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Crimes and Misdemeanors
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
| Crimes and Misdemeanors | |
|---|---|
 original movie poster |
|
| 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 |
| Distributed by | Orion Pictures |
| Release date(s) | June, 1989 |
| Running time | 107 min. |
| Language | English |
| Budget | $19,000,000 |
| IMDb profile | |
Crimes and Misdemeanors is a film written and directed by Woody Allen. It stars Woody Allen (as Cliff), Martin Landau (as Judah), Mia Farrow (as Halley), Anjelica Huston (as Dolores), Jerry Orbach as Jack and Alan Alda (as Lester). 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.
Due to the film's serious and realistic treatment of its plot and characters, it is considered by many to be Allen's most mature film.
Contents |
The film is set in 1980s New York and follows two main characters: Judah, a successful ophthalmologist, and Cliff, a failed documentary filmmaker. The two men are each confronted, respectively, with different moral crises.
Judah's crisis concerns the affair he had with an airline stewardess named Dolores. After Judah unceremoniously ends their relationship, Dolores, scorned, blackmails Judah, threatening to tell his wife about their affair. Frustrated and desperate, Judah has her killed, and subsequently must deal with his guilt.
Cliff, on the other hand, is hired by his brother-in-law, Lester (Alda), a pompous man, who is nevertheless a successful television director. Thus, Cliff is to make a documentary celebrating a man he hates. While filming, he falls in love with Halley, Lester's producer. At the time, Cliff is despondent over his failing marriage with his wife Wendy (Joanna Gleason), and he woos Halley. He clashes with Lester, and when he completes his documentary it contains hilariously demeaning 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 unsupecting Lester yelling at his staff and trying to pick up female staff members.
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" ("nuculer") - 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. This seemed to Cliff to be the move which finally made Halley fall in love with Lester. Cliff is crestfallen as he realizes he is incapable of that kind of affectionate display (his last romantic gesute to her had been a love letter he had plagiarized almost entirely from James Joyce's novel Dubliners).
In the final powerful scene, Judah, who has worked past his guilt and is enjoying life once more, draws Cliff into a discussion about their moral quandaries, with Judah stating that with time, any crisis will pass (he has gotten away with murdering Dolores), and Cliff morosely claiming instead that one is forever fated to bear one's burdens and pay one's dues for "crimes and misdemeanors."
The film appears to be heavily influenced by the films of director Ingmar Bergman. This is evident from the film's somber tone and bleak themes, as well as little of the nostalgia that permeates many of Allen's films. There is also 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.
In terms of philosophical influences the film appears to represent an exploration of the ideas of the German philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche. The themes of reality as an "empty void" in which we create values, of the differing values and behavior of those possessed of either weakness or of strength, and of the role that resentment plays in the life of the weak all reflect the treatment that these themes receive by Nietzsche, particularly in such late works as The Genealogy of Morals.
The film also seems to be inspired by Crime and Punishment by Fyodor Dostoevsky but attempts to undermine the fundamental ideas of the novel. Taking only one example, in Crime and Punishment guilt over the murder that begins the book finally overwhelms the killer so that he confesses his crime in the streets of the city and recognizes the existence of God. In the movie, on the other hand, Judah overcomes his guilt over the murder and goes on with his life as before. Allen's treatment of religion in the movie ultimately seems to suggest that any experience we have of "the eyes of God" is illusory since, in the end, justice does not necessarily have its way. It is this reversal of Dostoevsky that leads Judah to suggest at the end of the movie that "it's a chilling story."
As with most of his films, Allen makes good use of classical and jazz music in many of the film's scenes. One piece that stands out is Schubert's String Quartet #15 in G, which is used in the scenes leading up to Dolores' death, and the discovery of her body by Judah.
- Crimes and Misdemeanors at the Internet Movie Database
- Roger Ebert's Review of Crimes and Misdemeanors
The North American box office tally was $18,254,702, more than usual for an Allen film.