A Midsummer Night's Sex Comedy (15.)
Directed by Woody Allen. 1982.
Starring Woody Allen, Mia Farrow, Jose Ferrer, Julie Hagerty, Tony Roberts and Mary Steenburgen. 89 mins.
This 1982 entry marks the first example of a type of Woody Allen film that would increasingly dominate his output in later years: the lightweight, mildly amusing, a-few-good-lines, not-terrible-but-probably-not-worth-the-bother comedy. These would become the norm the 21st century (i.e. Magic In the Moonlight) but in the early eighties when he was at his creative peak, and on this boxset, it really sticks out.
The comparative failure of Stardust Memories seems to have thrown Woody, to the extent that he went a whole year without directing a film, something that hasn't happened since. (From 1969 only three calender years,1970, 1976 and 1981, have passed without the release of full length feature directed by Allen.) To get back on track he did what he generally does when he is need of a little help and guidance: turn to Bergman. In this case Ingmar's 1955 Smiles Of A Summer Night, from which Allen takes the basic premise: three mismatched couples meeting up in a country house at the height of summer.
It is sometime in the early 1900s and Woody, a Wall Street investor and crackpot inventor, is hosting the little get together. His marriage with Mary Steenburgen is struggling due to the disappearance of her libido; Roberts is a Lothario doctor who has picked up a sexually liberated nurse Hagerty; esteemed professor and aged know-it-all Ferrer is there with his young finance Farrow. They are going to be married there the next day but on the day and night that precedes the various couples fall in and love and lust.
In the film the relationship are busy being realigned, but the cast features a couple of very familiar relationship. For the third time in five films Allen cast Roberts as his randy best friend, of whom Allen is both envious and disapproving, and their bickering is much the same as it was in Annie Hall and Stardust Memories, not to mention the earlier Play It Again, Sam, directed by Herbert Ross. Making her entrance into the Allen universe is Mia Farrow, who is cast as a flirty, more worldly, sexually promiscuous lady that the Allen character is attracted to but wary of; just as she would be in Broadway Danny Rose.
(Farrow was nominated for Razzie as worst actress for this film, which shocked me when I read it. But then I remembered how resented and hated she was initially when she replaced Diane Keaton as the regular female lead in his films and personal life. It wasn't until Broadway Danny Rose that fans began to grudgingly accept her. Of course, long term Woody would've been wise to have heeded his fans misgivings about his new leading lady.)
Overall, Midsummer doesn't really amount to much but it is at least pleasant. After Stardust, the film seems stubbornly determined to be upbeat and positive. Gordon Willis's photographs the countryside beautifully, the soundtrack is all Mendelssohn (a rare break from Jazz), and among the inventions created by Allen's character are a flying machine and a spirit chamber that allows them to see figures from the other side. Magic is not a word much associated with his films but there's just a little of loose here.
Directed by Woody Allen. 1982.
Starring Woody Allen, Mia Farrow, Jose Ferrer, Julie Hagerty, Tony Roberts and Mary Steenburgen. 89 mins.
This 1982 entry marks the first example of a type of Woody Allen film that would increasingly dominate his output in later years: the lightweight, mildly amusing, a-few-good-lines, not-terrible-but-probably-not-worth-the-bother comedy. These would become the norm the 21st century (i.e. Magic In the Moonlight) but in the early eighties when he was at his creative peak, and on this boxset, it really sticks out.
The comparative failure of Stardust Memories seems to have thrown Woody, to the extent that he went a whole year without directing a film, something that hasn't happened since. (From 1969 only three calender years,1970, 1976 and 1981, have passed without the release of full length feature directed by Allen.) To get back on track he did what he generally does when he is need of a little help and guidance: turn to Bergman. In this case Ingmar's 1955 Smiles Of A Summer Night, from which Allen takes the basic premise: three mismatched couples meeting up in a country house at the height of summer.
It is sometime in the early 1900s and Woody, a Wall Street investor and crackpot inventor, is hosting the little get together. His marriage with Mary Steenburgen is struggling due to the disappearance of her libido; Roberts is a Lothario doctor who has picked up a sexually liberated nurse Hagerty; esteemed professor and aged know-it-all Ferrer is there with his young finance Farrow. They are going to be married there the next day but on the day and night that precedes the various couples fall in and love and lust.
In the film the relationship are busy being realigned, but the cast features a couple of very familiar relationship. For the third time in five films Allen cast Roberts as his randy best friend, of whom Allen is both envious and disapproving, and their bickering is much the same as it was in Annie Hall and Stardust Memories, not to mention the earlier Play It Again, Sam, directed by Herbert Ross. Making her entrance into the Allen universe is Mia Farrow, who is cast as a flirty, more worldly, sexually promiscuous lady that the Allen character is attracted to but wary of; just as she would be in Broadway Danny Rose.
(Farrow was nominated for Razzie as worst actress for this film, which shocked me when I read it. But then I remembered how resented and hated she was initially when she replaced Diane Keaton as the regular female lead in his films and personal life. It wasn't until Broadway Danny Rose that fans began to grudgingly accept her. Of course, long term Woody would've been wise to have heeded his fans misgivings about his new leading lady.)
Overall, Midsummer doesn't really amount to much but it is at least pleasant. After Stardust, the film seems stubbornly determined to be upbeat and positive. Gordon Willis's photographs the countryside beautifully, the soundtrack is all Mendelssohn (a rare break from Jazz), and among the inventions created by Allen's character are a flying machine and a spirit chamber that allows them to see figures from the other side. Magic is not a word much associated with his films but there's just a little of loose here.
