Hannah and Her Sisters
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Actor: Carrie Fisher, Dianne Wiest, Mia Farrow, Michael Caine, Woody AllenBrand: Allen
DVD: Region Code 1
Audio: English (Unknown), Dolby Digital 2.0 Mono; English (Subtitled); Spanish (Subtitled); French (Subtitled); English (Original Language), Dolby Digital 2.0 Mono; French (Original Language), Dolby Digital 2.0 Mono; Spanish (Dubbed), Dolby Digital 2.0 Mono
Format: Anamorphic, Closed-captioned, Color, Dolby, Dubbed, DVD, NTSC, Subtitled, Widescreen
Picture Format: 1.85:1
Running Time: 103 minutes
DVD Release Date: 2001-11-06
Audience Rating: PG-13 (Parental Guidance Suggested)
Studio: MGM (Video & DVD)
DVD Reviews of Hannah and Her Sisters
DVD Review: Woody's Chekhovian Film Expertly Melds Multiple Characters
Summary: 5 Stars
When Woody Allen has a comic moment of religion-fueled panic with a hair-trigger rifle, I was thinking of the famous Chekhov dictum: "If you say in the first chapter that there is a rifle hanging on the wall, in the second or third chapter it absolutely must go off." In fact, Allen's emotionally robust, multi-dimensional 1986 film has a pervasive Chekhovian sense that I'm sure is quite intentional, though the plot doesn't remotely resemble that of "The Three Sisters", nor does it repeat the Bergmanesque gloom of Allen's own "Interiors" (also about three sisters). Rather, this film covers two years in the lives of a large cast of characters focused primarily on three sisters, all part of the New Yorker intelligentsia, whether real or aspiring, who live in the trendier Manhattan neighborhoods. Family Thanksgiving dinners frame the story effectively, and a dinner in the middle of the film acts as a turning point for several lives. It's a predictable structure but beautifully executed.
The sisters, of course, are completely different in character and temperament. Family gatekeeper Hannah is married to Elliot, a business manager in the entertainment industry. Tiring of her self-reliance, he falls in love with her sister Lee, the free-spirited beauty living in an expansive SoHo loft with Frederick, a bitter and emotionally co-dependent artist. Hannah herself used to be married to Mickey, a successful comedy TV producer and a hypochondriac who goes through a crisis in faith once he frees himself of a fictitious, self-diagnosed brain tumor. But through a chance second meeting long after a very bad first date, Mickey gets reacquainted with Holly, the third sister, an insecure, self-conscious actress-turned-caterer-turned writer and a recovering cocaine addict. Add to this unwieldy mix the sisters' parents, a pair of ham-fisted show business veterans dealing with years of alcoholism, adultery and verbal abuse. How these seemingly disparate characters interact yields the true beauty of this film, thanks to Allen's unmistakable technique as a New York-loving filmmaker and his sharply drawn script, which alternates easily between funny and poignant. Seeing this film nearly twenty years later lends even more interesting insight, as one can see how Allen must have viewed Mia Farrow at the time as Hannah, the nurturer of an extended brood, the "perfect" wife and mother, always there to comfort those in her orbit, even though her insistent good will could be a source of resentment for those she helps. Allen explored these alienating traits to even more virulent results in his final film with Farrow, 1992's "Husbands and Wives".
Never that intriguing an actress otherwise (though Allen seems to bring out her depth), Farrow makes Hannah credible not only in her inherited role as the family's Rock of Gibraltar but also in her dawning self-awareness. Michael Caine is terrific as Elliott, a comical manipulator masquerading as a romantic, and Barbara Hershey effortlessly portrays Lee as the conflicted earth mother/sex symbol figure her character demands her to be. Allen plays Mickey as, of course, Allen, but with an increasing romanticism as he becomes drawn to Holly. With such keen competition, the cast standout is Dianne Wiest as Holly in an adventuresome performance as a character you hate one minute and like the next all in line with her barely tolerable erratic nature. Smaller roles are filled expertly by Max Von Sydow perfectly convincing with his stentorian righteousness as Frederick; Carrie Fisher as Holly's insidiously competitive girlfriend; Sam Waterson as an available, self-important architect; and as the parents, Lloyd Nolan and a rather over-the-top Maureen O'Sullivan (Farrow's real mother). You can even see Farrow's adopted daughter and Allen's future wife, Soon-Yi Previn, briefly as one of the children at Thanksgiving.
It's a true family affair and an emotionally satisfying one with layers of complexity presented in subtle episodes that feel truthful. The best example is the lunch table roundelay with the camera circling mercilessly around a self-absorbed Holly, an ignorantly defensive Hannah and a guilt-stricken Lee, as their sisterly bonding seem to disconnect and deconstruct before our very eyes. It's a masterful scene. Even Holly's veiled attempts to connect with Mickey toward the end feel authentic and sweetly romantic, especially as one gets the sense that these two oddballs have inadvertently found their soul-mates. While it is not as romantically intimate as "Annie Hall" or as viscerally incisive as "Manhattan", "Hannah and Her Sisters" is Allen's most accomplished film, especially in the breadth of characters experiencing their own dramatic, intersecting arcs, and it is sadly the last Allen film I have enjoyed without condition.
Description of Hannah and Her Sisters
Brimming with laughter, tears and subtle beauty, Hannah and Her Sisters is a magnificent "summation of [Woody Allen's] career to date" (The New York Times). Winner* of three OscarsÂ(r) and featuring a brilliant all-star cast, Hannah and Her Sisters spins a tale of three unforgettable women and showcases Allen "at his most emotionally expansive, working on his broadest canvas with masterly ease" (Newsweek)! The eldest daughter of show-biz parents, Hannah (Mia Farrow) is a devoted wife, loving mother and successful actress. A loyal supporter of her two aimless sisters Lee (Barbara Hershey) and Holly (Dianne Wiest), she's also the emotional backbone of a family that seems to resent her stability almost as much as they depend on it. But when Hannahs perfect world is quietly sabotaged by sibling rivalry, she finally begins to see that she's as lo st as everyone else, and in order to find herself, she'll have to choose Â? between the independence her family can't live withÂ...and the family she can't live without. *1986: Original Screenplay, Supporting Actress (Wiest), Supporting Actor (Caine)Bestsellers in DVD
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