Woody Allen and his dramas
by The Flamingo
This article focuses on Woody Allen’s dramas. In my opinion, there is no drama like a Woody Allen drama. His movies that fall into this category tend to be soul shaking. They are destined for the contemplative public, people who tend to dwell on the meaning of life, on morals, beliefs, love, on the behaviorism of the individual and that of society. Some of them may seem boring on the surface, but they are full of meaningful content, which makes you reflect on your own life, your own mistakes, your own relationships with the people around you and your own morals and ethics. Here is the list of dramas that I loved in the order of my preference:
Interiors (1978) – This is one of Allen’s saddest movies. It’s a heartbreaking drama that takes place inside the human mind, inside of a family, between the walls of beautiful designed New Yorke homes. The movie exposes the torment of a large wealthy family of intellectuals, who struggle to find meaning in their own existence. The mother is an exquisite woman, sick from a young age with depression, who tries to kill herself on a regular basis. The father, a bit of a narcissist, an attorney, leaves her in search of someone less complicated and more optimistic. The three adult daughters are left to deal with the mess of their parents’ separation, at the same time struggling with their own marriages, insecurities, issues with one another. I haven’t seen such a complex movie with so many problems tackled until now, it’s very relatable to me personally, I could find myself in each character. It’s a gloomy New York, mostly filmed indoors but always present through windows. Another character present in this drama is the unsettled ocean next to one of the “interiors” of the movie, a beautiful villa in Southampton. I think this movie is one of Woody Allen’s masterpieces. It turned me inside out personally.
Actors: Geraldine Page, Diane Keaton, Kristin Griffith, Mary Beth Hurt, Sam Waterston.
Awards won: 9
Blue Jasmine (2013) – This is for sure one of my favorite dramas in the Woody Allen repertoire. It’s set in New York and San Francisco. Allen has a talent in always finding some new beautiful corners, even after decades of movies set in the same place. Also San Francisco is displayed in a beautiful light, “is wonderfully European”, as he expresses it in this movie, and reminds him of the Mediterranean. At the center of the drama is a proud and sophisticated woman who lost everything in life and must adapt to a new lifestyle. Her sister also plays a central role, she is at the other pole as Jasmine, a woman who gave up the idea of bettering herself and can’t escape the vicious circle she is in. This drama is mainly about mental health and the damage bad experiences can cause to people.
Actors: Cate Blanchett, Sally Hawkins, Alec Baldwin, Bobby Cannavale.
Awards won: 56
Wonder Wheel (2017) – I find this movie to be every woman’s secret fear. The main character, Ginny, is a 40 year old wife and mother, who settled…and settled a lot. Crushed youth dreams and career, a son with psychological problems, an alcoholic and aggressive husband whom she doesn’t love but feels grateful to, mediocre job, poverty, ageing, jealousy of her beautiful young stepdaughter Carolina…need I say more? The drama is set in Coney Island NY and the visual design of the whole movie is quite spectacular.
Actors: Kate Winslet, Justin Timberlake, Juno Temple, Jim Belushi.
Awards won: 4
Hannah and her sisters (1986) – Woody Allen’s character is a hypochondriac television writer, obsessed with mortality, an atheist Jew who wants to convert to other religions just to find some meaning in his ephemeral life and a hope that something beyond death exists. Nothing new here. But what really drew me in was the complicated relationship between three sisters and their relationships with their partners. The movie follows different storylines of people in the same family, similar to the way the novel “Anna Karenina” was structured. It’s inspired by Mia Farrow’s family. This is more mellow than other Woody Allen dramas, of course humor being present at every step, but I wouldn’t call it a comedy at all.
Actors: Michael Caine, Mia Farrow, Dianne Wiest, Barbara Hershey, Carrie Fisher, Julia Louis-Dreyfus, Woody Allen.
Awards won: 27
Another woman (1988) – Another one of Allan’s heartbreaking stories is set in New York. It’s about an accomplished married woman, full of qualities and virtues, who begins to see herself through the eyes of the people close to her and is surprised to find herself very lacking. She begins questioning herself, her decisions, her past, she double guesses everything and regrets are flooding her thoughts. All of this is happening while listening to private conversations between a psychiatrist and a woman patient, who somehow resonates with her own state of mind.
Actors: Gena Rowlands, Mia Farrow, Ian Holm, Gene Hackman.
Awards won: 1
Husbands and wives (1992) – This story exposes the troubles in long marriages very accurately. Woody Allen has this unique style of making suffering look funny. He tells sad stories in an ironic, cynical and hilarious kind of way. The movie follows two married couples, who are also very close friends to each other. It’s interesting to see how big of an impact the divorce of one couple has over the other, who until then thought they had a solid relationship.
Actors: Judy Davis, Sydney Pollack, Mia Farrow, Juliette Lewis, Liam Neeson, Woody Allen.
Awards won: 12
The purple rose of Cairo (1985) – The movie is set in the 1930’s New York, depression era. This story is one of the fantasy/fantastic/surreal movies directed by him. This is a heartbreaking drama in my opinion, although categorized as a comedy-musical. It’s an antithesis between real life and a fictional perfect one from movies or stories. For women it is exceptionally painful to watch, feeling more relatable to the drama of the real world, with harsher consequences on them. Mia Farrow is exceptional in her role, the best I have seen her in. Unhappy in her abusive marriage, at the bottom of a pitch black hole, the woman falls in love with a fictional character in a movie.
Actors: Mia Farrow, Jeff Daniels, Danny Aiello.
Awards won: 15
September (1987) – This drama is not among the well known movies of Woody Allen, maybe because it’s a bit on the boring side. But nonetheless it’s full of feeling. It is set in a cottage in Vermont, where a bunch of characters have spent the summer together isolated from the world, each dealing with personal drama. It’s like a circle of unrequited loves and impossible situations. It reminded me of his comedy A midsummer night’s sex comedy (1982), where also the same thing happens but in a very comedic way.
Actors: Mia Farrow, Dianne Wiest, Sam Waterston.
I usually try to avoid very dramatic movies, especially in the last ten years of my life. I feel that real life has lots of sorrows on its own and I don’t feel the need to watch some additional ones. But Woody Allen’s dramas have soothed me in many ways, which was very unexpected. Maybe because he is such a connoisseur of the human mind that I found myself looking in the mirror in his movies. He also provides insight and alternatives to one’s situation so maybe this is what soothed me the most and of course his everlasting humor in most situations.
Photo from Flamingo‘s archive (detail from Florence Cathedral).
