Product Details

• Actors: Mia Farrow, Dianne Wiest, Michael Caine, Barbara Hershey, Woody Allen
• Directors: Woody Allen
• Writers: Woody Allen
• Producers: Charles H. Joffe, Gail Sicilia, Jack Rollins, Robert Greenhut
• Format: Closed-captioned, Color, NTSC
• Rated: PG-13 (Parental Guidance Suggested)
• Number of tapes: 1
• Studio: Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer
• VHS Release Date: November 16, 1994
• Run Time: 103 minutes
• Average Customer Review: 4.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (86 customer reviews)
• ASIN: 6303232663
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #166,159 in Movies & TV (See Top 100 in Movies & TV)

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com

Considered by many to be Woody Allen's best film, even over Annie Hall. Hannah and Her Sisters follows a multitude of characters: Hannah (Mia Farrow), who plays den mother to her extended family; her sister Lee (Barbara Hershey), emotional and a bit of a flake, who's involved with a much older artist (Max Von Sydow), who treats her like a child; and Hannah's other sister, Holly (Dianne Wiest), a neurotic who feels incapable of managing her life. Hannah's husband Elliot (Michael Caine) falls in love with Lee, which sets off a series of upheavals. Allen gives one of his best performances as Hannah's ex-husband Mickey, who--much like Allen himself--is obsessed with death and unhappiness. But a simple summary doesn't begin to capture the warmth and intimacy of this movie; though the story follows a capsizing family, the outcome is surprising, joyous, and richly human. --Bret Fetzer

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

28 of 29 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The finest film of Allen's notable career, September 29, 2001

By 

Paul M West (Seattle, WA USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Hannah and Her Sisters (DVD)

Woody Allen's "Hannah and Her Sisters" is the finest of the neurotic writer-director-actor's pictures. His prowess in weaving together complete characters and compelling storylines is as intricate as Altman, as artful as Renoir. Yes, those are "big movie terms," but are warranted in describing this bitersweet marvel.

Allen's command of the medium results in some terrific photographic shots, including the classic "camera-revolving-around-the-table" sequence featuring Hannah (Mia Farrow) and her sisters (Barbara Hershey and dynamite Oscar-winner Dianne Wiest), whose lives all seem to be going through very adult mid-life crises with their husbands, ex-husbands, boyfriends, and families. Michael Caine's work in this film also shines, and Allen himself is in his prime. The ensemble cast in this film creates an atmosphere that has you really believing you're watching friends and family, and not simply actors acting, reciting lines, a problem even the better "ensemble films" often face.

All of the elements in this picture --- cinematography, classic jazz tunes, nearly-musical dialogue --- are on ample display in a film rich with human warmth and big laughs. Although Allen's films are not for all tastes, this is a film that should very easily be enjoyed by nonfans and especially film students who can get a chance to see a virtuoso talent at the top of his form, not conforming by traditional storytelling and filmic norms.

17 of 19 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Woody Allen's best and one of my all-time favorite movies..., November 14, 2001

By 

Eric McCalla "reviewboy" (Denver, COLORADO) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Hannah and Her Sisters (DVD)

HANNAH AND HER SISTERS was recommended VERY, VERY highly by a fine arts teacher when it was first released in '86. He couldn't say enough good things about how wonderful the casting, the story and the humor made the movie a real treat. 15 years and at least a couple dozen viewings later, I couldn't agree more.

This movie is like comfort food. I have connected with the characters, Holly in particular (played wonderfully by Dianne Wiest, who won the Best Supporting Actress Oscar for this role)so many times that they are literally like old friends. The themes are common to everyday life and family, which doesn't make them a cliche, but more meaningful every time I watch.

There are moments in the film you can replay in your memory time and again: my favorite is the taxi scene when Holly is ruminating over her awful "date" with her friend April (another great performance by Carrie Fisher) and the architect, David.

I think this is one of the most well-cast films made by anyone, American or foreign directors included. Michael Caine, Mia Farrow, Barbara Hershey and Max von Sydow form a perfectly blended ensemble.

The DVD transfer is of average quality. The picture is crisp enough, but it doesn't look enhanced in the DVD format. It would be nice if the studio had included more than a skimpy essay on the film's production that is included as a two-page liner/note on the inside cover.

HANNAH AND HER SISTERS will make a great holiday gift for everyone, friends and family included this season!

30 of 36 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Sumptuous Feast for the Eyes and Ears, August 1, 2000

By 

D. Davis (Southern CA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Hannah & Her Sisters [VHS] (VHS Tape)

Without a doubt, this is my most favorite of Allen's works. This film is an American classic, and it needs to be on the list of the 100 greatest American films. I, too, lament that it is no longer available--but thanks to the glorious Amazon.com, I was able, last month, to purchase this in an online auction. I now own this marvelous film whose themes range from love (what else? it's Woody Allen), to general despair and the search for God in an ostensibly godless and hostile universe, to infidelity (why not?), and infertility giving way to miraculous pregnancies (the last line of the film is, after all, uttered by Weis's character: "I'm pregnant" she tells a confused and then moved Allen); and, of course, there is that famous question students of Allen's must ask: "Do we have the right to think we deserve more or that we deserve to be happy?" I'll let the film answer that for you.

A brilliantly comedic performance is given by Diane Weist who plays Holly, the most boisterous and fame-driven of Hannah's sisters, and who fights so comically with Carrie Fisher's April over architect David played keenly by Allen fixture Sam Waterston (see Waterston and Weis in Allen's "September"; they're breathtaking together). Mia Farrow is adequate as Hannah--mother, stage actress, and Thanksgiving hostess--and Barbara Hershey leaves us cold as the much sought-after Lee. Bergman icon and Allen hero Max von Sydow gives an obvious performance as the angst-ridden artist in the 20th century (this was the 80s...) Allen also gives a brilliant but by now familiar comedic performance as hypochondriac and god-searcher Mickey Sacks. And Michael Cain is superb as Hannah's wandering husband, Eliot.

The film revolves liturgically around the seasons and around the most Protestant of holidays, Thanksgiving--the scenes were filmed in Farrow's real-life New York apartment (she talks about it in "What Falls Away," available from Amazon.com). Sophisticated jazz tunes fill the house from Hannah's father, played by Lloyd Nolan, and Farrow's real mother, Maureen O'Sullivan (remember her swim with Tarzan?) plays the reminiscent and libidinous mother--"just a boozy old flirt with a filthy mouth." These Thanksgiving scenes are designed splendidly--around the other seasons of the year--to show us each character's progression (or lack thereof).

The soundtrack (which I also own on tape, not CD, unfortunately) is what makes this film so splendid. Melodies swell up from the true American composers and musicians--Rodgers and Hart, Cole Porter, Count Basie. The film is haunted by two melodies serving as themes: "Isn't It Romantic?" and "Bewitched." These songs are woven seemlessly into scene after scene in moody and melancholy ways. This soundtrack is perfect for a rainy day.

If you ever find a copy of this film, snatch it up and treasure it forever!