Stardust Memories Digital Life DVD

Stardust Memories
starring: Marie-Christine Barrault, J.E. Beaucaire, Ken Chapin, Leonardo Cimino, Anne De Salvo

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Aspect Ratio: 1.33:1
Audience Rating: PG (Parental Guidance Suggested)
Binding: DVD
Brand: ALLEN,WOODY
EAN: 9780792846123
Format: Black & White, DVD-Video, Widescreen, NTSC
ISBN: 0792846125
Label: MGM (Video & DVD)
Manufacturer: MGM (Video & DVD)
Number Of Items: 1
Publisher: MGM (Video & DVD)
Region Code: 1
Release Date: July 05, 2000
Running Time: 88 minutes
Sales Rank: 19524
Studio: MGM (Video & DVD)
Theatrical Release Date: September 26, 1980

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Description:
A sharp, satirical look at the high price of fame, Woody Allen's Stardust Memories is a 'wickedly funny' (The New York Times) story about a disillusioned filmmaker who is just about at the end of his rope. Sparkling with the confidence of an artist in full bloom, Stardust Memories is 'a film to be seen and savored' (Jeffery Lyons)! Legendary comic filmmaker Sandy Bates (Allen) is tired of being funny. Teetering on the brink of a nervous breakdown, Bates attends a weekend retrospective of his films, only to confront the meaning of his work, the memories of his great love, Dorrie (Charlotte Rampling), and the merits of settling down with new girlfriend, Isobel (Marie-Christine Barrault). Plagued by hallucinations, alien visitations and the bloodless studio executives trying to re-cut his bleak new film, Bates struggles to find a reason to go on living. But when he falls prey to a gun-wielding fanatic, his zany brush with death reveals that there is value tohis own existence, and that often, the best reason to go on living is life itself.

Amazon.com essential video:
'Doesn't he know he's got the greatest gift anyone can have, the gift of laughter?' Woody Allen stars as filmmaker Sandy Bates, who, like John Sullivan in Preston Sturges's Sullivan's Travels, no longer wants to make comedies. As studio executives threaten to wrest control of his latest film, he reluctantly attends a weekend film-culture festival in his honor, where he is besieged by journalists ('I'm doing a piece on the shallow indifference of celebrities'), groupies ('I drove all the way from Bridgeport to make it with you'), and persistent oddballs ('Can I talk to you about my idea I have for a movie? It's a comedy based on the whole Guyana mass suicide').

After the exhilarating Manhattan, Stardust Memories was a dramatic departure that threw critics and fans for an outraged loop. But out of all of Allen's films, it is perhaps the one most ripe for rediscovery. It poses the same dilemma Stephen King would later tackle in Misery: What happens when a popular artist is held captive by an adoring audience that doesn't want him to change? The answer may come from an extraterrestrial, who in one of the many fantasy sequences advises the comedian, 'You want to do mankind a real service? Tell funnier jokes.'

The film is impeccably cast with Charlotte Rampling, Jessica Harper, and Marie-Christine Barrault (of Cousine/Cousine) as the three women in Sandy's life. There are also choice bits by Sharon Stone as a fantasy woman on a train, Daniel Stern as an aspiring actor, Louise Lasser as Sandy's overwhelmed secretary, Laraine Newman as an unimpressed studio executive, and Tony Roberts as Tony Roberts. My own aunt, Victoria Zussin, utters the film's most famous line as the patron who tells Sandy she loves his movies, especially 'your early funny ones.' --Donald Liebenson

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Customer Reviews

Average Rating: out of 5 stars

Rating:

- Can't miss
This and "Manhattan" are Woody's two great masterpieces, I think. It's quirky, but it hasn't dated at all because it's classic. You won't laugh a lot, but you may smirk, or smile. I hadn't seen this since it came out years ago. It was a great re-visit. Typical Woody jazz soundtrack lends atmosphere.

Rating:

- Declaration of cinematic independence
There are so many levels to Allen's "Stardust Memories" that it seems a slight to his genius as well as an impoverishment of the viewing experience to reduce the film to only one of them. At one level is the "existential" message: the worries about mortality and meaning that ooze through Allen's films, even the early slapstick ones. There's the "Eurofilm" message, in which Allen pays homage to the thoughtful and experimental films of Bergman and Fellini (rumor has it that Allen thought about calling the film "4" on the grounds that it wasn't half as good as Fellini's "8 1/2"). But there's also a hint of parody here as well, just the slightest suggestion that perhaps avant garde film makers (and this includes Allen) take themselves a bit too seriously. There's the exploration of human relationships with three different women--Dorrie (Charlotte Rampling), Daisy (Jessica Harper), and Isobel (Marie-Christine Barrault) ... Read More

Rating:

- stunning
Stardust Memories is a brilliant tribute to Fellini and Bergman that still manages to give us some of that classic Woody Allen humor every so often to lighten things up just a bit. The plot moves along at a good pace and I enjoyed the flashbacks that are interjected so masterfully into the film. The convincing acting held my attention all the way and the black and white footage is very tastefully done.

The action begins when overstressed movie director Sandy Bates (Woody Allen) is pushed into attending a two day film festival in his honor. At the festival they show his "funny films;" and Bates is lauded for that by his adoring--and endlessly pestering--fans who want many more comedies from Bates. Trouble is, however, that Sandy Bates no longer wants to make funny movies. Instead, he now prefers to make artistic, meaningful movies that reflect the human condition--or perhaps Sandy may even want to quit the film ... Read More

Rating:

- Bergman/Fellini redux
Stardust Memories is an underappreciated Bergman/Fellini homage by Woody. It's really funny and has great cinematography. After Broadway Danny Rose,it's a favorite.

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