tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2118574901486983093.post6119674847307493743..comments2024-03-03T10:32:45.969-08:00Comments on Mr. Peel's Sardine Liqueur: Not Even The RainMr. Peel aka Peter Avellinohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10553482286909862975noreply@blogger.comBlogger9125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2118574901486983093.post-81777539616686715612011-05-10T21:15:02.419-07:002011-05-10T21:15:02.419-07:00Thanks very much, thrilled that you liked it!Thanks very much, thrilled that you liked it!Mr. Peel aka Peter Avellinohttps://www.blogger.com/profile/10553482286909862975noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2118574901486983093.post-10909411523345783652011-05-10T20:03:59.550-07:002011-05-10T20:03:59.550-07:00great write up! this film is just plain perfect.great write up! this film is just plain perfect.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2118574901486983093.post-21567934184563184532011-02-15T17:24:55.052-08:002011-02-15T17:24:55.052-08:00I've always wondered about the sales of e.e.cu...I've always wondered about the sales of e.e.cummings poems after that movie came out.Unknownhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/11446001739464887333noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2118574901486983093.post-68128884875860685652011-02-15T08:08:35.546-08:002011-02-15T08:08:35.546-08:00Lovely piece on what I think is the most watchable...Lovely piece on what I think is the most watchable Woody Allen film and my third favorite. I have special feeling for the opening night I saw his, the first Allen movie I saw on my own on opening night, wishing I was in Manhattan, even buying the GQ with Woody on the cover with a rare interview about the film. <br /><br />The opening horn strains over the Orion logo is one of my favorite starts to a film ever. And I love the moment with Hershey looking at the bobbing posts in the water, a perfect metaphor for the characters' jumbled lives. <br /><br />After the film, I visited my favorite late night Tower Records haunt (where I would end up working at Tower Video shortly thereafter) and fancied a New York kind of world ahead of me...christianhttp://christiandivine.wordpress.comnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2118574901486983093.post-56006347705484384012011-02-14T09:46:24.099-08:002011-02-14T09:46:24.099-08:00Marc--
I love that line too. I suppose I did unde...Marc--<br /><br />I love that line too. I suppose I did underrate this one slightly in my mind, spending so much time away from it while watching a few of the others much more. I'll have to remember not to do that again. <br /><br />J.D.--<br /><br />Glad you enjoyed it so much, thank you for that. What you said about it is absolutely right and the loose nature of how it comes across, how much everyone seems to go together, brings it all up to a higher level. <br /><br />potchkeh--<br /><br />Interesting that it seems like I'm not the only one who turns to something like ANNIE HALL more, but it was good to be reminded of this one. As far as the Thanksgiving thing goes, the two films in question are diferent enough that I don't know how much of a comparison there is to draw but since they were made fairly close together it's certanly possible that the date had stuck in his head as something that could be used dramatically.<br /><br />mmcpher--<br /><br />Not counter-intuitive at all because, as you of course point out, the fact that they are so irritating at times makes them that much more human, more alive. Thank you very much for your wonderful comments.Mr. Peel aka Peter Avellinohttps://www.blogger.com/profile/10553482286909862975noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2118574901486983093.post-51340507506944551332011-02-12T11:53:05.952-08:002011-02-12T11:53:05.952-08:00Hannah is one of my Allen favorites, and I'm s...Hannah is one of my Allen favorites, and I'm someone who very much favors Allen's work (I even loved "Stardust Memories", which I take as a kind of acid test). Rich in character, atmosphere and naturally fulsome in its plotting. These people may be yet another set in Allen's catalog of upscale New Yorkers, but they live and breathe more than in any other of his films. <br /><br /><br /><br />The restaurant scene wherein the camera circles the table as the sisters cycle through their anxieties, grievances, has been copied in countless films since then, none of which produce the original's effect. <br /><br /><br />It may sound counter-intuitive, but I found myself irritated, at times, by the characters, but life's like that, isn't it. Not by the performances, which were uniformly fine, but the selfish, or childish, or self=pitying way in which those characters were behaving, the way they were undermining their chance at peace. In the end, it is a kind of contentment that descends over the proceedings, rather than some patina of giddy love, and that feels right and well-earned. <br /><br />The supporting characters are more nuanced than in most Allen films. In Hannah they are not stock comic creatures who exist for punchlines. Even when they mainly serve the plot line, like with Sam Waterson's character and Max Von Sydow, there is some depth to them. There is an undercurrent of nihilism in Waterson's idealized architect, as he plays to the two women, blithely setting one against the other, pretty much just for the hell of it. And Frederick, for all his morose and manic need to dominate Lee, ultimately is pitiable and harrowing. <br /><br /><br />At its heart, Hannah is about family, and the ways that siblings support, resent, undermine and upset one another, even when there is genuine love. Mr. Peel's observations about Mia Farrow are interesting, as I have always wondered about her character, with her martyr-complex and unrelenting sweetness (even when she protests to her sisters about this, it feels as if she knows it isn't true). I confess that my appreciation of her performance has been distracted by thoughts that Allen was working things out in his own personal life on the screen. Absolving the saintly Farrow in advance, even as he was making the cinematic case that a wilder heart could not remain chained to such a stalwart woman. <br /><br />What I love about Hannah is that it is both a satisfying and very funny story, with the humor carefully women into the fabric rather than draped here and there. Despite Mr. Allen's misgivings, the ending was wonderful and surprising. When I care about characters, I worry for them, and feel as if I expect too much for them, we will all come to grief, so I never saw the development with Dianne Weist coming.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2118574901486983093.post-90159714776242830772011-02-10T13:47:49.174-08:002011-02-10T13:47:49.174-08:00Right on. I haven't seen HANNAH in quite some...Right on. I haven't seen HANNAH in quite some time now; I too tend to pop into a bit of ANNIE HALL all the time, particularly when I'm feeling that whole "most of us need the eggs" conundrum. But maybe HANNAH is a better place to turn, sometimes, in that kind of mood. Maybe tonight. (Tempted to pull it up on Netflix instant here at the office, but that would be wrong, right?)<br /><br />I had forgotten that the film ends on a Thanksgiving dinner, and this makes me wonder if there's anything to think about in relation to the Thanksgiving dinner resolution at the end of BROADWAY DANNY ROSE--another of Allen's particularly "human" films, to my mind. Maybe it's going to be a long night, tonight.potchkehnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2118574901486983093.post-49351530931646173442011-02-10T08:21:36.767-08:002011-02-10T08:21:36.767-08:00I would rank HANNAH right up there with ANNIE HALL...I would rank HANNAH right up there with ANNIE HALL and MANHATTAN. As you point out, it really is Woody Allen at the top of his game. There is a looseness, a feeling of spontaneity among the actors that almost feels like we are watching real people and are intruding on their personal lives. And the dialogue absolutely crackles with energy and I could almost close my eyes and just listen to the film, enjoy the cadences of the language and how the actors recite their dialogue. Amazing stuff.<br /><br />I think this might be one of my all-time fave reviews of yours, Mr. Peel. Ya really hit this one out of the park. Man, now I wanna watch this film!Anonymoushttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08164105442273577128noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2118574901486983093.post-38612805011053840342011-02-09T23:35:52.029-08:002011-02-09T23:35:52.029-08:00Every time I hear Michael Caine's line, "...Every time I hear Michael Caine's line, "I've found my answer. I'm walking on air." I too begin to feel very happy. Quite underrated, especially by those souls like myself that favor the darker Allen outings.Marc Edward Heuckhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/07563779617157443811noreply@blogger.com