Customer Reviews

The Woody Allen Collection, Set 2 (Shadows and Fog / September / Crimes and Misdemeanors / Another Woman / Alice)

5 star:		(10)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

I can't believe all the bad reviews this has gotten. This box doesn't hold a bad film, yet there's so many complaints about it not holding any comedy or being to serious or something. First off, "Another Woman" and "September" aren't really funny at all, but hey, they excellent anyways. And the other three, "Crimes and Misdemeanors", "Alice", and "Shadows and Fog", are essentially comedies! Sure, "Crimes..." has a deathly serious side, but really... does that matter? "Alice" is one of those movies you can't really have any complaints about. It's really fun to watch. The weakest film here is, true, "Shadows and Fog", but that does not by any circumstances mean it is a bad film. It has excellent cinematography and it is really funny at times. Definitely worth seeing, even if it is one of Woody's weakest films. All in all, you pretty much get the best of Woody Allen here. Really funny, funny and whimsical, funny and sad, deathly serious, and more deathly serious. A fine box set. -Randy

These are 5 great movies from a wonderful director, and are finally available on DVD. These are in direct contrast with the first collection, his "early, funny ones," however. Both "Another Woman" and "September" are serious dramas, and any humor in the other three are tempered with deeper dramatic elements, which has become his trademark style. These films represent a mature Woody Allen, and are highly recommended to anyone who is interested in his more serious side. All the films are great, despite what anyone says about "Shadows and Fog," which seems to generally be underappreciated. As for his films in the early 80's ("Hannah," "Zelig," "Sex Comedy," "Broadway Danny Rose," "Purple Rose," and whatever else I'm missing), I think those are in set 3, to be released next. The entire set is not to be missed. Also recommended is the book "Woody Allen on Woody Allen" in which he discusses each of his films through "Manhattan Murder Mystery."

The whole idea behind a Box Set, is to attract fans. So if you're not a Woody Allen sucker, you'll probably never come to this point of the navigation, specially reading reviews. The fact is, this Box Set comes with more "noire" films from Mr. Allen, not the best comedy, but some very good drama though. The Sets 1 and 3 are better. But what can I say? The worst Woody Allen movie deserves 4 stars and a half, but I could't figure out how to give them. So I gave it a five. You're his fan too, you understand me.

We have two masterpieces here. The first is "Crimes and Misdemeanors." The second is "Alice." The others are vintage Allen and deserve to be seen, for the first or tenth time. "Crimes" is a brilliant piece, gorgeously well-acted and directed. The cast is superb, probably the best ensemble performance since Cassavetes' films with Gena Rowlands and co. Martin Landau gives one of the most startling performances of the decade, a performance which must have helped give this remarkable talent a second life. But in the end, it is the writing and direction that make this such a deep, moving film. "Alice" has, of course, the incomparable Mia Farrow, who emerges here and in other Allen films as one of the most exciting actresses of our time. They made a great couple. She introduced him to the Upper-East side, grand WASP lifestyle that became his subject matter for the next twenty years. She was his muse. He has never really recovered as a film director from her loss.

Shadows and Fog and Alice are good clean fun, lots of laughs and a little magic. But I'm really here to write about three amazing movies.

1. Crimes and Misdemeanors. If you are a philosophy student, or a theology student, this is simply the best movie you will ever see. Period. I am not an Atheist, and Woody Allen is, but don't let this put you off. In this movie he shows in a very fair and balanced way that all of us, no matter what our belief system is, have hard challenged. Of course he makes statements that lean his way, but he really gives a whole lot of great treatment to all sides of the debate. The movie, above all things, is a masterpiece of humanity.

Also, Martin Landau simply gives the best performance of his life. Period. In this film he shows a range of talent that is just stunning, almost frightening. It's a darn shame that more directors didn't see the full scope of his talent. He tended to get pigeonholed in much of his acting career. But this performance shows us the genius that we all might have known more of, had other directors and casting managers had the skill that way employed in the case of this movie. Also, Jerry Orbach's performance as a gangster is shockingly convincing, more convincing than his excellent performances as a policeman. Any fan of Orbach just has to see this film to get a more information on this actor's great range.

2. September: When I saw this film, I realized that I had forgotten huge swaths of my own emotional life. The conversations between Waterston and Wiest are almost too emotional to handle. Also, Mia Farrow, who I have mixed feelings about, plays her very best role in this film as a psychiatric out-patient. I was stunned by her ability to master this part. This work has the heaviness of a Checkov or a Gogal. This powerful work made me look at my own boundaries and feelings in ways that were very surprising.

3. Another Woman: Mia Farrow does great work in this one too, as a secondary character. For reasons the plot shall reveal, we mostly hear her, but don't see her too much. The things we hear are very powerful. But the movie centers around an aging female Philosophy professor who slowly comes to terms with the lack of honest passion in her life. Gene Hackman plays a short but awesome role. His brutal honesty knocks us off our chairs and makes us really ask questions. The movie moves a bit slow at first, but don't let that fool you. It's all a perfect setup for some juicy cinema. Very interestingly, there's very little overt romance in the movie, and yet the movie is movingly romantic. Here Woody proves, perhaps against his own inclinations and perhaps against his own occasional anti-intellectual moods, that sexuality is far more a mental phenomena than a physical one, and that the resolution of a romantic problem can arise without ever having to carry out much in the way of "real world" romance.

If you've not seen these three films, and if you think you know Woody Allen, and if you think you know his range and limits, you're wrong. See these and have a new world open up before your eyes.

Mel C. Thompson.

I can't believe all the bad reviews this has gotten. This box doesn't hold a bad film, yet there's so many complaints about it not holding any comedy or being to serious or something. First off, "Another Woman" and "September" aren't really funny at all, but hey, they excellent anyways. And the other three, "Crimes and Misdemeanors", "Alice", and "Shadows and Fog", are essentially comedies! Sure, "Crimes..." has a deathly serious side, but really... does that matter? "Alice" is one of those movies you can't really have any complaints about. It's really fun to watch. The weakest film here is, true, "Shadows and Fog", but that does not by any circumstances mean it is a bad film. It has excellent cinematography and it is really funny at times. Definitely worth seeing, even if it is one of Woody's weakest films. All in all, you pretty much get the best of Woody Allen here. Really funny, funny and whimsical, funny and sad, deathly serious, and more deathly serious. A fine box set. -Randy

While this is, to my taste, the most uneven of the three Woody Allen box sets, it still has at least one truly great film in 'Crimes and Misdemeanors' and solid work in 'Another Woman', 'Alice' and 'Shadows and Fog'. Only 'September' is the rare Allen film that doesn't really work for me. Of course, with any great filmmaker personal taste is a big part of it, and while I wouldn't agree, I wouldn't call anyone who thought this was the best, not the weakest of the three sets crazy. Indeed, as my specific reviews below note, a number of these films have grown on me over the years.

I'd say this set is a must for any fan of Allen's work, or serious film student of the last 40 years of American filmmaking. For the more casual viewer, I'd call only 'Crimes and Misdemeanors' absolutely essential.

My thoughts on the specific films (starred on a 1 to 4 rating system);

September (1987) **1/2 While I liked it better on a second viewing, it still comes across as a much less powerful `Interiors'. While I appreciate the experiment of never leaving the single set of a house interior, it feels self-consciously like `an experiment'. It also feels stagy, and even the wonderful cast (Diane Wiest, Denholm Elliott, etc.) can't help but sound stiff and theatrical at times. Basically it's sort of imitation Ibsen/Chekhov, where a few characters sharing a
summer house, are all in love with the wrong person, with lots of pain and guilt and hidden secrets from the past. The strongest element is the absolutely lovely, subtle cinematography. That's enough to bring certain scenes depth and richness. There are some moving moments, but in the end it all seems wispy and thin and kind of forgettable.

Another Woman (1988)***1/4 It's funny, this is a film I enjoyed much more on a recent DVD viewing than I did on it's initial release. Originally I found myself distanced, experiencing it as an intellectual exercise. Maybe I've grown up some since then. It's a film that has a lot to do with loss and middle age identity confusion that well might speak to a viewer with more life experience. This time around I found the ending very moving, some of the acting flat out great (Gene Hackman, Gena Rowlands), and a lot of it very, very good, (Ian Holm, Martha Plimpton, etc.). For me, the biggest weak spots were Rowland's voice overs which often awkwardly, coldly explain things the visuals are already giving us with far more subtlety and emotion. But for a film that was relatively ignored at the time of its release, its a surprisingly worthwhile addition to the body of Allen's stronger work, and well worth checking out if you've either never seen it, or -- like me -- didn't quite 'get it' on it's release 22 years ago.

Crimes and Misdemeanors (1989)**** Deeply moving, deeply though-provoking, brilliantly acted and occasionally very funny. A disturbing, dark film about human nature that still manages to leave room for a glimmer of hope within it's chilling bleakness. Martin Landau is amazing, but all of the cast make significant contributions. One of the few films I can watch over and over, with no loss of its power. Every time I watch it I end up pondering my own sense of morality, my questions about whether there is truly justice in the world, and the extent to which good people do bad things. And yet, along with all those heavy ideas, this is also entertaining, witty, and occasionally very tense story-telling of the first order. For me it's second only to 'Annie Hall' amongst Allen's huge body of work, and stands as one of the few truly great films of the 1980s.

Alice (1990)*** While I still don't flat out love this film, I liked it much more on a second viewing. While my original problem with it - thematically it's in some ways a weaker, less original re-make of `Purple Rose of Cairo' still stands, I found myself charmed, caught up and moved, off-setting those moments that are clunkier, too cute, or even borderline racist in their stereotypes. It will never be my favorite Allen film, but it's certainly still a strong effort and Mia Farrow may never have been better. There's enough movie magic here, that it's certainly worth seeing, and for myself, owning.

Shadows and Fog (1992) *** Another mid-career Allen film unfairly dismissed both by critics and (I must admit) myself at the time of it's release. Sometimes with great filmmakers we get spoiled, and anything flawed or less than pure genius gets maligned for being weaker than that filmmaker's very best work instead of being appreciated for being miles ahead of most of the films that get made. I was shocked at how much better I liked this on a recent re-viewing almost 20 years after seeing it in the theater. Yes, the super-star cameos still seem a bit distracting and self-serving, but nowhere near as much as in 1992. Yes, some plot elements work better than others, the ending is kind of clunky, etc. But this is still a great-looking, visually dense film, that manages to tread (most of the time) a very difficult tightrope of being funny and playful, while still exploring disturbing themes of paranoia, guilt, crowd mentality, religion, etc. Certainly not a great film, but a brave one more worthy of being enjoyed for it's strengths than attacked for its admitted shortcomings.

Hi there. My name is Marc-David Jacobs and I wsa the first person to review the original set of Woody Allen DVDs last year and I figured that, since no one has taken to reviewing this upcoming new set, I would. For those of you who have read the earlier review, I finally broke down and bought a player JUST so I could watch all of the wonderful new Woody Allen DVDs I had! Well, this second set contains Woody Allen's films in the five year period between "Radio Days" in early 1987 and "Husbands And Wives" in 1992, Woody decided to make five films with either completely humorless Bergmanesque cinematography (i.e., "September") and plots or films with an overall feeling of such (i.e., "Crimes And Misdemeanors"), save for "Oedipus Wrecks," a third of "New York Stories," which also had short films by Martin Scorsese and Francis Ford Coppola. Interestingly enough, the bordering years, 1987 and 1992, are the only years in which Allen released two of his own films in the same year, so these are kind of a set of their own, as they have been collected in here. I think these are the only films of his that contain an actual sense of FOREBODING. Sure, "Interiors" is incredibly claustrophobic and dramatically wonderful in it's storytelling and "Husbands And Wives" is a marvelous serious drama, but neither really has the sense of disaster that these have. Perhaps why few people went to see them. The period started with what I consider to be Woody's most serious piece ever, "September" (1987). The cold interaction between these six people in a Vermont countryside set to the pervasive Mendelsohnn theme make for a very great dramatic study. "Another Woman" (1988) is not as serious as "September," but is probably his very best "Bergman" piece ever, even using Bergman's cinematographer Sven Nykvist himself. This is a study of only one person, a woman who's above average life takes a turn for the worse when she discovers her husband is seeing the mistress of the title, amongst other things. "Crimes And Misdemeanors" (1989) is the best-known and most well-recieved film of this period. Martin Landau, Alan Alda and others bring a great quality to this split-screen story of two apparently unrelated people, one of whom, Landau, is the Bergman aspect. His life has been turned upside-down as his long-time mistress threatens to reveal their secret to his wife. Meanwhile, Allen is beset by a hilarious moral dilemma when he is asked to make a biography of jaded Hollywood personality Alda. And, of course, both stories come together at the end (see the cover of the DVD). "Alice" (1990) is the third in this inner trio of extramarital movies which features, for once, the woman (of course played by Mia Farrow [who is in all of these movies, the previously mentioned "Husbands And Wives" being her last with Allen]) thinking about the not-so-unthinkable. However, the moral dilemma placed here is not taken as seriously as Alice visits a Chinese herbalist who seems to have a few good tricks up his sleeves. Chaos ensues, as they say. Finally, we come to "Shadows And Fog," a very dark film, but only in the cinematographic sense. The story focuses around Allen who is divided between mobs in the city trying to find a very ominous killer who always seems to be one step ahead of everyone, causing each group to believe things about the others and about each other. In any other hands, this could be a straight drama, with the vigilante mobs like something out of "Frankstein" or "M" abducting the unwilling helper Allen (who very much resembles Joseph K in Kafka's "Der Prozess") to be either with them or against them. However, if Woody Allen's playing Joseph K, we suddenly have a very comedic piece, with only bits and pieces of the dramas of the others. Incidentally, this movie was adapted from Woody's one-act play "Death," which is anthologized in "Without Feathers," for those who would like to read it. After this stint (some would say "stunt"), Woody resumed his "normal" films with such gems as "Everyone Says I Love You" and "Deconstructing Harry." However, what I'm really waiting to see on DVD are Woody's films between this set and the previous set, from "A Midsummer Night's Sex Comedy" on through "Radio Days." This, I believe, has got to be Woody's most creative period, spawning such oddly different films as the mockumentary "Zelig," the remincent "Broadway Danny Rose," one of Allen's funniest comedies ever and certainly Mia Farrow's best role in just about ANY film and the list goes on. As soon as those are release, every film directed by Woody Allen will be available on DVD, save "Husbands And Wives" and "New York Stories." However, since "Husbands And Wives" is available on VHS for the time being and "Oedipus Wrecks" is only a third of the other, what I'm really waiting for are these films, very few of which are even available on tape (just about everything except the enduring "Crimes And Misdemeanors" [the only one out of all has been out of print for years). So go out and get these films when they're released and especially get Set 3, set for release in about a year. And, while you're at it, go see "The Curse Of The Jade Scorpion" Woody's latest, which is being released August 15th at a theater near you! See you next year!

Upon arrival I could not view the DVDs due to a problem with a "regional Code" Must be with the DVD player (LG) and because I am not in the USA ( south Africa)

Hope I can solve the problem otherwise I have wasted my money.

These are one of the best films has ever made. No only for Woodys fans but for people who loves cinema.