Woody Allen
Hannah And Her Sisters

THE REVIEW

"The heart is truly a very elastic little muscle"

Seven years after "Manhattan," Woody Allen creates another great film for his already remarkable filmography. "Hannah And Her Sisters" is once again a declared act of love towards his city, which again becomes a protagonist in its own right in one of his films and no longer a simple backdrop for the many stories Woody has told us. But what plot is worthy of being told now in the full swing of the '80s, without the late revolutionary poetry of the '70s and the great themes of a world in complete ideological turmoil, frustrated and frustrating... perhaps the story of more or less possible loves, of feelings thrown to the wind and trampled in the name of propriety within a typical American bourgeois family? "It really is. It would be a great subject: a guy who marries one sister, and it doesn't work out. Many years later, he ends up married to the other sister. And you know... how could you improve it? Eh?" Thus unfolds the story of three sisters, their partners, their difficult love stories, often truly problematic, which always end in a hard decision, and for the poor heart, "a very elastic little muscle," in Mickey's (Woody Allen) beautiful description, it is painful.

Allen loves to tell family stories, especially in the '80s he will try to bring to his films all the complexities of relationships within the family, but the great theme of "Hannah And Her Sisters" is morality, how far can we let ourselves be guided by our feelings without taking into account those of others, of the people closest to us? This is the great dilemma that afflicts Elliot (Michael Caine), married to Hannah but now tired of the usual routine and hence madly in love with the other sister, Lee (Barbara Hershey), but Lee is already involved, or rather maintained, by the painter Frederick (Max Von Sydow) and tries in vain not to yield to Elliot's insistent courtship. If the story between Elliot and Lee is already a major problem to manage, the others are not faring better; Mickey, Hannah's ex-husband, is completely disillusioned, his job on TV stresses him and brings no satisfaction, and on top of that, he fears he has a brain tumor, so he dedicates all his time to the search for the voice of God "Who are you kidding? You, a Hare Krishna?! You shaving your head, dressing in sheets, and dancing in airports. You’d look like Jerry Lewis. God, how depressed I am!". The other sister Holly (Dianne Wiest) is recovering from major drug problems, never manages to pass an audition because she is simply unlucky, everything she does ends in failure, like the catering service with the obnoxious cousin April (Carrie Fischer), who steals the man of her dreams (Sam Waterston).

Allen narrates to us the evolution of all their stories over three years, marked by three very different Thanksgivings that reflect the changes happening or that have happened in the protagonists' small "elastic little muscles" "You know, I was talking to your father earlier and telling him it's ironic. I always spent Thanksgiving with Hannah and never thought I could love anyone else. And now here we are a few years later, and I'm married to you, completely in love with you." Three Oscars, the superb Caine, the very talented Diane Wiest (the best actress Allen has worked with after Keaton), and for the screenplay, all made splendid by Carlo Di Palma's cinematography that captures original glimpses of New York.