Husbands And Wives Details

Throughout this excellent enterprise, Woody Allen employs a hand-held camera (familiar from news reports on location and Oliver Stone movies) to convey the intensity and instability of the key relationship on screen, that between himself and Mia Farrow as a successful but troubled media couple. Sadly, the technique has the effect of nailing you to your seat and leaving you gasping for air. Otherwise this dissection of two relationships (the other is between Sydney Pollack and Judy Davis) is piled high with wit, vim and vigour as it comments on the foibles of the artsy self-obsessed of midtown Manhattan. In a film released at the time of Woody and Mia's own troubles, rich ideas and strong performances abound.

One of Allen's best films, a clever and insightful examination of the insecurities and often self-destructive behaviour of couples, though the nervy camera-work irritates.