If you omit the fact that with every Allen movie, we are immersed in his special world, with an atmosphere and a unique aesthetic, then this picture is great.
There is a lot of philosophy and reflections about a man and a woman, their relationship. Thinking is right, and sometimes tough. Especially since the film is made in such a way that we, most of the time, look at the interview that each character gives individually.
Fifty percent of the popular science film is about relationships. I thought about it all the time. The eternal theme is that without marriage, loneliness and loss, and in marriage, doom and lack of sex. By the way, this topic at Woody Allen goes on all the time.
Perhaps it has something to do with his divorce. In almost all films, there is a character who either cheats or is going to leave his wife. I have come to terms with this, as with other unchanging attributes of Allenian aesthetics.
From film to film, we see slightly mutated characters. They are played by the same actors. But they became our family. Fans of this director's work.
If a person watches Husbands and Wives, not out of love for Woody Allen, but just like that, then it’s really informative. And atmospheric, and as if watching the BBC. Why not?
I think that the perception of this film depends on the age and the number of love shocks experienced. The more, the thinner and deeper.
The picture is very personal, frank. Talking to a psychoanalyst is like talking honestly to yourself. Absolute confusion, dissatisfaction, difficulties, hence the throwing of the main characters. I need a shake. We need to change our way of life. Divorce is like an experiment.
I thought we were just breaking up for a while, not forever.
For someone, divorce is a reason to be alone, reevaluate relationships, correct all mistakes, smooth out corners.
For some, salvation is a necessary measure, the only right decision.
What is true and how is true? Who knows?
Love does not always imply passion and romance. It has an element of camaraderie.
This latest film, in which Woody Allen directed Mia Farrow, reveals the traditional story of the intricacies of feelings, which is very often touched by this talented director. This is a subtle tragicomedy full of irony and drama. The film turned out for all time, and now it is a classic from Woody. Fans of this director’s films will definitely enjoy watching this picture.
In this story, we see a married couple: a neurotic writer and his fragile wife. Their best friends unexpectedly report their upcoming breakup and divorce. Such news simply shocks the heroes, and it is from this moment that a series of confusing events begins, the consequences of which will be irreversible.
This film is like a good wine, which over the years does not spoil at all. On the day of the premiere, when the newest Woody Allen film was released, I watched this old picture, and it is even difficult to convey the delight of watching it. Filmed in the early 90s, but its relevance and importance has not lost. It also looks interesting, sometimes funny, often giving the viewer food for thought.
The characters in Woody movies are often intellectuals, very educated and interesting people with whom incredible, sometimes ridiculous events happen. This story is no exception. We see that everyone has their own secret thoughts and “skeletons in the closet”, everyone wants love, reciprocity and honesty. Fate with each hero from this story plays differently, and we see a funny, confusing story from which each hero will find his way out, and everything will fall into place.
The director himself plays one of the main roles and does it as always perfectly. The characters played by Woody Allen are often similar, they always care about something very much, they try to feel something real, paradoxes often happen to them. Mia Farrow has played leading roles in Allen’s films for many years, and this work was her last. In this film, her character was something real, more close to reality, not flying away from her, which did all the other characters.
Sidney Pollack and Judy Davis made a wonderful duet. Both actors played brilliantly and gave one hundred percent. It was their heroes that I liked the most. Judy Davis was even nominated for an Oscar as Best Supporting Actress, as well as a Golden Globe and a nomination from the British Academy. In the second roles, I remember Liam Neeson and Juliette Lewis. Most of all laughed the heroine Lisette Anthony, who in the society of respectable intellectuals proved to everyone that the planets affect the psyche of people. It was very, very funny.
Husbands and Wives is an American tragicomedy with a taste of 1992 melodrama. This gift from Woody Allen is a wonderful film about family, marriage, the thoughts of spouses and the boiling point to which every husband and wife come, but many trials make stronger, and some part. This film is like one big irony about marriage and its existence in general. I really liked this movie and I recommend watching it. Thank you.
If you want to understand Woody Allen, look at this picture.
Husbands and Wives is a typical Woody Allen movie. It reminds me of Annie Hall. Only such a more mature, dramatic, even depressing version. Year of release of the picture 1992. It was then that Woody Allen divorced Mia Ferrow (although she played one of the roles here). The director was not in the best mood, so “Husbands and wives” is one of the most pessimistic works of the master, even this all began to resemble the beloved Allen director Bergman. Another difference in this picture is that here Woody Allen decided to abandon his usual style of shooting. Handheld camera, no lights. The film was shot very quickly, and was almost the cheapest in the career of an American director.
This is a very personal, autobiographical picture, the director does not hide behind humor. You could even say that if you want to understand Woody Allen from his films, it’s best to watch Husbands and Wives. And psychoanalysis sessions are a kind of American atheistic attempt to confess.
The result was a strong life drama about two elderly married couples.
8.5 out of 10
No matter how grumpy Woody Allen tried to solve all family problems with one film, he constantly lost in the struggle with himself. This loss was noticeable on the face, as an unsuccessfully applied makeup, or on foggy glasses, which with fluttering hands were wiped before going to bed. Intending to hide his excitement and inner fear, the famous playwright and literary critic evaded autobiographical novels and eagerly rose to the theater stage as the author of the next play under discussion. This creation turned out to be a tough Ibsen tale, fueled by Chekhov’s scandals and Tolstoy’s sincerity. And although the director did not add much originality and creativity to his work, he managed to prove that he understands issues between the sexes as a real psychologist, that he is close to the feelings that his characters feel. But is he really so unlucky in life?
Husbands and Wives is a reasonable consequence of all of Allen's romantic comedies. This consequence washes the eyes with cold water, burns in the mouth and spits out with disgust, like a bitter piece that can be tasted when you enter into any relationship. Previously, the director only praised his love impulses, and now renounces them for the benefit of his spiritual salvation. In order not to overdo it with warm heart fever, he uses a strong medicine - divorce. This medicine not only dulls love, but also kills it completely, getting rid of it forever. In integrity, this is what would have happened to reasonable Annie Hall if she had stayed with her shy Alvy and shared the rest of her days with him. .
She would have turned into a timid and insecure Judy Roth (Mia Farrow), whom the marriage did no good. Although she is in a cozy campaign with her husband Gabriel (Woody Allen), let them have something to talk about, let them go somewhere together - but for something they still needed a stamp in the passport? After all, this is not the main goal of the heroine, not her transition stage, not what she expected. It seems that she laughs and rejoices not of her own will, but as if she flatters someone, as if she is doing someone nice. But when it comes to divorce, then she will immediately take on the deer horn and begin to trumpet into it that has strength.
In Farrow’s game, nothing new is noticed. As if Allen, who has been working with her for many years, allocates such specific roles to the actress that hide her true nature, forcing her to serve everyone else, smile and nod her head. Although the role in the film “The Age of Radio” gave her a chance to prove herself in a new path, but it still did not get better. After this film, she can boldly declare that she will decide on a desperate act, even if after that she will be pushed again.
The duet of Sidney Pollack and Judy Davis shocked incredibly. It seemed that their on-screen heroes should be together, in order not to fall soon before the temptation of treason. As a result, the hero of Pollack rejoiced and stomped his feet like a madman, as if he came to life again from meetings with his mistress, and the character of Judy Davis with hysteria rushed from corner to corner with fear of finally falling alone. Their images passed an uneasy comic test of loyalty, and failed miserably. There is even something in common with the heroine Davis with the distraught Jasmine from the film of the same name Allen.
The episodic appearances of Juliette Lewis and Liam Neeson could somehow stir up this tragic film narrative. The character Lewis struck with a naive interest and early impulses to the secret, which could be shared with your favorite teacher. This was lost in the era of the nineties, a tearful Annie Hall, for which everyone and everything clucked, but only one unattractive comedian deserved it.
Neeson’s early roles reflect his true identity. It looks like a delicious sweet, which looks pleasant, but tastes fresh and disgusting. That’s how Liam appeared on the screen. Candy, which is difficult to understand and guess what it really is. And is it useful at all...
In fact, all married couples are like gnawing dogs who fight for one bowl of meat – one addiction, but no understanding. Even with this understanding, Allen himself did not fully understand, echoing his own earthly pleasures. But the cult of a soulless bachelor is not a way out of the current situation, but a dead end in which the characters of his film find themselves. In the difficulty of trying again, in the difficulty of making concessions, in the difficulty of changing... well, at least once in a lifetime. It turns out that everyone is his own master and is only capable of stupid feats, suppressing true courage.
According to Allen, divorce is clearly not fun. .. but not recklessly. When else can you make a movie about where husbands turn into Rottweilers and wives into lapdogs? Or even worse.
The two couples have a long-standing friendship. But one day it becomes known that Judith - the wife of writer Gabriel Roth (played by Allen himself) - is ready to leave her husband to go to another man. A company that teaches literature at the university, meanwhile, carefully hides from his wife that he is in love with his student Rain.
The scandal about the breakup of a married couple with a long history of living together turns into public psychoanalysis for Allen. A flimsy intellectual disarmed by his wife’s departure turns into an old baboon. The beginning laid by Judith, involuntarily supported by the second couple, also decided, if such a case, to experiment a little with feelings.
Allen continues to write his films a kind of personal diary, once again ironic about the mores reigning in the intellectual environment. But it was this film that had to become a stumbling block - a reflection of the situation when art and life changed places.
The release of the film coincided with the most noisy scandal of 1992. Mia Farrow, Allen's wife and actress, accused him of secretly cohabiting with their adopted daughter, Korean Sung Yi. What is interesting: and the student Rain was 21 years old in the film, and Sun Yi in real life then was also 21 years old.
So invented plot passion for the nymphet, as it turned out, was fueled by a real passion for his own, but still unborn child. But the scandal not so much stoked interest in the film as pushed away from it, and at the end of the rental was returned only half of the costs.
Another thing is that the temporary divorce of the couple in the film even more united Gabriel and Judith, which did not happen in real life between Allen and Farrow. In the course of a long divorce process, Farrow poured more than one mud on Allen, forcing him to speak unflatteringly in response. That’s probably why Allen never made his ex-wife in his movies.
Gabriel and Judith and Jack and Sally are family friends. Their next party started with the bad news that Jack and Sally announced their divorce. They came to this decision together and remain friends. Most of all, this news upset Judith, moreover, she wondered whether everything was good in their relationship with Gabriel, which in fact was the beginning of a crack in their family.
Woody Allen in this film not only played the main role and was its director, but also like an experienced psychoanalyst presented the typical problems that arise over time in almost every couple. From the outside, they seem comical, but they are not when you find yourself in a similar situation. Obviously, this movie has almost no inherent sarcasm Woody Allen, everything is limited to mild irony. By the way, unlike his main character, who was fascinated by a talented student, but thanks to the arguments of reason, who managed to put an end to the affair in time, Woody himself could not avoid such a temptation in life.
In the role of the fatal student Raine starred Juliette Lewis. She is very organic in the image of a young nymphet. Her boyfriends were almost always men much older than her. Was she bored with her peers, or were these steps in her career? But she had one friend of the same age and still liked sex with him more.
Mia Farrow masterfully played the role of Jodie, Gabriel's wife. This woman is on her mind, always achieving her goal, which is called a quiet boot.
For the role of Jack, Gabriel's friend, Allen invited his famous colleague in the director's shop Sidney Pollack. Needless to say, the aging womanizer he played 100%. Having left for a young friend, at first he enjoyed everything connected with her. Her healthy lifestyle, fascination with sports and vegetarianism, high sexual activity led to a certain intoxication and he did not notice that her mind did not shine. The epiphany came at one of the parties when Jack, watching her from the sidelines, suddenly saw what nonsense she was talking to his friends and friends.
As always, the strength of Woody Allen's films is dialogue. Good camera work. Summing up, I want to say that the picture turned out to be very vital. People with family experience are sure to find parallels from their love story, and those who do not yet have such experience, it does not hurt to find out “is there life after divorce?” Comparing this picture with other works of Woody Allen, and he has no one to compete in this niche, a logical assessment will be.
8 out of 10
Husbands and Wives was filmed in 1992 by the famous American actor, screenwriter and director Woody Allen. This film, caressed by both critics and viewers, turned out to be one of the most unusual and frank in the director’s career, who decided to expose his soul and his family relationship with Mia Farrow, which had already reached a dead end. The story of the neurotic writer and his wife, as well as their friends, played by Sidney Pollack and Judy Davis, is told to the viewer in a rough and semi-documentary manner, performed by the cameraman Carlo Di Palma. In fact, thanks to this, the viewer becomes an accomplice to the events taking place in the film, a kind of person peeping into the keyhole. The film is both dramatic and tragicomic, because Woody Allen as always remains true to his style.
Husbands and Wives is a film built on the magnificent performance of the entire cast, which also includes Liam Neeson, Juliette Lewis, Blythe Danner and Ron Rifkin, who brilliantly performed their roles. Their characters are realistic, they want to empathize and empathize.
There is practically no soundtrack in the film, which causes an even greater effect of the realism of the tape.
This picture tells not only about the crisis of family relations, but also the crisis of an individual.
Husbands and Wives is one of the most unusual directorial works by Woody Allen, which I recommend to all connoisseurs of author films and fans of the work of the outstanding American director.
10 out of 10