Manhattan (1979)
Country: US
Technical: bw/scope 96m
Director: Woody Allen
Cast: Woody Allen, Diane Keaton, Mariel Hemingway, Michael Murphy, Meryl Streep
Synopsis:
A comedy writer for television fights with his ex-wife, quits his job to write a novel and hesitates between a 17 year-old student and the cast-off lover of his best friend.
Review:
This film from Allen's early-middle period has aged alarmingly in its cavalier treatment of the central relationship with a minor, and it is surprising that despite subsequent events in the artist's personal life it retains the respect it deserves: the script is still witty and eloquent about its mid-life issues, the cinematography is arty but palatably so, with some careful compositions in widescreen format, and the music track is a studied collection of gems, with pride of place given to Gershwin. In spite, or even because, of its problematic aspects, it remains his best film, and the first in which he assays, and achieves, a visual beauty and aural splendour. A mature work which ends on a note of melancholy optimism it is hard to forget.
Country: US
Technical: bw/scope 96m
Director: Woody Allen
Cast: Woody Allen, Diane Keaton, Mariel Hemingway, Michael Murphy, Meryl Streep
Synopsis:
A comedy writer for television fights with his ex-wife, quits his job to write a novel and hesitates between a 17 year-old student and the cast-off lover of his best friend.
Review:
This film from Allen's early-middle period has aged alarmingly in its cavalier treatment of the central relationship with a minor, and it is surprising that despite subsequent events in the artist's personal life it retains the respect it deserves: the script is still witty and eloquent about its mid-life issues, the cinematography is arty but palatably so, with some careful compositions in widescreen format, and the music track is a studied collection of gems, with pride of place given to Gershwin. In spite, or even because, of its problematic aspects, it remains his best film, and the first in which he assays, and achieves, a visual beauty and aural splendour. A mature work which ends on a note of melancholy optimism it is hard to forget.
Country: US
Technical: bw/scope 96m
Director: Woody Allen
Cast: Woody Allen, Diane Keaton, Mariel Hemingway, Michael Murphy, Meryl Streep
Synopsis:
A comedy writer for television fights with his ex-wife, quits his job to write a novel and hesitates between a 17 year-old student and the cast-off lover of his best friend.
Review:
This film from Allen's early-middle period has aged alarmingly in its cavalier treatment of the central relationship with a minor, and it is surprising that despite subsequent events in the artist's personal life it retains the respect it deserves: the script is still witty and eloquent about its mid-life issues, the cinematography is arty but palatably so, with some careful compositions in widescreen format, and the music track is a studied collection of gems, with pride of place given to Gershwin. In spite, or even because, of its problematic aspects, it remains his best film, and the first in which he assays, and achieves, a visual beauty and aural splendour. A mature work which ends on a note of melancholy optimism it is hard to forget.