Hannah and Her Sisters Analysis

Hannah and Her Sisters Analysis

Written & Directed by: Woody Allen

Won the Oscar for Best Original Screenplay, Best Supporting Actress and Actor

When a film wins Best Supporting Actor and Best Supporting Actress, we know how fleshed out each character in the film is and this is definitely a testament of great writing and of course great performances. This film is centered around three women and their lives and about the men they date, their family and friends as well. This film is the least self indulgent film I've seen of Woody Allen's till date, most of his films are an extension of his own personality and world view. In this film, we have about 5-6 characters and we won't have conflict in the film if all of them are extensions of himself. We see orchestration in characters, we see different character flaws, arcs and motivations in each of the women, Hannah, April, Lee and Elliot, Mickey as well.

This film reminded me of the recent Greta Gerwig's Little Women and Hirokazu Kore-eda's Our Little Sister which are both films about four sisters and their lives. While writing movies about multiple characters, it can be challenging because creating one character which is human in itself can be a task and while writing siblings, it can be extremely challenging to create an orchestration. Writing anthology films or multiple characters set up in different professions, different socio-cultural scenarios can be easy because we differentiate the characters with these physical conflicts and in these films we are looking at siblings who grow up under the same roof. Woody Allen plays a supporting character in the film who is hilariously anxious, it is surprising how he manages to write, direct and act in the same film and do films with such frequency and do them such well. This film isn't my most favorite film of his, I'd prefer his self indulgent films because those are the films no one except Woody Allen can make.