Woody Allen

[P_R]

In C&M, the deception is possible because it's handled in a compromised manner. That we feel more for Landau is problematic. What if he was directly involved in the murder & then earns the sympathy? Not having to let his brother's hitman to get the job done? What if he didn't have a loving family & had to leave it all for aging air-hostess, who uses his financial misappropriation for blackmail purposes? That would be a real challenge.

Hmm....as I said. I think it is important that Landau himself does not kill in cold blood and has someone else do it for him.
At one point he talks about turning himself in only for his brother to shake him up saying, he won't let him bring him down along with him (damn these pronouns).
Landau insinuates that the brother threatens to snuff him out too.

He is probably not going to turn himself in. Not because he brother will kill him. But rather because he is unwilling to bring his brother down with him. Or so he would tell himself. If not for such familial appendanges, as a 'pure' individuals is his guilt so big that he would have turned himself in. I don't think so to. But now he can contemplate 'what he would have done, if only...'. An intellectual who has the dirty business taken care of by others, thus he is left with the luxury of pure contemplation. The blood on his hands is figurative.

There IS a duplicity here but it is a very deep one, not excluding self-deception. Remember, he can't bring himself to order a hit. He would rather not actually say it than have his brother infer it.
These are precisely the things I found C&M did so well.

I'd prefer if the feelings were reserved more for the real victims than the self-absorbed loser.

Hmm...I felt the film was all about this contrast.
One man who walks away from murder by merely taking a vacation (on can't but think of Dolores wanted to take a vacation to calm things out between them) while another is having his worst nightmare realized(and we also know his wife is going to leave him, so he is about to get his commeuppance!). The latter is crushed by the very reality that he takes pride in being out of step with, while the former, though equally contemplative of deeper issues, manages to handle things deftly when push comes to shove. His remorse itself was a luxurious stint at moral high ground, lady doth protest too much.

It seemed that their physical union was a way to offset & release the hassles of having to 'conform' to the highbrow.

Yes it felt so to me too. But I didn't find it immoral or deplorable, because Brian Cox and his wife are - even though the former is polite and accommodative - not people the audience warms up to. We feel a social camaraderie with Nola and Myers.

And it didn't need a philosopher's v-o over a montage!

Even C&M didn't need Levy, did it? It was an interesting snippet. The most interesting thing about the character was his suicide. The man who had it all figured kills himself. It makes us think about murder, whether ending a life is that big a deal etc. That more than any of his points about love.

[kid-glove]

The thing with his brother, who then hires the hitman - shabba. Diffuse mechanism. Landau acts like the brother is the one who is putting ideas into his head (to which the brother snaps back by asking why would he contact him then), etc. He wouldn't turn himself in. Remorse & guilt being easily short changed & gotten over with, seemed to be the closure. The gaze (and we the audience) warms up to Landau's recovery. And I'd blame Woody for this.

It IS problematic to create a contrast that ends up reassuring. The elaborate exposition in the end underlines that. OTOH, MP ends in a bleak, caustic state. Not much of a backpatting.

Levy's suicide read as 'ending a life is that big a deal' and be linked to murder, IS a problem. Not a favorable feature. But again, I'd much rather not have any of the Woody portion in this film.

[P_R]

I caught the latter half of 'Hannah and her Sisters' on tv last night. Yet another example of Woody's sheer mastery in the art of direction - as I understand it.

In one of the last scenes in the film, Elliot (Michael Caine) kisses his wife Hannah(Mia Farrow) in bed.Earlier that evening, Caine was told, in no uncertain terms, by Lee- Hannah's sister- that their brief affair was over.

Till then he was hoping there'd be some relief from his marriage. A relief which we - sitting outside the film- see as potentially ruinous, because - as he himself says - Hannah is perfect. "Too perfect" is the worst charge he seems equal to laying on her - so much so that one is inclined to think he is grasping at straws to redeem what is simply a primal attraction to his sister-in-law. We do not sympathize with his alleged suffocation in the perfection of his nice wife as we are privy to all his machinations throughout.

With the door now shut on him, they have the only marital confrontation which they seem to have ever had (with a door half-open so we see only one party till it is slammed shut on our face). The circumstances that lead to it are extraordinary in themselves. She asks him uncomfortable questions close to a subject where he has just taken a blow, and is being forced reassess his position. Her timing is an example of superb depiction of typical couple-moments.

They come as close as possible to the frank exchange of emotions but Elliot stops short of yielding to the moment and revealing the unnecessary. The perilous sense of individuality which can hurt loved ones badly, was possibly reigned in because his hopes had just been dashed moments ago, thus (presumably) making his survival instinct come to the fore. A day earlier this conversation would have been different and its outcome possibly longlasting.

But even in that argument, during his pre-emptively angry dismissal he (and we) sees that she considers him above and beyond any shred of suspicion. One can infer that itself would make him comfortably relieved on the practical plane, while simultaneously heavily guilty on the emotional/relationship plane (which by way of constructing this sentence I have inadvertently suggested is orthogonal -sheesh - to the practical plane). In fact she is the kind of person who may feel guilty for making him feel so. This humungous trust surplus is likely to make him feel all the more terrible.

That is the night he kisses her - after ages, we infer- quite intensely and professes love.

What do we make of that moment?
Is that a moment where his animal passion is being 'merely' channeled to his wife?
Now that the temptation is cleared away, is he investing all his emotions sincerely back into the marriage?

We like to believe the above two are different. We see a duplicitious, weak, self-serving man and a innocent, kind-hearted wife.

But it is also quite possible he himself doesn't know the difference at that moment. After all, every moment is labelled and defined at a later point in time.

We see weak man who wants to survive, who doesn't want to cause hurt - now that there is little to gain from doing so.

And, as he indicates in a voice-over in the subsequent scene, feeling change and pass.So, it was indeed wise to keep mum about something which, left to itself, will fades into inconsequence. Or so it seems at that time

http://dagalti.blogspot.com/2012/01/...ow-anyway.html

[Nerd]

Manhattan Murder Mystery - Fantastic (thriller part was a little underwhelming). Tonnes of roll on the floor moments. ROFLMAX was when Woody says 'See I told you!' to Keaton sitting inside the car seeing a 'Dead' lady walk into a hotel.

"This woman is forever dying"
"That's an alternative lifestyle" to Keaton who reads out a news from the morning paper. The news - A man killed 10 people and ate each one of them.
"Try giving her the present". Woody and Keaton visit an old lady with a gift, and Keaton finds her dead.

And a so many of them.

[SoftSword]

enna pr ivlo promote panraar...
ivaroda best edhachum irundhaa suggest pannunga... pakkaren...

[Bala (Karthik)]

SS
Start with this scene

[SoftSword]

comedy tv serial madhiri irukku...
oru padam sollunga paakkaren..

[V_S]

sorry to poke my nose here.

SS,
My all time favorites are Annie Hall and Manhattan. Watch these two, you will know who Woody Allen is. I have seen only few of his films, but I once I watch his films, I can never watch other films for atleast a month. OnnumE illaatha maadhiri irukkum, aana nalla patta rewind panni kEkara maadhiri, padam mudinchadum, rewind panna vaikkum, that too immediately (I mean you are rewinding 2hours, not just 5 minutes). I never felt like this. As far as I know he is an encyclopedia.

[SoftSword]

thanks VS.... paathudren..
evlavo vettiya irukkom... imdb ellaam poi padam thedrom... ipdi yarachum soningana evlo vasadhiya irukkum...
makkalae.... plis to start a must watch movies thread... evlavo uttu poirukku...

[Nerd]

makkalae.... plis to start a must watch movies thread... evlavo uttu poirukku...

Adhu maadhiri 2,3 thread indha section-layE oru 5-6 varusmaa irukkE.. Naanellaam adhai padichu therinjikittu dhaan ipdi peter vidradhu

Start with simple/straight ones like Manhattan Murder Mystery. See you already got 4 recos within 4 hours.