By Chaz Lipp
A debate that will likely rage on so long as there are
people watching movies, what is Woody Allen’s finest film? I’ll submit
Hannah and Her Sisters, from 1986, as
the answer. Numerous great Allen movies came before, but
Hannah seemed to crystalize his vision. All the humor, insight,
depth, incisive acting, and sobering truths of Allen’s work up to that point culminated
with his Academy Award-winning screenplay. He has yet to come even close to equally
Hannah in the 27 years since.
One of the many reasons the film works so beautifully is the
seamless way Allen intertwines the related, (but independent to a degree) arcs
of each main character. Along the way, Allen juggles flashbacks, multiple
voiceovers, and a large ensemble cast to convey the tumult below one family’s
calm surface. Hannah (Mia Farrow) is the most selfless, understanding, and charitable
member of the family. So self-sufficient is Hannah that she barely recognizes
the growing disinterest of her husband Elliot (Michael Caine). Elliot has set
his sights on Hannah’s sister Lee (Barbara Hershey), whom he showers with small
gifts such as books of e.e. cummings poetry. But even if she wasn’t his wife’s
sister, Lee is off the market.
Lee lives with Frederick (Max von Sydow), an overbearing, reclusive
intellectual who covets her as a sort of pet project. He uses her as a sounding
board for his philosophical musings, set on imposing his worldview on Lee as a
way of “educating” her. Understandably aching to break out of this cage, Lee
responds positively to Elliot’s advances, knowing full well that she’s betraying
Hannah. The third sister is free-spirited Holly (Dianne Wiest), a perpetually
unhappy, insecure woman who has yet to find her own path. Constantly
second-guessing herself, especially around her far more confident friend April
(Carrie Fisher), Holly is an ever-present emotional drain on the family.
While the three sisters and their relationships provide more
than enough to fill the film’s 106 minute running time (longish for Allen), a
few wild cards are tossed in. A surprisingly disturbing subplot emerges
involving the background of Hannah and her sisters’ retired showbiz parents, Norma
(Maureen O’Sullivan) and Lloyd Nolan (Evan). Their charming demeanor at holiday
gatherings masks deep resentments between the bitterly unhappy couple. Then there’s
Hannah’s first husband, Mickey (Allen).
If there’s one potential wrench in the works, it’s the
character of television writer Mickey—played by Allen in his usual neurotically
funny manner. But the character who initially seems like grafted-on comic relief
winds up delivering the message of the film after staring eternity straight in
the eyes when doctors suspect he has a brain tumor. As Mickey struggles with the
big, unanswerable philosophical questions, he unwittingly discovers a reason to
embrace and value life after stumbling into a movie theater one afternoon: the
Marx Brothers’
Duck Soup.
For Mickey, the pleasure derived from that classic comedy is
enough to justify the various sources of pain in life. Allen, in turn, has
provided viewers with their own reason to keep on keeping on.
Hannah and Her Sisters is a masterpiece
of thoughtful, questing cinema that explores many large scale themes (loyalty,
infidelity, the meaning of life) while examining deceptively minor ones (what
we say versus what we mean, envy amongst friends, career dissatisfaction).
There’s not much to note about the audio/visual presentation
on MGM’s Blu-ray, other than the fact that this is, in fact, a marked
improvement over the previous DVD (which was, at least, anamorphically-enhanced—strangely
enough, not all of them were). Whereas the DVD offered an excessively noisy,
dingy looking transfer, the Blu-ray is far less so. Film grain hasn’t been
scrubbed away, thankfully, but the cheesecloth layer of grime that marred the
DVD has been. The DTS-HD MA 1.0 mono soundtrack allows us to focus on the dialogue,
which is delivered with the clarity expected of a lossless track.
Hannah and Her Sisters
isn’t plot-driven filmmaking by any means. But it is a timeless mixture of
comedy and drama that will continue to endure. Both Diane Wiest and Michael
Caine were awarded Best Supporting Oscars, but if there was an Academy Award
for best ensemble cast this surely would’ve won. Woody Allen has never been
(and never will be) everyone’s cup of tea, but even if you’re not a fan this is
essential viewing.
(Photos: MGM)
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