Stardust Memories (1980)

the audience applauded

Fresh and Exciting

A Masterpiece!

Through painfully honest and emotional moments, the movie becomes irresistibly relatable

In 1980 director/writer/actor Woody Allen had been making hit comedies for several years. With the success of films like SLEEPER, LOVE AND DEATH and ANNIE HALL he was the critic's darling. But he felt unfulfilled and turned his back on comedies for more insightful dramatic fare. While ANNIE HALL had slightly turned in that direction he followed that with INTERIORS a near total drama that didn't do well. The next year he came out with MANHATTAN garnering praise once more as he melded drama and comedy. Then he made STARDUST MEMORIES.Allen had admitted more than once that he was influenced by director Ingmar Bergman. Scenes in LOVE AND DEATH often reminded critics of Bergman's films. But here he was using much of the style that Bergman used to tell a more personal story. STARDUST is perhaps one of Allen's most autobiographical films.He stars as director Sandy Bates, a fan favorite for the comedy films he's made in the past who now wants to direct more serious pictures. He wants to make films that explore the meaning of life and how we fit into the scheme of things. But the studios are reluctant to let him move in that direction. They want to insert humor into his work in an effort to bank on his past successes.Bates is convinced to attend a film festival where they will be honoring him for his past achievements. While there the fans continue to push him towards the comedies they are used to and they as well as numerous friends he runs into try to monopolize his time and attentions. Still he finds time to reminisce about his life and reflect on what he's accomplished.While there he also reflects on the loves he's had over the years. Dorrie (Charlotte Rampling) continues to haunt him, appearing in his mind at various times. A troubled woman she represents his past. At the festival he meets and is attracted to Daisy (Jessica Harper) even though she's there with a pompous college professor Jack (John Rothman). But before that romance can be set in motion Bates' current girlfriend Isobel (Marie-Christine Barrault) arrives unexpectedly at the festival.A combination of fantasies, dreams and reality mix to swirl around in the head of Bates as he tries to figure out his place in life. Mixed with the weekend of festival activities and adoring fans as well as friends he's known for years he stirs the pot and by the end of the film may or may not have come to terms with his life.As with the reality of Allen at the time the film delves into his own personal issues of leaving behind more blatant comedy in an effort to make more serious films. There was an effort to force him back to that mold which he broke from. The end result was a career where he was capable and able to make both kinds of films with more success than those who didn't seem to have faith in him expected.Allen's love life was also part and parcel with his role here. He'd had more than one muse in various women, most of whom had become his leading ladies as well. That struggle with what to do not only with his work but his personal life is a major issue discussed in the film as well.When I first saw this film I loved it. Watching it now it remains one of his better films though many might not recall it. Hopefully more will discover it and realize there is a more complex mind at work than the simple joke writer so many have thought Allen is.Perhaps my favorite scene in the movie though involves an alien spaceship that lands and a group of aliens who talk to him. It turns out they are fans of his earlier films. One goes so far as to tell him he should go back to making funny movies.Twilight Time is releasing this film in their standard beautiful style with a gorgeous edition in the clearest black and white cinematography seen. Extras are sparse here with just an isolated score track and the original theatrical trailer. As with all their films this one is limited to just 3,000 copies so pick one up if you're a fan.

While not for me one of Woody Allen's greatest films, Stardust Memories is along with Interiors one of his most under-estimated as well as one of his cleverest and most personal. It does ramble on a little too much sometimes and it does end on a strange note. But while one can understand why people would not like it- maybe they found the more biting and satirical moments hard to take (I think it was made very clear what Allen was trying to do)- Stardust Memories from a personal point of view was a great film from Allen and film in general and didn't deserve the hate it got at the time. The black and white and the photography do look gorgeous. The script is a great mix of truly biting satire, hilariously acerbic comedy and touching drama structured tightly and well blended, the dialogue being some of Allen's smartest and most thought-provoking. Stardust Memories pays homage to Fellini and 8 1/2, like Allen did in Interiors with Bergman, as can be seen in the more dream-like parts, very wittily done and photographed sumptuously. The story is not that hard to follow and while paced deliberately it still draws you in due to the homages, satire, how character relationships are explored and the situations depicted. The characters are as ever with Woody Allen are neurotic but also very real, Allen's character is not "likeable" but what he thinks of his fans and critics and how they treat him is something that can be related to. Allen directs assuredly and gives a very good performance as well, while Charlotte Rampling is indeed breathtaking and believable with Allen chemistry-wise. Jessica Harper underplays affectingly, in fact all of the acting is great. Look out for the brief appearance of Sharon Stone. Overall, a technically beautiful, smartly written and excellently played film, not a personal favourite from Allen but Stardust Memories is great and deserving of more credit. 9/10 Bethany Cox

Maligned by many on its initial release (Pauline Kael called it a dupe of a dupe of 8 ½), STARDUST MEMORIES is one of Woody Allen's richest films. Neither comedy nor drama, it's shows Allen's outrageous moxie in both spoofing Fellini and making his own version of the hell which fame can bring. Allen is Sandy Bates, a famous movie director attending a weekend festival of his own films where he's inundated with one loony fan after another. Freakish looking or unbelievably intrusive, these people give him no rest. Inter-cut with telling episodes of his own personal life, which of course is full of women troubles (Charlotte Rampling, Jessica Harper & Marie-Christine Barrault are excellent), the film has lots of laughs, though admittedly a lot of cynicism as well. The stark B&W cinematography by Gordon Willis adds a lot, bringing many ghoulish looking people to life. The large cast includes Daniel Stern, Tony Roberts, Amy Wright, Laraine Newman, Louise Lasser and Dorothy Leon (as Allen's non too bright cook).

Woody Allen can't decide (at this point in his career) if he wants to make funny or serious films; I can't decide if (and how much) I like "Stardust Memories". The term " mixed bag" was invented for films like this; on one hand, it has several layers of self reflection (it's a movie about a director who wants to leave the "funny stuff" behind but can't quite bring himself to, and the movie itself has a lot less "funny stuff" than Allen's early films, but certainly a lot more than "Interiors", plus there are movies-within-the movie-within-the-movie), some great lines ("If I identified with a Greek mythological character, it wouldn't be Narcissus" - "Who would it be?" - "Zeus!"), a couple of inexplicably magical moments (the hot air balloons), and three extremely beautiful women (my favorite is Marie Christine Barrault). On the other hand, it has practically no plot (I'd say approximately 70% of the movie is Woody being pestered by fans and signing autographs), it feels aimless, and it's a little hard to stomach that the three aforementioned extremely beautiful women (four, if you count the "room service" by an eager young female fan) all have the hots for Woody. I guess this whole movie is a matter of perspective: if you like it, you'll call it free-form. If you don't, you'll find it formless. One thing is beyond doubt, however: Woody's taste in music is impeccable. **1/2 out of 4.