September
by Woody Allen
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Actor: Denholm Elliott, Dianne Wiest, Elaine Stritch, Mia Farrow, Sam WaterstonDirector: Woody Allen
Brand: FARROW,MIA
DVD: Region Code 1
Audio: English (Unknown), Dolby Digital 2.0 Mono; Spanish (Subtitled); French (Subtitled); English (Original Language), Dolby Digital 2.0 Mono; French (Original Language), Dolby Digital 2.0 Mono; Spanish (Original Language), Dolby Digital 2.0 Mono
Format: Anamorphic, Closed-captioned, Color, DVD, NTSC, Subtitled, Widescreen
Picture Format: 1.85:1
Running Time: 82 minutes
DVD Release Date: 2001-06-05
Audience Rating: PG (Parental Guidance Suggested)
Studio: MGM (Video & DVD)
DVD Reviews of September
DVD Review: Great Set Piece / Wonderful Performances / Limited Interest
Summary: 4 Stars
`September', written and directed but not starring Woody Allen is, what he describes as a `chamber piece' done after the symphony of `Radio Days' with its huge cast and expansive settings. In most ways, the movie is a reprise of the style of his very first serious movie, `Interiors'. In many ways, `September' is far more successful than `Interiors'. I am an ardent Woody Allen fan, and `Interiors' even leaves me feeling a bit flat.
Like `Interiors' and unlike some of his major seriocomic movies such as `Crimes and Misdemeanors', `September' has not a single joke and just the barest of embarrassingly humorous situation. Unlike `Interiors', you can identify several of Allen's favorite subjects; the most prominent one being the difference between perception and reality or, as he most commonly frames it, between fact and fiction.
All action takes place in late August (`almost September') inside or on the porch of a rather large rural house in Vermont, set by a pond, and built by the principle character's father. The background information on the six marquee characters is spotty, with tidbits being parceled out slowly over the course of the short movie. The facts about the major players follows.
Lane, played by Mia Farrow, is a damaged young photographer who has been out of work due to an undisclosed medical problem, probably psychiatric. She is depicted as the purported owner of the house, which she is planning to sell to pay off her medical expenses and get a new start in New York City.
Peter, played by Sam Waterston (replacing Sam Shephard in a reshoot of the entire film), is a Madison Avenue advertising (copy writer or editor?) who is spending some time over a Summer vacation in Vermont to finish a first novel. As the movie opens, he is seen as Lane's boyfriend.
Stephanie, played by Dianne Wiest, is a close friend to Lane. Stephanie is married with a family living in Philadelphia, but is taking time away from her husband to resolve some emotional differences. She is considering a trip to Paris as the movie opens.
Howard, played by Denholm Elliott (replacing Charles Durning in the reshoot), is a local French teacher who is a good local friend to Lane and her family.
Diane, played by Elaine Stritch (replacing Maureen O'Sullivan in the reshoot), is Lane's mother by Diane's first husband, who she left for a second man who abused Diane. The story as the movie opens establishes that Lane shot and killed Diane's second husband when Lane was but 14 years old. In what seems like a throwaway `Whose Afraid of Virginia Wolff' moment, it is revealed that Diane actually shot her husband and the story cooked up for the police and the trial was that the shooting was done by the underage Lane.
Lloyd, played by Jack Warden, is Diane's current (third?) husband who happens to be a theoretical physicist. His speciality is not spelled out, but since he did do some work at Los Alamos, it can be assumed that he worked in quantum physics. This is a bit more than nominally interesting, as a theme running through the dialogue is the notion that, like events at the quantum level, everything is random.
The heart of the story is how Lane, fragile at best at the opening of the movie, is brought even lower by two quick blows to her fragile psyche. The first is her mother's deciding to live in the Vermont house permenantly, countering Lane's plans to sell the house to financially recover. The second of the two blows is when Lane discovers that boyfriend Peter is romantically entangled with married friend Stephanie.
The theme of fiction versus reality arises in the suggestion Diane makes to Peter that he writes Diane's memoirs. It is not entirely clear to what Diane owes her celebrity, but a couple touring the house with an interest in making an offer to purchase recognizes Diane's photograph as a person of celebrity with major contacts with Broadway and Las Vegas performers. The theme peaks with the allegation that it was Diane, not Lane who killed her second husband.
Another theme is life after death, brought out by Diane's playing with an old Ouija board trying to contact past husbands, versus current husband's very scientific view of the randomness of nature.
The one area where Allen outdoes practically all other films is that in place of a romantic triangle, Allen creates a romantic square with both Lane and Stephanie paired up with both Peter and Howard at different points in the movie.
This is probably one of Allen's most literate and circumscribed movies. Even with the few characters and the very small set, there are still a lot of loose ends. The whole story could probably be told in a `New Yorker' short story, of which Allen wrote many early in his career.
As the action is relatively easy to follow and the resolutions end on a fairly positive note, this is a much less depressing film than `Interiors'. It is also artistically superior, but not up to the level of his very best films.
A `must see' for any Allen fan. People who just like his comedies can take a pass.
Description of September
Six people gather to spend a quiet weekend together in Vermont during the last days of summer, but by weekend's end, things have changed for all of them.Genre: Feature Film-Drama
Rating: PG
Release Date: 7-SEP-2004
Media Type: DVD
September is best known as the movie Woody Allen made twice, bang on top of each other, and still brought in on time and on budget. He decided the casting wasn't working, switched some actors and roles, and altogether dumped Sam Shepard (who subsequently had very uncomplimentary things to say about Allen as a director of actors). That was some kind of achievement and said reams about Allen's efficiency and adaptability as a filmmaker. Unhappily, the congratulations end there, for September is the single most excruciating viewing experience the Woodman ever invited audiences to share.
You could say September is Interiors without the laughs (joke: there are no laughs in Interiors either), without the pull of the Hamptons shore outside the windows, and without the chill, elegant eye of Gordon Willis behind the camera. Members of a thoroughly unappealing family convene for a weekend in Vermont. Over the course of it, almost everybody reveals a lurking preference to have a new significant other in his or her life. You will not care who, how, or why, or acquire any insights into the mysteries of human relationships. Just as Maureen Stapleton brought the breath of life to the emotionally stunted mollusks in Interiors, so here Elaine Stritch injects some sting as Mia Farrow's irrepressibly bitchy mother. The other cast members are Sam Waterston, Dianne Wiest (fresh from her Hannah and Her Sisters Oscar®), Denholm Elliott, and Jack Warden. Them you may sympathize with, for theirs is a thankless task. --Richard T. Jameson
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