September
by Woody Allen
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DVD Cover Information
Actor: Denholm Elliott, Dianne Wiest, Elaine Stritch, Mia Farrow, Sam WaterstonDirector: Woody Allen
DVD: Region Code 1
Audio: English (Original Language), Dolby Digital 2.0 Mono; French (Original Language), Dolby Digital 2.0 Mono; Spanish (Original Language), Dolby Digital 2.0 Mono; Spanish (Subtitled); French (Subtitled)
Format: Anamorphic, Closed-captioned, Color, DVD-Video, NTSC, Subtitled, Widescreen
Picture Format: 1.85:1
Running Time: 83 minutes
DVD Release Date: 2001-06-05
Audience Rating: PG (Parental Guidance Suggested)
Studio: MGM (Video & DVD)
Movie Reviews of September
Movie Review: Oh, it's a long, long, while, from May to September
Summary: 3 Stars
Woody Allen made September after Radio Days, with its huge ensemble cast. After orchestrating that circus, he wanted to do a piece of chamber music. It is a serious drama with hardly any jokes. No jokes whatsoever. It is similar to Interiors, kind of a Chekhov play, or else maybe like something Ingmar Bergman would do. Interestingly, Woody shot the whole film with one cast, didn't like it, and did the whole thing over again with a mostly different cast. So, even though it was a much cheaper film to make with fewer characters and all of the action taking place in one location, a house in Vermont, it cost twice as much as it should have.
It must have meant a lot to Woody Allen to make this film, but the results are flat. Dianne Wiest, Jack Warden, Elaine Strich, Denholm Elliott, and the rest give good performances, but we are left with a depressing movie where nothing much happens. The score, plenty of jazz standards like Slow Boat to China played on piano, some even featuring Ben Webster on tenor sax and Art Tatum on piano, are nice, but you'd be better off just playing their records.
The background information about the characters is doled out sparingly, with a few bombshells dropped here and there. There is an amusing scene where Mia is trying to sell her house, and a Real Estate Agent brings some prospective buyers through. Jack Warden's character is a physicist who has some interesting things to say about the randomness of sub atomic particles, but his insights, like September, go nowhere.
Films and Roles of Denholm Elliott
A Room With a View (1985) .... Mr. Emerson, an English tourist
Alfie (1966) .... The Abortionist
Films and Roles of Dianne Wiest
Edward Scissorhands (1990) .... Peg
Hannah and Her Sisters (1986) .... Holly
Films and Roles of Elaine Stritch
Autumn in New York (2000) .... Dolly
Monster-in-Law (New Line Platinum Series) (2005) .... Gertrude
Films and Roles of Mia Farrow
Rosemary's Baby (1968) .... Rosemary Woodhouse
The Great Gatsby (1974) .... Daisy Buchanan
Films and Roles of Sam Waterston
Interiors (1978) .... Mike
The Great Gatsby (1974) .... Nick Carraway
Crimes and Misdemeanors (1989) .... Ben
Films and Roles of Jack Warden
From Here to Eternity (1953) .... Cpl. Buckley
Shampoo (1975) .... Lester Carp
Summary of September
Woody Allen delivers a haunting, "superbly constructed" (The Hollywood Reporter) film that examines the intricate world of human emotions and the delicate threads that hold them together. Beautifully acted by an all-star cast, including Mia Farrow, Sam Waterston, Dianne Wiest, Denholm Elliott, Elaine Stritch and Jack Warden, September illustrates "some of Allen's most powerfully ironic dialogue in years" (Screen International). After a devastating nervous breakdown, emotionally fragile Lane (Farrow) has returned to her childhood home in Vermont to recuperate. Buoyed by a summer romance with neighboring writer Peter (Waterston), Lane is soon determined to leave Vermont and start a new life. But when Peter's affections mysteriously cool, and Lane's overbearing mother arrives with a shocking announcement, Lane finds herself suddenly tangled in a destructive web of passion, deception and manipulation. Now her only way out of her emotional tailspin is to confront the fear she's never escaped a terrifying secret that has haunted her entire life.September is best known as the movie Woody Allen made twice, bang on top of each other, and still brought in on time and on budget. He decided the casting wasn't working, switched some actors and roles, and altogether dumped Sam Shepard (who subsequently had very uncomplimentary things to say about Allen as a director of actors). That was some kind of achievement and said reams about Allen's efficiency and adaptability as a filmmaker. Unhappily, the congratulations end there, for September is the single most excruciating viewing experience the Woodman ever invited audiences to share.
You could say September is Interiors without the laughs (joke: there are no laughs in Interiors either), without the pull of the Hamptons shore outside the windows, and without the chill, elegant eye of Gordon Willis behind the camera. Members of a thoroughly unappealing family convene for a weekend in Vermont. Over the course of it, almost everybody reveals a lurking preference to have a new significant other in his or her life. You will not care who, how, or why, or acquire any insights into the mysteries of human relationships. Just as Maureen Stapleton brought the breath of life to the emotionally stunted mollusks in Interiors, so here Elaine Stritch injects some sting as Mia Farrow's irrepressibly bitchy mother. The other cast members are Sam Waterston, Dianne Wiest (fresh from her Hannah and Her Sisters Oscar?), Denholm Elliott, and Jack Warden. Them you may sympathize with, for theirs is a thankless task. --Richard T. Jameson
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