Same Time, Next Year (1978)

Director:

Robert Mulligan

Writers:

Bernard Slade (play)
Bernard Slade (screenplay)

Release Date:

23 April 1979 (Spain)

Genre:

Comedy | Drama | Romance

Tagline:

They couldn't have celebrated happier anniversaries if they were married to each other.

Plot:

A man and woman meet by chance at a romantic inn over dinner. Although both are married to others, they...

Plot Keywords:

Inn | Wedding Anniversary | Adultery | Husband Wife Relationship | Childbirth

Awards:

Nominated for 4 Oscars. Another 1 win & 4 nominations

Cast

Ellen Burstyn	...	Doris
Alan Alda	...	George
Ivan Bonar	...	Chalmers
Bernie Kuby	...	Waiter
Cosmo Sardo	...	Second Waiter
David Northcutt	...	Pilot #1
William Cantrell	...	Pilot #2

Runtime:

119 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Black and White | Color (Technicolor)

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono

Certification:

Singapore:PG | UK:15 (video) | UK:AA (theatrical release) | Australia:M | Finland:K-16 | Sweden:7 | USA:PG | Netherlands:12

Filming Locations:

Little River, California, USA

Company:

Mirisch Corporation, The

Trivia:

Ellen Burstyn reprises her role from the Broadway production. Alan Alda replaces Charles Grodin from the original company.

Goofs:

Continuity: The morning of the first encounter, Doris goes into the bathroom to take a shower. The sheet she has wrapped around herself keeps changing positions. It covers both shoulders when she is outside and only one when she is in the bathroom.

Quotes:

George: You always could see through me, couldn't you?
Doris: But that's okay, because... I've always loved what I've seen.

Movie Connections:

References Jaws (1975)

Soundtrack:

The Last Time I Felt Like This

A Sheer Delight

Two people meet at a seaside inn one night in 1951 and are attracted to one another although each is married to someone else. After spending the night together and realizing they've fallen in love, each agrees to meet on the same weekend each year for a rendezvous and each keeps that promise. We see this couple age and grow together from 1951, just after the war, to 1977, just after Vietnam. Seeing each character grow as human beings together and apart is amazing.

Alan Alda plays the happily neurotic accountant beautifully off Ellen Burstyn's naive "stay-at-home" mother who blossoms into a confident, talented businesswoman. Mr. Alda's character, George, doesn't grow as obviously as Miss Burstyn's Doris, but both absorb and survive some of life's best and worst experiences. Some of Miss Burstyn's transformations are a bit jarring - arriving one year to the reunion 8 months pregnant comes to mind, as does her transformation from a suburban housewife to a Berkeley University hippie chick. And Alan Alda's transformation from an uptight Goldwater Republican to the typical 1970s man who ditches the corporate life, grows a mustache, wears his hair longer and also uses every typical 1970s cliché in existence is also a bit jarring but it can be forgiven because Mr. Alda pulls it off so well.

Two characters who make their presence deeply felt even though you never see them are George's wife, Helen, and Doris' husband, Harry. We learn about them and come to know and appreciate them even though they never appear. Only from George and Doris' "good" and "bad" stories about their spouses do you get to know what these 2 absent people are like and you find they are funny and sad, poignant and ordinary and totally human and three-dimensional in their foibles. It's a nice touch to a story that could easily have been one-dimensional.

"Same Time, Next Year" is based on a Broadway play and it makes the transition very smoothly. In fact, what makes the transition so smooth are the historical pictorial vignettes injected between "years." I remember many of the events depicted and you can't help but feel nostalgic. Also, the movie's theme song, played to accompany the vignettes, is wonderful! All in all this is a delightful little movie with some stark drama and hilarious comedy sometimes in the same scene. It's a rare actor who can do comedy and drama so convincingly and Mr. Alda and Miss Burstyn proved beyond the shadow of the doubt they are more than capable of doing this - they are superb!