| Another Woman | | Cast : | Gena Rowlands, Mia Farrow | | Director : | Woody Allen | | Studio : | MGM/UA Video | | Format : | Color, Closed-captioned, Widescreen | | Released Date : | November 18, 1988 | | DVD Released Date : | June 05, 2001 | | Language : | Spanish (Dubbed), French (Subtitled), Spanish (Subtitled), English (Original Language), French (Original Language) | | Audience Rating : | PG (Parental Guidance Suggested) | | | BUY THIS DVD FROM AMAZON |
Customer Reviews
| Rating |  | | Date | June 03, 2005 | | Summary | Woody's best drama. Highly recommended. | Content
 | `Another Woman', written and directed by Woody Allen, is his third and, I believe, last totally serious film, following hard on `September' and several films after his first drama, `Interiors'. Like both earlier dramas, and unlike most of his comedies, the locations are strictly limited to a few interiors and a few nondescript street scenes. The cast may well be the most distinguished ever assembled in an Allen movie, headed up by Gina Rowlands, Gene Hackman, John Houseman, Mia Farrow, and Ian (Bilbo Baggins) Holm. The second rank of actors alone would light up a lesser movie, including Blythe Danner, Betty Buckley, Sandy Dennis, Harris Yulin, and David Ogden Stiers. Some of these well-recognized names and faces such as Blythe Danner and David Ogden Stiers appear in a single scene with but a handful of lines. Even John Houseman has but one scene on camera and about a half dozen lines. It is unusual that while Stiers will appear in several later Allen films, the only actor who has appeared in Allen's earlier films was Farrow.
This movie refutes all modest claims on Allen's part to not being an intellectual. His background dialogue and scenes are chocked full of references to high German culture, including the poet Rainer Marie Rilke, the playwright, Bertolt Brecht, the philosopher, Martin Heidigger, and the Viennese painter, Gustav Klimt. These are certainly not gratuitous references, as the principle character Marion, played by Rowlands is the chairman of the Philosophy department at an important college in or near Manhattan who, as the film opens, is beginning on writing a book on philosophy, probably a history or analysis of a major philosopher's work rather than an original work. Marion gets her intellectual heritage from her father, played by both Houseman as an old man and Stiers as a younger man, who is an important professor of history.
This intellectual landscape may not be convincing if it were not for Allen's most successful use of one of his most powerful devices of mixing the worlds of reality, imagination, fiction, and dreams. While this conceit is pushed over the edge in `Deconstructing Harry', it is used subtly and to great effect in this movie. The reality is the emotional turmoil of Marion's life based on a marriage which began in illicit liaisons and which is now in crisis based on its own weakness and the strain put upon it by novelist / suitor Larry (played by Gene Hackman), who adds to the reality / fiction theme by stating that he has used Marion as one of the characters in his latest novel.
Marion, her husband (Ian Holm) and her best childhood friend Claire (Sandy Dennis) all seem to be raw nerves where the least provocation set them off into arguments over their relations. One can add that most of this is due to the fact that they are seeing an illusory view of their relations, or, are being driven much more by emotion than by reason.
Mia Farrow's role, Hope, in this movie is odd. She was scheduled to play the Gena Rowlands part until she became pregnant with her son by Allen, Satchel. Thus, like her role in the comedy `Radio Days', her part is something of a sidebar until near the end of the movie, when her character meets Marion. Appropriate to the name `Hope', contact with Farrow's character is the device that brings Marion out of the emotional turmoil.
Like `September', we seem to come upon the characters in the middle of their lives, live through an especially difficult episode in their lives, and leave them just as they barely manage to get their heads above the emotional waters that engulfed them. There is no sense that there is a great renewal that will magically improve their lives from now on.
The cinematographer for this film is the great Swedish Ingemar Bergman collaborator, Sven Nykvist. As most of Allen's other lensmen were no slouches in their own right, the change is not immediately apparent. The camera work seems to maintain it's usual very high quality, with a distinct softening in color. Most things seem to be in warm shades of brown and tan, rather than the jarringly prominent reds and greens you see in film color nowadays.
Rowlands' performance is every bit as good as her considerable reputation would lead one to expect. Farrow's performance is much like her soft spoken `Rosemary's Baby' and `Purple Rose of Cairo' persona rather than the very strong presence she give for `Broadway Danny Rose' or `Radio Days'.
Due mostly to the richly imaginative emotional world of the principle characters, this is a movie one can watch many times over and still get new things from the interactions between the strong personalities brought together here. If you had no feeling for `September' and `Interiors', then don't bother with this film. But, if you really like Allen's movies and have not seen either of these other two dramas, then I suggest you start with `Another Woman' and move on to `September' if you like this one.
Unlike virtually every other director I like, such as Stanley Kubrick and Ridley Scott, Allen seems to show gradual growth and improvement over the years. Some of his later movies are weaker than his best early ones such as `Annie Hall' and `Manhattan', but on average, he gets better with age, and this is one of the best signs of that growth.
Highly recommended to Allen fans and film drama fans in general.
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| Rating | | | Date | March 05, 2005 | | Summary | "You should be the actress" | Content
| There are several aspects that make this movie excellent, including the intelligent dialogues, the psychological aspects of the narration and the fact that a complex story can be presented in only eighty minutes. These are some of the reasons why Woody Allen is considered by many to be one of the most gifted directors ever. Of course, those that usually do not like Allen's style will not find solace in this movie, but the rest of you will probably appreciate the quality of this production.
Marion Post (Rowland) is a philosophy professor who is taking a leave of absence to write a book and who has rented an apartment to be able to do this peacefully and without any interruptions. The apartment is next door to the office of a psychiatrist and she realizes that she can hear the sessions through the air vents. At first she covers the vents to prevent invading the patients' privacy, but later she hears the sad voice of a woman (Mia Farrow) after one of the cushions covering the vent moves from its place. From that moment on she is hooked and cannot help herself, so she continues eavesdropping into the sessions of the mysterious woman.
Marion starts identifying herself with some of the accounts of this woman and understands that she may actually be dissatisfied with her life too, mainly with her choice of husband and career. From that point forward the psychological aspects of the story become the central focus around which the action revolves. The dreams, memories and reality of Marion's life interact with each other, making us doubt at times if certain events are really happening or not. The final result is an interesting look at the psyche of the main character and her relationship with others.
As it is usual in Allen's movies, there are coincidences galore with chance encounters that reunite old friends and current acquaintances, but the story remains believable all the time. One of the most notable aspects of the film is the outstanding cast, with Rowland playing her role to perfection and other renowned actors and actresses adding their fair share. The performance of Gene Hackman is praiseworthy, and even though his participation is fairly brief, he leaves a lasting impression. If you have not seen any films by Woody Allen, this one is as good a place as any to start. |
| Rating | | | Date | December 14, 2004 | | Summary | Charles Dickens was better | Content
| How would you like to see Glena Rowlands cast as Scrooge? Dicken's " A Christmas Carol" was brilliantly updated by Bergman in Wild Strawberries". Woody would like to be Bergman ( instead of his usual fictional self, the wise-cracking self obsessed unattractive guy who woos by wit ). The trouble is we don't care about the characters in this film. Scrooge works because we feel for him, Wild Strawberries works because we can care for the old professor. Woody Allen's "serious" films fail, not because they don't conform to sterotype, they fail because he is bitter and really without sympathy for his characters. It is not enough to show someone realizing how disconnected or cruel they have been, the art, which is missing here, and also missing from Woody's other serious films, is to bring us to love in some measure the protagonists and hope for their redemption. |
| Rating | | | Date | November 01, 2004 | | Summary | Complex and Intelligent Film | Content
| Another Woman received little attention when it released because audiences tend to prefer what they have come to expect from a director. Allen's comedies set a precedent that left him in a proverbial straight-jacket when it came to exploring life's other questions.
Unfortunately, people can also miss out on a powerful meditation on the importance of intimacy, friendship, and genuine self-awareness.
People who prefer female figures to be maternal will find Marion Post's philosophy professor challenging and perhaps, cold. However, she is also typical of individuals who find emotions difficult and hence, distance themselves from genuine interaction. Marion dismisses her sister-in-law when Lynn explains to Marion that her brother might possess resentful feelings towards Marion. In a powerful scene, Marion also fails to "see" how she might have hurt her best friend, Claire, played by Sandy Dennis, years ago. But as the film progresses, Marion finds herself unable to avoid her self-deception for much longer and faces the inevitable in the end.
Highly recommended despite the varying criticisms linking it closely with Bergman's Wild Strawberries. |
| Rating | | | Date | September 23, 2004 | | Summary | The Lush Life | Content
| Marion's (Gena Rowlands) life is, on the surface, perfect. She's the head of Philosophy at a major University, she's married to a famous surgeon, and she has an apartment in the East 80's in NYC. All of her friends wear Ralph Lauren: everyone in beige, khaki green and gray in corduroy, wool and particularly tweed.
One day while Marion is working on her book she overhears through the heating duct, a psychiatrist and his patient (Mia Farrow) during a particularly emotional session.Marion is intrigued with what she is hearing. There is something about how and what this woman is saying that strikes a cord in her heart. Marion avidly listens day after day. These sessions force Marion to examine her past and her present life, resulting in a Catharsis that forces Marion to take another life path.
There are many shifts in time in "Another Woman," with Marion acting as a kind of Christmas past, present and future in the re-enactingment of her life and loves.
Gena Rowlands, playing against type here, is a revelation as Marion: she is prim and proper, draped in tweeds and turtlenecks, "always standing above, judging everyone" as one character (Martha Plimpton) describes her.
"Another Woman" is from the middle period of Woody Allen's career, when he felt it necessary to explore deadly serious subjects, as in his "Interiors." It is not a complete success, though: what it is, is an example of the whole not being equal to the sum of its parts. But what parts!
Allen has created a fantasy world rooted in the Upper Eastside, Tweedy New York Intelligentsia. A world in which most of the characters are concerned with what might have been rather than what is. "Another Woman" is intellectual, maybe even bloodless at times. But Rowlands transcends it all with her indelible and intrinsically tragic performance as Marion.
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