oOoBarracuda Another Woman: An interesting illustration of the enduring effects of childhood experiences. The film comes off a bit strong in the nature v. nurture debate, for me anyway. The characters were also a bit wooden, and the film plays a bit like a poor stage adaptation. Overall, however, a decent entry in Woody Allen's filmography.

Angelika_New_York Given that Woody Allen is my favorite filmmaker, I feel like I must address what my favorite film of his would be...You probably wanted to know at some point... Just kidding.Anyway, after giving it a lot of thought on what I would consider Woody Allen's best work, it is definitely this one. It's one of his lesser known works, but it is so brilliant! I feel like I connect with it the most.It's his magnum opus. Arresting and intimate and insightful. It's about a philosophy professor Marion played by Gena Rowlands, who narrates the film, is on a brief leave of absence to write a new book. While inside a furnished flat that she is subletting, she overhears in-depth therapy sessions going on in a neighboring office. At first distracting, but soon she becomes intrigued by the details of the patient, played by Mia Farrow. From there, Marion reflects on her own life: the disappointments, the regrets, the sorrows.By the end, she resolves to change her life for the better.It is a very deep film; very reflective. I feel like it's Allen's most personal film to date. It is a rather short film, clocking in at less than an hour and a half, yet it's so impressive.Definitely an A+

calvinnme It is one of my favorite Woody Allen films. Unlike so many of Allen's films it does not star Allen in at least a subplot where he is a neurotic failure or at least a success at something nobody else cares about that practically talks his love interest (usually played by Diane Keaton or Mia Farrow) into rejecting him over the course of the movie.Instead, and probably because Mia Farrow was pregnant at the time, it stars Gena Rowlands as Marion, the dean of philosophy at a woman's college who is taking a sabbatical to write her latest book. She feels she leads a charmed life. She is in her second marriage to her cardiologist husband, Ken (Ian Holm). Ken has been married before too, and has one child by his first wife - Laura (Martha Plimpton), now a teenager, who has a good relationship with Marion. Great job, great family, good health, what else could a person reasonably want? The film is set in New York City because, quite frankly, I just don't think director Woody Allen would feel he was not in a foreign country if he got as far away from Manhattan as just New Jersey. But that's another story.Marion has rented a room away from home where she can completely immerse herself in her work, but unfortunately the ventilation system allows her to hear everything that is said in the psychiatrist's office next door. She solves this problem by putting two large pillows over the vents between the offices. But then she takes a nap, wakes up, and realizes one of the pillows must have slipped down because she can hear the conversation going on in the psychiatrist's office again. This time, though, the conversation interests her because it is a young woman speaking about how desperately unhappy she is. As she speaks on, Marion sees parallels between her own life and the what the female patient is saying. She peeks out the door as the patient leaves and sees that she is a woman who is in the last stages of pregnancy (Mia Farrow).The rest of the film is Marion basically examining her own life in light of what the female patient is saying about her own. Marion begins to realize that she has always closed herself off from any real chance at feeling, which is rather ironic when you consider she is a leader in the field of philosophy. She examines her first marriage to a much older man, a professor of hers at the time, and what ended it. She examines how she got into a relationship with her second husband, who was still a married man at the time. He had a friend who she actually felt passion for, and he pursued her with vigor (Gene Hackman as Larry), but ultimately she picked Ken, partially, she realizes, because Ken is as cold a fish as she is and Larry's warmth and spontaneity somewhat scared her.It's a story of a life examined at age 50, and of the inevitable regrets we all have because we can't pick the right fork in the road every time. I'd strongly recommend this one. It's even very good on repeat viewing.

Rockwell_Cronenberg Devastating, unlike anything I've seen from Woody Allen so far. This was a very quiet, deliberately paced exploration into a woman facing a mid-life crisis, played with extraordinary skill by Gena Rowlands. It leaned maybe a little too much on narration when it could have utilized her talent as an actress instead, but that's a small complaint when the final result is so powerful.Rowlands' Marion Post rents an apartment in order to work on her novel and, through hearing the patients of the psychiatrist's office next door, slowly begins to examine her life and the choices that she has made. We see her interact with those surrounding her, be it her husband, her daughter, her brother, but she always feels a level removed from all of them. Over the years she has isolated herself from everyone around her and examines them rather than interacts, and Rowlands plays this with a knowledge so fitting and serene.There's an extended dream sequence a little over halfway through the picture that is one of the most surreal, emotional and illuminating experiences I've had in a Woody Allen picture and one of my favorite moments in the twenty or so films of his I've seen. It imagines her life as a stage play that she watches take place, and it opens the world back up to Marion, which is displayed in master strokes on the all-telling face of Rowlands. She gives a performance for the ages here, working mostly from the inside out, although there are a few devastating scenes of her letting herself fall apart.I was surprised at how little Mia Farrow was in it, given that she's on the cover for it and the plot synopsis makes her part seem a lot more major, but she manages to leave an impression, although the most surprising of the supporting cast was Gene Hackman. I'm used to seeing him (and loving him) in varying crime pictures, so it was nice to see him take on a more grounded and every day character, which despite only appearing for a brief time he manages to leave a lasting impression with his emotionally conflicted portrayal. You can really feel this character that he displays, feel his love and heartache in every breath.Still, the film absolutely belongs to Rowlands, who resonated so deeply inside of me and will surely stick there for a while. She knocks it out of the park in a film that is so unique, cerebral and magnificent from Woody Allen.