Wednesday, September 28, 2011

Manhattan

Woody Allen can't choose between Diane Keaton and Mariel Hemingway. Also starring Meryl Streep, directed by Woody Allen.

The film looks great. There's the black and white cinematography by Gordon Willis, and Allen has found his directorial style here - the long takes and people walking in and out of the picture. But the characters are a bunch of whiny, rich people. It's just hard to care about any of them. If the film is supposed to be a satire of the Me Generation from the 70s, I guess it works a bit better. And it's a bit funny that the film ends with what is now the ultimate romantic comedy cliché: the rush to the airport or whatever for the declaration of love scene. So, in the end I find the more uneven early films more appealing. The fact that they were not perfect is part of what I like about them.

2 comments:

  1. You´re right, it´s hard to feel anything for these people and their so called problems but this can be said about the characters in all his films (the mute girl in Sweet And Lowdown played by wonderful Samathan Morton as a perhaps rare example). Never the less I FEEL that Woodys character is an ass for treating Mariel Hemmingways character the way he does. It is still a beautiful movie and funny, I love that you don't actually see Waffles.

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  2. The planetarium scene is great. And those neurotic New York intellectuals exist, I would guess, it's not like they're made up by Woody Allen.
    Yes, hopefully Mariel Hemingway punched Allen in the face and broke his glasses the second after the end credits started rolling.

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