Product Description

An "intensely provocative [and] searing dissection of human behavior" (New York Daily News),Interiors marked a cinematic watershed for Woody Allen. In his first serious drama, Allen's interest in the human condition was not purely farcical and not limited to quick-wit and slapstick gags. Exploring the dynamics of a family in crisis, Interiors is "destined to become a landmark of American filmmaking" (The Hollywood Reporter). Nominated* for 5 Academy AwardsÂ(r). When Eve (Geraldine Page), an interior designer, is deserted by her husband of many years, Arthur (E.G. Marshall), the emotionally glacial relationships of their three grown daughters arelaid bare. Twisted by jealousy, insecurity and resentment, Renata (Diane Keaton), a successful writer; Flyn (Kristin Griffith), a woman crippled by indecision; and Joey (Mary Beth Hurt) a budding actress; struggle to communicate for the sake of their shattered mother. But when their father unexpectedly falls for another woman (Maureen Stapleton), his decision to remarry sets in motion a terrible twist of fate with tragically unexpected consequences. Academy AwardÂ(r)-winning** cast. *1978: Actress (Page), Supporting Actress (Stapleton), Director, Original Screenplay, Art Direction **Page: Actress, The Trip to Bountiful (1985); Keaton: Actress, Annie Hall (1977); Stapleton: Supporting Actress, Reds (1981)

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #13038 in DVD
• Released on: 2000-07-05
• Rating: PG (Parental Guidance Suggested)
• Aspect ratio: 1.33:1
• Formats: Color, Full Screen, NTSC
• Original language: English, Spanish
• Number of discs: 1
• Running time: 92 minutes

Amazon.com essential video
Although indisputably a film by Woody Allen, Interiors is about as far from "a Woody Allen film" as you can get--and maybe more people could have seen what a fine film it is if they hadn't been expecting what Allen himself called "one of his earlier, funnier movies." An entirely serious, rather too self-consciously Bergmanesque drama about a divorcing elderly couple and their grown daughters, it is slow, meditative, and constructed with a brilliant, painterly eye. There is no music--a simple effect that Allen uses with extraordinary power. In fact, half the film is filled with silent faces staring out of windows, yet the mood is so engaging, hypnotic even, that you never feel the director is poking you in the ribs and saying, "somber atmosphere." Diane Keaton, released for once from the goofy ditz stereotype, shines as the "successful" daughter. Some of the dialogue is stilted, and it's hard to tell whether this is a deliberate effect or simply the way repressed upscale New Yorkers talk after too many years having their self-absorption sharpened on the therapist's couch. Fanatical, almost childish self-regard is the chief subject of Allen's comedy--it's remarkable that in this film he was able to remove the comedy but leave room for us to pity and care about these rather irritating people. --Richard Farr

Customer Reviews

Being Beige is not for Wimps
I saw this film when it came out in 1978. The scene I admired the most is towards the beginning when Eve brings a valuable vase to her daughter's house and then fumbles with it. I was terrified that she would drop it and it would shatter taking out everyone and everything around her.

Rich white people are confusing with all of their beiges and pale colors and critical self-editing.

It must be so difficult to be creative when you have been trained to be suspicious of everything you don't already admire.

Bleak House
When "Interiors" was first released it was generally deplored by moviegoers, largely because it did not live up to their expectations of what a Woody Allen film should be: a laugh-out-loud comedy like "Annie Hall," or "Sleeper." It was as if Allen should be allowed to make only one kind of film (One might as well complain about Mozart having had the nerve to write the "Requiem" after "The Magic Flute"; or, conversely, Verdi having the effrontery to write "Falstaff" after "Othello." One wonders whether Shakespeare had the same problem: "What dost thou mean that thou art writing of a Shrewish Wench from Padua? Beshrew thy Heart! . . . We want more Titus Andronicus!").

With time and distance, one can appreciate "Interiors" for what it is, an intense drama about a family in the process of disintegration. The film is beautifully acted by an ensemble cast that includes Geraldine Page as the mother, who is so quietly self-effacing that, like a vacuum, she seems to draw the energy out of any room she enters; E.G. Marshall, as a man who has been a good father, but who must now escape the house's stifling atmosphere; the three sisters, Kristin Griffith, who has already escaped to Hollywood and a middling career as an actress; Diane Keaton, who has removed herself to Connecticut--and writer's block; and Marybeth Hurt, the Elektra of the piece, whose love for her father, hatred of her mother, and competitiveness with her writer-sister have come to dominate her life. The static dynamic of this imbalance of power is upset when the father introduces an interloper, beautifully acted by Maureen Stapleton.

Some have remarked, not without cause, that Allen has given the husbands of Keaton and Hurt (Richard Jordan and Sam Waterston respectively) the short end of the acting stick; but, I believe, that is his point, which certainly reflects the title of the film, "Interiors." The very dysfunction at the core of the family has caused the daughters to exclude themselves not only from each other but also from their respective spouses, who remain outsiders. It is only at the end that the sisters come to recognize and accept their flaws, and consequently find some resolution, as the camera outside the house looking inward at their faces--framed by the window--implies.

Woody Allen's "Interiors" will not leave you laughing, but it will certainly leave you thinking, perhaps about how quickly time passes in respect to one's family.

Interiors
Interiors is, I think, one of Allen's strongest films and I have watched it several times. It is less a comedy than the usual Allen, and more of a social/family drama and character study. We follow three grown up sisters (Diane Keaton, Kristin Griffith and Marybeth Hurt) and their parent's (Geraldine Page and E G Marshall) late divorce and the following crisis. The characters are mostly upper middle class (wannabe)intellectuals (writers, actors, interior designers), all of them in some sort of existential or creative crisis, and Allen portraits them very well. Allen himself is not acting in this film. If you like Annie Hall, Hannah and her sisters and Manhattan, you will probably like Interiors.
The transfer of the DVD is ok, but it would have been interesting to have some extra material (there's only the trailer). But the price is thereafter I think.