Underrated Movie #1: A Midsummer Night’s Sex Comedy

Title: A Midsummer Night’s Sex Comedy

Year: 1982

Director: Woody Allen

Writer: Woody Allen

Stars: Woody Allen, Mia Farrow, Jose Farrar (Cyrano de Bergerac), Julie Hagerty (Airplane), Tony Roberts (Annie Hall), Mary Steenburgen (Parenthood)

The Story: Three couples spend a weekend in the country in upstate New York at the beginning of the 20^th Century. While there, they debate the existence of the spirit world and clumsily attempt to seduce each other’s partners.

How It Came to be Underrated: The disingenuous title does the movie no favors. This was the period of Allen’s greatest popularity with audiences, but the relationship was an uneasy one. In his previous movie Stardust Memories even aliens from outer space show up to tell Allen that “We preferred your earlier, funnier movies”. But Allen wanted to make intellectual movies like his European heroes, Bergman and Fellini. The title of this one teases the audience by recalling Everything You Always Wanted to Know About Sex (but were afraid to ask), Allen’s last broad comedy, but it wasn’t a return to zaniness. In fact, this may be Allen’s most successful attempt to channel his European sensibilities. (Another factor was that Allen was averaging more than one movie a year at this time. This is a great movie, but it wasn’t even the best movie he released in 1982, since that was the year he also made Zelig, which has overshadowed this movie.)

Why it's Great:

1. “European” can be a bad word for Allen, as when he too slavishly copies Bergman (see Interiors) or Fellini (see Alice), but this movie feels European in the best sense of the word. “Dramedy” is also always a shaky proposition. Why would someone who can make us laugh out loud choose to go for the soft chuckle instead? Why would a dramatic writer toss in a bunch of half-hearted jokes if they had something serious to say? But when dramedy is done right, it can be so buoyant and effervescent that it makes broad comedy or straight drama feel phony. This feels like real life, only richer.
2. Although Allen always hires the world’s best cinematographers, his movies aren’t usually beautiful to look at. This is an exception. Cinematographer Willis (of the Godfather movies) adopts a simple style, using natural light to accent the pastoral beauty of the countryside. Gone too is the Dixieland jazz that Allen usually prefers. Instead, the music is all taken from the work of Felix Mendelssohn and it has a light, joyous passion that invigorates the whole movie.
   
3. Allen also breaks out of his usual habits by writing a role for himself that is wildly against type. The autobiographical characters that Allen wrote and played in Annie Hall and Manhattan are tortured artists that hate the country (“It’s filled with creepy, crawly things!”) and dread their fate in a godless universe. Allen here plays a stockbroker and crackpot inventor who loves the country and argues vigorously for the existence of the spirit world. (Of course, he’s still a horndog and a wisecracker.) It’s easy to watch Allen’s 80s films and forget how good both he and Mia Farrow are at what they do, but when they get to play different characters, we are reminded of how talented they really are.
4. At only 88 minutes, this is an incredibly tightly-written movie, but it sacrifices nothing. With effortless speed, Allen establishes six complex and varied characters and sends each one through a unique journey. Too often, in these “weekend in the country” movies, we never understand who everybody is or what they want from each other. Here, no one is merely defined by their relationship to someone else. Each character gets their own introduction and believably states their own philosophy. Once we understand those philosophies, we easily anticipate the conflicts that will arise, yet each encounter has an unexpected outcome.

Underrated Compared To: Broadway Danny Rose (1984) and Hannah and Her Sisters (1986), both of which Allen and Farrow made later in the 80s. I like both movies, but not as much as this one.

If You Like This, You Should Also Check Out: Zelig (1982) and Purple Rose of Cairo (1984) are Allen’s best remembered films of this period, and they deserve their lofty reputations. Jean Renoir’s Rules of the Game (1939), Ingmar Bergman’s Smiles on a Summer Night (1955), and Eric Rohmer’s Claire’s Knee (1970), are three of the great “weekend in the country” films that inspired this one.

Availability: It’s on Netflix to “Watch Instantly” right now, and a DVD is in print. Unfortunately, Allen never provides a commentary or any other special features.

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