Crimes and Misdemeanors
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| Crimes and Misdemeanors | |
|---|---|
 original movie poster |
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| Directed by | Woody Allen |
| Produced by | Charles H. Joffe |
| Written by | Woody Allen |
| Starring | Martin Landau Woody Allen Mia Farrow Alan Alda Anjelica Huston Jerry Orbach |
| Editing by | Susan E. Morse |
| Distributed by | Orion Pictures |
| Release date(s) | October 13, 1989 |
| Running time | 107 min. |
| Language | English |
| Budget | $19,000,000 |
| IMDb profile | |
Crimes and Misdemeanors is a 1989 film written and directed by Woody Allen. It stars Allen, Martin Landau, Mia Farrow, Anjelica Huston, Jerry Orbach, Alan Alda, Sam Waterston and Joanna Gleason. The film was met with critical acclaim and was nominated for the following Academy Awards:
- Woody Allen, for Best Director.
- Martin Landau, for Best Actor in a Supporting Role.
- Woody Allen, for Best Writing, Screenplay Written Directly for the Screen.
Contents |
[edit] Plot
The film is set in New York City and follows two main characters: Judah (Landau), a successful ophthalmologist, and Cliff (Allen), a failed documentary filmmaker. The two men are each confronted with moral crises.
Judah's crisis concerns the affair he had with an airline stewardess named Dolores (Huston). After Judah unceremoniously ends their relationship, Dolores, scorned, threatens to tell his wife about their affair. Desperate, Judah turns to his brother, Jack (Orbach), a small-time gangster, who hires a hit man to kill Dolores. Stricken with guilt, Judah turns to the religious teachings he had rejected as a child, believing for the first time that a just God is watching him and passing judgement.
Cliff, on the other hand, is hired by his pompous brother-in-law, Lester (Alda), a successful television producer. Thus, Cliff is to make a documentary celebrating a man he hates. While filming, he falls in love with Halley (Farrow), Lester's associate producer. At the time, Cliff is despondent over his failing marriage to his wife Wendy (Gleason), and he woos Halley. He clashes with Lester, and when he completes his documentary it contains scenes (which Cliff thinks are simply accurate) comparing Lester to Benito Mussolini and Francis the Talking Mule, side by side with candid clips showing an unsuspecting Lester yelling at his staff and trying to pick up female employees.
When Lester sees the film, he is furious and fires Cliff. Cliff continues to pursue Halley, who eventually rejects him for Lester. Allen portrays Lester as at once Cliff's polar opposite - a dimwit who mispronounces "foliage" ("foilage") and "nuclear" ("nukuler") - but also his equal - Lester quotes Emily Dickinson in one key scene, which rebuffs Cliff and impresses Halley. At the end of the film, at a party, Cliff learns that Lester had sent Halley dozens of white roses for weeks at a time when they had been working together in London. Halley soon after falls in love with Lester. Cliff is crestfallen as he realizes he is incapable of that kind of affectionate display (his last romantic gesture to her had been a love letter he had plagiarized almost entirely from James Joyce's novel Dubliners).
In the final scene, Judah, who has worked past his guilt and is enjoying life once more, draws Cliff into a discussion about their moral quandaries. Judah says that with time, any crisis will pass, but Cliff morosely claims instead that one is forever fated to bear one's burdens for "crimes and misdemeanors." The film ends with a narration by a professor — a character who had earlier committed suicide - who discusses the joy in the world over a replay of key previous scenes.
[edit] Influences
The film appears to be heavily influenced by the films of director Ingmar Bergman. There is one key scene in which Judah relives a memory from his childhood while visiting his former home that is nearly identical, in terms of thematic intent and staging, to a scene from Bergman's Wild Strawberries. Additionally, the film's cinematographer is Bergman's long-time collaborator Sven Nykvist.
The philosopher committing suicide is influenced by Federico Fellini’s La Dolce Vita, where a similar character also commits suicide, although in Fellini’s film, he murders his children before doing so.
[edit] Music
As with most of his films, Allen makes use of classical and jazz music in many of the film's scenes. The soundtrack includes Franz Schubert's String Quartet #15 in G, which is used in the scenes leading up to Dolores' death, and Judah discovering her body.
[edit] Box Office
The North American box office tally for Crimes and Misdemeanors was $18,254,702.
[edit] Trivia
In James Robinson's Starman, Batman admits to Jack Knight that this is his favorite Woody Allen movie.
[edit] External links
- Crimes and Misdemeanors at the Internet Movie Database
- Roger Ebert's Review of Crimes and Misdemeanors
