365 Days. 365 Films.

The second Woody Allen film I’ve watched recently – as you may have read my review of Play it Again, Sam, I have realised that I haven’t seen very many Woody Allen films, despite being a huge fan, and so I intend to rectify that. Another Woman is a film that does not star Allen himself, which would ordinarily be disappointing for me, but the story seemed to work perfectly without him in this instance. Gena Rowlands stars as Marion Post, a woman who finds herself hitting fifty with very little to show for her life. She is a philosophy professor, attempting to write a book while struggling with married life.

This film shows, in my eyes, what Allen is best at within his writing; characterisation. Marion Post is a complex woman with complicated feelings about mundane things. Her feelings are arguably felt by many women her age and even some younger, and the length of emotion he implies in the dialogue alone is Oscar-worthy. It doesn’t work great as a comedy, if that’s what you may be expecting, but it’s not supposed to be one.

My boyfriend commented that all of Allen’s films are the same, just with different characters, and I found myself almost agreeing with him. The majority of his films are set in New York, the characters are often struggling with their love lives are mostly neurotic writers while the comedy is awkward and witty. Before watching this, these points summed him up well, but the last few films I’ve seen of his have surprised me in ways I wouldn’t expect. Allen has, throughout the years, attempted all kinds of films, characters, plots, settings and comedy stylings. It just takes a fan to discover this about him.