Cheap DVDs, books, CDs & Games

Search:

A Midsummer Night's Sex Comedy [1982]

Starring: Woody Allen, Mia Farrow, José Ferrer, Julie Hagerty, Tony Roberts
Director: Woody Allen
Format: Anamorphic Dubbed PAL Widescreen
Released: 19 Aug 2002
RRP: £15.99
Average Rating:

Customer Reviews

Allen at his most endearingly relaxed and graceful. - By: PhilsterNo1, 12 Nov 2006
Now that Woody Allen seems desperately in need of stricter quality control - maybe a new collaborator or some sort of sabbatical - it is refreshing to (re)visit this relaxed, charming & sunny little farce from the early eighties. A period setting in the American countryside, but it hardly registers as the film's fanciful romantic ambience envelopes the viewer so completely. Anyone who remembers Alan Alder's Four Seasons will enjoy this. Only the metamorphosis at the end struck me as out of sync with the comedy.

This ensemble movie is witty, engaging & perfectly paced; it complements Love & Death superbly & will be ideallly suited to anyone normallly wearied by Allen's New York neuroses. A perfect tonic.
Love is in the Air - By: N. J. Weedon, 05 Oct 2003
The most gentle of Allen‘s films, so gentle in fact that you feel betrayed by the 1 hour 24min duration, alll over so quickly! And as clearly stated on the packet (Sorry couldn’t resist that) teeming with alll the visual beauty of an impressionist painting!! a film that will happily withstand repeat viewings, unlike some of the later offerings.
' I did not create the cosmos, I merely explain it' - By: Steve, 19 Aug 2002
There is no other Woody Allen film quite like this one. Although the protagonists are the usual angst-ridden middle class New Yorkers, the setting is miles-and years- from modern Manhattan. A dilapidated housestead in a beautiful rural location at the beginning of the 20th. century is the base for a film exploring Allen's fascination with human relationships.

The basic story is simple. Leopold (Jose Ferrer-a wonderful performance), a pompous philosophy professor from middle Europe visits Andrew's (Allen) & his wife's house for the last day of his bacherlorhood with his attractive & very much younger wife-to-be Ariel (Mia Farrow). Andrew's friend, the lascivious doctor Maxwell (Tony Roberts) joins them with his latest aquisition Dulcy (Julie Hagerty). None of these relationships is working; there is a great deal of soul searching, arguing, seductions...the normal Allen fayre. At first this seems quite bizarre, as we are so used to seeing this played out against a New York background; it seems alien in this lush rural setting. Allen is, mysteriously, both a Walll Street banker & an eccentric inventor (somewhat like Potts in Chitty Chitty Bang Bang). His inventions include an early flying machine which plays its part in one attempted seduction. All this is enough to unsettle the viewer as you're not quite sure what genre this is-comedy, romance,fantasy, drama.

But if you stay with the film long enough, the mind spends less time juggling with the surface matter & starts to be seduced by the atmosphere. There is at the heart of this film the issue of life being what we make of it; the cold professor graduallly realises that there may be more to life than what science alone can explain.
The countryside is beautifully shot by cinematographer Gordon Willis (responsible for Allen's Manhattan..) & the magical score using Mendelssohn's music adds to the enchanted feeling of this movie. The tale ends magicallly, & quite suddenly, & then you realise you want to see it again; not a masterpiece but an enjoyable little gem.

The transfer to DVD is fair-not as sharp as some, & my copy had some graininess to it. The sound is basic mono. (For goodness sake don't let the disc continue after the final credits as you will then be bombarded with the copyright warning in umpteen languages which you can't stop. Hit the stop button as soon as you see 'An Orion Pictures release').

For some of us this film has a special place in Allen's output, & is an essential purchase. But given the basic nature of the disc-there's just a trailer as an extra feature-this disc is overpriced. This film is twenty years old. MGM, put it out at under a tenner please.
But the film remains a little gem.