Hannah and her SistersHannah and her Sisters is often compared to Interiors, which also offered three sisters, but when Woody Allen made Hannah, he had just read Tolstoy's Anna Karenina. The first title he gave consideration to, was Hannah Karenina. Along withFlaubert's Madame Bovary, Tolstoy's novel is the most famous novel in world literature about a dramatic, extra-marital love affair. Michael Caine is Elliot. He's married to Hannah, but in love with her younger sister Lee (Barbara Hershey). He starts courting her, and although Lee is reluctant at first, the two eventually start having an affair. But then Elliot notices that he still loves Hannah, and doesn't want to give up his marriage. This love story is alternated (like in Tolstoy's novel) with a second narrative, in this case an often hilarious story about Hannah's hypochondriac ex-husband (Woody, who else?). Hannah once tried to be a matchmaker for her ex-husband and her self-destructive, cocaine-addicted sister (Diana Wiest), but the two hated each other ... Tolstoy opposed the self-destructive behavior of his heroin, Anna, and her lover Wronski - who not only destroyed themselves but also the people around them - to the altruistic love of two people devoted to each other and family life. It was, in this sense, a didactic novel, but the main story was so immensely strong, that the second storyline was hardly noticed by most readers. Anna Karenina ends with the suicide of the heroin, and is often called the cruelest love story in history. In Hannah and her sister the opposite is (more or less) the case: the dramatic love story is exquisitely told, but Woody is so funny in his hypochondriac mood, that too often, we're simply waiting for him to take over from the sisters and their family matters, and come up with a few brilliant one-liners. If we hold in mind that Anna Karenina was a downbeat novel and realize that Bergman was a second source of inspiration (Von Sydow is a clear link), it comes as a surprise that Hannah and her Sister ends with a positive note: the suicide attempt fails miserably (in one of the funniest scenes of the movie) and all those self-destructive types find the man or women of their heart. In the end Hannah and her Sisters is a surprisingly mild and charming movie from the man who could be described as the Walking-Wailing-Wall . No wonder the Academy fell for it: Woody, Caine and Wiest all won Oscars.
Aanraders in overeenkomstige genres, volgens Boobytrap: |
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