Film Reviews

Posted: Tue., Dec. 31, 1985, 11:00pm PT

Hannah and Her Sisters

Orion. Dir Woody Allen; Producer Robert Greenhut; Screenplay Woody Allen; Camera Carlo Di Palma; Editor Susan E. Morse Art Dir Stuart Wurtzel
Woody Allen Michael Caine Mia Farrow Carrie Fisher Barbara Hershey Dianne Wiest
Hannah and Her Sisters is one of Woody Allen's great films. Indeed, he makes nary a misstep from beginning to end in charting the amorous affiliations of three sisters and their men over a two-year period.

Its structure is a successful mixture of outright comedy, rueful meditation and sexual complications.

Pic begins at a Thanksgiving dinner, and ends at one two years later, with most of the characters going through mate changes in the interim.

Hannah, played by Mia Farrow, was formerly married to TV producer Woody Allen but is now happily wed to agent Michael Caine, who, in turn, secretely lusts for his wife's sexy sister, Barbara Hershey, the live-in mate of tormented painter Max von Sydow.

The third sister (Dianne Wiest) is by far the most neurotic of the bunch and, while waiting for her acting, singing or writing career to take off, runs a catering business with Carrie Fisher.

1986: Best Supp. Actor (Michael Caine), Supp. Actress (Dianne Wiest), Original Screenplay.

Nominations: Best Picture, Director, Art Direction, Editing

(Color) Available on VHS, DVD. Extract of a review from 1986. Running time: 106 MIN.

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