Saturday, January 1, 2011

STARDUST MEMORIES (1980)

‘Have you studied filmmaking in school?’
‘No, I didn’t study anything in school. They studied me,’
replied Woody.

Here’s Woody’s take on Fellini’s ‘8 ½’, the phenomenon film on director’s block. Off course you don’t expect things that serious and complicated from the man who is gifted with art of laughter. He is playing himself as Sandy Bates, a movie director who don’t feel funny anymore and trying to make something serious and meaningful out of his routine comedies. He’s staying at Hotel Stardust and having his messed up status with different women. It’s random, without plot and filled with disjointed scenes shot in B&W paying his usual tribute from Fellini, Groucho to De Sica.

His romance and intimate moments are constantly punctured by his cast, crew and fan followers. Though there’s not sporadic laughter as found usually; there’re certain scenes which are impressive. One where he’s answering film aficionados’ questions or talking to UFO or one where he’s accepting his posthumous Oscar with a speech. There’s one of the witty remark came from regular filmgoer who’s watching them for entertainment purpose- ‘They try to document their private suffering and fob it off as art.’

Not one of the best of Woody but enjoyable nevertheless.

Ratings-6.5/10

1 comment:

Aditya Tibrewala said...

ive noticed that there are some very typical movies that you end up reviewing. You either watch movies which are at least 15-20 years old, or some really fantastic ones from today. You shy away from the commerical movies and movies from the past decade. I was just curious to ask if there is any particular reason for that?