Hannah and Her Sisters.

Hannah and her sisters, lee and Holly.

Another movie from Woody Allan about the arty farty upper middle class and their morally incomprehensible baggage.  Hannah and Her Sisters (1986) chronicle’s the story of an extended New York family over a period between two-thanksgiving celebrations. Hannah, a successful actress, is married to Elliot, who feels inadequate and falls in love with her sister Lee. Lee lives with a much older reclusive artist and for a time returns Elliot's rather clumsy advances. Hannah's hypochondriac ex-husband Mickey rekindles his relationship with her sister Holly, a former cocaine addict who does not seem able to settle to any one career and depends on Hannah's monetary hand-outs. There are even more dubious relationship’s including Hannah’s mother and father who seem unable to except there advancing years.

Hannah and her ex husband Mickey.

Credit where credits due, Allan can write a cracking script at times, and this is one of them bringing a new meaning to share and share alike!  When his writing is good it's very good and this film boasts his great sense of wicked humour. Not content with writing and directing Allan also appears in the film as Mickey just one of the immensely unlikeable character's that always inhabit Allan's world. This episodic movie stars Mia Farrow as Hannah, Michael Caine as Elliot, Barbara Hershey and Dianne Wiest as the sisters Lee and Holly. With a soundtrack that compliments the movie, it ranks as one of Allan's most successful movies receiving seven Academy Awards nominations, winning Best Screenplay for Allan and Best Supporting actor and actress for Caine and Wiest. Not quite up there with Radio Day's (1987) but so very much better than his recent work. Worth a look even for non-Allan fans like myself.

Michael Caine won Best Supporting Actor for his role as Elliott.

Radio Days.

Excluding Vicky Cristina Barcelona (2008) there’s never been a Woody Allen film I can honestly say I particularly enjoyed. Most film fans I converse with are quite aware of my feelings but also know that I have made every effort to try and see what all the fuss is about. During one of these conversations with the head projectionist at my local cinema he insisted that there was a film directed by Allen that he had no doubt, I would enjoy. So to cut a long discussion short I promised that I would watch it at my earliest convenience. Being a man of my word I duly added it to my Love Film rental list and low and behold Radio Days (1986) dropped on the mat at the end of last week.

The Family.

Ok Mr Head Projectionist, I admit it, you were right!! This particular film from our Brooklyn born director is a very entertainingly funny movie. The film is about growing up in 1940’s Brooklyn, New York City during the golden age of radio broadcasting. It’s centred on a close-knit working class Jewish family with Allan narrating the story through the youngest member of the family, Joe (Seth Green). Each member of this extended family has their own take on the radio programmes they continually play as a soundtrack to their lives. The narrative is formed from a series of connecting vignettes. It boasts a great 1930 and 40’s soundtrack again mainly heard through the medium of radio programs.

Allen regular's Tony Roberts and Dianne Wiest.

The film stars some of Woody Allen’s regular cast members including two of his muses Mia Farrow and Diane Keaton and the wonderful Dianne Wiest who won an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress in two of Allen’s films Hannah and Her Sisters (1987) and Bullets Over Broadway (1995) also appearing in his The Purple Rose of Cairo (1985) and September (1987) in her latest release she play’s Nicole Kidman’s mother in The Rabbit Hole (2010).

I would suspect as Allen wrote this movie that it was based on episodes from his own childhood. The film is told with Allan’s normal satirical take on Jewish life and displays a marvellous feel for the period. Yes ok I really liked the film and yes ok I would recommend it to Woody Allen sceptics like myself, and just remember sceptics Mr Allen does not actually appear on screen!!

Rabbit Hole

American writer, actor, and director John Cameron Mitchell is best known for Hedwig and the Angry Inch 2001 an award-winning musical about an East German transgender rock musician chasing after an ex-lover who stole her songs and the 2006 film Shortbus an explicit sexual movie about the lives of several characters living in present day New York. Both films pushed sexual limits and broke genre boundaries. Rabbit Hole 2010, a drama he filmed primarily in suburb of the borough of Queens, New York City, marks a major progression for Mitchell. Pulitzer Prize winning play writer David Lindsay-Abaire from his 2005 play of the same name adapted the screenplay. The plot deals with a middle class couple, Becca and Howie Corbett who are struggling to cope with the untimely death of their 4 year-old son Danny who was accidently run over and killed eight months previously when he run into the road outside his garden gate after his dog. Becca, attempting to cope in isolation, is cold, withdrawn and inconsolable rejecting any form of support or help, turning her back on the self help group she was attending with her husband and forcing him to look elsewhere for comfort. Finding acceptance only after she forms an unconventional bond with Jason, a teenager who was the unwitting instrument of the child’s death. The film stars Nicole Kidman as Becca Corbett, Aaron Eckhart as her husband with Dianne Wiest as her mother and relative newcomer Miles Teller in his first feature film as Jason.

This brave, honest film has few direct comparisons; primarily at the its heart is the grief over the death of a child that in similar films is not always dealt with head on. It has been proved that even after many years, parents grieving the death of a young child can still suffer from deep bouts of depression, experience divorce and have an above average death rate, I think this courageous film demonstrates the heartache and misery attached to such an emotive subject.

The award winning actress Nicole Kidman.

Ms Kidman produced the project via her company, Blossom Films and it premiered at the 2010 Toronto International Film Festival in September of that year. Dianne Wiest, who has won two Academy Awards for Best Supporting Actress including 1986 Hannah and Her Sisters and Bullets over Broadway (1994), gives a performance to match the best of her work. Eckhart, who you may know from Thank You For Not Smoking (2006) and as Two Face in The Dark Knight (2008) is superb as a husband tortured by both the death of his son and his declining marriage. Nicole Kidman was critically acclaimed for her remarkable performance as Becca Corbett. I quote “We expect disciplined, precise work from her, but there is new range here, with a willingness to show frayed emotions that make this one of the finest performances of her career” (for which) she received an Academy Award nomination for Best Actress. The 43 year-old actress had two previous nominations for an Academy Award, becoming the first Australian to win Best Actress for her portrayal of Virginia Woolf in The Hours (2002) a role that also brought her a BAFTA and a Golden Globe.

Just a wee footnote: due to a scheduling conflict, Nicole declined a role in Woody Allen's latest release You Will Meet a Tall Dark Stranger, in favour of this film, in hindsight a very good decision.