Stardust Memories
1980 Directed by Woody Allen
Synopsis
While attending a retrospect of his work, a filmmaker recalls his life and his loves: the inspirations for his films.
Popular reviews
More-
This is the Woody Allen litmus test. Everyone can agree that Annie Hall and Manhattan are great films, but Stardust Memories, a film that handily equals its predecessors, has had something of a cold reception. To some extent, Stardust's critical reception actually enhances the film because it actually reinforces the central theme. Sure, most critics picked up on Stardust's autobiographical nature and everyone sees the comparisons to 8 1/2, but that's window-dressing, not content. The film opens with a scene ripped directly out of 8 1/2, with Allen surrounded uncomfortably by dreadfully serious passengers in a bus while a bus full of young, beautiful people are drinking and celebrating in the parallel bus. Unlike 8 1/2, the scene is played…
-
It's a typical Woody Allen movie. Of course it's going to be good. After watching Mulholland Dr and Caché, I thought it would be nice to see a movie that I didn't need to google about the second after I started watching. I should've picked a different Woody Allen movie. I'm not saying it wasn't good, of course it was. It was just that I was looking forward to a good, slightly mindless but very intelligent good time, and that wasn't what I got from this movie. There were some great one lines and scenes, and it was very masterfully done, it just wasn't what I need right then. Thank god I'm watching Anchorman before I start my foreign movies, as I might get arrested by the pretension police for googling too many foreign movie plots.
-
Woody's ode to film may not have the likability and re-watchable charm of his big name classics but it is without doubt his most self-reflective piece and certainly his most interesting.
Drawing influence from the great European directors of the 1950's, Woody covers the usual themes one would expect from a film of his and shoots it in stunning black and white photography. The use of cinema as the representation of ones struggle with life adds majesty, mystique and a further extends the alienating idea of living, dying and loving, an idea which Woody writes and draws reflection upon so brilliantly.
-
Woody's very own 8 1/2. Though unlike 8 1/2's transparency, Allen denies autobiographical connections between this film and his life. It's a tricky proposition, writing a story starring yourself as someone in exactly the same position as you (a writer/director/self-star transitioning from slapstick comedy to existential comedy with a whirlwind of praise) and trying to pass it off as just another fictional character. I doubt Allen is being honest with his denial with dialogue that references childhood magic tricks and interest in young girls makes it a tough case to argue. Either way it's an interesting form of self-therapy with Allen rinsing and repeating the motions Marcello Mastroianni went through in 8 1/2, but Allen, always the chatterbox can't help…
-
Review from my VOD column "This Week on Demand".
Between the releases of the two films widely regarded as his finest, Woody Allen poured himself into the production of Interiors, his first wholly dramatic film and a determined emulation of the key influence of Ingmar Bergman upon his work. Its failure, contrasted with the significant successes of Annie Hall and Manhattan, put his artistic aspirations at odds with his audience’s expectations. Meshing Allen’s typical comic antics with a witty pastiche of Fellini’s 8½, Stardust Memories addresses this disparity through central character Sandy Bates, a filmmaker famed for his comedies but intent on tackling more serious themes. At once a gloriously metatextual work of self-evaluation, a rumination on the responsibility of artists to their audiences and vice-versa, and an irreverent rom-com as only Allen can deliver them, Stardust Memories stands as one of the director’s finest works, and—crucially—as one both he and we can appreciate equally.
-
This.
This is perfect.
Recent reviews
More-
One of Allen's best and, of course, one of the most personal in which he plays a neurotic, harassed and overly scrutinized director who's more serious films are criticized for not being like 'the earlier funnier ones' during a retrospective of his films. Clearly inspired by Bergman and Fillini's 81/2 this has been accused of mocking his fans but it's also one of his most self-deprecating and self-aware with a real insight into how artists just can't please all the people all the time .....
-
Stardust Memories is sheer, unadulterated Woody Allen: self-indulgent, self-evident, self-sufficient. I can't help but be thoroughly entertained when I watch Woody Allen films, whether he is on screen (Annie Hall, Manhattan) or stays behind the camera (Midnight in Paris). He is a smart, honest, bumbling mess of neuroses and shtick, and that comes across in the central characters of each of his films. Stardust Memories is no different.
Centered around a well-renowned filmmaker -- played, of course, by Allen himself -- who recalls his life and all the lovers that have come and gone through it, Stardust Memories is a wonderfully funny movie about the movies and what drives them. For Sally Bates (and, one must assume, Woody Allen), that…
-
Beginning as a more comedic riff of 8 1/2, this is another charming and highly amusing film from Woody Allen, just about managing to keep it from crossing the line into self indulgence, this is one of Allen's finer works in his body of work.
-
It's a typical Woody Allen movie. Of course it's going to be good. After watching Mulholland Dr and Caché, I thought it would be nice to see a movie that I didn't need to google about the second after I started watching. I should've picked a different Woody Allen movie. I'm not saying it wasn't good, of course it was. It was just that I was looking forward to a good, slightly mindless but very intelligent good time, and that wasn't what I got from this movie. There were some great one lines and scenes, and it was very masterfully done, it just wasn't what I need right then. Thank god I'm watching Anchorman before I start my foreign movies, as I might get arrested by the pretension police for googling too many foreign movie plots.
-
Really blown away by this movie. He's speaking fluent Fellini here, but it's still Woody's voice. It's effortlessly audacious. I always thought MANHATTAN had the best camera, the best visual style, but this one might surpass it.
-
Gonna think harder about what the Rolls Royce represents
-
A sinopse diz que é sobre a vida de um diretor, mas é muito mais sobre o sentido da vida.
-
Sheesh, I don’t know. I’ve not seen many Woody Allen films; Broadway Danny Rose, Sleeper, Annie Hall…, and my memories of those are faint. Here with all his self deprecation, it’s still a self serving piece and it’s not unlike someone springing home movies on you. You think you’re getting Roxanne, but instead end up watching Uncle Frank’s footage of his trip to Poughkeepsie. Most of the humor falls flat, but once in a while there is a glimmer of gold.
Young Girl: I understand you studied philosophy at school.
Sandy Bates: Uh, no, that's not true. I-I-I did take - I took one course in existential philosophy at, uh, at New York University, and on, uh, on the final...…
-
The most obvious of Woody Allen's homages (borderline note-for-note), but Woody is able to transcend simple idol worship and create something that feels genuinely original even when put side-by-side with it's inspiration. I'll take this movie over 8 1/2 any day.