bam (07/23/82)
I just saw AMNSC on Friday and enjoyed it very much. I almost thought it was my favorite Woody Allen movie but I was in such a mood to seea light movie I can't say for sure. I have followed Woody since my early teens but I haven's seen ``Interiors'' or ``Stardust Memories''. With that in mind I say that AMNSC represents a departure from other Allen films. It has less of the self-defacing humor typical in Allen movies and treats death in a more light-hearted manner. As the title suggest the main focus of the movie is on sex without many apologies toward love. The movie focuses around six characters, three men and three women. In retrospect I think the women as a whole were much sexier than the men. This may be because I see into the souls of men easier than I see into the souls of women but I found the men more pretentious and/or shallow. From my perspective, though, this was a minor problem since I was watching the women. Mia Farrow plays Ariel, the woman that all the men lust after. Inevitably, the conversations I've been in or overheard and some of the reviews I've read mention Diane Keaton as the actress this role was written for. That may be but I don't think Keaton could have brought the sex appeal to the role that Farrow did. Especially the baser, more universal, appeal that I think Farrow conveyed. Julie Haggerty plays Dulcy, the only character who is capable of enjoying sex for the physical pleasure alone. Dulcy seems rather simple-minded at first but after conquering the Leopold at chess we learn there is more to her than she lets on. Her simple-mindedness is then seen as a facade but for what purpose? The movie seems to lose interest in finding out why and maybe Woody Allen does in real life as well. I thought Dulcy was interesting and I wanted to see more of her. This was one of the shortcomings of AMNSC. AMNSC is a good movie to play psychologist with. Andrew (played by Woody Allen) is married to Adrian, a woman with several hangups; is attracted to Ariel, who in this light should probably be Annie Hall; and doesn't want to get to know Dulcy. Is this how Allen is in real life as well? Bruce McLean