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DVD Interiors
Although indisputably a film by Woody Allen, Interiors is about as far from "a Woody Allen film" as you can get--and maybe more people could have seen what a fine film it is if they hadn't been expecting what Allen himself called "one of his earlier, funnier movies." An entirely serious, rather too self-consciously Bergmanesque drama about a divorcing elderly couple and their grown daughters, it is slow, meditative, and constructed with a brilliant, painterly eye. There is no music--a simple effect that Allen uses with extraordinary power. In fact, half the film is filled with silent faces staring out of windows, yet the mood is so engaging, hypnotic even, that you never feel the director is poking you in the ribs and saying, "somber atmosphere." Diane Keaton, released for once from the goofy ditz stereotype, shines as the "successful" daughter. Some of the dialogue is stilted, and it's hard to tell whether this is a deliberate effect or simply the way repressed upscale New Yorkers talk after too many years having their self-absorption sharpened on the therapist's couch. Fanatical, almost childish self-regard is the chief subject of Allen's comedy--it's remarkable that in this film he was able to remove the comedy but leave room for us to pity and care about these rather irritating people. --Richard Farr
This was Woody Allen's first "serious" movie, and it reveals his reverence for Ingmar Bergman (as his comedies do for Groucho Marx). It's about an anguished family of four sisters who, through false pretenses, self-absorbtion, and puritanical snootiness, have hurt each other badly. This is all brought to a head when the father (E.G. Marshall) announces he's leaving their mother (Geraldine Page), who is showing signs of mental distress; she can't accept this and eventually kills herself after he remarries. The movie can be maddeningly pretentious and "arty" at times, as with all Allen's subsequent dramas, but it also offers quite a bit to ponder as well.
Important Landmark in Allen's Body of Work.
`Interiors', written and directed by Woody Allen, is by far his most serious work and his biggest departure from his earlier comedies, yet, as the film he did between the major award-winning `Annie Hall' and the comic, but much more serious `Manhattan', it was probably one of the more important milestones marking the changes in his writing. It certainly gave rise to the entire popular and critical hubbub about preferring his earlier, `funny' movies; an attitude Allen parodies himself in `Stardust Memories'.
In spite of the fact that I can detect not one hint of a joke in `Interiors', this does not mean Allen has abandoned his core subjects of sex, death, creative freeze-up, parents, and relationships between partners. Diane Keaton, for example, plays a character almost identical to her role in `Manhattan', a New York literary figure. In `Manhattan', she is a successful book editor. In `Interiors', she is a successful poet married to a less successful novelist and teacher, very similar to the character played by Michael Murphy in `Manhattan', to whom she plays mistress. One of the many little subplots which spills over into sexual misdirection is Keaton's husband, played by Richard Jordan, virtually raping Keaton's actress sister, played by Kristin Griffith.
The story is incredibly spare. Aside from two suicides and the rape, practically nothing happens other than dialogue. Unlike so many of Allen's other movies, even the location is anonymous. While a keen eye will spot some unobvious New York City scenes and the suburban locations are not hard to assume to be Long Island, `New York' manages to stay out of this movie as a character. The very spare set decoration is an essential part of this story, as part of the sense of the title, `Interiors', comes from the occupation of the central character played by Geraldine Page, whose role is the mother of three daughters (Keaton, Hurt, Griffith) and the wife of a lawyer played by E.G. Marshall. Marshall's character creates the basic situation driving the movie when he announces he has decided he needs to live alone, apart from his wife.
Of course, the movie would be incredibly shallow if the whole story was about living in bare white Manhattan co-ops and equally spare Long Island beach houses. The relations between the eight star roles are certainly enough to spin all sorts of symbolism meaning this, that, but I will try to keep speculation to a minimum.
While the parents separation and Page's suicides are the external forces driving the story, the `interiors' story seems to be the fact that with the possible exception of Maureen Stapleton, Marshall's post-separation girlfriend, not one of the characters interact with any of their family members with any empathy or feeling until the suicides precipitate an external need for action. Stapleton's difference from the other characters stands out in that she is the only lead character who is not part of this family of highly disconnected people.
I am hard pressed to think of any playwright or filmmaker with whom to compare this work. It is totally free of the kind of energy common to most American filmmakers, who, except for my other hero director, Stanley Kubrick, seem to be uncomfortable if more than ten seconds goes by without strong words or action showing up on the screen. It is also totally free of the kind of obvious imagery we see from Bergman or Fellini. We may not know to what they are alluding, but we are darn sure they have hidden a message somewhere in those wild strawberries or that giant fish. The closest I can come may be some of the plays of Eugene O'Neill and Tennessee Williams. I am less familiar with Ibsen, but I suspect there may be some influence from that quarter as well.
If for no other reason, this movie is a delight to see the workings of such a great ensemble cast perform together. This is by far the youngest appearance I recall seeing of Sam Waterston and we probably see far too little of Marshall, Stapleton, Page, and Keaton in really serious work.
Other reviewers have amply commented on the great skill and beauty of the cinematography. I will interject a small concern that some of the scenes were a bit too dark, not that anything but the dialogue was very important in most scenes.
This is a very hard movie to recommend. While Allen has done other movies with very serious themes such as `The Purple Rose of Cairo', `Crimes and Misdemeanors', `September' and `Husbands and Wives', this movie is about as far from his center of gravity based on humor as you can possibly imagine. Therefore, if you are simply amused by his movies, you may want to take a pass on `Interiors'. On the other hand, if you like the way Allen treats his core subjects, you should really see this movie at least once. For died in the wool Allen fans, you probably need to watch it about once every two years to see what new insights it gives on Allen's art.
Another side from Allen
Haunting, bleak, somber, grey, tragic, morose, repressed. All these describe Interiors. And this Woody Allen made right after Annie Hall! The story, expanded upon throughout the rest of these reviews, is about a family struggling with each other after the matriarch has a nervous breakdown. The children, three sisters (echoing "Cries and Whispers" and Chekov?), their significant others, and their father all debate what of their lives and history and mother and each other. Interiors is a moving film, not funny, not even light, save for Maureen Stapleton, the only character with any positive energy, whose vitality is echoed in her red, pink and kalidescopic clothing. But Interiors is a great examination and an up-close creation of a family's struggles within itself and how each individuals issues shapes the family. The set designs, in very muted tones, the clothing, the lack of music, the darkness, and the harsh and gorgeous beach photography all enhance the story.
The DVD has no features, except the usual language modifications, wide-screen/standard option and trailer.
Recommended for those interested in Allen's darker side and/or Ingmar Bergman-like/Scandanavian aesthetic.
This underrated film is by far Woody Allen's most satisfying I-wish-I-were-Ingmar Bergman movie, and in its elegantly constrained fashion it teems with imagination--not to mention a glorious cast. Gena Rowlands plays a philosophy professor who, subletting an apartment as a writing office, finds that the confidences murmured to her psychiatrist neighbor are audible through the air vents. In particular, the fears and desperation of a younger, very pregnant woman (Mia Farrow) trigger a stream of reveries regarding the professor's own life, past romances, and troubled family. Some of these seem to be straightforward memories (though we take too much for granted, and that's part of the point); others are theatrically stylized, with different actors taking over roles initiated by others... More Info about this DVD Actor(s): Gena Rowlands - Mia Farrow Director(s): Woody Allen DVD Release Date: Released the 05 June 2001 Usually ships in 24 hours
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Manhattan, Woody Allen's follow-up to Oscar-winning Annie Hall, is a film of many distinctions: its glorious all-Gershwin score, its breathtakingly elegant black-and-white, widescreen cinematography by Gordon Willis (best-known for shooting the Godfather movies); its deeply shaded performances; its witty screenplay that marked a new level in Allen's artistic maturity; and its catalog of Things that Make Life Worth Living. But Manhattan is also distinguished in the realm of home video as the first motion picture to be released only in a widescreen version. You wouldn't want to see it any other way. Allen's "Rhapsody in Gray" concerns, as his own character puts it, "people in Manhattan who are constantly creating these real, unnecessary, neurotic problems... More Info about this DVD Actor(s): Woody Allen - Diane Keaton - Mariel Hemingway Director(s): Woody Allen DVD Release Date: Released the 05 July 2000 Usually ships in 24 hours
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Some critics and filmgoers have hailed this 1989 comedy-drama as Woody Allen's best film, and while that's certainly open for debate, a good case can be made that it's the most ambitious and morally complex of Allen's films. It's the kind of movie that provokes heated philosophical debate about the role of God in our lives, the nature of guilt, and the circumstances that would allow a seemingly good, law-abiding family man and successful professional (Martin Landau) to commit a murder with no risk of being caught. Could you live with yourself under those conditions? Allen explores this complicated issue in the context of an extramarital affair that Landau's mistress (Anjelica Huston) threatens to expose, while developing a second story about a documentary filmmaker (Allen) who reluctantly... More Info about this DVD Actor(s): Woody Allen - Martin Landau Director(s): Woody Allen DVD Release Date: Released the 05 June 2001 Usually ships in 24 hours
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"Doesn't he know he's got the greatest gift anyone can have, the gift of laughter?" Woody Allen stars as filmmaker Sandy Bates, who, like John Sullivan in Preston Sturges's Sullivan's Travels, no longer wants to make comedies. As studio executives threaten to wrest control of his latest film, he reluctantly attends a weekend film-culture festival in his honor, where he is besieged by journalists ("I'm doing a piece on the shallow indifference of celebrities"), groupies ("I drove all the way from Bridgeport to make it with you"), and persistent oddballs ("Can I talk to you about my idea I have for a movie? It's a comedy based on the whole Guyana mass suicide").
After the exhilarating Manhattan, Stardust Memories was a dramatic departure that threw critics and fans... More Info about this DVD Actor(s): Woody Allen - Charlotte Rampling Director(s): Woody Allen DVD Release Date: Released the 05 July 2000 Usually ships in 24 hours
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September is best known as the movie Woody Allen made twice, bang on top of each other, and still brought in on time and on budget.He decided the casting wasn't working, switched some actors and roles, and altogether dumped Sam Shepard (who subsequently had very uncomplimentary things to say about Allen as a director of actors). That was some kind of achievement and said reams about Allen's efficiency and adaptability as a filmmaker. Unhappily, the congratulations end there, for September is the single most excruciating viewing experience the Woodman ever invited audiences to share.
You could say September is Interiors without the laughs (joke: there are no laughs in Interiors either), without the pull of the Hamptons shore outside the windows, and... More Info about this DVD Actor(s): Denholm Elliott - Dianne Wiest - Mia Farrow - Elaine Stritch Director(s): Woody Allen DVD Release Date: Released the 05 June 2001 Usually ships within 1 to 3 weeks
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