Summary
Another "Mozartian" but more melancholic and autumnal comedy from the master Woody Allen, with many cinephile dates, crises of uneven couples and some darts against film festivals.
For various reasons, for some time some of the critics have been quite ruthless with Woody Allen, demanding an uninterrupted succession of masterpieces. No prolific author like him is capable of it, but Allen continues to give us undeniable glimpses of his usual genius in this film.
Review
Mort Rifkin (actor and playwright Wallace Shawn) is a mature former film professor and writer who is attending the San Sebastian Festival with his wife Sue (Gina Gershon). Sue is a press agent for Philippe, a young filmmaker (Louis Garrel), and maybe something else...
Mort (another clear alter ego of the director) feels displaced in Sue's attention by the petulant and beautiful Philippe and certain circumstances make him meet a Spanish woman (Elena Anaya) to whom he feels immediately attracted.
More than once I have called Woody Allen the Mozart of filmmakers: several of his films can be equated, in style, treatment and theme, with masterpieces by the composer such as Cosi fan tutte, The Marriage of Figaro or Don Giovanni. Couples in crisis, jealousy, crosses, misunderstandings, with touches of humor, but brimming with humanity. And this is the case with this film, at least partially. Furthermore, he is a prolific director like the composers of that century.
In this film, the comedy is more shifted towards melancholy, focusing on the age difference between a mature man and his younger wife (and young women in general) and perhaps for the first time in his filmography, in a reverse situation too. The theme, of course, is recurrent in the work and life of the director, but here it occurs in a more frank and autumnal way. It would also seem deliberately that Allen chose a physically unattractive actor like Shawn to reinforce that contrast. Without reaching the forcefulness of his other films, the fearsome scenes of the director's matrimonial bedroom, in this case, however, fulfill his mission very well. Note that several scenes are filmed in still shots or sequence shots, which reinforces their naturalness.
Through Shawn, the director manifests his cinephile predilection for the great masters of European cinema of yesteryear, whom he "quotes" with uneven wit, but always quite literally in several passages of the film. It must be said that one of those quotes is remarkable and marks one of the highest points of the film; others are resolved in a more humorous way. Allen also doesn't shy away from throwing in quick, pointed comments here and there about current film festivals.
The leading quartet of actors is very good in their roles and the beauty of San Sebastian is transformed into another of the characters in the film.
For various reasons, critics have been quite ruthless with Woody Allen for some time, demanding an uninterrupted succession of masterpieces. No prolific author is capable of it, but Allen continues to give us undeniable glimpses of his usual genius in this film.
Another "Mozartian" but more melancholic and autumnal comedy from the master Woody Allen, with many cinephile dates, crises of uneven couples and some darts against film festivals.
For various reasons, for some time some of the critics have been quite ruthless with Woody Allen, demanding an uninterrupted succession of masterpieces. No prolific author like him is capable of it, but Allen continues to give us undeniable glimpses of his usual genius in this film.
Review
Mort Rifkin (actor and playwright Wallace Shawn) is a mature former film professor and writer who is attending the San Sebastian Festival with his wife Sue (Gina Gershon). Sue is a press agent for Philippe, a young filmmaker (Louis Garrel), and maybe something else...
Mort (another clear alter ego of the director) feels displaced in Sue's attention by the petulant and beautiful Philippe and certain circumstances make him meet a Spanish woman (Elena Anaya) to whom he feels immediately attracted.
More than once I have called Woody Allen the Mozart of filmmakers: several of his films can be equated, in style, treatment and theme, with masterpieces by the composer such as Cosi fan tutte, The Marriage of Figaro or Don Giovanni. Couples in crisis, jealousy, crosses, misunderstandings, with touches of humor, but brimming with humanity. And this is the case with this film, at least partially. Furthermore, he is a prolific director like the composers of that century.
In this film, the comedy is more shifted towards melancholy, focusing on the age difference between a mature man and his younger wife (and young women in general) and perhaps for the first time in his filmography, in a reverse situation too. The theme, of course, is recurrent in the work and life of the director, but here it occurs in a more frank and autumnal way. It would also seem deliberately that Allen chose a physically unattractive actor like Shawn to reinforce that contrast. Without reaching the forcefulness of his other films, the fearsome scenes of the director's matrimonial bedroom, in this case, however, fulfill his mission very well. Note that several scenes are filmed in still shots or sequence shots, which reinforces their naturalness.
Through Shawn, the director manifests his cinephile predilection for the great masters of European cinema of yesteryear, whom he "quotes" with uneven wit, but always quite literally in several passages of the film. It must be said that one of those quotes is remarkable and marks one of the highest points of the film; others are resolved in a more humorous way. Allen also doesn't shy away from throwing in quick, pointed comments here and there about current film festivals.
The leading quartet of actors is very good in their roles and the beauty of San Sebastian is transformed into another of the characters in the film.
For various reasons, critics have been quite ruthless with Woody Allen for some time, demanding an uninterrupted succession of masterpieces. No prolific author is capable of it, but Allen continues to give us undeniable glimpses of his usual genius in this film.