Hannah and Her Sisters

Time Out says

Thu Dec 22 2011

One of two re-releases of Woody Allen’s films to tie to a BFI season in January, this 1986 film won Oscars for Allen for writing and Michael Caine and Dianne Wiest for supporting roles. Allen is Mickey, a hypochrondriac on the edge of a family of three New York sisters, one of whom, Hannah (Mia Farrow), used to be his wife. Hannah is now with Elliot (Caine), an accountant with arty urges, who is wooing another sister, Lee (Barbara Hershey), behind the back of her tortured artist partner (Max von Sydow – keeping Allen close to Bergman). The other sister is Holly (Wiest), a troubled spirit adrift as she enters middle age. The script is full of great one-liners (‘Could you have ruined yourself…? Excessive masturbation?’ asks Farrow of Allen, after a visit to a fertility doctor. Allen: ‘Are you gonna starting knocking my hobbies?’). But the sharp wit sits well against a tender exploration of life’s messiness and a joie de vivre that marks this as one of Allen’s warmest pictures.

Author: Dave Calhoun