Angelika_New_York
Given that Woody Allen is my favorite filmmaker, I feel like I must address what my favorite film of his would be...You probably wanted to know at some point... Just kidding.Anyway, after giving it a lot of thought on what I would consider Woody Allen's best work, it is definitely this one. It's one of his lesser known works, but it is so brilliant! I feel like I connect with it the most.It's his magnum opus. Arresting and intimate and insightful. It's about a philosophy professor Marion played by Gena Rowlands, who narrates the film, is on a brief leave of absence to write a new book. While inside a furnished flat that she is subletting, she overhears in-depth therapy sessions going on in a neighboring office. At first distracting, but soon she becomes intrigued by the details of the patient, played by Mia Farrow. From there, Marion reflects on her own life: the disappointments, the regrets, the sorrows.By the end, she resolves to change her life for the better.It is a very deep film; very reflective. I feel like it's Allen's most personal film to date. It is a rather short film, clocking in at less than an hour and a half, yet it's so impressive.Definitely an A+
chazz46-2
Maybe this movie is showing how persons who manage to suppress their emotions can less painfully experience all of life's problems, because they do not have to relentlessly talk about them, see psychiatrists, and ventilate emotional affectations onto everyone else - and suffer because of the emotional triggers. All of the other characters are just extensions of the Farrow character,Hope, and her emotionality which leads to the need to see a psychiatrist. Both Marion and her husband, the cardiologist, seem to pass through life unaffected by all the negative aspects since there is a void in their emotional makeup which lends to their compatibility. Their overall constitution seems to fit comfortably with each other (and there is no suggestion that the last "other woman" with whom Marion's husband is having an affair is demonstratively over emotional like the Hackman character was with Marion). Perhaps one might suggest that, regardless of one's constitution ( ie emotional,cold, and analytical), and because EVERYONE is doomed to endless conflict during life, characters like Marion and her husband will suffer far less than the norm. There is no perfect world and it would seem that humanity might benefit (ie suffer LESS) from a concerted effort in teaching, promoting, and rewarding cold and analytical personae as well as suppression of individual emotionality. Since this concept is silly, I would simply say that people like Marion and her husband have an advantage at gliding through life with less pain and we should leave them alone to live it. There may be no merit in forcing emotionality onto those who do not have it.
ElMaruecan82
Right now, it's just as if I was experiencing the same mental block than the main protagonist, Marion, played by Gena Rowlands in Woody Allen's "Another Woman".I guess I don't want to pollute the review with formulaic superlatives, to make it sound like some pompous intellectual movie, when it's more than that … and while my brain is trying to pull thoughts together, I can't get off my mid the enigma of Marion. Here is a woman who is a philosophy teacher, she's brilliant, intelligent, standing above all criticism, and this woman, after having turned 50, realizes what a cold, lonely and worst of all, unfulfilled life she lived."Another Woman" uses a very clever plot device to subtly convey these feelings. Marion rents a little flat downtown to write her new book in a quiet environment, and gets distracted by the sessions of a woman at a therapist. Her first reaction is to cover the radiation system (from which the noises come) with pillows, but the temptation is too big. She ends up listening as the poor woman's plight hit some sensitive chords. Marian who never expressed any sign of weakness, who built her solid reputation on a pedestal of serenity that allowed her to spread judgments on her entourage, find the closest echoes to her hearts' most alarming torments. Then starts an unforgettable journey in Marion's life, where we discover the people of her life, and the way she affected them.Ian Holm is Ken, a snobby and stuffy doctor, whose teenage daughter, played by Martha Plimpton, developed a certain bond with Marion. Gene Hackman is Ken's friends and the only man who passionately loved Marion and felt that there was a fire burning behind that icy facade. Harris Yulin is the less-brilliant brother who had to live under her shadow, Sandy Dennis was her closest friend and still held some serious grudges against her, Sam (Philip Bosco) her true husband, after being her professor. Marion is such a secret and reserved woman, even her detailed narration are deprived from any emotionality, this is why these characters are vital to comprehend through the way they were affected by Marion, what kind of woman she was. Interestingly, Marian's empathy with the 'voice', which would reveal to be Mia Farrow, is a self-reflection on our own mental connection with Marion, it's a voyeuristic device tunneling us into the intimacy of a person, via her mind rather than any action. Ironically, it's the same effect that John Cassavetes' "A Woman Under the Influence" provided, but through the true- to-life improvisation and chaotic genius of Rowlands, sinking us into the darkest abysses of human soul. Rowlands strikes again but in a more restrained manner, we see the despair in her condition through her personal reactions to Mia Farrow's cries, to her friends and family's accusations. Rowlands proves again to be the greatest living actress for her ability to cut straight to your heart, no matter how explicit of implicit her torments must stay. "Another Woman" is made of tones of beige, and yellow, in harmony with the autumnal setting, as to convey the same melancholy than the woman who came to the last quarter of her life, and take some perspective on her accomplishments. The Bergmanian' feel is not accidental; the director of photography is Svent Nikvyst, Bergman's long-life partner. Allen has never hid his idolization of Ingmar Bergman but even if Marian's journey into her past, and the magnificent dreamy escape, are explicit homages to "The Wild Strawberries", "Another Woman" stands alone as a masterpiece of humanity, highlighting the conflicts between feelings, reason and instinct. Basically, Marian is a woman who thought so much, she mostly about how to feel, than feeling, using an intelligence like a social double-edged swords.Woody Allen is not just a talented but also an intelligent screenwriter, the only one I can think of to write intellectual's dialogs with such naturalism, there is Bergman again but this is more of Allen's trademark. Starting with "Annie Hall", "Manhattan", "Interiors", "Hannah and Her Sisters" and "September", the dichotomy between belonging to an upper class elite and being condemned to a world of boring social conventions, where intelligence and sophistication are the very barriers for living the exhilarating experiences they love to discover in books or movies. That is the paradox of Allen's characters. I mentioned at the end of my "September" review that the film coincided with Allen's 50's, a time he wondered where he was going, if he fulfilled his own dreams? Or was it even worth it? I guess as intelligent as Woody Allen is, he's not enough to be alienated by it, he's aware that without passion, without genuine affection, without the power not to take life seriously, life would be hell. Allen's dramatic vein has nothing to envy one of the best dramatic directors, but I admire his constant restriction as he never falls in the trap of over-dramatization, and even the darkest dramas carry some thin and fragile lights of hopes. The ending of "Another Woman" is satisfying because we know that Marion could make her own diagnostic, being aware of the problem can be half the solution. And in one expression of the eyes, we don't need anything other than putting our own pillows and let this woman try to reconquer the lost time.Finally, allow me to play the movie geek by insisting that "Another Woman" is the combination of tremendous talents in acting, directing, writing and cinematography. The film is a masterpiece, it's one of Allen's best and to use one Internet's favorite jargon, it's cruelly 'underrated'.
