Woody Allen
Interiors

THE REVIEW

1978. Allen's first dramatic film, and the first film in which he doesn't appear as an actor, "Interiors" has been compared to Bergman's "Cries and Whispers", "Persona", "The Mirror".

A family, belonging to the intellectual and economic aristocracy of New York, is troubled by the deep depression of the mother, Eve (Geraldine Page), who has been abandoned in her mature years by her husband, Arthur (E.G. Marshall). Her three daughters, Renata (Diane Keaton), Joey (Mary Beth Hurt), and Flyn (Kristin Griffith), all dominated by their mother's imposing personality, rush to her aid.

With great clarity and subtlety, worthy - forgive the exaggeration - of a Proust, Allen analyzes the family relationships, revealing how dramatically the individual personalities have not developed freely, but in a complex play of influences, secret resentments, and inexpressible sufferings.

Eve is the true center of the film. According to René Girard's theory of "triangular desire" - which suggests that the desiring subject is not directly connected to the desired object (so to speak, like through a straight line) but is instead conditioned by a mediator of desire, a prestigious model to imitate - she would be the great mediator. It was she who shaped the desires of the three daughters with her cold intellectualism, all somehow obliged to pursue an artistic career, despite only Renata being genuinely talented. It’s no coincidence, then, that Renata - unhappy like her sister Joey, not for lack of gifts, but for the weight those talents force her to bear - is a second important mediator of desire: Flyn - the youngest sister, a third-rate actress - desires and indeed seduces her partner; Joey - unable to recognize her lack of artistic vocation, despite her culture and intelligence - seems to want to steal, as if by osmosis, her success.

This hidden conflict is further complicated by the unexpected entry of Pearl (Maureen Stapleton), Arthur's new wife, into the family. Her difference, her non-intellectual naiveté, her color (red vs. white) will break the already unstable balance. She will be the one to breathe new life into Joey, breaking Eve's paralyzing spell.

Gordon Willis, in his second film with Allen, guarantees impeccable cinematography for an aesthetically excellent film. The dominant colors, especially in the interiors where Eve reigns, are white, gray, and beige, giving Interiors an elegant yet cold atmosphere, intellectual yet sterile. A sense of frost, moreover, is heightened by the total absence of music, except in the wedding party scene.

Interiors is a very valid film, probably destined for belated appreciation, along with at least Stardust Memories. One might perhaps criticize it for the transparency of certain symbolism (the life breathed into Joey by the new mother, water as a source of new life), and for only average "density" of content, which may overly favor readability. Moreover, the drama does not reach solemn heights, but this wouldn't have been Allenian, so one cannot blame it for lacking success in this sense.

Overall, it does not fit into what for me is the tetralogy of absolute masterpieces (Annie Hall, Manhattan, Hannah and Her Sisters, Crimes and Misdemeanors), but it rightly stands among those successful maturity films, though slightly inferior (The Purple Rose of Cairo, Zelig, Stardust Memories).