September (1987)

Director:

Woody Allen

Writer:

Woody Allen (written by)

Release Date:

18 December 1987 (USA)

Genre:

Drama

Plot:

At a summer house in Vermont, neighbor Howard falls in love with Lane, who's in a relationship with Peter, who's falling for Stephanie, who's married with children.

Plot Keywords:

Weekend | Actress | Reflection | Guilt | Unrequited Love

Cast

Denholm Elliott	...	Howard
Dianne Wiest	...	Stephanie
Mia Farrow	...	Lane
Elaine Stritch	...	Diane
Sam Waterston	...	Peter
Jack Warden	...	Lloyd
Ira Wheeler	...	Mr. Raines
Jane Cecil	...	Mrs. Raines
Rosemary Murphy	...	Mrs. Mason

Runtime:

82 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English | French

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono

Certification:

Iceland:L | Netherlands:AL | Australia:PG | Finland:S | USA:PG | Singapore:PG

Filming Locations:

Kaufman Astoria Studios - 3412 36th Street, Astoria, Queens, New York City, New York, USA

Trivia:

Woody Allen decided to make the film for two main reasons. One was because he had always wanted to do a "chamber piece", a film with a small cast (there are only six principal characters, and only nine in the entire film) in a single location. The other was for the location itself, Mia Farrow's Connecticut country house, which inspired Woody Allen to write the screenplay with the intention that it would be shot at the house. Unfortunately, by the time Allen finished the screenplay, it was winter and the location was unusable for a movie so firmly planted in September. The entire movie (which takes place in Vermont) was shot on a single soundstage at the Kaufman Astoria Studios in New York.

Goofs:

Continuity: Peter's tie when talking to Lloyd.

Quotes:

Diane: Oh God have you got my make-up kit? It's got my diaphram in it... isn't it silly? I still travel with it. It's my lucky charm, maybe I should donate it to the antique fair.

Movie Connections:

Referenced in Wild Man Blues (1997)

Soundtrack:

Moonglow

Autumn Sonata reloaded

Usually when Woody borrows an idea from Bergman he makes that idea his own, and turns it into something that's clever yet funny and entertaining. It is definitely not the case here. This looks like a Woody Allen parody,made by an unskilled director, totally unrealistic since X loves Y who loves Z who loves A and who in turn loves X to make the circle complete. We have a bunch of clichés thrown in among which the poor little daughter who lived her whole life in the mother's shadow was already brilliantly analyzed on screen by Bergman's Autumn Sonata (with Ingrid Bergman not this crazy old hag with artistic claims). The actors are for the most part quite OK, but what's the use of that? This is a gimmick meant for the soap opera admirers. The "postmodern", intertextual stuff that works incredibly well in movies such as Love and Death, Deconstructing Harry, Hannah and her Sisters etc. completely fails here making the characters appear like frustrated morons too intelligent to be clever. In the end nothing happens, we find ourselves after an hour and a half of murky bore at an abrupt end that took us nowhere. The music was the only thing that saved this movie from a total disaster, Art Tatum works good anywhere, but again, what's the use?... Boring cinematography, all dark and uninspired, too claustrophobic and I really don't care it's what they intended. Check Nykvist's cinematography in the aforementioned Autumn Sonata, or the same Nykvist in Woody's Crimes and Misdemenaors.