September (1987)

I enjoyed the film. As one previous comment mentions, it is reminiscent of Bergman's Autumn Sonata. Probably intentional on Allen's part, and his homage to Bergman. The characters are played over the top, as in any good melodrama, and like most Allen characters in all his films. The film is presented as a stage play being filmed.

I am surprised that none of the previous comments mention the wonderful music of Art Tatum, Ben Webster et al. For Allen I suspect that the music is a central character of the film, and the film is an opportunity for Allen to present this music to his filmgoing audience.

Fmovies: Denholm Elliott has the hots for Mia Farrow, who has the hots for Sam Waterston, who has the hots for Dianne Wiest. Mia's ex-film-star mother and her physicist husband descend on them, insult everyone and then go away again. All this is set in a house in New England during a storm and power-cut.

Some critics see this as Allen in Bergman mode again but to me its claustrophobic country-house atmosphere is more reminiscent of Chekhov – with one important exception: Chekhov has jokes. This is tedious stuff. No wonder Soon-Yi (in Wild Man Blues) says that she walked out of it.

Fact and fiction got confused in my mind when Mia Farrow's character started talking about shooting her mother's gangster lover when she was a teenager. This may be an allusion to the real-life shooting of Johnny Stompanato by Lana Turner's daughter. Elaine Strich, playing the mother, is reminiscent of Farrow's real mother Maureen O'Sullivan in Hannah And Her Sisters.

Mia Farrow plays suicidal Lane, a child-like woman hoping to sell off the family cottage in Vermont so she can start life anew in New York City; she's surrounded for the weekend by her married friend (Dianne Wiest), a charming, struggling writer (Sam Waterston), an elderly neighbor who harbors a crush on Lane (Denholm Elliott), and Lane's demonstrative mama (Elaine Stritch) and her latest husband (Jack Warden). Seems mother and daughter were once the subjects of a scandalous murder-trial from years ago (shades of Lana Turner and daughter Cheryl), and Lane's emotional showdown with her mother provides an intense acting moment between Farrow and Stritch. Claustrophobic Woody Allen drama was one of the writer-director's biggest commercial and critical failures (he filmed it twice with two separate casts--this is the second version, the original remains unseen). It's a nearly-humorless study of the dangers of repression, yet the picture doesn't learn from itself--the handling is repressed as well--and few of these characters seem improved by the finale. Allen's languid pacing nearly comes to a halt during an electrical storm (at just 85 minutes, "September" doesn't exactly utilize its time wisely); however, this group of privately-tortured souls is as fascinating as the family in Allen's "Interiors." In fact, of the two films, this may be the better effort. *** from ****

September fmovies. Woody Allen tried to duplicate the success of Interiors with this movie, which is just as downbeat but well acted, especially by Mia Farrow. It didn't win him any new fans and was a somber follow-up to two of his more popular '80s films (Hannah & her Sisters and Radio Days). The blackout in the middle of the movie is what most people (myself included) seem to remember most, but Farrow's character really does get to you. What she goes through, and puts up with, in this movie will make you want to stick your head in the oven. Not a pleasant experience (any movie with a suicidal main character is not going to be), with most of the action taking place in a large farm house (which makes the film a little more stagy than most of Allen's works). Many of Woody Allen's stock actors from his late '80s and '90s films show up, and Elaine Stritch is wonderful. But the film is a thoroughly sad one and does not lend itself well to repeat viewings, unlike his other somber dramas (Interiors and Another Woman).

Basically, if you liked "Interiors" you will probably also enjoy this moody piece which features some fine performances and a lot of angst-filled speeches. On the other hand, if you didn't like "Interiors" you probably won't like this film either. Although it isn't as good as Allen's more famous melodrama, it comes close to being of equal quality, in terms of the acting; the script, however, leaves something to be desired. I'd recommend it if someone asked me, but I wouldn't go out of my way to try to get people to see it.

Made by Woody Allen in his serious mode, the drama "September" is not as impressive and fine as "Another Woman" but it is still an interesting movie. Chekhov said once about the characters in his plays, "People sit at the table, drink tea, talk politics, and at the same time their hearts get broken". In this regard, Allen's "September' is a very Chekhovian movie ("Uncle Vanya" comes to mind first). The film takes place inside a country house in Vermont where several characters, friends and relatives of Lane (Mia Farrow), a fragile and troubled young woman recovering from a nervous breakdown, get together for a rainy weekend in the end of the Summer. The weekend will be filled with the drinks, conversations, tender and delicate music. Six characters will fell in and out of love; the friendships will be betrayed, the hearts will be broken, a hidden family secret will come out. Along with the characters, we will reflect on love, mother-daughter complicated relationship, family secrets, aging, loneliness, longing, emotional crises, and self doubt as six cultured and intelligent individuals will try to find the meaning and the purpose in their lives. The film brings to mind John Cheever's observation: "The main emotion of the adult American who has had all the advantages of wealth, education, and culture is disappointment." There are a lot of disappointments, regrets and unhappiness in the characters of "September" but the weekend will be over, the rain will stop. There will be the possibility of hope in the future. The sun always comes after the rain.