Stardust Memories [DVD]

This is one of my all time favorite Woody Allen movies. The movie is both fictional and autobiographical. This film came at a time in his career when he wanted to be taken more seriously as a writer/director/filmmaker, and yet much of his fan base wanted more movies like "Bananas". Woody makes a staement, yet remains entertaining and intellectually funny. His use of black and white film is brilliant. Much like "Manhattan", and "The Broadway Danny Rose" (which is my second favorite Allen film), he has a Bergmanesque quality in his cimematography. Close ups and long unflinching soliloquies that hypnotize and fascinate. You feel like a fly on the wall in much of the film. The characters are both real and cartoonish in the same brushstroke. In this film, Allen is a director/filmmaker who is honored at film festival of his films in a quirky seaside town. The events that take place, and the things that happen are both funny and pathetic. His use of flashbacks to his childhood and a past relationship with a mentally unstable actress are both surreal and humorous. The script writing lends itself to filling out these people and situations in a very complete and actual way. I don't want to give any more of the plot away, because when I first saw this film, I knew nothing about it and I was just swept up by it. That's how you should see it. If you like Woody Allen films you'll like this. However, don't expect slapstick comedy and "Everything You Wanted To Know About Sex" type humor.

When this film was released in 1980 the critical reaction was lukewarm and it bombed at the box office. The last time I saw the film was in 1982 at a Woody Allen film festival and my teenage mind perceived it as narcissistic and self indulgent. The film can now be viewed properly in context with Allen's previous work and anticipates his subsequent output to this day. Consider that at the time of the film's release Allen wasn't an arthouse darling but a viable commercial director. It took a lot of chutzpah for Allen to translate his angst as an artist onto the silver screen but it must have been cathartic as well. He probably foresaw the hostility that would be hurled at this work but ultimately it freed him as an artist. Allen has interesting perceptions about his audience and his relationship to them. Some are well-meaning while others are just parasitic. The fantasy sequence involving Allen's character being shot by an admirer preceding the John Lennon assassination by a few months is not only prescient but fascinating. Though he's essentially playing himself Allen is terrific giving a poignant performance demonstrating complexity and dramatic heft. Charlotte Rampling is stellar as a manic-depressive actress who is romantically involved for a spell with Allen's Sandy Bates. I recommend this film wholeheartedly and primarily to those who recognize its import to the Allen canon..

Woody Allen's Stardust Memories(1980), is a film about a director at a creative standstill in his career. It is a satirical look at the price of fame that is sharply funny about a disillusioned filmmaker who is just about ready to jump off a cliff. Woody plays a famous comedic director Sandy Bates, who is tired of making just funny films and wants to make a serious film about the meaning of life. Federico Fellini masterfully crafted this in his famous 8&1/2, from 1963. In Fellini's great Italian masterpiece, filmmaker Guido, played excellently by Marcello Mastroianni, finds himself at a creative impasse in his career. Stardust Memories picks up from Fellini's film right from the opening scene. Sandy Bates also wants to make a serious film about the meaning of life. Woody's Sandy Bates finds himself at a existential crisis. What & who is he? What has he made of his life and his films? Woody attends a weekend seminar of his films. There he is hounded by fans, groupies, studio-executives, relatives, and both lovers and ex-lovers. Everybody else wants him to focus on making more comedies, while Woody wants to make a serious film. There are many scenes in Stardust Memories that come from both Fellini's masterpiece, as well as from the great Swedish director, Ingmar Bergman. It is a real howl of a film that is a pointed seriocomic look at fame and success. When it first came out in 1980, many less knowledgeable critics dismissed as too self-indulgent. But Stardust Memories has only improved since then. Naturally, only serious cinema-goers will understand the satire and underlying humour. Woody is backed by stars Charlotte Rampling, Jessica Harper, Marie-Christine Barrault, and Tony Roberts. Although only serious film-goers will get all of the humor, it is still a treat and very funny. Give it a chance. You won't be sorry! You have my 4 star guarantee!! SMRZ!!!

Aficionados tend to use Stardust Memories as a fulcrum to measure your astuteness of Woody Allen's work. On that heady basis, it's a film you're supposed to like, even if in your bones you endure a decided tedium. After all, you don't want your lot to be cast in with those petty uppity critics who panned this film upon its initiial release -DO YOU? This is a great looking film. I give Woody Allen credit for being a good collector of things to imitate and pilfer from. That's pretty inevitable when making a decent film in any case. Only here the indebtedness to others' work is too transparent, as if to provide the *feeling* of a more substantial film to distract you from realizing that Stardust Memories doesn't have much more to say than Sleeper or... any of Woody's "early funny pictures" (I loved Sleeper, actually). Stardust Memories was a worthy exercise to break from a pattern. Allen understudied Federico Fellini's parading choreography of the human circus over a landscape very well, however I wasn't convinced that he advanced that much new in the result, excepting a context for some well-applied cosmic questioning. But almost in spite of himself, the more memorable moments always come from what Woody Allen seems most wanting to dispossessing himself of here --i.e., his effortless comic sensibility. American audiences will be slightly challenged out of their usual linear storytelling expectations. But, if you're impressed with the "greatness and genius" of the conception, why not just watch "8 1/2", cut to the chase and watch the real thing?

I saw this with my photographer friend when it first came out, and we were both blown away by its beauty. Oddly, it flopped with most of the public, and with the critics too. They may have wanted their Woody character to remain an oddball loser with the ladies, in order to keep him in that comfortable compartment, but this is autobiographical, and Woody is juggling 3 beautiful intelligent women, so along with his humor, he's enviably "got it all." One critic dismissed it as "a magic trick," like that's a bad thing. It is indeed a magic trick to mix Fellini's lust for life with Bergmann's search for meaning and resolve them in the mundane beauty of everyday life. Also, you can pause this movie at any of a hundred different spots and you've got a painting in your living room. What Woody does with Charlotte Rampling on film requires the utmost courage and vulnerability, on her part as well as his. Later, he subjects his own all-too-mortal self to the same brutal eye of the camera. The public initially went sour on Bob Dylan when he "went electric." Woody had "gone electric" with this movie, and I'm sure it's just a matter of time until it's recognized that this was his masterpiece. A work of art.

Released in late September '80, STARDUST MEMORIES was still playing theaters when a skulking sicko with a handgun murdered John Lennon on a NYC street. Was this total loser influenced toward homicide by viewing a similar celebrity killing which occurs here? It's a troubling possibility. Putting the issue (and so many Fellini comparisons) aside, writer/director/star Allen uses this unique platform to fire an ascerbic blunderbuss, missing no one in the process. Not the critics who tore to shreds his recent work, or an inconsiderate public constantly importuning him for photo ops and autographs. Not the charity do-gooders begging for any spare time, nor the milling crowds of foghorn-voiced "New Yawkuhs" hovering near their golden calf. The worst punishment was reserved for himself: Woody's failings, obsessions, neuroses, self-absorption and fears are laid bare here and mercilessly stomped upon. Even executive producer Jack Rollins gets in his licks in one scene, while ex-wife Lasser has an uncredited cameo as a pushy secretary. To this viewer, "Stardust" is not so much an attempt at "art" as it is a personal catharsis via the cinematic medium that makes for quite a movie-going experience. Parenthetical number preceding title is a 1 to 10 imdb viewer poll rating. (7.2) Stardust Memories (1980) - Woody Allen/Charlotte Rampling/Jessica Harper/Marie-Christine Barrault/Tony Roberts/Daniel Stern/Sharon Stone/Jack Rollins/Judith Crist (uncredited: Louise Lasser/Laraine Newman)

Funny movie. Love the black and white.

It was the first film after “Manhattan” So it’s a tad disappointing. But I would want the photo on an entire wall - The photo of the North Vietcong police chief shooting a man in the head. Also look 👀 for a pretty woman who blows kisses.at the train station ***that young girl is Sharon Stone.

ok

The package arrived on time and in exactly the expected condition. All good.

Excelente DVD de una cinta clásica difícil de conseguir ya. Esta es una perfecta opción para quienes la queremos en nuestra colección.

Magnifique film de Woody : une réflexion sur le/son cinéma et son image publique... Charlotte Rampling y est magnifique ; et le petit jeu du cinéphile ici est "vais-je repérer et reconnaître Sharon Stone dont c'est la première apparition? " Ce film peut, à première vue, paraitre comme "arty" ou prétentieux mais en fait il est, plus que Manhattan, l'amalgame du Woody qui sait faire rire, de celui qui sait faire réfléchir et émouvoir et qui nous montre combien il a pu admirer Bergman : ce n'est pas sec comme Interiors ou Another Woman, ce n'est pas délirant comme Zelig ou Bananas ... mais c'est un peu de cela et plus encore - c'est doux-amer, fin, émouvant et drôle.

Nicht zum ersten Mal huldigt Allen den großen europäischen Regisseuren. Vordergründig scheint es sich um eine Art Remake von "81/2" zu handeln, entwickelt aber einen ganz eigenen Zauber. Im stetigen Wechsel von subjektiver und objektiver Kameraführung schwelgt der Film in stimmungsvollen Schwarz-Weiß-Bildern und erzeugt, untermalt u.a. vom Jazz eines Glenn Miller, Duke Ellington oder Louis Armstrong, so manchen magischen, unvergesslichen Moment: Die abendliche Ballon-Fahrt oder die Großaufnahme Charlotte Ramplings. Woody Allens sarkastischer, in gewisser Weise autobiographischer Film-im-Film wurde seinerzeit als Verhöhnung seines ihm treu ergebenen Publikums (miss?)verstanden. Trotzdem - oder vielleicht gerade deshalb - ist dies der vollkommenste Woody-Allen-Film. Und sein letztes wirklich großes Werk, bevor seine Komödien zusehends seichter und - insbesondere jene unter Beteiligung von Mia Farrow - rührseliger wurden.