Dare I say it? Hannah and Her Sisters is almost iconic

Turner Classic Movies screened yet again Hannah and Her Sisters on the weekend. This film seems to get recycled more than any other Woody Allen film – there are almost 50! – so it was tempting not to watch it again. Especially since this was probably my seventh time seeing it. But with little else on my agenda it’s hard to resist an Allen film and this is one of his best. The story’s outline is simple. Bookended by consecutive Thanksgiving dinners it’s a story of family and romance among three sisters: Hannah (Mia Farrow), Holly (Dianne Wiest) and Lee (Barbara Hershey). Elliot (Michael Caine), Hannah’s husband, has the hots for Lee, the predominant story line. Holly and Mickey’s (Woody Allen) relationship also heats up. This is all old hat for viewers who’ve watched the film innumerable times. But there are so many secondary story lines and nuanced scenes which make this movie so whole and sumptuous and therefore - dare I say it? - even iconic. And the cast of stars is stunning: Lloyd Nolan and Maureen O’Sullivan (Farrow’s real-life mother), Max Von Sydow, Sam Waterston, even little known future stars like Julia-Louis Dreyfus, John Turturro and Carrie Fisher. Famous jazz pianist Bobby Short puts in an appearance. Some of Farrow’s humongous family of kids, including Allen’s future wife, Soon-Yi, are bit players. Among the film’s takeaways: Mickey’s (Allen) typically neurotic obsession with death and his dad’s (Leo Postrel) matter of fact response, “when I’m dead I’ll deal with it then.” There’s the underlying showbiz theme, often an Allen meme.  The sisters’ parents Evan and Norma (Nolan and O’Sullivan) are old time Broadway performers, Holly’s (Wiest) constant singing auditions, Mickey (Allen) is a TV writer usually caught in the mania of a production office with his delightful sidekick Gail (Julie Kavner), his better professional half, propping him up. Mickey: “we’re all going to die someday.” Gail, “You’re just realizing this now?” Other images: Mia Farrow’s apple-like cheeks, Manhattan’s famous Café Carlyle where Allen himself has long performed on clarinet. Dorky record store signs that could have only been made in a bad design decade. The gritty and trash strewn mid-1980s Manhattan streets. And, among this group of New York Upper West Side liberals - all white – the only black person in the house is the maid Mavis (Verna O. Hobson).

More recently-watched films: 

The Poseidon Adventure (Ronald Neame 1973) This supposed mother of all disaster films is really a ho-hum stage play with a small group of cruise ship passengers traversing the bowels a sinking ship; there’s even a few laughs.

The Hard Way (Vincent Sherman 1943) Ida Lupino and Joan Leslie are terrific as ruthless sisters trying to make it on Broadway.

SubUrbia (Richard Linklater 1996) I’m a big Linklater fan but this is a humdrum drama of growing up in a typical suburb that’s not much different from you and I experienced. But it does star Steve Zahn, Giovanni Ribisi and, my Indie queen fave, Parker Posey.

Smithereens (Susan Seidelman 1982) This indie auteur’s first film would soon lead to Desperately Seeking Susan with Madonna three years later. Wonderful early 1980s NYC grit and punk life.

Raw Deal (Anthony Mann 1948) Rather stilted noir with a man (Dennis O’Keefe) on the run with two babes vying for his love – feminists would say “so typical.”

Manhattan Melodrama (W.S. Van Dyke 1934) has delicious performances by Clark Gable, William Powell and Myrna Loy.

Stamboul Quest (Sam Wood 1934) Myrna Loy again as a World War I no nonsense spy who can’t be dissuaded by men or enemy governments, sometimes the same.