Interiors

Infobox_Film
name = Interiors


director = Woody Allen
producer = Charles H. Joffe
writer = Woody Allen
starring = Kristin Griffith
Mary Beth Hurt
Richard Jordan
Diane Keaton
E.G. Marshall
Geraldine Page
Maureen Stapleton
Sam Waterston
distributor = United Artists
released = August 2, 1978 [http://boxofficemojo.com/movies/?id=interiors.htm "Interiors"] from Box Office Mojo]
runtime = 99 min. [http://movies2.nytimes.com/mem/movies/review.html?title1=Interiors%20(Movie)&title2=&reviewer=VINCENT%20CANBY&pdate=19780802&v_id= August 1978 Review of "Interiors"] by Vincent Canby for "The New York Times"] [Box Office Mojo and Internet Movie Database list the length as 93 minutes, while the cover for the 2000 MGM Home Entertainment DVD release reports a running time of 92 minutes] | country = United States
language = English
imdb_id = 0077742
music =
awards =
budget = $10 million
gross = $10.43 million
cinematography = Gordon Willis
editing = Ralph Rosenblum

"Interiors" is a 1978 drama film written and directed by Woody Allen. Featured performers are Kristin Griffith, Mary Beth Hurt, Richard Jordan, Diane Keaton, E.G. Marshall, Geraldine Page, Maureen Stapleton and Sam Waterston.

Page received a BAFTA Film Award for "Best Supporting Actress" and was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Actress. The film received four other Oscar nominations, two for Allen's screenplay and direction, one for Stapleton as "Best Actress in a Supporting Role" and another for Mel Bourne and Daniel Robert for their art direction and set decoration. It is Allen's first film in the drama genre.

ummary

The film's story concerns three sisters (Griffith, Hurt, Keaton), their suicidal mother (Page), their father (Marshall), their father's new wife (Stapleton), and the men in their lives (Jordan and Waterston).

The visual and verbal styles of the film are similar to that of Ingmar Bergman. In particular, it is considered to be a homage to Bergman's film, "Cries and Whispers", which is also about three sisters.

Reception

Allen's own fears about the film's reception are recounted in a biography of Allen by Eric Lax (2nd edition: ISBN 0306809850), where he quotes Ralph Rosenblum, the film's editor: [http://www.tcm.com/thismonth/article/?cid=88225 "Interiors"] from the Turner Classic Movies website] :He [Allen] managed to rescue "Interiors", much to his credit. He was against the wall. I think he was afraid. He was testy, he was slightly short-tempered. He was fearful. He thought he had a real bomb. But he managed to pull it out with his own work. The day the reviews came out, he said to me, 'Well, we pulled this one out by the short hairs, didn't we?'

Later, while watching the film with an acquaintance, Allen reportedly said "It's always been my fear. I think I'm writing "Long Day's Journey Into Night" and it turns into "Edge of Night"."

Vincent Canby of "The New York Times" called the film "beautiful" and complimented Gordon Willis on his "use of cool colors that suggest civilization's precarious control of natural forces", but noted::My problem with "Interiors" is that although I admire the performances and isolated moments, as well as the techniques and the sheer, headlong courage of this great, comic, film-making philosopher, I haven't any real idea what the film is up to. It's almost as if Mr. Allen had set out to make someone else's movie, say a film in the manner of Mr. Bergman, without having any grasp of the material, or first-hand, gut feelings about the characters. They seem like other people's characters, known only through other people's art.

Richard Schickel of "Time" wrote that the film's "desperate sobriety ... robs it of energy and passion"; Allen's "style is Bergmanesque, but his material is Mankiewiczian, and the discontinuity is fatal. Doubtless this was a necessary movie for Allen, but it is both unnecessary and a minor embarrassment for his well-wishers." [ [http://www.time.com/time/printout/0,8816,948229,00.html Darkest Woody] , an August 1978 review by Richard Schickel for "Time" magazine]

Nearly 30 years after the film was released, essayist David Rakoff commented on the film in an article for "Nextbook"'s online magazine of Jewish culture. He called it pretentious, with a "narcotized affect ... as chilly as an Alex Katz painting, with a similar "goyische naches" [According to [http://faculty.oxy.edu/tobin/wsgs248/portnoy.html a glossary of Portnoy's Yiddish] from an Occidental College website for a course entitled "Jewishness, Genders and Sexualities", "goyische naches" means a "non-Jewish source of pride and pleasure, especially military service and sports",] anti-Semitic-by-omission Easthampton Waspiness obtaining to it all." [ [http://www.nextbook.org/cultural/feature.html?id=517 "Interiors" and "Stardust Memories"] by David Rakoff from Nextbook]

"Interiors" grossed $10.43 million in the United States.

Influence

The song "Death of an Interior Decorator" by Death Cab For Cutie is based on the plot of Interiors.

References and footnotes