New York Stories (1989)

This film came out in 1989, an anthology, composed of three short films (about 40 minutes each) from 3 directors.

Woody Allen has one of the films, called "Oedipus Wrecks". He plays himself, a single man who is dating Mia Farrow (who has 2 kids - one of them Kristen Dunst). He also has a mother who is always making disapproving comments, is overly critical, and generally overbearing. I have a relative with the same personality! There's a part where she comes over to his office and interrupts a business meeting. The old mother is played by Mae Questel who was the old senile lady in Christmas Vacation. She's really funny in this and should have been in more movies. I liked the short because it shows how Woody deals with her and learns to cope with her and accept her and I could relate to that.

I couldn't relate to the short film that Francis Ford Coppola directed. It's about a rich girl who lives in a hotel in New York. She has a famous musician dad (Giancarlo Gianni) and wants to see him reunite with her mom played by Talia Shire. There's also a new rich boy who comes from royalty from an unnamed country. The girl befriends him. There's also a robbery, and some funny moments with her butler played by Don Novello. He's the only down-to-earth character in this and funny; I don't know why he hasn't done more movies. Most critics don't like this short. It feels really choppy as if were three half-hour sitcom episodes cut to 40 minutes. His daughter Sophia Coppola co-wrote this, so there may be some personal/semi-autobiographical content in this, but I'm not sure. I know Francis' father was a professional flautist, so certainly there's a familial connection there.

In one scene, some of the characters take a stroll in New York's Central Park, and there's a cool shot of this awesome-looking bridge (see below). I'd love to see that bridge one day if I ever get a chance to visit New York:

Finally, Martin Scorsese's film Life Lessons is the first short, and it's pretty good. Scorsese only directed; he didn't write this film. Nick Nolte plays an artist in New York with a big studio apartment with lots of paint and canvases, and he has an apprentice/former lover (Rosanna Arquette) who lives there too. It's basically a simple story, and it's lighthearted and funny.  Nolte makes a good artist, I thought. Believable as he whips his paintbrush and oil paints on the canvas. He reminds me of a friend I had (who died last year) who was about the same age as Nolte's character in the film. We went to art galleries together and browsed and talked about the art. He even loved to paint on canvas (I have some of this paintings I want to keep) and inspired me to do more painting as well.

Cafe Society (2016) and A Star is Born (1937)

I saw Cafe Society in January of 2017. It's Woody Allen's latest film, set in Hollywood in the 1930s. I really liked it. It slowly turns into a love triangle story involving Steve Carell's agent character and two young people (Jesse Eisenberg and Kristen Stewart) at the start of their careers. The movie then ends on a bittersweet note, kind of reminding me of the ending of La La Land (2016) because I felt the characters were asking themselves "I wonder what might have been?"

Besides the period costumes and sets, one of my favorite things about the movie is that every now and then a character will name-drop a real-life actor or filmmaker from that era ("in Gable's last picture..." or "Did Selznick produce that one?..."). It becomes something of a running gag that I really got a kick out of.

It's really interesting to see actors like Kristen Stewart and Blake Lively appear in a Woody Allen film. They're not bad actors, it's just that some of their previous work has been geared to a younger audience.  Jesse Eisenberg was in To Rome with Love.

Another Hollywood-themed movie I saw was the original 1937 version of A Star is Born, with Janet Gaynor and Fredric March.  It's also set in the same time period, the 1930s. A starstruck Janet moves from her farm town to Hollywood to become an actor, and finds love and support from March. They eventually get married and are one of the most famous couples in Hollywood (but of course she is more famous -- a star on the rise, and he's on the way down). The strangest part of the film was the trailer-in-the-woods honeymoon sequence, which seemed a bit out of place and questionable destination for a honeymoon for two big name stars.

I liked the scene where a drunken March makes a speech in front of the crowd; he does something similar in front of a crowd in The Best Years of Our Lives during a dinner scene.

If you've seen any of the A Star is Born movies then you know what happens at the end, but I won't spoil it if you don't know what happens....just that it ends on a sad note.

I think these two movies - Cafe Society and 1937's A Star is Born - would make for an interesting double feature centering around 1930s Hollywood.

Magic in the Moonlight (2015), The Help (2011) and Birdman (2014)

The first movie I ever saw with Emma Stone was in an OK 2009 Matthew McCaunaughy comedy called Ghosts of Girlfriends past where she plays a "ghost" version of Matthew's first girlfriend - a nerdy 90s teen.  Her character was funny and one of the best things about the movie. Easy A (2010) was her next film which I enjoyed too, and found some of the gags to be hilarious.

She co-stars in Woody Allen's last film Magic in the Moonlight, which came out last year (2014). I enjoyed this movie, especially  all the period sets and costumes. Stone really impressed me in this movie as the clairvoyant who may or may not be a fraud; I thought she was very appealing and likable. I liked Colin Firth in it too, and though he and Stone were sort of cute together, even though he is about 25 years older. Still, it reminded me of the Cary Grant movies of the 1960s.

Then I watched The Help (2011) for the first time early this year, and also enjoyed that film. Stone is the glue that holds the film together - she is as a young writer documenting the life of maids in the American South of 1963. Octavia Spencer is great and so is Bryce Dallas Howard, even though her character is so racist. But the glue holding all of the stories together is Emma Stone, and she has some heartbreaking emotional moments when she learns more about the maid who raised her (Cicely Tyson).

The next movie I watched with Emma was Birdman, which won a bunch of awards earlier this year. Her big scene in the movie comes when she has a verbal fight with her dad (Michael Keaton),

but later is shown bringing him flowers when he's in the hospital, and then looking out the window to what--I have no idea. I suppose people will be talking about that for ever.

The latest movie to feature Emma is Aloha (2015), which was released a few weeks ago but I have still not seen it; she has a supporting role in it.

Her next film is Irrational Man (Woody Allen's new film), and she co-stars with Joaquin Phoenix (I don't care for him too much).

Blue Jasmine (2013)

Cate Blanchett was really good; I'd be very happy if she won the Oscar this year. The movie is all about her character, a New York socialite who relocates to San Francisco after losing all her wealth. The screenplay by director Woody  Her character is like a fish out of water, and there is some humor in that. When a man falls for her, it made me think of the Vivien Leigh and Karl Malden characters in  A Streetcar Named Desire.  For example, I like how the movie frequently flashes back to her life in New York with her ex husband, played by Alec Baldwin, who's been playing philandering characters going back to 1988's Married to the Mob and Working Girl. The flashbacks slowly reveals what Blanchett's character went through. The supporting cast is excellent as well, especially Sally Hawkins who plays her sister --- she's like the "Stella" character from Streetcar.  And I love all the locations in this movie and scenery. There's a cool view when when Blanchett steps on the terrace of an oceanfront property.

To Rome With Love (2012)

Set in Rome, the movie is made up of four vignettes, some better than others.

The one I liked best was the one with Roberto Benigni, who I don't think has been in any movie since Life Is Beautiful (La vita è bella). He plays an ordinary man who suddenly is chased by the paparazzi for no apparent reason. It's comical, and brought to mind the paparazzi of La Dolce Vita.

Another story I liked features a couple in Rome on a short business trip. When the wife gets lost in the city, the husband finds himself spending the day with another woman - a prostitute, played by Penelope Cruz - introducing her to his family and business contacts with comical results.

There's another one with Alec Baldwin, who plays a mentor to a young architect Jesse Eisenberg. Alec is pretty flat in this; he seemed to be reading all of his lines for the first time, uninterested. George Clooney might have been a better choice than Alec in that role.

Jesse gets caught in a love triangle with his girlfriend Greta Gerwig and Greta's best friend on vacation Ellen Page.

I'm giving To Rome With Love a "C" - average. The vignettes are amusing but not too remarkable. Lovely scenery of Rome, though.

Midnight In Paris (2011)

I've been looking forward to this new Woody Allen movie all year, and I finally saw it. Much of the film is just what I expected: part fantasy reminiscent of Purple Rose of Cairo (one of my favorite films) where Owen Wilson's character Gil - a writer on vacation with his girlfriend - meets some of the great artists and writers of the 1920s and earlier (in his dreams, of course). My favorite part was when he meets Toulouse Lautrec in a can-can and this is a really fun part.

In the film Gil makes a comment that Parisians are more sophisticated than Americans, and dreams of living there. He is also a nostalgia buff and idolizes artists of the past, which is a preoccupation that is criticized by other characters in the film.

At midnight each night, his dreams come true and is magically is transported back into time to Paris in the 1920s, and gets "advice" from the likes of Gertrude Stein and Ernest Hemingway. Gil's left wing political views aren't explored any further, even when he comes into contact with all of these artists who would have shared his political passions. One character makes a comment about Trotsky which made me want to see a scene with Trotsky and Gil (it doesn't happen but that would have been interesting!).

I always love it when a film brings together so many historical figures because it always makes me want to learn more about them. In the movie, we see short glimpses of Cole Porter, Josephine Baker, and filmmaker Luis Bunuel, but they are very short and those people don't become supporting characters, which I was secretly hoping for. I'm not a Bunuel expert so I probably missed some of the inside jokes that Allen writes in here. Picasso shows up, and I wished there were more scenes with him. I'd even love to see Chagall at work. Oh well, now we're talking about my dream and not Gil's.

The movie met my expectations for the most part, and I pleasantly surprised to see so many shots of great Paris landmarks. I've been there and this brought back alot of great memories of my trip. Someone even mentions going on a trip to Mont St Michel. Wow - I've been there too and how fun it would have been to see that on the big screen. Has there ever been a movie filmed on Mont St Michel? I wonder.

But still, there is something missing from this film that I still have not been able to put my finger on. I don't consider this to be a masterpiece like I think Purple Rose is. I walked out of this movie longing to see John Huston's Moulin Rouge again. Now that's a great film.

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:
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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)