Plot
Diane Keaton, Kristin Griffith, and Mary Beth Hurt play Renata, Flyn, and Joey, the grown daughters of wealthy Arthur (E.G. Marshall) and his emotionally disturbed wife, Eve (Geraldine Page). When Arthur leaves Eve, her three daughters rally around her. As it turns out, none of the daughters are ideally suited to provide an "anchor" for their distracted mother, but all four women are strengthened by their renewed relationship. Interiors received five Oscar nominations, including Best Director for Woody Allen, Best Original Screenplay for Allen, Best Actress for Geraldine Page, Best Supporting Actress for Maureen Stapleton (who plays Arthur's new love), and Best Art Direction for Mel Bourne and Daniel Robert. ~ Hal Erickson, RoviReview
In the wake of his Oscar-winning breakthrough with Annie Hall (1977), and ahead of his melancholy Manhattan (1979), Woody Allen worked off his debt to Ingmar Bergman with this overtly "serious" film, a grim, beautifully shot exploration of family dysfunction. Allen's least funny movie, Interiors is also his most polarizing, dividing viewers who found it suffocatingly slow and pretentious from those who hailed Allen's leap forward as a serious art director. Influenced most immediately by the family chamber drama of Bergman's Cries and Whispers (1972), the film derives much of its power from the stunning cinematography of Gordon Willis, who had also shot the Godfather movies, and the art direction of Daniel Robert. For some observers, Allen learned the wrong lesson from the mainstream embrace of Annie Hall, and his lunge toward claustrophobic, self-satisfied, middlebrow art violated everything that he had ever mocked, right down to the straight-faced used of talking heads addressing the camera that he had lampooned in Take the Money and Run (1969). For others, Interiors only highlighted the underlying seriousness of Allen's movies, especially as he headed toward such classic comedy dramas as Manhattan, Hannah and Her Sisters (1986), and Crimes and Misdemeanors (1989). In light of those later movies, Interiors looks better than it did at the time, holding up surprisingly well on its own terms as an incisive Chekhovian drama of a ruined family, featuring a gallery of unforgettable performances from such stalwarts as E.G. Marshall, Geraldine Page, and Maureen Stapleton. ~ Leo Charney, RoviCast
- Kristin Griffith - Flynn
- Mary Beth Hurt - Joey
- Richard Jordan - Frederick
- Diane Keaton - Renata
- E.G. Marshall - Arthur
- Geraldine Page - Eve
Credit
Joel Schumacher - Costume Designer, Martin Berman - First Assistant Director, Woody Allen - Director, Ralph Rosenblum - Editor, Robert Greenhut - Executive Producer, Fern Buchner - Makeup, Mel Bourne - Production Designer, Gordon Willis - Cinematographer, Robert Greenhut - Producer, Charles H. Joffe - Producer, Jack Rollins - Producer, Daniel Robert - Set Designer, Woody Allen - Screenwriter, William Scharf - Assistant Sound Editor| Interior / Baseboard (Film), Interferin' Gent (1927 Film) | |
| Interkosmos (2006 Film), Interlocked (1998 Film) |
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