but I think it's more effect because of the brilliant sterile set design).
"Another Woman" has Gena Rowlands--enough said.
― jay blanchard (jay blanchard), Monday, 26 June 2006 01:06 (nineteen years ago)
What Allen does best is either spoof Chekhov and Bergman or mix the spoof with homage to create his own Jewish New York hybrid.
Can you really watch September w/out cackling, jay? When Gena Rowlands in AW said, while reading her mother's "favorite volume of Rilke poems" that "she saw the traces of her tears" on the last line of the panther poem, I poured myself another glass of wine.
― Alfred, Lord Sotosyn (Alfred Soto), Monday, 26 June 2006 01:12 (nineteen years ago)
Kenan loves Another Woman.
Jaymc: "How would I have seen Another Woman?"
― a great big turk running amok with a machete (kenan), Monday, 26 June 2006 04:47 (nineteen years ago)
― J.D. (Justyn Dillingham), Monday, 26 June 2006 05:41 (nineteen years ago)
http://dannymiller.typepad.com/photos/uncategorized/annie_hall_169539.jpgOn the Shores of Hell
etcccccc lolz
― Werner Herzog Netflix Quine (ex machina), Monday, 26 June 2006 05:56 (nineteen years ago)
― Marmot 4-Tay: forth-coming, my child. forth-coming most righteous champion (mar, Monday, 26 June 2006 06:34 (nineteen years ago)
Well, this doesn't get you much past the "Love and Death"/"Annie Hall" phase then.
I don't particularly enjoy Allen for his comedic works. Yes, some of his stuff can be pretentious in that "I've never gotten past this high-school fixation with Dostoevesky & rich, non-Jewish Manhattanites" fetish of his, but once you get past that little tic, it can be very rewarding. He gets some amazing moments out of his actors, despite the faux-headiness of some of the writing, and the cinematography in this trillogy in particularly is gorgeous.
In my opinion, this films were just warm-ups to his most rewarding films (which mixed drama & comedy, BTW), Crimes & Misdemeanors, Radio Days & especially Husbands and Wives.
And, yes, I can watch "September" quite easily without laughing.
― jay blanchard (jay blanchard), Monday, 26 June 2006 10:57 (nineteen years ago)
Wait, how did you know this???
― jaymc (jaymc), Monday, 26 June 2006 12:26 (nineteen years ago)
― jaymc (jaymc), Monday, 26 June 2006 12:28 (nineteen years ago)
― Dr Morbius (Dr Morbius), Monday, 26 June 2006 12:57 (nineteen years ago)
You posted this somewhere, methinks.
― Alfred, Lord Sotosyn (Alfred Soto), Monday, 26 June 2006 13:11 (nineteen years ago)
"Let's go to Paris."
"Ohhhh....I forgot you're a writer. You make my head spin."
― guess that bundt gettin eaten (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Wednesday, 12 November 2014 23:47 (eleven years ago)
Some of us do very well at forgetting such lines. That said, at last look I liked Interiors and thought Another Woman was OK.
And I sat right in front of Mary Beth Hurt tonight at a screening ofChilly Scenes of Winter!
― things lose meaning over time (Dr Morbius), Thursday, 13 November 2014 05:00 (eleven years ago)
http://img2.wikia.nocookie.net/__cb20060420220205/doom/images/b/bc/07dvd02-1-.jpg
― linda cardellini (zachlyon), Thursday, 13 November 2014 05:07 (eleven years ago)
September and Interiors available for Netflix streaming; that's how I rewatched the former. I like AW best because Sam Waterston doesn't play a Maoist.
― guess that bundt gettin eaten (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Thursday, 13 November 2014 11:57 (eleven years ago)
Another Woman's become my Woody Allen comfort movie. Gena Rowlands' death has added to its poignancy.
― the talented mr pimply (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Monday, 16 September 2024 19:50 (one year ago)