Hannah and her sisters
For discussion, we chose director, Woody Allen’s earlier films, which is an interweaving of human interest stories about relationships, fantasies, angsts, moral lessons and a central theme revolving around a character (played by Michael Caine) who ‘gets away with it’. The stories are funny and convoluted, Allen plays his typical bumbling role, and is surrounded by a fantastic cast including Michael Caine, Barbara Hershey, Mia Farrow, Diane Wiest, Carrie Fisher, Max von Sydow, Julia Louis-Dreyfus, and Julie Kavner.
Quotes:
Ray: It wasn’t as funny as I thought it would be.
Renny: I was interested in seeing what would happen… but it went out to nothing.
Sylvia: [who prefers Woody Allen not being in his own films] I find him excruciatingly annoying.
Renny: If you just remove Woody Allen, it would have been fine.
Ray: I just admire the comic. He’s a brilliant comic.
Ray: He plays that loser character, the bumbling nervous guy.
Sylvia: I don’t necessarily like any of his characters.
Sylvia: I liked the fact that they [Woody and the Diane Wiest character] got together at the end.
CJ: I’ve always liked Woody Allen movies for example Manhattan and Annie Hall. Personally, I liked Hannah and Her Sisters. There’s a level of intelligence in his films.
[on his personal life]
Ray: It’s pretty strange
CJ: It’s a bit icky
Sylvia: If you didn’t know those things, it may be less icky.
Wendy: I thought the bit about when he thought he had a brain tumour was funny.
CJ: I think he thinks about that in every movie.
Ray: He’s been worrying about dying in every movie.
Scores:
Andy: 2
CJ: 4
Hanna: 2
Ray: 3.5
Renny: 3
Sylvia: 2
Wendy: 3
Jodi: abstain
Paul: abstain
Olive: 3
An Angel at My Table
An Angel at My Table was made for New Zealand television as a three part series, based on three autobiographies by Janet Frame. It provides many insights into the author’s life. From being extremely shy, with frizzy red hair, bad teeth, not fitting in, being different, and growing up in a large loving family though in poverty, to being misdiagnosed as schizophrenic by a university professor, suffering inhumane conditions in mental institutions for many years, being on the verge of a lobotomy (if she hadn’t won a major writing prize), then finding herself in Spain and in all the while, writing for the sake of writing, being creative, imaginative and ultimately, a literary success.
Even though it was a long movie, it was engrossing and filled with special memories – sharing a bed with siblings, re-enacting a scene in the forest, trying to buy friendships with chewing gum, entertaining each other with books borrowed from the library, stealing chocolates, feeling liberated walking away from the classroom, the tragedy of the death of her sisters – so many beautiful moments.
Quotes:
CJ: I saw it a long time ago and always wanted to re-watch it. I chose it for several reasons: It’s a New Zealand story, it’s a rite of passage story, and she is such an awkward character and she came out with success and dignity.
Renny: I found it disturbing what they did to her.
Andy: I was nearly crying for the little one. She was so cute. I thought she was gorgeous. You feel protectiveness about sensitive kids.
Sylvia: The colours were beautiful. Her memory for detail was high.
Scores:
Andy: 4
CJ: 4
Ray: 3
Renny: 4
Sylvia: 4.5
Wendy: 4
Jodi: abstain
Paul: abstain
Last quote:
Olive: [after Sebastian’s songs] Again!
Club Moofie 