oOoBarracuda Another Woman: An interesting illustration of the enduring effects of childhood experiences. The film comes off a bit strong in the nature v. nurture debate, for me anyway. The characters were also a bit wooden, and the film plays a bit like a poor stage adaptation. Overall, however, a decent entry in Woody Allen's filmography.

sharky_55 Gena Rowlands' Marion Post is only modest on the surface, but it's so beguiling that she almost does not recognise the air of superiority and disdain herself. Her opening voice-over narration has a reserved, bored quality about it that, as if she has finally found herself a place to settle down and enjoy the rest of life. Then a simple technique; the thin walls of the therapist office give way to creeping thoughts about wasted life and ambitions and futility that are mirrored in her own mind. This leads to a series of reveals that are like a thread unravelling the seemingly peace and contentment of Marion's life and relationships. It starts with a timid question with her 2nd husband whom we understand has not slept with her for quite some while. And we feel that this sort of introspection has not breached Marion's mind for a long time; she has been too haughty, too dismissive, too self centred and confident in her appearance. She has slowly eroded any sense of respect from her 1st marriage, but oh, it was only under the guise of being honest! And she is a home-wrecker too - there is that icy interruption of a gathering by the ex-wife Cathy that is reminiscent of Bergman, and it is so cold in the way that Ken shushes her emotional breakdown in the politest way. Marion sees this in her own way; not the emotional distress of Cathy, but worrying that it might someday be her in that situation (and she is eventually correct). One thing that isn't honest at all is Rowlands' performance. Her mask of genuineness is put on in almost every social gathering, but there is a hint of this stalker-like presence, as if each quietly absorbed word is being filtered through her ego. There is a brief scene at a restaurant when she is having dinner with her friends and a former student of hers confesses that she has changed her life. Rowlands' reaction is just perfect; a hint of modesty, a fluttering of the eyes, and though she is proud, there is also a semblance of shame, as if she has never ever had that sort of effect on anyone that was actually close or important to her. There are also these dream sequences that indicate her mind is filled with regret. These aren't the most subtle of Allen's scenes, but when is this emotion ever slight? Gene Hackman's Larry is the lost love, the one that got away, and there is also a wondering of what might have eventuated of an abortion borne out of an affair with a professor (and how the edit seamlessly transfers an older Marion into the worries). Two things signals her eventual change. One, how she notifies the therapist of the 'acoustic oddness' because she is no longer fretting about hearing these so familiar thoughts of pessimism. And two, the little chapter at the end from Larry, which is the first instance of a positive memory of Marion in the entire film. It offers a sweet, lovestruck perspective, as if it were not too late to start over, and that even at 50, such an emotion could be sought once more.

bell-benn "I realize you have been hurt. If I've done anything wrong, I'm sorry. Please forgive me. I accept your condemnation." "You are a member of Amnesty International and the ACLU. And the head of the philosophy department. Impossible!" These are two of my favorite quotes from the Woody Allen film, Another Woman. I like them each equally well but for different reasons. The first is such an outrageous statement by a phony pomposity of an ego so far gone as to defy augury and the other hits a little too close to home with the exception of being the head of the philosophy department. Woody Allen strikes gold here with his study of intellectual angst and mid life crisis. It would not be too much of an exaggeration to declare this film to be a mini-masterpiece.I ran across this neglected, forgotten and, probably one you never heard of mini-masterpiece while scrolling through HULU one night looking for something decent to watch. Oh, a film by Woody Allen! Let me check it out. Probably seen it before but what the heck? So I cued it up and started watching. Curiously enough I didn't remember anything about it and was soon captivated and mesmerized by the haunting voice-over by one of it's stars and the brilliant cinematography of one of the worlds foremost cinematographers.Another Woman was released in late 1988 and runs for 81 minutes. It was written and directed by Woody Allen. It stars Gena Rowlands as Marion Post, a middle aged philosophy teacher who is on sabbatical to write a book. It is her voice-over we hear as the movie begins. She is describing her life as accomplished and reasonably well settled.She rents an apartment downtown to work on her book without distraction and discovers that she is able to overhear the conversation between a patient (Mia Farrow) and her psychiatrist through the heating vents coming from the adjoining apartment. At first Marion blocks off the sound with pillows but later she starts to listen in. The patient is despondent, pregnant, and thinking of ending her life. Her name ironically is Hope.This conversation gets Marion to thinking about her own life and through series of coincidences, ruminations and, flashbacks, she encounters people from previous times in her life and she discovers she is not as happy as she thought she was.This is a film of introspection and marvelous performances. A central theme of the film is that people can transform their lives to become more fulfilled. To say the film was Bergmanesque is rather stating the obvious. It has long been known that Woody has been greatly influenced by the Swedish master, Ingmar Bergman. Some say that this film resembles Wild Strawberries but I think it is more Persona like, which was also photographed by Sven Nykvist, Bergman's favored cinematographer.This is a wonderful film which I highly recommend.

chazz46-2 Maybe this movie is showing how persons who manage to suppress their emotions can less painfully experience all of life's problems, because they do not have to relentlessly talk about them, see psychiatrists, and ventilate emotional affectations onto everyone else - and suffer because of the emotional triggers. All of the other characters are just extensions of the Farrow character,Hope, and her emotionality which leads to the need to see a psychiatrist. Both Marion and her husband, the cardiologist, seem to pass through life unaffected by all the negative aspects since there is a void in their emotional makeup which lends to their compatibility. Their overall constitution seems to fit comfortably with each other (and there is no suggestion that the last "other woman" with whom Marion's husband is having an affair is demonstratively over emotional like the Hackman character was with Marion). Perhaps one might suggest that, regardless of one's constitution ( ie emotional,cold, and analytical), and because EVERYONE is doomed to endless conflict during life, characters like Marion and her husband will suffer far less than the norm. There is no perfect world and it would seem that humanity might benefit (ie suffer LESS) from a concerted effort in teaching, promoting, and rewarding cold and analytical personae as well as suppression of individual emotionality. Since this concept is silly, I would simply say that people like Marion and her husband have an advantage at gliding through life with less pain and we should leave them alone to live it. There may be no merit in forcing emotionality onto those who do not have it.