When Jack and Sally announce that they’re splitting up, this comes as a shock to their best friends Gabe and Judy. Maybe mostly because they also are drifting apart and are now being made aware of it. So while Jack and Sally try to go on and meet new people, the marriage of Gabe and Judy gets more and more strained, and they begin to find themselves being attracted to other people.
Credits: TheMovieDb.
Film Cast:
- Gabe Roth: Woody Allen
- Judy Roth: Mia Farrow
- Sally: Judy Davis
- Jack: Sydney Pollack
- Rain: Juliette Lewis
- Michael Gates: Liam Neeson
- Sam: Lysette Anthony
- Shawn Grainger – Call Girl: Cristi Conaway
- Richard: Ron Rifkin
- Rain’s mother: Blythe Danner
- Rain’s father: Brian McConnachie
- Paul: Timothy Jerome
- Gail: Rebecca Glenn
- Dinner Party Guest: Caroline Aaron
- Harriet: Galaxy Craze
- Mel (uncredited): Fred Melamed
- TV Scientist: Nick Metropolis
- Interviewer/Narrator: Jeffrey Kurland
- Peter Styles: Bruce Jay Friedman
- Judy’s Ex-Husband: Benno Schmidt
- Hamptons’ Party Guest: John Doumanian
- Hamptons’ Party Guest: Gordon Rigsby
- Receptionist: Ilene Blackman
- Rain’s Ex-Lover: Ron August
- Rain’s Ex-Lover: John Bucher
- Rain’s Boyfriend: Matthew Flint
- Taxi Dispatcher: Philip Levy
- Banducci Family: Connie Picard
- Banducci Family: Steven Randazzo
- Banducci Family: Tony Turco
- Banducci Family: Adelaide Mestre
- Birthday Party Guest: Jessica Frankston
- Birthday Party Guest: Merv Bloch
Film Crew:
- Additional Casting: Todd M. Thaler
- Casting: Juliet Taylor
- Writer: Woody Allen
- Producer: Robert Greenhut
- Costume Design: Jeffrey Kurland
- Production Coordinator: Helen Robin
- Executive Producer: Charles H. Joffe
- Executive Producer: Jack Rollins
- Editor: Susan E. Morse
- Makeup Artist: Fern Buchner
- Hairstylist: Romaine Greene
- Casting Associate: Laura Rosenthal
- Sound Editor: Robert Hein
- Director of Photography: Carlo Di Palma
- Gaffer: Ray Quinlan
- Set Decoration: Susan Bode
- Production Sound Mixer: James Sabat
- Production Design: Santo Loquasto
- Location Manager: Dana Robin
- Co-Producer: Joseph Hartwick
- Sound Re-Recording Mixer: Lee Dichter
- Construction Coordinator: Ron Petagna
- Key Scenic Artist: James Sorice
- Production Assistant: Tom Yeager
- Assistant Costume Designer: Eric Mendelsohn
- First Assistant Director: Thomas A. Reilly
- Art Direction: Speed Hopkins
- Assistant Sound Editor: Tom Foligno
- Property Master: James Mazzola
- Producer’s Assistant: Ilyse A. Reutlinger
- Still Photographer: Brian Hamill
- Standby Carpenter: Joseph A. Alfieri Jr.
- Scenic Artist: Cosmo Sorice
- Assistant Editor: Kent Blocher
- Set Dresser: Dave Weinman
- Assistant Camera: Michael Green
- Sound Recordist: Frank Graziadei
- Camera Operator: Dick Mingalone
- Script Supervisor: Kay Chapin
- Boom Operator: Louis Sabat
- Best Boy Grip: Ronald Burke
- Key Grip: Robert Ward
- Wardrobe Supervisor: Patricia Eiben
- Assistant Camera: Michael Caracciolo
- Assistant Sound Editor: Gina Alfano
- Art Department Coordinator: Glenn Lloyd
- Second Assistant Director: Richard Patrick
- Assistant Editor: William Kruzykowski
- Transportation Captain: Peter Tavis
- Location Scout: Antoine Douaihy
- Location Scout: Drew Dillard
- Transportation Captain: Harold ‘Whitey’ McEvoy
- Second Second Assistant Director: Justin Moritt
- Wardrobe Supervisor: Bill Christians
- Key Construction Grip: Vincent Guarriello
- Projection: Carl Turnquest
- Second Assistant Camera: Liz Dubelman
- Best Boy Electric: Jim Manzione
- Costume Assistant: Lauren Gibson
- Location Scout: Megan Monaghan
- Camera Trainee: John Fortunato
- Assistant Production Coordinator: Lois Nalepka
Movie Reviews:
- lasttimeisaw: 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.
- tmdb47633491: 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