stanistreet Review of Hannah and Her Sisters

Hannah and Her Sisters (1986)

This is one of the finest ensemble works that Allen has directed.

[10 January 2006]

Woody Allen has this rare ability to get the people he wants to star in his films. One constantly hears this " I want, more than anything else , to work with Woody Allen". Hannah is one of his best, seamless continuity; clever flashbacks & great performances. As always, the music separates and binds. It was a device I particularly noticed in "Casablanca"- that clever use of music to separate the scenes. The casting is flawless, even Michael Caine, the personification of one dimensionality, here, cleverly (and one wonders whether Caine realised this)used by Allen to portray a crashing bore. Caine is at his best as an East End London thug (brilliant & menacing in Mona Lisa). But Allen uses that dead pan voice, like Harold Steptoe from Steptoe & Son, the British comedy serial,to great effect. The problem, of course, is that his scenes slow down a film that thrives on its clever editing. But there is always the fast-forward button! Max von Sydow, as always turns in a riveting cameo performance. Here is the antithesis of Caine - a multi-faceted actor, who can act. (See him as the menacing, efficient contract hit man in Three days of the Condor & flash back to the idealist knight in The Seventh Seal). The casting of the women is uniformly brilliant, conveying the whole range of anxieties; love; pain; loss etc. There is no one who can portray a hypochondriac like Allen and here is the core of the film; the centre around which the lives of the sisters revolve. And the music. the collaboration between Dick Hyman & Woody Allen is one of the most felicitous on screen. Too often, especially in American films, music is overused, often drowning the dialogue & distorting the story - invariably far too loud. This is wonderful cinema.