Rating: 
Summary: Stardust Memories
Review: Woody Allen's most critically-bashed movie, "Stardust Memories," has finally been released by MGM/UA video. Starting and ending on a train to a garbage dump, "Stardust" imitates the Felliniesque structure of the slow-moving film "8 1/2." "Stardust" seems to try to take a lighter and more comic approach than Fellini, but instead it ends up being nearly as disturbing. It might be Sandy Bates' (Woody Allen) all-too-realistic hallucinations (their confusing and indistinguished-from-"real fiction" nature got a star taken off the review for me). It might be his empty romantic life, in which a theme in many of his movies from this point on explore, which he constructs only for it to fail; he likes "crazies," women who end up in institutions, and echo-y imitations of these women who end up in institution. One of the most confusing elements is exactly where does the nearly movie long flashback begin? In a 1993 interview, Woody Allen said it begins when he sees that his cook has (yet again) served him rabbit--he stares at the lifeless rabbit and "wonders about his own mortality. The rest of the film takes place in his mind." Other keys that you must keep in mind (all from the Woody Allen interview) are these: Sandy's apartment is his state of mind, rather than a physical being (look for the photograph-laden walls for a key to just what Sandy's feeling inside). Sandy places on his sunglasses when a flashback is about to occur. Still, with these keys, the film takes no path that I can recognize, which is a problem. Even with the big problem of plot sequence, I still find this movie good enough to have watched three times. One should be warned that the first viewing might be incredibly boring and possibly unwatchable given the movie's Sandy-focused, sleepy pace. If you give it a second look, it will open up like a Chinese-box, giving many previously unnoticed features away (that are essential.) One should be warned though, if you didn't like his (as of now) latest, "Celebrity," you're going to hate this one, too.
Rating:
Summary: Stardust Memories
Review: Woody Allen's most critically-bashed movie, "Stardust Memories," has finally been released by MGM/UA video. Starting and ending on a train to a garbage dump, "Stardust" imitates the Felliniesque structure of the slow-moving film "8 1/2." "Stardust" seems to try to take a lighter and more comic approach than Fellini, but instead it ends up being nearly as disturbing. It might be Sandy Bates' (Woody Allen) all-too-realistic hallucinations (their confusing and indistinguished-from-"real fiction" nature got a star taken off the review for me). It might be his empty romantic life, in which a theme in many of his movies from this point on explore, which he constructs only for it to fail; he likes "crazies," women who end up in institutions, and echo-y imitations of these women who end up in institution. One of the most confusing elements is exactly where does the nearly movie long flashback begin? In a 1993 interview, Woody Allen said it begins when he sees that his cook has (yet again) served him rabbit--he stares at the lifeless rabbit and "wonders about his own mortality. The rest of the film takes place in his mind." Other keys that you must keep in mind (all from the Woody Allen interview) are these: Sandy's apartment is his state of mind, rather than a physical being (look for the photograph-laden walls for a key to just what Sandy's feeling inside). Sandy places on his sunglasses when a flashback is about to occur. Still, with these keys, the film takes no path that I can recognize, which is a problem. Even with the big problem of plot sequence, I still find this movie good enough to have watched three times. One should be warned that the first viewing might be incredibly boring and possibly unwatchable given the movie's Sandy-focused, sleepy pace. If you give it a second look, it will open up like a Chinese-box, giving many previously unnoticed features away (that are essential.) One should be warned though, if you didn't like his (as of now) latest, "Celebrity," you're going to hate this one, too.
Rating: 
Summary: Interesting Descriptions Of Different Types Of Women
Review: »Stardust Memories« is one of Woody Allen's most philosophic movies. It not only describes the life and thoughts (meaning the outer respectively inner life) of a celebrated comedy writer, it also gives some ambitious characteristics of the very different types of women to whom the writer is attracted. Despite its brilliant plot, promising attempts and interesting characters, »Stardust Memories« never really suceeds in becoming a fully entertaining, catching, and complete story.
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