Interiors (1978)

I watched this movie in 2018, and it made me really nostalgic. I don't think it was the cinematography--though this may well have contributed heavily to the feeling--or the acting, dialogue, directing, or what have you. I think it was the subject: people's psyches. Our interiors. The 20th century brimmed with art characterized by obsessive navel-gazing; but i'll be damned if its storytellers and artists didn't make that a thing of deep beauty. what a rewarding experience watching this movie was. we're just as messed up today as were these sisters and their mother then, but we don't make anything of beauty about it anymore. today it's all about *the group*. in the 21st century we've gotten over ourselves (not to the benefit of ourselves, certainly: it's looking like, psychologically, people are worse off today than when we obsessed over our inner lives). and this makes for less interesting art, i think.in 2018, interiors is a refreshing, beautiful film. which isn't to say it's flawless. the rape scene seemed like a deleted scene--a mere rape fantasy. if this movie is concerned with the psychological consequences of a divorce on 3 women: well, the voluntary behavior of a vicious male seems to be completely adventitious to that concern. it's not as if the almost-rapist's action is a consequence of the divorce. and neither is it that his action is the consequence of his wife's treatment, where his wife's treatment of him is not implausibly shaped by the divorce. it is the consequence exclusively of his volition. (this is how we talk in 2018, anyway. maybe a further forty years hence, we'll all be ever-inculpable due to what we learn from neuroscience and philosophy. but in 2018 i'll prescind from that possibility.)anyway. beautiful movie with a bizarre, unnecessary rape scene.

Interiors is one of the most divisive films of one of the most love-it-hate-it directors. For me Interiors is not one of Allen's best films(Annie Hall, Crimes and Misdemeanours, Manhatten, Hannah and Her Sisters, Husbands and Wives) with some dialogue monologues that ramble on a bit too much, but when it comes to his most underrated films Interiors is very high on the list. It is very easy to see why people wouldn't like it with how bleak it is and how it's different from much of what Allen has done, but those are hardly reasons to dismiss Interiors because apart from the occasional rambling it is a great film. It is very stylishly shot with good use of locations, probably Allen's second most visually striking 70s film after Manhattan. Like Annie Hall, there's no music score and that's not a bad thing at all, Interiors is a very intimate and intricate film and having no music added to that quality. Much of the dialogue is full of insight and pathos, to me it did have dramatic weight and it is one of Allen's most honest films along with Husbands and Wives. The screenplay is not "funny" as such and is not as quotable as Annie Hall, but it wasn't ever meant to be. The story is paced deliberately but how Interiors was written and performed ensures that it isn't dull, it was very moving(personally it didn't topple into melodrama) and layered storytelling- didn't notice any convolutions- deftly handled. Allen directs assuredly in one of his more restrained directing jobs. The characters are neurotic and not the most likable, but are written and performed with such compelling realism that in the end there is some sympathy felt for them. The cast was a talented one in the first place, and none of them disappoint. Especially good are Geraldine Page, in one of her best performances, in very frightening and heart-breakingly tormented form and Mary Beth Hurt, the centrepiece of the story and is very affecting. Maureen Stapleton is a breath of fresh air as the most lively character- an anti thesis to the rest of the characters but not an out of place one- and E.G. Marshall brings a great deal of quiet dignity. Diane Keaton when it comes to Woody Allen films is better in Annie Hall and Manhattan but plays a purposefully shrill character with gusto. Richard Jordan and Sam Waterson are fine. Kristin Griffith is good too but her part seemed underwritten. All in all, won't be for everybody but a great film from personal perspective and one of Woody Allen's most underrated. 9/10 Bethany Cox

I watched Interiors years ago and the impression that it left me was one of a bleakly brilliant film. I managed to watch it again and found that my love of this film has not diminished at all.Woody Allen is an admirer of Ingmar Bergman and in Interiors it show. This is his homage to Bergman and a fine homage it is.Allen is better known for his comedies such as the excellent Annie Hall and What's New Pussycat. Interiors is a change of pace for him. Restrained, serious and at times quite dark, this is a film for people who want depth in their films.Three sister, all who have problems of their own are suddenly having to deal with their parents divorce. E.G. Marshall as Arthur, their father and Geraldine Page as their mother Eve, a cold repressed and mentally unstable woman.The sisters have to face the fact that not only are their parents divorce final but their father has met another woman Maureen Stapleton as the fun loving Pearl.The eldest daughter, Diane Keaton as Renata the middle daughter, Mary Beth Hurt as Joey and the youngest daughter, Kristin Griffith as Flyn all deal with it in their own ways. Renata is a successful writer married to a one hit writer, Sam Waterston as Mike.Joey is trying to find a creative outlet but she is not as talented as her older sister and Flyn is an actress in second rate TV shows and movies.Joey is the one who ends up having to care for her mentally ill mother and is filled with frustration and resentment. Flyn is rarely around and Renata is the one who has to cope with the backlash of all of it.Then things reach a crisis point when their father remarries a cheerful and likable woman who the daughters do not approve of and refer to her as a vulgarian.This is the perfect study of a family who despite being wealthy well educated people, are dysfunctional and in their various ways, selfish and at times rather petty. These people are not always likable, except for Pearl. But there are times when the viewer can feel sympathy for them.I don't understand why this film garnered so many negative reviews. I know that this is not the usual Woody Allen fare, but this film is intelligent and thoughtful. A quiet piece, beautifully shot and acted, it deserves a place in history as a true classic.

If Woody Allen movies were compared to weather, most would be mostly sunny days with a few black clouds and a slight chance of rain. Interiors on the other hand would be like Portland (Oregon) in the middle of February; wet, dark, and utterly depressing.Like most Woody Allen movies, Interiors had some (mostly dark) humor, amazing dialogue, therapists, NYC scenery, deception, and unhappiness. However, there was something about the attitudes, the dialogue which made this movie stand out from the others of Allen's jacket that I have seen. While it always takes me a few minutes post movie to digest everything that just happened, never has a Woody Allen movie produced such a feeling of dismay as Interiors.Despite the obvious darkness, it's hard to put my finger on exactly what made this movie so much more depressing than the rest. The ending was by far the saddest scene I have witnessed (again, in Woody Allen movies), but we were already brought into a world of utter sadness.The movie features three sisters (although one sister plays a small role), two significant others, and a couple parents. The father, at the age of 60something seems to be going through a mid-life crises. After a lifetime of supporting his three daughters financially and his slowly losing her mind wife both financially and emotionally, he is ready to movie on. He breaks it to the family over a somber dinner in quite a monotone monologue. We're shown over the next hour or so, how much the mother relied on the father for almost everything.At the same time, we're shown the relationships of the two older sisters with their respective significant others. The older sister is a somewhat successful (and trust funded) poet, who appears loving and thoughtful. Her husband, a novelist, cannot stand the fact that she is more known than he and takes it out on her in all sorts of ways. He is a bit emotionally abusive and on a drunken evening attempts to rape the youngest sister. The middle sister is a nerdy artist on the inside, helpless middle aged woman on the outside. She is a relationship with a quiet, not too noticeable man.By the end of the film, there isn't much hope for any of the characters, except maybe for the father who has remarried a bit of an idiotic woman whom the family dislikes. After a crazy life, he just wants to see a pretty face in the mornings and not have to think about too much. This wasn't the best Woody Allen movie I've seen to date, but it is by far the most depressing.