SEPTEMBER (1987)
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A MIDSUMMER NIGHT'S SEX COMEDY (1982)
SEPTEMBER (1987)
Label: MGM
Region Code: Region-Free
Rating: PG
Duration: 82 Minutes
Audio: English DTS-HD MA 2.0 Stereo with Optional English Subtitles
Video: 1080p HD Widescreen (1.85:1)
Director: Woody Allen
Cast: Denholm Elliott, Mia Farrow, Elaine Stritch, Jack Warden, Sam Waterston, Dianne Wiest, Ira Wheeler, Jane Cecil, Rosemary Murphy
Woody Allen's September (1987) is the rare straight drama from the director, this one concerning the fragile-minded Lane (Mia Farrow, The Haunting of Julia) who after a suicide attempt retreats to her family's Vermont summer home to recuperate, alongside her best friend Stephanie (Dianne Wiest, The Lost Boys), who seems to be on a bit of vacation from her unsatisfying marriage and home life. Other characters include a retired French teacher Howard (Denholm Elliott, The House That Dripped Blood) who lives nearby and a novelist named Peter (Sam Waterston, Serial Mom), who is renting Lane's guest house for the summer. The former is not-so-secretly in-love with Lane but finds his feelings are not reciprocated, with Lane finding herself falling for the writer Peter, who secretly desires her best friend Stephanie. Stephanie also desires him but is torn by her loyalty to her emotionally fragile best friend, and the fact that she is married, though it seems unhappily so. Also entering into the fray is Lane's firecracker mother Diane (Elaine Stritch, Cocoon: The Return), a former celebrity and gossip rag fodder, and her rocket-scientist husband Lloyd (Jack Warden, Used Cars). The cast is quite wonderful though the who's-in-love-with-whom melodrama does sort of go in a circular pattern which I found slightly unsatisfying. The single-location at the summer home makes it feel a bit like a stage-play so it's a bit claustrophobic, it is inspired by the Anton Chekhov play 'Uncle Vanya' after all, but in the end the who-loves-who of it all had fallen a bit flat for me. Though I quite liked the end-of-season autumnal melancholy of it, and thankfully we have spark plug Stritch showing up to shake things up there at the end when her and her daughter finally get into it and long-buried secrets are revealed. The film was previously issued on Blu-ray from Twilight Time in the U.S. and Arrow Video in the U.K., both are now out-of-print so it's nice to have it back on disc direct from MGM, even if it is barbones, neither previous release were stuffed with on-disc extras, having only trailers and an isolated score, so this alternative is not too shabby. MGM releasing their catalog titles on Blu-ray seems to be one of the better benefits of Amazon purchasing the studio, and though I am not a huge fan of no-extras I am here for it.
Special Features:
- None
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A MIDSUMMER NIGHT'S SEX COMEDY (1982)
Label: MGM
Region Code: Region-Free
Rating: PG
Duration: 87 Minutes 54 Seconds
Audio: English DTS-HD MA 2.0 Stereo with Optional English
Video: 1080p HD Widescreen (1.85:1)
Director: Woody Allen
Cast: Woody Allen, Mia Farrow, Jose Ferrer, Julie Hagerty, Tony Roberts, Mary Steenburgen, Adam Redfield, Moishe Rosenfield, Timothy Jenkins, Michael Higgins, Sol Frieder, Boris Zoubok, Thomas Barbour, Kate McGregor-Stewart
The second half of this double review is more my speed when it comes to Woody Allen flicks, we have A Midsummer's Night Sex Comedy (1982), set in Upstate New York in 1906 with turn-of-the-century oddball inventor Andrew (Woody Allen) and his frustrated wife Adrian (Mary Steenburgen, Goin' South) hosting a country wedding party for his cousin Leopold (José Ferrer, The Swarm), a pompous professor, and his younger fiancée Ariel (Mia Farrow, Rosemary's Baby). Also joining the festivities is a third couple, the randy Dr. Maxwell Jordan (Tony Roberts, Amityville 3-D) and a horny, free-spirited nurse named Dulcy (Julie Hagerty, Airplane!). Like the later September (1987) this is another six-person who-loves-who only it's not stagey and is set in gorgeous Upstate NY with beautiful lensing by Academy Award-winning cinematographer Gordon Willis (The Godfather Part II) that just soaks in the lush greenery of the area just a stones throw away from where I grew up. It's also quite funny, a farcical sex-comedy where everyone wants the other person instead of the one they are with, it's ripe for the comedy and Allen hits a home run. There's some fun steampunk-inventor sci-fi elements, and the lustful comedy that has Allen's comedic stamp all over it. Like September this was previously issued on Blu-ray by the now sadly defunct Twilight Time label and is out of print, that previous release was light on extras as well with only an isolated track and trailer, but this MGM re-issue is straight-up barebones, but looks and sounds terrific
Special Features:
- None
Buy it:
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