Movies You Should See is a new weekly series of essays covering movies that aren’t just recommended but everyone should see if they are serious about seeing great films. Some of these films you likely heard of, some may have been before your time but can easily be found on physical media or streaming and some are more obscure than they deserve to be. Either way, these are films I feel you very much should see if you are serious about being a viewer of film as both an artform and an important medium. That doesn’t mean there won’t be films on here that aim to be nothing more than entertainment, but the films like that in this series aim to be great entertainment, and not just a time killer on a screen. With the current situation concerning the COVID virus, and my ability to go to the theaters cut short, I will start this series. However, I plan to continue it even after I get vaccinated.
Woody Allen is a dying breed of filmmaker. Not only is his work great art, great writing, and memorable stories, based for the most part in reality we can actually recognize, with a romanticized New York City that feels more honest than condescending, but he also made movies for adults. His stories are about adults dealing with adult situations , for an adult audience. We don’t see such maturity in many films anymore and that is a shame.
A good chunk of his best films are examples of real thoughtful films like Husbands and Wives, Annie Hall, Manhattan, Deconstructin
Hannah and Her Sisters is a noteworthy entry in Woody Allen’s already overwhelmly noteworthy catalogue of works, from the structure of its screenplay to its memorable performances. Hannah and Her Sisters feels more like a good novel than a run of the mill screenplay. It’s structured with many stories, but all come back to a common theme.
Hannah’s name is in the title, but the film revolves around her two husbands, one currently married to and one ex-husband, who are both experiencing crises that have to do with getting older and figuring out what they really want. It also revolves around her sisters, played by Carrie Fisher, Barbara Hershey, and Diane West.
Unlike other films that have a focus on women, Hannah, played by Mia Farrow, isn’t presented as a neurotic woman figuring out her life. There’s no Oprah-like portrayal of a woman having to figure herself out. She’s the normal one. It’s her sisters and her current husband and ex husband who really have all the problems. Hannah herself just seems to want to live her life like any well-adjusted adult would. It’s a refreshing piece of writing to have the women in the title not have the major crisis of age.
Her current husband, Elliot, played by Michael Caine in an Oscar winning performance, is finding himself starting to obsess over Hannah’s younger and more artsy sister, Lee, played by Barbara Hershey. She represents to him a bit of something he doesn’t have. A part of him wants to leave the more stable and mature Hannah. One of the best scenes in the film is the part where Elliot and Lee go to a bookstore in Manhattan and he gives her a book with a poem by E.E. Cummings that he says reminds him of her. When she reads it alone, her narration shows the poem has a ton of feeling, and this poem is a hint to her that he has feelings for her.
In typical Woody Allen fashion, the other half of the movie almost seems like a separate film, as Hannah’s ex-husband, a TV writer named Mickey, played by Allen himself, has an existential crisis when he gets a clean bill of health. He found a lump earlier, and then when the doctor tells him it’s not cancerous, he starts to question what the meaning of life is, figuring out religion and the purposes of if there’s something more. The break up of Hannah and his marriage was his inability to have children, and though they were conceived by IVF, he still doesn’t feel he fulfilled much with his life.
Woody Allen’s part of the movie brings more comic relief, while Michael Caine’s side brings more of a crisis. Yet, both pose serious questions about getting older and the relationships we have. Yet, there’s a third story in this already stuffed movie about Diane West playing Hannah’s sister, Holly, a former cocaine addict who is trying to settle on a career, but is pulled back into the world of showbiz when she tries to get a role in a play, facing off against a new friend she made who is also a actress. Hannah tries to get her to consider leaving showbiz. Then she writes a script herself that is based on the marriage of Hannah and Lee, which upsets them greatly. In the hands of a lesser writer/director, having some many storylines would make a movie break, and not work as a narrative flow, but in the hands of Woody Allen, that doesn’t happen.
Woody Allen’s Hannah and Her Sisters is a meditation on faith, life, relationships, manhood but most of all, being an adult, on the mysteries of being one in general. Allen conveys adulthood in a way few filmmakers, and writers in general, do today where the adults struggle with growing older and being mature, but still want that goal. His characters are honest with their flaws, but they are also real people trying their best, and having intelligent thoughts about their life, flawed or not, instead of silly moments where we are supposed to laugh at adults being wacky. We often laugh at Woody Allen films but they also make us think, and we are better for having watched them. Hannah and Her Sisters is a great place to start if you don’t really know Woody Allen’s work, as it’s a nice beginners guide to many of his themes.
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