Another Woman

Another Woman
Theatrical release poster
Directed by	Woody Allen
Produced by	Robert Greenhut
Written by	Woody Allen
Starring	Gena Rowlands Ian Holm Mia Farrow
Cinematography	Sven Nykvist
Editing by	Susan E. Morse
Distributed by	Orion Pictures
Release date(s)	November 18, 1988 (1988-11-18)
Running time	84 minutes
Country	United States
Language	English
Box office	$1,562,749

Another Woman is a 1988 film written and directed by Woody Allen. It stars Gena Rowlands as a philosophy professor who accidentally overhears the private analysis of a stranger but finds the woman's regrets and despair awaken in her something personal.

Plot

Marion Post (Gena Rowlands) is a New York philosophy professor past the age of 50, married to Ken (Ian Holm), a doctor, and on a leave of absence to write a new book. Due to construction work in their building, she sublets a furnished flat downtown to have peace and quiet.

Her work there is interrupted by voices from a neighboring office in the building where a therapist conducts his analysis. She quickly realizes that she is privy to the despairing sessions of another woman (Mia Farrow) who is disturbed by a growing feeling that her life is false and empty. Her words strike a chord in Marion, who begins to question herself in the same way.

She learns from her sister-in-law that her brother may idolize her, but he also hates her. She comes to realise that, like her father (John Houseman), she has been unfair, unkind and judgmental to many of the people closest to her: her brother Paul (Harris Yulin) and his fragile wife Lynn (Frances Conroy), her best friend from high school Claire (Sandy Dennis), her first husband Sam (Philip Bosco), and her stepdaughter Laura (Martha Plimpton).

She also realises that her current marriage to Ken is unfulfilling and that she missed her one chance at love with his best friend Larry (Gene Hackman). She finally manages to meet the woman in therapy as she contemplates a Klimt painting called 'Hope' and, although she wants to know more about her, she ends up talking more about herself, realizing that she made a mistake by having an abortion years ago and that at her age there are many things in life she will not have anymore.

By the end of the film, Marion resolves to change her life for the better.

Cast

• Gena Rowlands... Marion Post
• Ian Holm... Ken
• Mia Farrow... Hope
• Blythe Danner... Lydia
• Betty Buckley... Kathy
• John Houseman... Marion's Father
• Sandy Dennis... Claire
• Frances Conroy... Lynn
• Philip Bosco... Sam
• Martha Plimpton... Laura
• Harris Yulin... Paul
• Gene Hackman... Larry Lewis

Background

This film borrows heavily from the films of Allen's idol, Ingmar Bergman, particularly Wild Strawberries, where the main character is an elderly professor who learns from a close relative that his family hates him. Allen also recreates some of the dream sequences from Wild Strawberries, and puts Marion Post into a similar situation as Isak Borg, where both characters reexamine their life after friends and family accuse them of being cold and unfeeling. This film has many of Allen's signature features, particularly the New York City stamp of the film, only a few scenes are shot outside the city, in the Hamptons. It also uses classical music- Gymnopedie No. 3 by Erik Satie, and poetry- Archaic Torso of Apollo by Rainer Maria Rilke, to serve its narrative, as earlier and later films such as Hannah and Her Sisters, Crimes and Misdemeanors, and Husbands and Wives. It also focuses primarily on upper-middle class intellectuals, as nearly all of Allen's 1980s films do.

External links

• Another Woman at the Internet Movie Database