Interiors (1978)
Country: US
Technical: col 95m
Director: Woody Allen
Cast: Kristin Griffith, Mary Beth Hurt, Richard Jordan, Diane Keaton, E.G. Marshall, Geraldine Page, Maureen Stapleton, Sam Waterston
Synopsis:
When a New York lawyer announces to his family that he is moving out temporarily spend time on his own, his wife and three daughters adjust each in their own way to the inevitable. Eventually the mother kills herself.
Review:
And not before time. Allen channelled his beloved Bergman, and in particular Cries and Whispers, with this funereal chamber piece about self-absorbed New Yorkers. The title at once refers to the inward-looking content of the scenario and to the 'interiors' where most of the film is set, and which are of such importance to the Page character. For many this was Woody stepping too far into self-indulgence and abstraction, trying to turn his trademark ironical introspection into art. His characters are grouped mercilessly into those with and without talent, the moaners and the survivors. Allen attempts formal sophistication via disrupted chronology, close-up composition, decor, lighting and texture, but unfortunately we all missed the laughs, and only the French lauded it. What strikes us now is how little he has developed since, so contrived does the dialogue sound; rather than having the characters respond naturally to an unfolding narrative, the gears of an omnipotent creator can be heard grinding in the background. Thereafter the director would continue to alternate or combine these two sides of his persona: visible clown and unseen commentator. Hannah and Her Sisters, for example, displayed similar thematic and structural elements to an astonishing degree, comically relieved by an intermittently present creator. Rarely did he get as radical as this again.
Country: US
Technical: col 95m
Director: Woody Allen
Cast: Kristin Griffith, Mary Beth Hurt, Richard Jordan, Diane Keaton, E.G. Marshall, Geraldine Page, Maureen Stapleton, Sam Waterston
Synopsis:
When a New York lawyer announces to his family that he is moving out temporarily spend time on his own, his wife and three daughters adjust each in their own way to the inevitable. Eventually the mother kills herself.
Review:
And not before time. Allen channelled his beloved Bergman, and in particular Cries and Whispers, with this funereal chamber piece about self-absorbed New Yorkers. The title at once refers to the inward-looking content of the scenario and to the 'interiors' where most of the film is set, and which are of such importance to the Page character. For many this was Woody stepping too far into self-indulgence and abstraction, trying to turn his trademark ironical introspection into art. His characters are grouped mercilessly into those with and without talent, the moaners and the survivors. Allen attempts formal sophistication via disrupted chronology, close-up composition, decor, lighting and texture, but unfortunately we all missed the laughs, and only the French lauded it. What strikes us now is how little he has developed since, so contrived does the dialogue sound; rather than having the characters respond naturally to an unfolding narrative, the gears of an omnipotent creator can be heard grinding in the background. Thereafter the director would continue to alternate or combine these two sides of his persona: visible clown and unseen commentator. Hannah and Her Sisters, for example, displayed similar thematic and structural elements to an astonishing degree, comically relieved by an intermittently present creator. Rarely did he get as radical as this again.
Country: US
Technical: col 95m
Director: Woody Allen
Cast: Kristin Griffith, Mary Beth Hurt, Richard Jordan, Diane Keaton, E.G. Marshall, Geraldine Page, Maureen Stapleton, Sam Waterston
Synopsis:
When a New York lawyer announces to his family that he is moving out temporarily spend time on his own, his wife and three daughters adjust each in their own way to the inevitable. Eventually the mother kills herself.
Review:
And not before time. Allen channelled his beloved Bergman, and in particular Cries and Whispers, with this funereal chamber piece about self-absorbed New Yorkers. The title at once refers to the inward-looking content of the scenario and to the 'interiors' where most of the film is set, and which are of such importance to the Page character. For many this was Woody stepping too far into self-indulgence and abstraction, trying to turn his trademark ironical introspection into art. His characters are grouped mercilessly into those with and without talent, the moaners and the survivors. Allen attempts formal sophistication via disrupted chronology, close-up composition, decor, lighting and texture, but unfortunately we all missed the laughs, and only the French lauded it. What strikes us now is how little he has developed since, so contrived does the dialogue sound; rather than having the characters respond naturally to an unfolding narrative, the gears of an omnipotent creator can be heard grinding in the background. Thereafter the director would continue to alternate or combine these two sides of his persona: visible clown and unseen commentator. Hannah and Her Sisters, for example, displayed similar thematic and structural elements to an astonishing degree, comically relieved by an intermittently present creator. Rarely did he get as radical as this again.