MOVIECLUB #3 - Due Monday 4/27: Alice

Alice (1990)
Written and Directed by Woody Allen



Starring:
Mia Farrow
Alec Baldwin
William Hurt
Joe Mantegna
Blythe Danner
Judy Davis



some notes:

Alice is a (loose) remake of Fellini's Juliet of the Spirits.. (that might make for a good companion piece, if you can get your hands on it)..

it has a 71% on RottenTomatoes.. but only a 6.4 on IMDB.. this was released just after Crimes & Misdemeanors and just before Shadows and Fog.. it was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Writing (Original Screenplay) but lost to Ghost..


Recommended Double-Feature: Juliet of the Spirits (1965)

More Suggestions:
Crimes and Misdemeanors (1989)
Shadows and Fog (1991)

I have this on order from our library. Hopefully it shows up in time.

I own 28 movies directed by Woody Allen, yet one that I don't own is what gets picked next. Doh!

watched Juliet of the Spirits to preface Alice... Fellini's first full-length film in color.. while 8 1/2 was about the creative process, JotS is much more broad.. you could say it's more about life in general.. where 8 1/2 is psychological, JotS is spiritual (as you could possibly guess from the title).. or, at least, it seems to be.. it's never quite said for sure whether or not her visions are indeed supernatural or if it's all in her head.. shifting from a male perspective to a female perspective really changes the tone and the feel of the film.. though the differences between 1963 culture (when 8 1/2 was filmed) and 1965 culture (when JotS ws filmed) could account for much of the discrepancy.. the imagery is jarring--even by today's standards.. towards the end, the film almost creeps over into the horror genre (with some truly terrifying sights), but it swings back into fantasy before the credits roll.. Giulietta Masina (who plays Juliet and is, incidentally, Fellini's real-life wife) is friggin amazing in this.. she emotes more with her damn eyes in this film than most modern actresses can achieve with all their resources throughout their careers.. the movie ultimately comes off pretty indulgent.. but, again, it's 19-fuckin-65.. so you kinda have to forgive these indulgences or, perhaps, dismiss them as novelty.. it's hard to say whether Juliet even remains the central character, or if (as some critics point out) Fellini ultimately made another movie about himself..

anyway, it probably isn't for everyone.. too over-the-top for most.. and it hasn't dated nearly as well as 8 1/2.. but a very good movie, overall, with an amazing lead performance.. and an unforgettable soundtrack.. definitely recommended for fans of Fellini or anyone generally interested in the history of film.. or if you just want to get high and have a good old fashioned visceral experience... hell, the cinematography is so beautiful, the acting is so tight, and the music is so perfect that you could probably watch this with the subtitles turned off and still get most of the experience.. it'd be an interesting experiment at least

hopefully we'll get around to watching Alice itself tonight... still not sure if it's an actual remake or simply more of an "inspired by" type thing

I think having watched Juliet of the Spirits beforehand was beneficial in my screening of Alice.. But, even with the added context, I still couldn't really get into this movie.. Not saying it was bad--I'm reeeally busy this week, and I have a lot on my mind.. We even had to give the movie an intermission overnight, and splitting such a short movie into two sittings is never a good idea.. Anyway, I gave it 3/5 stars on Netflix, if that's any indication of where I'm at with it.. Maybe I'll give it another chance one day..

Alice is not a remake of Juliet. But it's definitely heavily (and directly) inspired by it. Between the two, I think Woody makes a more honest effort to actually make a movie about a woman and her perspective.. Both Allen and Fellini ultimately fail (by inserting too much of themselves into the piece--which is understandable for any artist).. But, despite falling conceptually, Fellini's film still works as something pretty to look at (and, considering the amazing soundtrack, to listen to!). Ebert described Juliet as a "moving painting". I might throw in a pretentious word like Daliesque, but I think he's spot-on either way..

Unfortunately, Alice isn't quite the sensory (or visceral) treasure-box that Juliet is... for all the fantastic elements (flying, turning invisible, etc.), it's a pretty down-to-earth affair.. The acting is all top-notch--even with Mia Farrow doing her best Woody Allen impression.. the music is, as to be expected with Woody, great.. but the other-worldly concepts (that came so naturally to Fellini) feel a bit forced here.. Woody attempted to make a female-oriented fantasy film with catholic themes.. But it's Woody, dammit.. i shouldn't have been surprised when i got a male-oriented technical film with an-outsider's-understanding-of-catholicism..

Anyway, i don't wanna chew up the page here and leave the rest of y'all with nothing to say.. so i'll end it here.. interesting movie.. worth watching--especially if you're familiar with Fellini's original--but there's a reason why this movie has been mostly forgotten over time..

Grrr, no Alice for me. Sorry.

I wasn't able to obtain Alice either, I have the blockbuster in store pass, but starting middle of next month I will go to online netflix or bb so I can get these movies.

come on, guys--i'm gonna need at least ONE response to this movie before i can move on.. what kind of movie club is this??

I wasnt able to find a copy either

It's on Netflix instant watch

I plan on watching it today.

oh, i dont have netflix, anybody trust me enough to let me use their account?

I would too, if anyone trust a crazy monkey then they should trust me. Right?

you sure about that JackO? it's not listed as available for instant viewing on my account.. i wonder if different movies are available in different regions??

Crimes & Misdemeanors, however, IS available to watch online for me.. (and it's one of the movies i listed under "more suggestions" for double-feature viewing).. incidentally, it's also a much better movie..

oh, hey, Shadows and Fog (the other other suggestion for a double-feature) is ALSO up for instant viewing..

NSpan if I watch both double features (because I own them) will that make up for me not watching the main attraction on this one?

NSpan wrote:you sure about that JackO? it's not listed as available for instant viewing on my account.. i wonder if different movies are available in different regions??

Crimes & Misdemeanors, however, IS available to watch online for me.. (and it's one of the movies i listed under "more suggestions" for double-feature viewing).. incidentally, it's also a much better movie..

oh, hey, Shadows and Fog (the other other suggestion for a double-feature) is ALSO up for instant viewing..

Whoops! There is an "Alice" available on instant viewing but it is not our Alice.

That Alice is the 1988 surrealist classic.

Meanwhile, I'd pair Alice with another Woody Allen/Mia Farrow teaming. Or maybe one from Allen's Bergman era from 1987-1988.

packpaljs wrote:NSpan if I watch both double features (because I own them) will that make up for me not watching the main attraction on this one?

actually, yes!.. (unless you're inclined to go for the "official" double feature and track down Juliet of the Spirits)..

especially considering the fact that i found Alice a bit underwhelming, i'm actually okay with the lack of responses for this one.. but i hope things pick up for our next movie..

Crimes & Misdemeanors really is great--if someone is itchin' to watch that, i'll lend ya my netflix info.. i still haven't seen Shadows & Fog, but i believe i shall find time for it this weekend

The 400 Blows is up next, right? We'll get onto it during the next week.

Good thing, I already got 400 Blows at home from Netflix in anticipation.

The 400 Blows should paired with (if it's real) The 400 Blow Jobs.

As I stated earlier in this forum I wasn't able to get Alice, but I did watch Crimes and Misdemeanors. I see this movie pop up all the time when referring to Allen's best movies. Never on my list of best but on others. I think it's a tad overrated but still it's a good movie and worth a watch. This was my 3rd time watching it and it does get better each time. So to anyone watching it for the first time, be patient, I think it's a movie that takes some work to figure out how you feel about it.

The reason it doesn't hit my top 3 or probably even top 5 Allen films is that I love Allen's sense of humor and always look forward to laughs with his movies. I can enjoy the more serious or all the way serious ones (Cassandra's Dream), but I just prefer my comedies to do comedy or at least dark comedy.

This movie also has some really strange camera shots from far away or behind objects that becomes kinda of annoying. A converstation with two people and the camera at the other end of the room. Or towards the end of the movie, it's behind some drums. I don't get that. What made him say, shoot from here. Annoying.

Martin Landeau is brillant in this movie, I would say it's his best piece of work, although I recall him being pretty good in Rounders. One the most positive things I can say about this movie is Martin Landeau was able to play a personality similar to Woody Allens without becoming Woody Allen. In most movies when someone is play a character similar to Allen, they become him and do his little antics and twitches or studer the same way he would. I hate that, be yourself and do the role. For E.g. Scarlett Johanson in Vickey Christina Barcelona and in Scoop, acts just like Allen would've acted in the same role. It takes away from the movie and I always wonder how it would've been if they played it their way.

Also I love the music in this movie, I love the music in most Allen films but music wise I'd put this up at the top. It goes well with the stories and helps with the flow.

But warning to anyone watching this for the first time, although there are some pretty good laughs in this movie, don't go in expecting a great comedy by Woody Allen, it's a much more serious film with deepers issues about death, God, Sins... you know regular Allen topics, just not in a funny way this time.

I'll report back on Shadows and Fog tomorrow night, I think that will be my 3rd time watching that as well. I need some fresh movies to watch.

In another movie club thread I mentioned the unavailability of this movie in Australia but I can still contribute as I did see this movie when it first came out. Bear in mind that that was close to 20 years ago so I can't remember details. Often I remember what I thought of a movie, wether I liked it or not etc, but forget things like plot lines & characters. This is one of those movies. I vaguely remember it is about a woman who seems sort of lost and without direction in her life. I think she visits a slightly unorthodox therapist. Please correct me (and refresh my memory) if I am wrong; or if I am right and you feel like doing it.
Anyway what I do remember is how much I enjoyed this movie. At that stage of my life I had seen a few Woody Allen movies but this was the one that made me a fan. Obviously it is not one of his best movies, and wouldn't be in my fave 5 of his but it made me want to see everything he had done. Maybe if I re-watched it now I wouldn't like it as much.

I'm not sure I haven't seen Alice, but I did see Another Woman, came out around the same time as Alice. And that's about a woman who see a therapist.

Shadows & Fog - The Best of the Worst

I call this the Best of the Worst because Woody Allen is one of my favorite directors and actors, I think he represents my personality and traits better than any other person that I've seen on celluloid. But Shadows & Fog is one of those I refer to the weird era of Woody Allen.

Technically the movie is great, done on a studio stage, it's amazing, and you hardley ever see any of Allens movie done on a stage, almost always it's on location, so right away, you can tell this is different than most other Allen projects. But being B & W, it's great, The fog and the shadows and the shadows and the fog. It's has a certain feel brought on by the sets alone that do make this worth a watch. However, and there is always a however. Putting this up to other Allen projects, it's towards the bottom of the list. He tries to give us a comedy with a metaphor, typical Allen, but this metaphor is kind of out there that it's not even that transparent and you kinda say....Okay, so what.

It's trying to show you that in the night of a town/city, the comforts that protect you during the day are really on man made and not really there. The fact is that your alone in a town/city and it's very dangerous, it only comes out at night because less people and no daylight makes it easier for the predators. So that's kinda stupid, just write the movie and let it naturally become what it is.

Allen is funny as ususally but I think he's about it, the rest of the cast lets me down, and it has a great cast list. John Malcolvich, Kathy Bates, Jodie Foster, John Cusack, of course Mia Farrow, Lily Tomlin and if you look real closely you can see a very young John C. Reily and a young William H. Macy.

So even though this movie is on the best of the worst list of Allen's, that still puts it up against a crap load of other movies so it's a good watch, if anything to check out the sets, oh and I critiqued the camera work in Crimes and Misdemeanors, in this movie, it's great, everything is shot the way it should be.

Well so far only Nspan gave a review on this movie, I'm guessing, not too many people were pumped about this one. Granted, I'm a huge Allen fan and have been for years, I own 28 movies directed by him as well as others that star him, The Front, Play it Again, Sam. But yet for some reason Alice never made it in my home, I'm sure it's because I was on an Allen frenz and watched Another Woman, OUCH!!! That made me stop and think before I just popped a Allen film in, I'd been lucky up to date that Another Woman was the worst Allen film I'd seen.

Well my thoughts on Alice, it goes directly in front of Another Woman. I lost interest in this movie after 10 minutes. It was agonizing, I'm glad I've seen it, so I can debate someone when they bring it up. Although it's hardly ever mentioned. My goal was to own ever Allen movie but this one can sit on the shelf and maybe one day someone will just give it to me, because I work to damn hard to waste my money on something I'll probably never watch again.

Thank god Allen got out of his funk and went back to making decent films. I know this isn't much of a review, just more of a rant, but as you saw earlier in this forum, I recently watched two Allen films and to watch this after just makes it that much worst. It's like expecting a Magician to come to your birthday party but it ends up being a clown. Oh, the disappointment. Anyway, thank god we are past Alice and I hope this is the worst of the movies we watch in the Movie Club.