Saturday, September 24, 2011

HUSBANDS AND WIVES (1992)


‘I will always have this penchant for what I call kamikaze women. I call them kamikazes because they, you know crash their plane, they’re self-destructive. But they crash into you, and you die along with them.’

Unlike other legendary comedians Woody Allen’s real life and reel life persona is not different one on and off screen. His public and private lives most of time converge into one. He’s no longer different from the eccentric, confused, obsessive and skeptical man he represented on screen. Here he’s playing a professor infatuated with his 20 years old young student and it was the same year Woody’s twelve years long successful relationship and marriage with Mia Farrow went into mess with revelation of fifty six years old Woody’s sexual relationship with Mia’s adopted twenty years daughter. So real on and off screen!

The film is one of most mature work of Woody in 90s. It’s less funny and more confessional one and ironic about the theme of marriage and separation between two couples. It begins with one couple’s split witnessed by another blessed one and ends with another one’s split where the first one is again reunited. The narration shifts between self confessional interviews along with their encounters with affairs, crush and infatuation based on unfulfilled desire and need. Woody represented wonderfully the idiosyncrasies of his characters and this is one of those films to watch seriously. Both Mia Farrow and Woody are so honest and natural on screen along with wonderful supported acts by Judy Davis and Sydney Pollock. Quite strange to see Woody preference to shot the film with kind of shaky handheld camera and peculiar cuts running throughout the film.

Recommended to all Woody fans.

Ratings-7.5/10

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