Stardust Memories

I was very surprised to find out that Stardust Memories is dismissed by both critics (at least some of them) and viewers as absolutely unwatchable Allen's film, his most chaotic attempt to claim that he can not stand his fans. I found it insightful and witty satire that cleverly (as always; if anything, Woody is a very clever man) fuses the comic and the serious.

Sandy Bates (Allen, of course) - a comic director who does not want to make funny films anymore "because there is so much suffering in the world" (the scene reminds so much of Sturgis's "Sullivan's Travels"). Sandy is depressed because his new "serious" film is not well received by both critics and public and he is spending a weekend at Stardust Hotel during showing of his films. While there, he reflects upon his life, art, and relationships with three different women. Sounds familiar? Like 8 1/2, anyone? You are absolutely right. Woody meets Federico in the Stardust Hotel. The film is delight in gorgeous black and white. It is funny, touching, angry - all in the same time. The film was made twenty four years ago and I am very happy that Sandy - Woody had realized that to help the world IS to do what you do the best - funny movies. "The people survived because they laughed".

One more thing - Charlotte Rampling is breathtaking.

9.5/10

...and, in Sandy Bates, the lead of his satire on celebrity, loves, and his usual themes of turmoil over life and death, is a sense that Woody Allen is doing one of two things (or both perhaps)- taking from his own life and thinly disguising characters and situations, or using his own public image in film's culture to look through the looking glass slightly at some of his popular themes. This is not to say that the film is one of his very best. I could see what Allen was doing, for example, with the scenes and instances of tipping the hat to Fellini and his masterwork 8 1/2- the two films share that common thread of an artist in an overall funk of bittersweet memories and creative confusion. But while Fellini made his film out of a burning need to reveal all of his love for cinema out of his angst(s) after La Dolce Vita, Allen's track record shows that he's near incapable of waiting around too long to make a film (he's averaged nearly a film a year in 37 years up till 2003) so much of what comes forth in Stardust Memories isn't as much autobiographical as it is told through a character filtered with and not with himself. In short, a lot of the 8 1/2 dues were my least favorite parts in the movie (though I did like the quick Superman-type mementos).

But does that make Stardust Memories a failure, pretentious? Not to my point of view- once Allen starts the story rolling, and he gets his characters/actors into the gist of the film, it goes along like most other Allen films involving phobias, fears, loves (women), and sophisticated sense of varied parody. There are moments that Allen's stand-up act is injected into the mix, or a scene that could've been a chapter from one of his books, but mostly the audience gets the sense of his OWN love of cinema via Sandy Bates. Bates is another one of those Woody characters that seems all the more impressively formed and executed since it feels like the Woody we know, but Bates is just a little more on the edge of satire, viewing into his own self-doubts and trying to see if there can be any hope or meaning to it all- or if he can tell funny jokes.

The script contains some of the most memorable moments of Allen's career in one-liners (there are a few from the fans and autograph-hounds that stick out) and in having a natural flow, close to a type of poetry, in the conversations and dialog in the film. Even if one doesn't laugh, it definitely shows the work of a wonderful writer at the peak of his game. His direction is also intrinsically interesting, especially how he uses the unique, dark, and evoking cinematography by the great Gordon Willis, and the unusual editing stylizing by Susan Morse (though, once again, some of these editing tricks are to Fellini's credit). And the performances work well enough for the material, more often than not, with Charlotte Rampling as Dorrie, Bates' wonderfully stressed ex-girlfriend, Marie-Christine Barrault as Isobel, an old friend who left her husband for him, Jessica Harper as Daisy, whom he falls head over heels for while she and her professor-boyfriend are at the Stardust attending Bates' appearance(s), and Tony Roberts, who had a worthy supporting role in Annie Hall, pops up here as well.

I can recommend Stardust Memories for Woody Allen's main fan base, as it gives those who love his early films and his films that have more mature subject matter a bit of a (delightful) challenge. I don't know if I could recommend it however, as the very first film someone could see if the person wants to start of his films. There is an amusing quality to it that could give non-Woody fans a second thought about the filmmaker's work, but it's hard to say. It's not an altogether easy film to watch, or is it a masterwork like Manhattan. By the end of it, never-the-less, my time was not the least wasted, I knew I saw some ingenious scenes and jokes here and there, and there was a subtlety to it that has me liking it and responding more to it on repeat viewings. Is it homage? Sure, but it's a blend of homage (or as Roberts says "ripping it off") and a personal, nearly original style, and it ends up, on a repeat viewing, a major work. 9.5/10

While this film doesn't get the praise and respect of, say, "Annie Hall" or "Manhattan," I think it is a brilliant look into the mind of a film director. How much of Woody Allen is Sandy Bates? Some, I'm sure, but I think it's more interesting to compare Sandy to Woody Allen's "persona"--that is, who the public thinks he is.

The structure of the film is also quite interesting to me. Allen had done a very non-linear story structure, mixed with occasional flights of fantasy, in "Annie Hall," but "Stardust Memories" does that and piles on a movie within a movie within a movie, and manages to both comment on all that, at the same time as he's telling the story of the brilliant, but self-absorbed Sandy Bates.

A great movie, that you probably should see more than once to appreciate.

Reading some of the comments listed here, I'm dismayed by some of the narrowness of the criticisms ("It's shot in black & white for no reason!" "The flashbacks are indistinguishable from the present day!")... as if these were somehow to be construed as mistakes. Jeez.

I love this film. It rambles a little here and there, and sometimes it's so personal I feel voyeuristic watching it. The montage of Charlotte Rampling towards the end is stunning in how it summarizes Allen's feelings about memory, nostalgia, and the ever-present reality that never seems to allow the past to make sense.

One cannot deny that Allen has a very keen understanding of who he is, as a person, comedian, and lover. This is not to say that he is infallible or somehow more evolved than anyone else, but rather - through the retrospective of his "earlier funny films" - it's clear that he understands his strengths, and - outside the theatre - the weaknesses of his emotional life.

A perfect film for a quiet Sunday.

The problem with Woody has always been that everyone takes his movies more seriously than he does. Here, using the tactics of Felini, he makes fools of his detractors including the greatest detractor of all, Woody himself. For many reasons, I rank this among his best. He removes the restraint of plot, and just goes balls out nuts with his usual philosophical angst, and endless worship of beautiful dames. Oddly enough, without the fetters of convention, to me it was actually less pretentious or indulgent I think people like to call it, and a lot easier to understand and empathize with. One thing that I've always found absurd, and ironically what this film dwells on, is the complaints by fans and critics that he should go back to making comedies. Woody cannot not make a funny movie. If he's in it, and he's talking, I'm laughing. Especially back in this era, when his jokes were so fresh. So make no mistake, this film is loaded with comedy. Finally, I liked his choice of women in this. Charlotte Rampling is what I suppose the word breathtaking was originally meant to describe. If you arent touched by the final scenes with her, you got issues.