Robert Altman's A Wedding (1979)

Robert Altman's A Wedding is a humorous wedding satire where a blue collar girl marries into a wealthy family with mob connections.  The humor is a bit dark at times, especially when the matriarch of the higher-class family (Lilian Gish) passes away in her upstairs room of her mansion while the wedding takes place downstairs. Another scene involves a car crash.

The film is discussed by several members of the cast and crew in the book Robert Altman: The Oral Biography by Mitchell Zuckoff (2009, Random House), In the book, screenwriter John Considene remembers that Altman wanted to make a film about "The American wedding industry".  Considene and Altman created over twenty characters and numerous story arcs, carefully planned in advance.  Co-screenwriter Allan Nichols remembers, "If anything A Wedding was about gossip and how gossip spreads and how gossip hurts, and how gossip helps and how gossip kills and how gossip kills the right guy sometimes."  In the same book, Carol Burnett (who plays the mother of the bride) remembers that Altman said to the actors "Please if you have an idea for a scene, come to me with it. I want to hear it. Some of the best scenes in my movies have come from the actors' ideas". 

Altman pledged all of his profits from the film to the proposed Equal Rights Constitutional Amendment, although the profits from the film were not much.

With Mia Farrow, Peggy Ann Garner, Howard Duff, Mia Farrow, Paul Dooley, Geraldine Chaplin, Dina Merril, Lauren Hutten and Desi Arnaz, Jr.

Crimes and Misdemeanors (1989)

What It's About
A movie with two parallel stories, one starring director Woody Allen and the other starring Martin Landau, who is fantastic in his role. Allen plays a documentary filmmaker, and Landau plays an eye doctor; both of them are in marriages that are fizzling. Throughout the film we learn more about them and there's always something interesting that comes up.

The Landau character has problems with his mistress (Angelica Huston) and about halfway through the film, he contemplates killing her. Sam Waterson plays an understanding rabbi who tries to help Landau emotionally and spiritually.

The two characters finally meet at the end of the film.

My Take
I thought this was a very thought provoking film, and one of the best of Allen's I've ever seen. In a great sequence, Landau's character finds himself back at a passover seder when he was a young boy, and sees his family talk about God and issues of life. The murder angle can get a bit dark at times, but I liked how the characters - in particular Landau's - question the morality of what they are doing. His wife is played by Claire Bloom. All through the movie I was wondering what would happen if/when she finds out about Landau's affair, mistress, and/or murder.

I liked the scenes where Allen dates Mia Farrow, his divorced assistant. On one of their dates they go to see see a classic movie. On another date, they watch Singin' in the Rain at home.

The Allen character also takes his young niece to the movies a few times, and they enjoy such classics as Mr. & Mrs Smith, This Gun for Hire, The Last Gangster, and a Betty Hutton musical. Scenes from each of these movies is shown.

Update 3/12/11:

I asked Gerald of Laszlo's on Lex about the retro theater featured in this film, and inquired if he had ever been there. Gerald said that the name of the theater was the Bleecker Street Cinema in the West Village, and that over the years he did attend with some regularity, as he lived nearby at the time.

Unfortunately, the theater is now gone.

More information here from the Cinema Treasures website:

http://cinematreasures.org/theater/6016/

Thanks Gerald for the information on the Bleecker.

Retro Alert:
There's a scene where Farrow's character uses a huge cell phone the size of a brick. Another scene shows Allen using a pay phone to check his messages. And this was only 21 years ago!

With Alan Alda, Darryl Hannah, Jerry Orbach. Written and Directed by Woody Allen.

My Final Grade: A-

Hannah And Her Sisters (1986)

This is one of my favorite Woody Allen films. It starts and begins at a Thanksgiving family gathering. But this movie is no turkey; it's a great script, and very music-filled - classical arrangements and big band sounds, including Cahn & Styne's "I've Heard That Song Before" performed by Harry James and his orchestra. (I can't hear that tune without thinking of this movie) The movie opens with a nice scene with patriarch Lloyd Nolan at the piano and matriarch Maureen O'Sullivan singing Rodgers & Hart, filling the room with happiness (It's so nice seeing them both in this film) Hannah is played by Mia Farrow, and my mouth watered as I saw her carry the huge Thanksgiving turkey to the table. It's the perfect family...or is it? Yikes, pretty soon we learn that Hannah's hubby (Michael Caine) has the hots for one of her sisters (Barbara Hershey). We also learn about Hannah's ex-husband (played by Allen) who drops by to visit the kids every now and then. Oh my, does he have problems, and so does one of his dates, which just so happens to be Hannah's other sister (Dianne Weist) - a drug addict. Now whether or not you like this film may depend on Allen's performance; he has a fairly large part. You either like his nebbish characterization or you don't. I think he's funny in this, and it's amusing seeing him frightened at every little ailment. His character is essentially the same as his schnook from Annie Hall, just a bit older, still nebbish. The most amusing scene, I think, might be the part where Hannah's loving parents fight and argue, which breaks the image we've have of them at the piano. There are lots of references to show business (Hannah is a an actress, her parents are retired movie stars, the Allen character works in television), religion (the Allen character thinks about converting to either Catholicism or Buddhism from Judaism), and of course, family matters. Oh, yes, and New York. I love how the scenes are divided by the title cards, a great Allen touch. (The title card that introduces the Allen character says it all: "The hypochondriac") Wonderful performances by all the actors, who really become these characters.

A scene outside the (former) Pageant Book & Print Shop in New York.
As I understand, the shop is no longer at this location.

Related posts:
-------------------------------------------------------------------

Matt Vs. The Academy: Hannah & Her Sisters review
Mythical Monkey: Mythical's favorite Thanksgiving movies (including Hannah)
Via Margutta 51: Clara reviews Tarzan and His Mate (with Maureen O'Sullivan)