loading...
Interiors
1978
After the tremendous success of ANNIE HALL, Woody Allen took a huge risk and turned serious with INTERIORS, his Bergmanesque masterpiece--a dark, intense look at a family suffocating itself in thoughts of failure and death. Geraldine Page is extraordinary as Eve, a troubled woman who cannot face reality. When Eve's husband, .. Read more
| Starring | Diane Keaton, Kristin Griffith, Mary Beth Hurt, Richard Jordan |
|---|---|
| Director | Woody Allen |
| Genres | Drama |
loading...
Interiors
After the tremendous success of ANNIE HALL, Woody Allen took a huge risk and turned serious with INTERIORS, his Bergmanesque masterpiece--a dark, intense look at a family suffocating itself in thoughts of failure and death. Geraldine Page is extraordinary as Eve, a troubled woman who cannot face reality. When Eve's husband, Arthur (E.G. Marshall), announces that he's moving out of the house, their three daughters (Diane Keaton, Mary Beth Hurt, and Kristin Griffith) gather around the mother, attempting to help her through this crisis, but they have been raised with such coldness and aloofness that they are helpless.
The first movie that Allen wrote and directed but did not appear in, INTERIORS is about closed spaces, both physical and psychological. Most of the scenes feature the intense cast standing by windows, looking out at the world that is going on outside without them. The opening shot of Renata (Keaton) reaching out to the window, spreading her fingers, is mesmerizing. Gordon Willis's photography washes the film in shades of black, white, and gray--the only color comes from Pearl (Maureen Stapleton), Arthur's new lover, who is vibrant and impulsive, everything Eve's family is not. The film also has no background music whatsoever; in fact, aside from one scene in which Pearl plays a jazz record, the only background sounds that can be heard are the quiet call of the ocean and the sisters' careful breathing. Slow-paced, bleak, and marvelously insightful, INTERIORS is a poignant film that should not be missed.
| Starring | Diane Keaton, Kristin Griffith, Mary Beth Hurt, Richard Jordan, E.G. Marshall, Geraldine Page, Maureen Stapleton, Sam Waterston |
|---|---|
| Director | Woody Allen |
| Studio | MGM ENTERTAINMENT |
| Run time | DVD: 1 hr 28 mins |
| Certificate | |
| Genres | Drama |
| Language | DVD: English |
| Dubbed | French, German, Italian, Spanish |
| Hearing-impaired | English |
| Subtitles | DVD: Dutch, French, Italian, Portuguese, Spanish |
| Released | DVD: 19 Aug 2002 Production year: 1978 |
| Format | DVD |
-
Critics' reviews (2)
View all -
Coming between Woody Allen's great comic masterpieces Annie Hall and Manhattan, this intense drama baffled fans and divided critics on its original release. The influence of Ingmar Bergman is unmistakeable, but there are also echoes of Chekhov and Eugene O'Neill in this story of a family thrown into turmoil. Allen's stylish compositions and his astute handling of the cast are impressive, but the script lacks weight and some of the more searching scenes topple over into melodrama. Oscar-nominated Geraldine Page dominates the proceedings as the domineering, mentally disturbed mother, though EG Marshall and Maureen Stapleton also register in unassuming support.
-
Interiors must rank as one of the most spectacular changes of direction for an American artist since Clint Eastwood... read more on Time Out
-
Most helpful member's review
View all -
13 out of 14 people found this review helpful
Interiors (1978)
Woody Allen's films can be neatly divided into two types: the funny ones, and the not-funny ones. This film is not funny (there is a joke, about halfway through, involving an art gallery in the lobby of a casino, but that's it). Three sisters, each with their own problems, are devastated when their elderly father decides to separate from their mother. Their lives begin to unravel in slow, painful fashion. No, there are no inflatable vegetables in this Woody Allen film.
However, it is a striking, powerful film that looks beautiful and is crafted with care and attention. The cinematography, all washed out colours, half-light and shadows, perfectly matches the despair and confusion of the characters; they are emotionally drained, as the sets are, too.
However, there's a knowingness about this film - about cinema, about Bergman, about arthouse films - that never lets you just sit back and enjoy it. It's often self-conscious where it should be natural.
Also, Allen's characters are the usual suspects - white, affluent, middle class intellectuals suffering existential angst as a result of an inability to express themselves. We identify with Allen in the comedic roles - as loser, chancer, clown - but, here, there's no-one to sympathise with. Even the much-hated girlfriend of the father (hated, just because she's not a true replacement for the mother) becomes the butt of the film's one and only joke.
That said, the stand-out scene, where the mother prepares her living room with masking tape so that she can gas herself, shows a director blessed with true brilliance.
This film is worth seeing once. But watch Deconstructing Harry (1997) straight after, just to realise that Allen can do funny and art-house at the same time. -
Most recent members' review
View all -
13 out of 14 people found this review helpful
Interiors (1978)
Woody Allen's films can be neatly divided into two types: the funny ones, and the not-funny ones. This film is not funny (there is a joke, about halfway through, involving an art gallery in the lobby of a casino, but that's it). Three sisters, each with their own problems, are devastated when their elderly father decides to separate from their mother. Their lives begin to unravel in slow, painful fashion. No, there are no inflatable vegetables in this Woody Allen film.
However, it is a striking, powerful film that looks beautiful and is crafted with care and attention. The cinematography, all washed out colours, half-light and shadows, perfectly matches the despair and confusion of the characters; they are emotionally drained, as the sets are, too.
However, there's a knowingness about this film - about cinema, about Bergman, about arthouse films - that never lets you just sit back and enjoy it. It's often self-conscious where it should be natural.
Also, Allen's characters are the usual suspects - white, affluent, middle class intellectuals suffering existential angst as a result of an inability to express themselves. We identify with Allen in the comedic roles - as loser, chancer, clown - but, here, there's no-one to sympathise with. Even the much-hated girlfriend of the father (hated, just because she's not a true replacement for the mother) becomes the butt of the film's one and only joke.
That said, the stand-out scene, where the mother prepares her living room with masking tape so that she can gas herself, shows a director blessed with true brilliance.
This film is worth seeing once. But watch Deconstructing Harry (1997) straight after, just to realise that Allen can do funny and art-house at the same time. -
News and features
View all
Ingmar Bergman, 1918-2007
- 31 Jul 2007
See the entire LOVEFiLM Bergman Collection here Checkmate. Death has finally taken the great Swedish master, Ingmar Bergman, as he always knew it must. No filmmaker wrestled longer and more painfully with the knowledge of his own mortality. His father was a severe Lutheran minister, and a figure who cast a long shadow over Bergman's films, including his premature swansong, Fanny and Alexander (1982), and perhaps his purest masterpiece, Winter Light (1962), a portrait of a pastor who has lost... Read more
-
More like this
View allShowing 1 to 4 of 20
Related user collection
76.2% from 36 members
