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Amazon.co.uk Review
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 Cousin/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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Shot in black&white by Gordon Willis (The Godfather) Stardust Memories resembles Fellini's 8 1/2 - though obviously it's not close to that. Allen plays a comic-filmmaker (who could that be based on, then?) who is celebrated at a film festival one weekend, the film moving on several levels- between films he has made (one with Tony Roberts, who plays an actor here, resembles a short story of Allen's) & an 8 1/2 style dream on a train. There are women- the insane Charlotte Rampling (a similar character pops up in Husbands&Wives), the French woman (Marie-Christine Barrault) who gives some European allure to proceedings & the fan (Jessica Harper, not as barmy as in Play MIsty for Me)- who resembles too many of Woody's females (Juliette Lewis in Husbands&Wives, Dianne Wiest in Hannah, Mia Farrow in Crimes&Misdeameanours, Mariel Hemingway in Manhattan, Shelley Duvall in Annie Hall).
Allen's Sandy is unhappy about his place in 'entertainment'- a bit like his character in Manhattan (who declared 'gossip the new pornography' & left his job in TV, a bit like the character in Hannah/Sisters...)- here we have the common maladies that afflict characters in Woody Allen films. This is much more surreal & exagerrated, almost deliberately provocative- a bit like OLiver Stone's Natural Born Killers. The backdrop to Sandy's life shifting from Louis Armstrong to an image of murder in Vietnam, as a dead animal lies in his kitchen...
Stardust Memories is a rather odd film, especially when it's lead character meets aliens, who tell him to stop griping and make films, especially "the early funny ones"- bizarre that Allen claims he doesn't read his criticism! The way this is shot is amazing, the final scenes where we flip from multiple characters to a #1 fan in a Mark Chapman style are of particular note. THe best sequence here remains the sequence where Charlotte Rampling is mentally destroyed in a series of jump cuts- an advance on Bergmanesque territory mapped out in Persona.
Stardust Memories is one of Allen's strangest films, along with Husbands&Wives, Deconstructing Harry & Celebrity, it appears to be very close to the bone, deep into the marrow: but don't worry, it's just a showroom dummy of Woody, not the real guy! ?
It certainly ranks alongside Zelig as his most experimental film of the 80s & deserves to be seen- though I'm not sure that anyone who doesn't enjoy Allen will get anything out of it. In the bitter art film sense, it ranks up there with Scorsese's King of Comedy, Wenders' State of Things & Altman's The Player...
PS Keep your eyes peeled for a blink-and-you'll-miss-it from a young Sharon Stone at the beginning. The old dear keeps her legs close together.
Taken at face value, this is a comedy of grotesques: it's funny, desperate, purposely incoherent and confused. It's made that way, I imagine, to show the protagonist's state of mind: much of the film actually takes part therein. This film is a perfect release for DVD; the black and white photography is best seen 'sharp' and, as I say, it's the kind of movie better seen again. I started to like it the second time I saw it; now - I love it!
straddles the line between homage and rip-off when it comes to
Fellini... Read more
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