Rewatching Hannah and Her Sisters

[quote]Michael Caine’s character is so loathesome and definitely did not deserve the Oscar,

He's such an awful actor and was especially bad in this...and doing the Woody Allen dialogue with his stupid English accent didn't help at all.

Oh and the poor fucked up sister (who was the best thing in this) it all worked out for her in the end, she got her prize!! Woody fucking Allen. Such a happy ending.

It's one of the greatest films on love and relationships I've ever seen. I love it for that and it's wonderful allusions (Bach and Cummings among them). Completely disagree on Michael Caine's performance. He was human, infuriating, and pathetic, in the way old skirt-chasers often are. Farrow arguably played the same character over and over again in Allen's films, but Hershey and Wiest were magnificent.

She's one LUCKY LADY.

Who the fuck did Caine's fucking wardrobe?...including those glasses!

Theye look like dorky clothes but those are probably Ralph Lauren or whoever was big then.

It was just on TCM and I have to say that Mickey is my all time favorite character of Allen's. He really goes on an emotional journey. I have seen this so many times and it never gets old.

That being said, Woody Allen is still a horrible person in real life.

I love Dianne Wiest in this. However, I would have voted for A Room with a View for Best Picture that year.

Dianne looked like Maureen O'Sullivan in the scene they were together.

Dianne Wiest is always amazing. Love her in this. And Mia is adorable.

Among the all time best scenes in movie history... the writing, direction, cinematography, and acting are all superb!

Wiest was always a pleasure to watch in films. She seemed to shine in ensemble pieces like Hannah, Radio Days and Parenthood. R2 had it right...Farrow did seem to be the same character in every film. Only in "Purple Rose Of Cairo" did it work to her advantage. She fit that character like a glove.

Wiest is very good and goes from being annoying to sympathetic which annoying characters rarely do. Hershey is fine. Farrow is dreadful and without depth. Lloyd Nolan and O'Sullivan are terrific. Allen seems to write himself into the story in the way that Spike Lee usually does, but the doesn't detract.

Hannah and Her Emotionally Abusive Sisters and Second Husband.

R11 Mia played against type in Broadway Danny Rose and was very good.

Sorry

I love the architectural tour the Sam Waterston character gives Holly and April, and Holly's inner monologue in the ride home.

It reminds me of "Manhattan": beautifully photographed and directed, great soundtrack, and I can't stand any of the characters.

Loved Max von Sydow

It is his night on TCM!

I thought it was inexplicable that Lee would want to have an affair an unattractive creep like Elliot; and he's her sister's husband to boot! I guess she was REALLY fucked up. And the Oscar Caine won for this was SO undeserved. ALL of the other nominees that year (Tom Berenger, Willem DaFoe, Denholm Elliott and and Dennis Hopper) deserved it more.

Did Lee tell Holly about the affair with Elliott? That was kind of kept vague. At the very least she spilled a lot of tea to Holly about their marriage and Hannah being "disgustingly perfect".

The architectural tour was perfect and I liked Waterson and Carrie Fisher. The restaurant scene was brilliantly handled.

Michael Caine was not my favorite. I kept on expecting him to pop on a blonde wig and start chasing Nancy Allen around with a razor.

Let's face it.

Lee was a skank and a potential homewrecker who at least had the decency to feel guilty unlike that ungrateful daughter of Mia's.

Elliott was an ass who couldn't handle having a non needy wife. Whatever!

Holly made good quail eggs.

April was pushy but had a good voice. She also got to be taken home by the married architect first because Holly lived in Chelsea.

I digress

I love "Hannah and Her Sisters." Only thing disappointing is that *all* of the men are old and unattractive, not just Woody Allen.

"Hannah" was a perfect 1980s movie, especially the Dianne Wiest character, smoking cigarettes and snorting coke at a table in a club. I loved the Dianne Wiest character.

Most of all, I loved the Mia Farrow's apartment and the autumn / Thanksgiving / New York City feel. Such a nice mood.

The sisters having secrets from each other (Lee fucking Hannah's husband, Lee being kind of an opportunist) was realistic.

If Max Von Sydow had done nothing in his life but deliver this one speech from Hannah, his reputation in cinema history would be assured. But because he is associated with Ingmar Bergman and portrayed the Christ, his participation gives the scene an extra added richness and hilarity.

R10 I happened to re-watch last week, and was struck by this scene too. So good.

Dianne Weist has some of my favorite lines, just because of the way she delivers them, like "I hate April." One I use myself on occasion is "You always undercut my enthusiasm!"

"How should I know why there were Nazis? I don't know how the can opener works! "

Mickey, I think you snapped your cap!

"Most of all, I loved the Mia Farrow's apartment and the autumn / Thanksgiving / New York City feel. Such a nice mood."

Sigh, yes. I lived in Manhattan in the 80s, when I was young. I remember seeing the movie in the theater when it first came out, and just swooning. It captured all my aspirations and romantic feelings about the city. I remember thinking enviously of how wonderful Mia and Woody's life must be. Full of friends, family, creative work. See? You never know....

I watched annie hall recently. I love diane keaton (and Carol Kane) but never noticed how sitcomy it was. It made me think it was the last of his Sleeper era stuff not the beginning of his serious filmmaker era. Was really surprised - i thought I loved that movie. Does anyone else feel this way? I’m now scared to watch Broadway Danny Rose - another one I love.

R10 I'm getting dizzy with that camera-perv walking around our table eavesdropping on our private conversation.

Only drama queens would have private conversations like this in a public place.

Very interesting how about two-thirds through it seemed like the characters were all careening toward disaster, but a happy ending was achieved at the end without it being contrived -- even with the whole "sleeping with my sister's husband" sort of thing!

[quote]I love the architectural tour the Sam Waterston character gives Holly and April, and Holly's inner monologue in the ride home.

I hate April, she's pushy.

[quote]even with the whole "sleeping with my sister's husband" sort of thing!

Turns out Woody "dated" both of Diane Keaton's sisters in REAL life.

& probably would have run through Mia's, given the chance.

But he fucked her daughter instead.

I've never been big on Allen's movies from the 80's, except for 'Zelig' but then MIA IS BITCH.

I've got reading to do, I'll turn on a movie and take an extra Seconal.

I'd never heard "I've Heard That Song Before" before I saw "Hannah and Her Sisters".

What a great record.

I hate April. She's pushy.

(Carrie Fisher supposedly had a bigger role but was in bad shape drug wise and most of her stuff got cut or never filmed.)

R34 i read that too and I really hope that wasn’t the inspo for Hannah. I still love the movie, though.

But really that’s so gross. Oh well.

When woody wasn’t problematic! This and crime and misdemeanors are my favourites of his. I want to watch it now but know it so well. I’m gay but always fancied Barbara Hershey.

[quote] I’m gay but always fancied Barbara Hershey.

Gurl, you is bi.

The African American maid didn't get any lines which was a shock. Usually Woody is so good with the diversity thing.

I have a love/hate relationship like many others with Woody Allen movies. Hannah is one of his gems. But I think my all time favorite comedic acting performance in any film was Weist as Helen Sinclair in Bullets Over Broadway.

I remember really liking it when it came out, with Wiest a particular delight. Also thought Hershey did a nice job with a morally complex character. In his recent autobiography, Allen wrote that he’d wanted to work with Hershey dating back to “Annie Hall” — wonder what role he had in mind for her.

It’s funny the things that come back to you — I remember reading a very good review of “Hannah” and the reviewer wrote .”.. and even Carrie Fisher exhibits something akin to warmth” which I thought was amusing.

Haven’t revisited it in many years, wonder how it would hold up today.

I didn't like it at all and I had been a pretty major Woody fan for a long time.

I liked Diane Weist very much, she was more pure old school Woody and shows his love for women and for quirky women. I read his book and he speaks about this & just because he behaves very badly with and around them, this is also part of the equation, and of course, has been a great source of (or should it be for?) his success.

But didn't like any of the other characters and Michale Caine brought his lead foot to the proceedings. I'm amazed with how much he gets away with as an actor. No one can see how bad he is. He's so unsexy it's not true and here he is being all sexy, galumphing around the streets of SoHo in those awful clothes and glasses...chasing after Barbara Hershey with her awful perm.

But Mia was a beauty I know everyone hates her now but anyone who can still look beautiful in one of those Hannah perms, has a lot.

But she has a crap part in this.

“Can you imagine the level of mind that watches Wrestling?”

I don't remember that line. LOL.

He was awful in this as well. You can't do Woody with a Swedish accent. You can't do American comedy, period.

Dianne Wiest's character had the perfect '80s wardrobe. This is one of my favorite scenes from the movie: Woody's character & Dianne's character meet by chance at Tower Records & tell each other: "I hope you've changed, for your sake."

Wiest's wardrobe reminds me of Molly Ringwald's in 16 Candles.

One of my friends and I used to say, “Good God! Have you been kissed tonight?”

"If Jesus was alive today, he would never stop throwing up!"

Van Sydow seemed pedantic here, granted the dialogue was part of it. I thought Caine was fine--a refined version of the Cockney rake he played in his early years. Farrow was never a stunner or even all that pretty---rather she was waiflike and bit unusual. I liked her best in Radio days where her part was pure face anshe had fun with it, something she rarely seems to do. In "Hannah" and in many other films, she is usually playing someone a bit waiflike or she seems actress-y but not very adequate. Allen really resurrected her career and gave her a mix of roles.

Barbara's perm was terrible, as were her dowdy clothes. And no makeup. This was unusual for the 1980s. Still she managed to look beautiful and extremely sexy. She really presaged that 90s CBK thing of women styling themselves minimally, as if to say, "I'm so beautiful I need no adornment." Barbara managed this with a look that was downright ugly. Her character couldn't even manage anything better than a brown sweater for Thanksgiving. By contrast, Dianne Wiest's character looked so cute with her quirky little hats and dresses.

[quote] Van Sydow seemed pedantic here, granted the dialogue was part of it.

Wasn't that the point of his character, though? The aging "intellectual" who falls for a much younger woman, not his intellectual equal. (Tries to turn her into young & sexy *plus* someone he can talk with.) Then it all plays out as predicted: he's disappointed in her shortcomings; she still need to sow wild oats.

R48 I mentioned that I rewatched just last week. This was another scene that struck me. Mia was so moving, and with "You Are Too Beautiful" on piano underneath it - what's the word for that pleasant aching, wistful feeling? I thought to myself, shame she hasn't really won much in the way of awards.

R55 here, I would add that Barbara's look was a New York art-world look, that of an important artists's woman. Sorry if that sounds sexist, but I knew a few of the type back in the day.

Oh dear, I meant "artist's"

I actually think Mia was quite good in a lot of his movies. Achingly romantic in Purple Rose of Cairo (the look of longing on her face as she watches the film is really something), and zany fun in movies like Radio Days. Her butch mob wife in Broadway Danny Rose was a real departure and she mostly pulls it off. She also nailed the Bergmanesque drama of September (though it's one of his weaker films) and Husbands and Wives is painfully realistic - for obvious reasons, in hindsight.

Of course she's no thespian like some of the other muses he's had (Gena Rowlands, Judy Davis, Diane Keaton, Charlotte Rampling) but I think pretty underrated. She nailed the neurotic NYC characters even though that was so far from her work before and since.

Anyway... Hannah is a great movie. Autumnal New York really is a character in and of itself, and I have the wonderful soundtrack on vinyl - mostly great jazz standards. The script is a bit too 'written' at times, but it does a great job at developing so many characters simultaneously as they go through a lot of changes. Hershey and Wiest were the standouts - I love her giddy final announcement at the end of the film.

The soundtrack is gorgeous, I had it on a cassette tape. Not available on iTunes, sadly

R61: I still have the soundtrack on original vinyl. It’s really a perfect soundtrack.

Love seeing the mid-80s pre-gentrified SoHo. Wasn’t Dylan and her truth in the Thanksgiving scene among all the children?

R11 I thought Mia was outstanding in Radio Days and Purple Rose. Other than those two, she did seem to repeat herself.

I'd rather watch Farrow than Rampling any day.

After seeing this film I thought Hershey and Sigourney Weaver could play sisters.

Weaver has a quick uncredited cameo in ANNIE HALL as Allen's date outside the movie theater near the end. This was obviously before ALIEN.

You’re right about sisters, R66

[quote]New York really is a character in and of itself

Can't stand when people say this.

Rampling is an actress with a different kind of somewhat limited range--less "specialized" (not a waif--more of an adult).

Even knowing that farrow had all her children, her "giving" in Hannah & Her Sisters seems more guilt induced and defensive. It's a shame that the film didn't go beyond the obvious and deal with her obvious lack of warmth. Ditzy Holly had more warmth and capacity for real connection.

I think Rampling can be highly effective when cast and directed appropriately. She has a very unique beauty and there is something truly baleful about her presence. I think Fatal Attraction is overall a dumb movie, but I could see Rampling being as effective, albeit in another way, as Close was in the role of Alex.

R20 WTF? Dennis Hopper deserved an Oscar for Hoosiers? Denholm Elliot deserved an Oscar for A Room with a View?

You lost all credibility.

"Dennis Hopper deserved an Oscar for Hoosiers? Denholm Elliot deserved an Oscar for A Room with a View?"

They deserved it more than MIchael Caine in "Hannah and Her Sisters." They deserved it a LOT more.

Dennis Hopper is not a good actor. See "Apocalypse Now." Embarrassing.

Mia also played against type playing the woman with the horrible Brooklyn accent in "Radio Days."

I liked Holly's singing voice.

"nobody, not even the rain has such small hands"

Noticed how Lee wore pants until she had sex with Elliott, thereafter she appeared in skirts/dresses.

A million yuppies named their daughters Hannah in 1987...

I think I read that Dianne Wiest and Woody hooked up in real life. He had more chemistry with her than any of his costars.

This thread inspired me to rewatch it. I had forgotten how uneven the film is. There are some wonderful moments, but there are also lots of just ok moments and some that are just cringe-worthy. Woody somehow got the undeserved reputation of being wise or profound, and he never has been. His heart has always been in punchlines and gags, writing sketches. The moment that encapsulates that in this film is the shot of Wonder Bread and Hellman’s mayonnaise when his character decides to convert to Catholicism.

The music is lovely, of course, but Woody leans on the score too heavily to establish mood. He sometimes forgets that film is a visual medium. And don’t get me started on the lazy voiceovers.

Dianne Wiest was even better than I remembered. She really elevated the script. Her fellow Oscar winner, Michael Caine, was a complete embarrassment. His win should go down in history as one of the great Oscar travesties.

I loved the scene where Wiest and Carrie Fisher sang for an audition. Watching the latter made me think of Meryl Streep playing the Carrie character in Postcards from the Edge.

I’ve defended attacks on Woody over the years and have argued that his art should be judged separately from his life. But there’s no doubt that many of his films are wish fulfillment fantasies of creepy older men lusting after younger women. The idea of Lee going from one older man as a teacher/lover to another older man, her wife’s creepy older husband (who she has amazing sex with), and that this is presented with a straight face, is ludicrous. And contrast that with Maureen O’Sullivan’s character ridiculed for flirting with a younger man. It’s awful stuff.

I loved watching Joanna Gleason’s face in the scene where Woody asks her husband to be a sperm donor. And I thought Mia did a nice job overall. But I don’t need to revisit this film again anytime soon. The Purple Rose of Cairo, on the other hand, is another matter altogether.

R80, thanks for the recap. I fear watching it again, frankly.

[quote] The idea of Lee going from one older man as a teacher/lover to another older man, her wife’s creepy older husband (who she has amazing sex with), and that this is presented with a straight face, is ludicrous.

My feelings, exactly, about Woody Allen. In real life, young women would not be attracted to these men. However, IIRC, the Lee character ended up dumping Michael Caine for someone her age.

Another cringey moment was when he fat shamed the woman jogging in his voice over.

Comedy is pain--somebody else's.

Funny how he never makes fun of his own appearance.

Comedy is tragedy plus time.

R82 mmmm.....I’m from an older generation, not worried about “shaming,” so I found it funny.

It is a bit off how in every movie he has these gorgeous, creative, intelligent women clamouring to fall in love with him (the same nervy, neurotic, wussy writer character). It's not enough that in one of them he literally dates a high school student (Manhattan).

One of the most glaring examples was in Everyone Says I Love You. Where his ex-wife is a still-beautiful Goldie Hawn, and he has his daughter (Natasha Lyonne) go spy on Julia Roberts and find out what she likes sexually so he can manipulate her and do it to her.

Lyonne tells him that Julia likes when a man blows between her shoulder blades. A few scenes later it cuts to the foul image of creepy old Woody in some lush European setting, literally mouth breathing on the exposed back of Julia Roberts (at the peak of her movie stardom and youthful beauty), and saying "is that good? do ya like that?"..... and we're supposed to buy it? Ludicrous. It's a shame so many of his films are tarnished by him filling them with his ego-driven fantasies.

No scenes of them eating Turkey or stuffing whilst sitting down at Thanksgiving. Just a lot of walking and noshing and no talk of football.

But can we still consider this a holiday classic?

R87 that’s why so many of his fans prefer his “earlier, funnier” movies.

Though actually in Crimes & Misdemeanors (his best movie imo) he pretty much goes back to playing a total loser schmuck — which is great.

Agree about the annoying theme of the unlikely shmuck with a too-hot woman, but it's hardly unique to Woody Allen movies. It's just consistent with him, and creepier because at times they are FAR too young for him (Manhattan, Husbands & Wives). They would never consider the Woody character a romantic partner in real life. I just realized I'm only speaking of the movies up through the nineties. There are several later Woody movies that I still have not seen, because he was churning them out every year, it seemed, and I just couldn't be bothered.

"Manhattan" was mind-blowing, just watching him kiss Mariel Hemingway. Plus, in the movie, one of his friends set them up as a couple. Ugh.

You sound knowledgeable R80.

This would make for a better musical than Bullets Over Broadway did. I could even see it as a comic opera.

OP, R1 I agree. I say Maurice Mickelwhite has been awful since 1962.

He has dead eyes, a pudgy body a rigor mortis facen and a monotonous voice incapable of expression.

I loved seeing Mia's real apartment used as the set. As a penniless teen, how I envied that huge place with all those rooms.

The scene with Woody's character, Mickey, and his wife, Hannah, explaining that Woody shoots blanks, and so they'd like to use some of his friend's sperm to impregnate Hannah, takes on a lot more weight now. It seems Woody never did have any biological children, despite being married three times to healthy young women, and having numerous relationships outside of marriage.

It's nice that Sinatra stepped up and did what Woody couldn't do. He and Mia loved each other until he died, despite their divorce.

At least Muriel Hemingway got an Oscar nomination for her troubles.

Mickey had one lucky sperm at the end of the movie.

Maybe Ronan is a member of the lucky sperm club in real life?

R98 Wow.....do you know I never put 2 + 2 together about Mickey's lucky sperm at the end? I guess because so much going on in the movie, I forgot about his supposed infertility.

It was a miracle!

Just thought to myself, will family question the paternity of Holly’s baby given what they know about Mickey? Then I thought about Woody…weird.

Did Tony Roberts masturbate into a little cup for them? She and Hannah could be sister wives or something like that!

[quote]I thought it was inexplicable that Lee would want to have an affair an unattractive creep like Elliot; and he's her sister's husband to boot!

She had an affair with him PRECISELY because he was her sisters husband. Sisters have a naturally adversarial relationship. It has to do with the double helix of the DNA molecule.

At least that's what The Golden Girls told me.

"All my life I've put up with insults from this...this NON-person...this HAIRCUT that PASSES for a MAN."

My undergraduate years were the late 80's, and there are three films I try to see every year at Thanksgiving:

1) Planes, Trains, and Automobiles (no matter how much I dreaded dealing with my father for a long weekend, I always looked forward to the trip home for Thanksgiving) 2) Hannah and Her Sisters (the film's opening and closing scenes are two consecutive Thanksgiving celebrations, and I appreciated the memories Nolan and O'Sullivan tried to create for their grandchildren) 3) The Accidental Tourist (Rose's gray, fetid turkey disaster, festooned as a Della Robbia in bright fruited perfection, is culinary comic GENIUS)

R103 I thought it was Peter Marshall on The Love Boat!

R104: to this day I still use “Haircut that passes for a man” when talking about someone who’s useless.

Lee and Elliot were such skanks.

I hate April. She's pushy.

I wish I could find the soundtrack somewhere

I read in that recent bio that Carrie Fisher had a much bigger part but it was cut due to suspected drug issues.

It is my own personal goal to become "disgustingly self sufficient".

Definitely one film of Woodys I can watch over and over and I have since I saw it the first time when I was 19 in 1986. Caine was fine I thought. Nothing more. I always chalked his Oscar for this to a career Oscar unlike Wiest who more than earned hers. It really is a masterpiece of script and performance. Perfect cast with some hilarious and poignant moments. Woodys best.

I admire Michale Caine for his sucess, he openly admits to phoning it in, every time. Any script, any easy role in a good location and he's in.

I first saw him in The Man who Would be King with Sean Connery. I was 14 and remember thinking about all the hot mens and NOT thinking about any of the women. Hmmm, I wonder why?>

I believe "Hannah" was Allen's last great film.

R61/R2 Great music, couldn't agree more. Especially love the Bach Concerto for Two Harpsichords.

^ meant to type R62 there, but ironically R2 mentioned referencing Bach!

R114 he even admits to doing a lot of paycheck crap in one of his Golden globe speeches. In fact I think he deserved it more for Hannah than the Cider House Rules, which is a performance that is cringe worthy throughout. He has a lot of industry cred and is well liked. When he won for CHR, he spent most of his speech saluting the other nominees which is extremely classy.

He has admitted at the time he sort of resented being in the supporting actor category because he thought it meant his career was going down hill. He regrets that now. He was making Jaws 4 or something at the time of the Oscars and didn't even fly in for the ceremony due to his ambivalence.

He’s made no secret of wanting a lead Oscar. He wanted that Quiet American Oscar but he was a long shot at best with Adrien Brody winning in an upset. Plus he actually doesn’t regret doing Jaws 4 and missing the Oscars. He’s said the money bought him a nice new house or something.

In real life, Woody dated Diane Keaton and had a long term relationship with Mia Farrow. So why should he write himself roles where he can’t get a beautiful woman?

diane wiest was all

I thought Michael Caine was totally repulsive in this movie. Lee must have been REALLY fucked up to start having sex with him, a much older, gross looking man, not to mention the fact that he was her sister's husband. Anybody who would fuck her sister's husband is one fucked up chick.

The tension between "Woody Allen is Satan" and Woody Allen is generally the only male A List director besides Almodovar who front loads women is an amazing paradox.

[quote] The tension between "Woody Allen is Satan" and Woody Allen is generally the only male A List director besides Almodovar who front loads women is an amazing paradox.

Woody now has this reputation as a creep, but he made over 50 films over six decades, most featuring attractive actresses, and there was never one negative word said against him by any of them. He didn’t hit on women when he was casting or when he was on set, or abuse his power in any other way. He did invite Mariel Hemingway to go to I think Paris with him, which made her uncomfortable, but that wasn’t until after they made Manhattan.

Dylan's truth was lifted by Mia from the Dorrie Previn song With My Daddy in the Attic.

BTW WHET to Ronan?

I think the maid got one line in the movie which was real progress for Woody.