Husbands and Wives

"A hilarious comedy about being married, being single, sex and life in New York."

1992 1h 48m EN

👍

7.0

SOLID

★7.0TMDB · 512

ComedyDramaRomance

Synopsis

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When their best friends announce that they're separating, a professor and his wife discover the faults in their own marriage.

“A hilarious comedy about being married, being single, sex and life in New York.”

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Cast

Woody Allen
Gabe Roth
Mia Farrow
Judy Roth
Judy Davis
Sally
Sydney Pollack
Jack
Juliette Lewis
Rain
Liam Neeson
Michael Gates
Lysette Anthony
Sam
Cristi Conaway
Shawn Grainger - Call Girl

Credits

Behind the camera

Director: Woody Allen
Writers: Woody Allen
Languages: English
Countries: United States of America

Want more? Switch to Cinephile mode in the header for DP, composer, budget, box office, production companies, keywords, and release history.

Did you know?

Fun facts 🍿

1 / 6

ERA

Did you know

34 years old — old enough to be someone's favourite childhood film.

MoodPlayr · trivia#01

2 / 6

DIRECTOR

Did you know

Directed by Woody Allen, shot by Carlo Di Palma. Note their partnership — DPs and directors often return to each other across a career.

MoodPlayr · trivia#02

3 / 6

DIRECTOR

Did you know

Editor Susan E. Morse shaped the rhythm. On an edit-heavy film, the editor does more to control your pulse than the director.

MoodPlayr · trivia#03

4 / 6

CAST

Did you know

Woody Allen and Mia Farrow and Judy Davis carry the top of the cast.

MoodPlayr · trivia#04

5 / 6

FACT

Did you know

Marketing tagline: "A hilarious comedy about being married, being single, sex and life in New York.".

MoodPlayr · trivia#05

6 / 6

WILD

Did you know

IMDB entry: tt0104466 — still the authoritative cross-reference for credits and trivia.

MoodPlayr · trivia#06

Cinephile deep dive

The take

Woody Allen directs. Carlo Di Palma behind the camera. Susan E. Morse cuts. Produced in United States of America. Dialogue in English.

Trivia

Things worth knowing

134 years old — old enough to be someone's favourite childhood film.
2Directed by Woody Allen, shot by Carlo Di Palma. Note their partnership — DPs and directors often return to each other across a career.
3Editor Susan E. Morse shaped the rhythm. On an edit-heavy film, the editor does more to control your pulse than the director.
4Woody Allen and Mia Farrow and Judy Davis carry the top of the cast.
5Marketing tagline: "A hilarious comedy about being married, being single, sex and life in New York.".
6IMDB entry: tt0104466 — still the authoritative cross-reference for credits and trivia.

The technical file

Cinematography: Carlo Di Palma
Editing: Susan E. Morse
Production design: Santo Loquasto
Costume design: Jeffrey Kurland
Makeup / hair: Fern Buchner
Sound: Lee Dichter
Runtime: 108 min · 1h 48m
Aspect ratio (typical): 1.37:1 (Academy)
Status: Released
Original language: EN
Certification (US): R
IMDB: Husbands and Wives (1992)

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Woody Allen

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lasttimeisaw2017-02-16
Released in the hype of Allen and Farrow’s breakup in the wake of his infamous Soon-Yi scandal, HUSBANDS AND WIVES archly and topically plumbs into the marital conundrums of two couples, Gabe (Allen) and Judy (Farrow, bookends her collaboration with Allen to the tune of 13), and their best friends Jack (Pollack) and Sally (Davis). For one thing, the film adopts a jittery cinematographic style (aided by handheld cameras and Steadi-cams) which certainly is not Allen’s modus operandi, and lets rip the neurotic, taxing, unrelieved relationship squabbles to full throttle, inflamed by Jack and Sally’s abrupt declaration of their separation after being married for over 15 years. Two different reactions ensure, Gabe retains his sangfroid facing a bolt from the blue but Judy apparently loses it, thinking that her closest friend has been keeping her marriage snags to herself, that seems to be a big blow to their time-honoured friendship, but on a more intuitive level (as later Sally astutely dissects), there is something deeply self-serving in Judy’s reaction. Gabe and Judy are jolted to scrutinize their own 10-year-young matrimony, where crevices start to crack open, here, Allen deploys another gimmick, a faux-documentary with character revealing their inner feelings in the form of an interview, Gabe confesses he is a sucker for “kamikaze women” (with trying smugness) until he meets Judy, whom he deciphers is a mastermind of passive-aggressive manipulation, aka. she always gets what she wants in the end. That is what happens, Allen, a professor in literary, becomes increasingly attracted by one of his student Rain (Lewis) while being self-aware of the clichéd professor-student entanglement. Meanwhile, Judy, lends a helping hand by introducing her newly single colleague Michael (Neeson, a disarmingly pleasurable presence) to Sally, who is fumed when she finds out Jack has moved in with his new lover Sam (Anthony), a young aerobics trainer, merely three weeks after their separation. But, what complicates the situation is, subconsciously, Judy carries a torch for the gentlemanlike Michael, so in the end of the day, a paradigm shift is bound to shatter the status quo. Allen’s script, as rapier-like as always in laying bare the intricate verities of gender politics and monogamous dilemma, eventually, plumps for a morally ego-boosting windup for Gabe (Allen’s alter-ego) who has savored the tempting kiss from a young hottie he craves for, and then rebuffs her advance with all the dignity in the world to remain morally uncorrupted (which blows up in audience’s face when juxtaposed with its sardonic divergence from reality), whereas for Judy, her seemingly happy ending betrays Gabe’s own complacent shrewdness of knowing her too well, for my money, that’s where this otherwise rather piquant and honest-to-goodness modern marriage assessment leaves an unsavory aftertaste, which actually has been lurking behind a majority of Allen’s oeuvre. But what makes HUSBANDS AND WIVIES head and shoulders over his lesser works is the cynosure of the cast, namely, the divine Judy Davis, an ever-so entrancing showstopper, revels in emitting of Sally’s often self-contradictory but ultimately revealing emotional states with sheer intensity, veracity without forfeiting the salutary outpourings of humor and wits (her post-coital "hedgehogs and foxes" rumination is a gas!), Marisa Tomei, as excellent as she is in MY COUSY VINNY (1992), should hand over her Oscar to Mr. Davis, a blatant robbery in the Academy history. Whilst no one can steal the limelight from her, one must admit Sydney Pollack is quite a trouper in the other side of the camera as well, his outstanding two-hander with a feisty Lysette Anthony alone can effortlessly bust a gut, which only leaves, the story-line concerns Gabe and Judy pales in comparison with its pseudo-cerebral self-deception and self-doubt, no wonder Jack and Sally would not open up to them, they are much messier.
tmdb476334912018-04-07
★ 8/10
One of Woody's best, subordinate pretty much only to Hannah and Her Sisters. I'm never taken by 'great performances' - always been more of a writing/direction guy. But the acting here floors me every time, so much so that I can't pay much attention to 'the filmmaking' as I normally do. Just straight entranced from the first scene. There's this line, towards the middle, where Gabe is narrating a bit from one of his novels: "Was the notion of ever-deepening romance a myth along with simultaneous orgasm? The only time Rifkin and his wife experienced simultaneous orgasm was when they were granted their divorce" All time favorite, this one

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