Interiors (1978)

Faux Bergman

Allen has said on several occasions that he doesn't have the stuff to make movies of the same caliber as his Fellini and Bergman, his two cinematic heroes. Nothing attests to the truth of that self-estimation better than "Interiors." Don't get me wrong. Mr. Allen has made some excellent films. "Zelig" and "Crimes and Misdemeanors" are two of the best American movies you'll find. But "Interiors" has a ring of inauthenticity to it from the very beginning. It looks like something that a talented undergraduate film student who worships Bergman would've put together.

"Interiors" apes Bergman in just about every way imaginable: the absence of a musical score; long shots of faces; silent moments longer than Hollywood convention; soliloquies about death, relationships, and angst; empty room- and landscapes; and characters struggling to reconcile inner and outer lives. This all works with Bergman. But in "Interiors," it comes across almost as parody rather than homage. The final scene in the film, with the three sisters profiled as they gaze out onto an empty ocean, is embarrassingly portentious. The artistic struggles of Richard Jordan's character are hackneyed. The actress sister character seems an afterthought never fully developed. The father figure has no depth (even E.G. Marshall, a great character actor, couldn't quite pull it off). And the "interior" struggles the characters undergo too often seem either contrived (the middle sister's inability to find a creative outlet) or stereotypical (the eldest sister's writer's block).

There are, however, two breaths of fresh air in the fim. Maureen Stapleton's acting is superb, and the dance scene in which she breaks a vase (another piece of heavy-handed symbolism) is masterfully done. Geraldine Page, an actress I don't normally care for, is brilliant in her portrayal of the psychologically and emotionally broken jilted wife. And she, unlike so many of the other characters, had good script from which to work. It's as if all of Allen's creative genius went into the writing of her character.

The film is worth seeing, I suppose, because it's an Allen film. But it's not great--and, I suspect, not even good. December 2, 2008

Being Beige is not for Wimps

I saw this film when it came out in 1978. The scene I admired the most is towards the beginning when Eve brings a valuable vase to her daughter's house and then fumbles with it. I was terrified that she would drop it and it would shatter taking out everyone and everything around her.

Rich white people are confusing with all of their beiges and pale colors and critical self-editing.

It must be so difficult to be creative when you have been trained to be suspicious of everything you don't already admire.

September 10, 2008

Bleak House

When "Interiors" was first released it was generally deplored by moviegoers, largely because it did not live up to their expectations of what a Woody Allen film should be: a laugh-out-loud comedy like "Annie Hall," or "Sleeper." It was as if Allen should be allowed to make only one kind of film (One might as well complain about Mozart having had the nerve to write the "Requiem" after "The Magic Flute"; or, conversely, Verdi having the effrontery to write "Falstaff" after "Othello." One wonders whether Shakespeare had the same problem: "What dost thou mean that thou art writing of a Shrewish Wench from Padua? Beshrew thy Heart! . . . We want more Titus Andronicus!").

With time and distance, one can appreciate "Interiors" for what it is, an intense drama about a family in the process of disintegration. The film is beautifully acted by an ensemble cast that includes Geraldine Page as the mother, who is so quietly self-effacing that, like a vacuum, she seems to draw the energy out of any room she enters; E.G. Marshall, as a man who has been a good father, but who must now escape the house's stifling atmosphere; the three sisters, Kristin Griffith, who has already escaped to Hollywood and a middling career as an actress; Diane Keaton, who has removed herself to Connecticut--and writer's block; and Marybeth Hurt, the Elektra of the piece, whose love for her father, hatred of her mother, and competitiveness with her writer-sister have come to dominate her life. The static dynamic of this imbalance of power is upset when the father introduces an interloper, beautifully acted by Maureen Stapleton.

Some have remarked, not without cause, that Allen has given the husbands of Keaton and Hurt (Richard Jordan and Sam Waterston respectively) the short end of the acting stick; but, I believe, that is his point, which certainly reflects the title of the film, "Interiors." The very dysfunction at the core of the family has caused the daughters to exclude themselves not only from each other but also from their respective spouses, who remain outsiders. It is only at the end that the sisters come to recognize and accept their flaws, and consequently find some resolution, as the camera outside the house looking inward at their faces--framed by the window--implies.

Woody Allen's "Interiors" will not leave you laughing, but it will certainly leave you thinking, perhaps about how quickly time passes in respect to one's family. September 2, 2008

Interiors

Interiors is, I think, one of Allen's strongest films and I have watched it several times. It is less a comedy than the usual Allen, and more of a social/family drama and character study. We follow three grown up sisters (Diane Keaton, Kristin Griffith and Marybeth Hurt) and their parent's (Geraldine Page and E G Marshall) late divorce and the following crisis. The characters are mostly upper middle class (wannabe)intellectuals (writers, actors, interior designers), all of them in some sort of existential or creative crisis, and Allen portraits them very well. Allen himself is not acting in this film. If you like Annie Hall, Hannah and her sisters and Manhattan, you will probably like Interiors.
The transfer of the DVD is ok, but it would have been interesting to have some extra material (there's only the trailer). But the price is thereafter I think. July 24, 2008

Woody Allen's Masterpiece

Woody Allen puts on a straight face and successfully channels Ingmar Bergman. This is by far my favorite Woody Allen film (right up there with 'Husbands and Wives'). 'Interiors' is a stunning character study of three sisters and their mother. What is revealed about these characters is so incredibly real and painful that there is beauty in its truth. The film runs at a mere 91 minutes but is adequate enough to uncover so much. The acting is top notch. The cinemaphotography is breaththaking. Allen's directing is tight and focused. The ending is tragic but just. The last shot is indelible. I was rendered speechless. Simply put, 'Interiors' is brilliant. March 4, 2008

More reviews at Amazon.com ...