Husbands and Wives
Encyclopedia
Husbands and Wives is a 1992 American drama film
directed and written by Woody Allen
. The films stars Allen, Mia Farrow
, Sydney Pollack
, Judy Davis
, Juliette Lewis
, Liam Neeson
and Blythe Danner
. It was nominated for the Academy Awards
for Best Actress in a Supporting Role (Judy Davis) and Best Writing, Screenplay Written Directly for the Screen (Woody Allen). The movie debuted around the same time as Allen and Farrow's relationship ended because of his relationship with Soon Yi Previn.
Husbands and Wives was Allen's first film as sole director for a studio other than United Artists
or Orion Pictures
(both now part of Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer
) since Take the Money and Run
, namely TriStar Pictures
(though he has acted in films that were released by other studios but were not directed by him).
Later that night, Judy asks Gabe if he ever fantasizes about other women. Gabe brushes her questions off, and they go to bed. The next day, Gabe approaches Rain, a student of his whose writing he admires. Rain and Gabe go for a walk while discussing her writing.
That night, Sally goes to the apartment of a colleague. They plan to go out together to the opera
and then to dinner. Sally asks if she can use his phone, and calls Jack. Learning from him that he has met someone, she accuses him of having had an affair during their marriage.
Shortly after, Gabe, Judy and Sally are out walking when they spot Jack with a blonde woman in her late 20s. Sally hastily departs, dropping her purse and its contents while climbing into a taxi. Judy and Gabe are introduced to Jack's new girlfriend, Sam, an aerobics trainer.
While Judy and Sam shop, Gabe calls Jack's new girlfriend a "cocktail waitress" and tells him that he is crazy for leaving Sally for her. About a week later, Judy introduces Sally to Michael (Neeson), Judy's magazine colleague. Michael asks Sally out.
Later, at a party, Jack is embarrassed when Sam defends astrology to several guests, and they get into a heated debate. Jack drags Sam away and she becomes upset and hysterical. Jack aggressively shoves her into the car. While trying to drive away Jack accidentally hits two cars. Sam gets out and screams, and Jack again shoves her into the car.
Cut to Michael and Sally, who are having sex, then to Sally talking to an analyst. She then discusses her feelings about which people are hedgehogs are which are foxes. Cut back to Michael and Sally who are discussing their sex. She said that they had two nice but separate experiences.
Jack goes to Sally's house, where he finds her with Michael. Jack bursts in and begins arguing with Sally and Michael. She tells Michael to go upstairs. Jack accuses her of sleeping with Michael in "their" bed. Later, Jack tells her that he wants to get back together with her. The doorbell rings and it is Sam, whom Jack has left in the car. After some argument, she demands that Jack and Sam leave.
Meanwhile, Gabe has developed a friendship with Rain and has her read the manuscript for his working novel. She comments on its brilliance, though has several criticisms, to which Gabe reacts defensively due to its autobiographical nature. At dinner, she reaches for his manuscript (his only copy) only to realize she left it in a cab. Then a cab driver finds the manuscript. Rain says that leaving the manuscript was somehow Freudian because she doesn't like competition. He says he doesn't need maturity lessons from a 20-year-old twit. They arrive at the cab driver's house where the driver says that Gabe has a beautiful daughter.
Less than two weeks later, Jack and Sally are back together and the couple meet Judy and Gabe for dinner like old times. After dinner, Judy and Gabe get into an argument about her not sharing her poetry with him, then argue about many things. (This narrative strand was used by Allen’s idol, Ingmar Bergman, in one of his most famous and acclaimed films, Scenes From a Marriage
. Allen reverses it, however, as in Bergman’s film, Johan won’t show his poetry to his wife, Marianne, whereas Judy won’t show her poetry to her husband, Gabe.) After Gabe makes a failed pass at her, Judy tells him that she thinks the relationship was over; a week later Gabe moves out.
At Rain's twenty-first birthday party, the lights go out because of a storm, and Rain asks for a "birthday kiss." Illuminated by the lightning, Gabe and Rain have a romantic moment, but afterward he tells her he cannot pursue it and leaves.
Michael tells Judy he needs time alone, then says he can't help still having feelings for Sally. Judy becomes frustrated with Michael and walks out into the rain. Highlighting her "passive aggressiveness," Michael follows and begs her to stay with him. A year and a half later they marry.
At the end, the audience sees a pensive Jack and Sally back together envying Judy and Gabe, who are no longer together. Jack and Sally admit their marital problems still exist (her frigidity is not solved), but they find they accept their problems as simply the price they have to pay to remain together.
Gabe is living alone because he says he's out of the race and doesn't want to hurt anyone. He said that he realized how much how he messed up with his relationship with Judy. The film ends with an immediate cut to black after Gabe pleads with the unseen documentary crew, "Can I go? Is this over?"
Drama film
A drama film is a film genre that depends mostly on in-depth development of realistic characters dealing with emotional themes. Dramatic themes such as alcoholism, drug addiction, infidelity, moral dilemmas, racial prejudice, religious intolerance, poverty, class divisions, violence against women...
directed and written by Woody Allen
Woody Allen
Woody Allen is an American screenwriter, director, actor, comedian, jazz musician, author, and playwright. Allen's films draw heavily on literature, sexuality, philosophy, psychology, Jewish identity, and the history of cinema...
. The films stars Allen, Mia Farrow
Mia Farrow
Mia Farrow is an American actress, singer, humanitarian, and fashion model.Farrow first gained wide acclaim for her role as Allison Mackenzie in the soap opera Peyton Place, and for her subsequent short-lived marriage to Frank Sinatra...
, Sydney Pollack
Sydney Pollack
Sydney Irwin Pollack was an American film director, producer and actor. Pollack studied with Sanford Meisner at the Neighborhood Playhouse in New York City, where he later taught acting...
, Judy Davis
Judy Davis
Judy Davis is an Australian actress best known for her roles in Husbands and Wives, Barton Fink, A Passage to India and in the TV miniseries Life with Judy Garland: Me and My Shadows....
, Juliette Lewis
Juliette Lewis
Juliette Lewis is an American actress and musician. She gained international fame for her role in the 1991 thriller Cape Fear for which she was nominated for both an Academy Award and Golden Globe for Best Supporting Actress...
, Liam Neeson
Liam Neeson
Liam John Neeson, OBE is an Irish actor who has been nominated for an Oscar, a BAFTA and three Golden Globe Awards.He has starred in a number of notable roles including Oskar Schindler in Schindler's List, Michael Collins in Michael Collins, Peyton Westlake in Darkman, Jean Valjean in Les...
and Blythe Danner
Blythe Danner
Blythe Katherine Danner is an American actress. She is the mother of actress Gwyneth Paltrow and director Jake Paltrow.-Early life:...
. It was nominated for the Academy Awards
Academy Awards
An Academy Award, also known as an Oscar, is an accolade bestowed by the American Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences to recognize excellence of professionals in the film industry, including directors, actors, and writers...
for Best Actress in a Supporting Role (Judy Davis) and Best Writing, Screenplay Written Directly for the Screen (Woody Allen). The movie debuted around the same time as Allen and Farrow's relationship ended because of his relationship with Soon Yi Previn.
Husbands and Wives was Allen's first film as sole director for a studio other than United Artists
United Artists
United Artists Corporation is an American film studio. The original studio of that name was founded in 1919 by D. W. Griffith, Charles Chaplin, Mary Pickford and Douglas Fairbanks....
or Orion Pictures
Orion Pictures
Orion Pictures Corporation was an American independent production company that produced movies from 1978 until 1998. It was formed in 1978 as a joint venture between Warner Bros. and three former top-level executives of United Artists. Although it was never a large motion picture producer, Orion...
(both now part of Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer
Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer
Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Inc. is an American media company, involved primarily in the production and distribution of films and television programs. MGM was founded in 1924 when the entertainment entrepreneur Marcus Loew gained control of Metro Pictures, Goldwyn Pictures Corporation and Louis B. Mayer...
) since Take the Money and Run
Take the Money and Run
Take the Money and Run is a 1969 comedy film written by Woody Allen and Mickey Rose, and directed by and starring Woody Allen. It is an early mockumentary, chronicling the life of Virgil Starkwell, a bungling petty thief...
, namely TriStar Pictures
TriStar Pictures
TriStar Pictures, Inc. is an American film production/distribution studio and subsidiary of Columbia Pictures, itself a subdivision of the Columbia TriStar Motion Picture Group, which is owned by Sony Pictures...
(though he has acted in films that were released by other studios but were not directed by him).
Plot
The film is about two couples: Jack (Pollack) and Sally (Davis), and Gabe (Allen) and Judy (Farrow). The film starts when Jack and Sally arrive at Gabe and Judy's apartment and announce their separation. Gabe is shocked, but Judy takes the news personally and is very hurt. Still confused, they go out for dinner at a Chinese restaurant.Later that night, Judy asks Gabe if he ever fantasizes about other women. Gabe brushes her questions off, and they go to bed. The next day, Gabe approaches Rain, a student of his whose writing he admires. Rain and Gabe go for a walk while discussing her writing.
That night, Sally goes to the apartment of a colleague. They plan to go out together to the opera
Opera
Opera is an art form in which singers and musicians perform a dramatic work combining text and musical score, usually in a theatrical setting. Opera incorporates many of the elements of spoken theatre, such as acting, scenery, and costumes and sometimes includes dance...
and then to dinner. Sally asks if she can use his phone, and calls Jack. Learning from him that he has met someone, she accuses him of having had an affair during their marriage.
Shortly after, Gabe, Judy and Sally are out walking when they spot Jack with a blonde woman in her late 20s. Sally hastily departs, dropping her purse and its contents while climbing into a taxi. Judy and Gabe are introduced to Jack's new girlfriend, Sam, an aerobics trainer.
While Judy and Sam shop, Gabe calls Jack's new girlfriend a "cocktail waitress" and tells him that he is crazy for leaving Sally for her. About a week later, Judy introduces Sally to Michael (Neeson), Judy's magazine colleague. Michael asks Sally out.
Later, at a party, Jack is embarrassed when Sam defends astrology to several guests, and they get into a heated debate. Jack drags Sam away and she becomes upset and hysterical. Jack aggressively shoves her into the car. While trying to drive away Jack accidentally hits two cars. Sam gets out and screams, and Jack again shoves her into the car.
Cut to Michael and Sally, who are having sex, then to Sally talking to an analyst. She then discusses her feelings about which people are hedgehogs are which are foxes. Cut back to Michael and Sally who are discussing their sex. She said that they had two nice but separate experiences.
Jack goes to Sally's house, where he finds her with Michael. Jack bursts in and begins arguing with Sally and Michael. She tells Michael to go upstairs. Jack accuses her of sleeping with Michael in "their" bed. Later, Jack tells her that he wants to get back together with her. The doorbell rings and it is Sam, whom Jack has left in the car. After some argument, she demands that Jack and Sam leave.
Meanwhile, Gabe has developed a friendship with Rain and has her read the manuscript for his working novel. She comments on its brilliance, though has several criticisms, to which Gabe reacts defensively due to its autobiographical nature. At dinner, she reaches for his manuscript (his only copy) only to realize she left it in a cab. Then a cab driver finds the manuscript. Rain says that leaving the manuscript was somehow Freudian because she doesn't like competition. He says he doesn't need maturity lessons from a 20-year-old twit. They arrive at the cab driver's house where the driver says that Gabe has a beautiful daughter.
Less than two weeks later, Jack and Sally are back together and the couple meet Judy and Gabe for dinner like old times. After dinner, Judy and Gabe get into an argument about her not sharing her poetry with him, then argue about many things. (This narrative strand was used by Allen’s idol, Ingmar Bergman, in one of his most famous and acclaimed films, Scenes From a Marriage
Scenes from a Marriage
Scenes from a Marriage is a 1973 Swedish TV series written and directed by Ingmar Bergman. The story explores the disintegration of a marriage between Marianne, a lawyer, and Johan, a professor over a long period, using a restricted cast, a naturalist, hyper-realistic cinematic...
. Allen reverses it, however, as in Bergman’s film, Johan won’t show his poetry to his wife, Marianne, whereas Judy won’t show her poetry to her husband, Gabe.) After Gabe makes a failed pass at her, Judy tells him that she thinks the relationship was over; a week later Gabe moves out.
At Rain's twenty-first birthday party, the lights go out because of a storm, and Rain asks for a "birthday kiss." Illuminated by the lightning, Gabe and Rain have a romantic moment, but afterward he tells her he cannot pursue it and leaves.
Michael tells Judy he needs time alone, then says he can't help still having feelings for Sally. Judy becomes frustrated with Michael and walks out into the rain. Highlighting her "passive aggressiveness," Michael follows and begs her to stay with him. A year and a half later they marry.
At the end, the audience sees a pensive Jack and Sally back together envying Judy and Gabe, who are no longer together. Jack and Sally admit their marital problems still exist (her frigidity is not solved), but they find they accept their problems as simply the price they have to pay to remain together.
Gabe is living alone because he says he's out of the race and doesn't want to hurt anyone. He said that he realized how much how he messed up with his relationship with Judy. The film ends with an immediate cut to black after Gabe pleads with the unseen documentary crew, "Can I go? Is this over?"
Cast
- Woody AllenWoody AllenWoody Allen is an American screenwriter, director, actor, comedian, jazz musician, author, and playwright. Allen's films draw heavily on literature, sexuality, philosophy, psychology, Jewish identity, and the history of cinema...
as Gabe Roth - Mia FarrowMia FarrowMia Farrow is an American actress, singer, humanitarian, and fashion model.Farrow first gained wide acclaim for her role as Allison Mackenzie in the soap opera Peyton Place, and for her subsequent short-lived marriage to Frank Sinatra...
as Judy Roth - Judy DavisJudy DavisJudy Davis is an Australian actress best known for her roles in Husbands and Wives, Barton Fink, A Passage to India and in the TV miniseries Life with Judy Garland: Me and My Shadows....
as Sally - Sydney PollackSydney PollackSydney Irwin Pollack was an American film director, producer and actor. Pollack studied with Sanford Meisner at the Neighborhood Playhouse in New York City, where he later taught acting...
as Jack - Juliette LewisJuliette LewisJuliette Lewis is an American actress and musician. She gained international fame for her role in the 1991 thriller Cape Fear for which she was nominated for both an Academy Award and Golden Globe for Best Supporting Actress...
as Rain - Liam NeesonLiam NeesonLiam John Neeson, OBE is an Irish actor who has been nominated for an Oscar, a BAFTA and three Golden Globe Awards.He has starred in a number of notable roles including Oskar Schindler in Schindler's List, Michael Collins in Michael Collins, Peyton Westlake in Darkman, Jean Valjean in Les...
as Michael Gates - Blythe DannerBlythe DannerBlythe Katherine Danner is an American actress. She is the mother of actress Gwyneth Paltrow and director Jake Paltrow.-Early life:...
as Rain's Mother - Lysette AnthonyLysette AnthonyLysette Anthony is an English film, television, and theatre actress.-Early life:Anthony was born Lysette Chodzko in Fulham, London, the only daughter of actors Michael Anthony, and Bernadette Milnes....
as Sam
External links
- "Love and Fog", a 1992 Entertainment WeeklyEntertainment WeeklyEntertainment Weekly is an American magazine, published by the Time division of Time Warner, that covers film, television, music, broadway theatre, books and popular culture...
article on the making of Husbands and Wives. - "Scenes from a Marriage", a 1992 EWEntertainment WeeklyEntertainment Weekly is an American magazine, published by the Time division of Time Warner, that covers film, television, music, broadway theatre, books and popular culture...
article detailing the release of Husbands and Wives soon after Allen and Farrow split up.