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Audience Rating: PG (Parental Guidance Suggested)
Binding: VHS Tape
EAN: 9786302718911
Format: Black & White, Closed-captioned, NTSC
ISBN: 6302718910
Label: MGM (Video & DVD)
Manufacturer: MGM (Video & DVD)
Number Of Items: 1
Publisher: MGM (Video & DVD)
Release Date: July 05, 2000
Running Time: 88 minutes
Sales Rank: 6158
Studio: MGM (Video & DVD)
Theatrical Release Date: September 26, 1980
Related Items:
Editorial Review:
Amazon.com essential video:
'Doesn't he know he's got the greatest gift anyone can have, the gift of laughter?' Woody Allen stars as filmmaker Sandy Bates, who, like John Sullivan in Preston Sturges's Sullivan's Travels, no longer wants to make comedies. As studio executives threaten to wrest control of his latest film, he reluctantly attends a weekend film-culture festival in his honor, where he is besieged by journalists ('I'm doing a piece on the shallow indifference of celebrities'), groupies ('I drove all the way from Bridgeport to make it with you'), and persistent oddballs ('Can I talk to you about my idea I have for a movie? It's a comedy based on the whole Guyana mass suicide').
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 Cousine/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
Customer Reviews
Average Rating: 
Rating:  - Can't miss
This and "Manhattan" are Woody's two great masterpieces, I think. It's quirky, but it hasn't dated at all because it's classic. You won't laugh a lot, but you may smirk, or smile. I hadn't seen this since it came out years ago. It was a great re-visit. Typical Woody jazz soundtrack lends atmosphere.
Rating: - Declaration of cinematic independence
There are so many levels to Allen's "Stardust Memories" that it seems a slight to his genius as well as an impoverishment of the viewing experience to reduce the film to only one of them. At one level is the "existential" message: the worries about mortality and meaning that ooze through Allen's films, even the early slapstick ones. There's the "Eurofilm" message, in which Allen pays homage to the thoughtful and experimental films of Bergman and Fellini (rumor has it that Allen thought about calling ... Read More
Rating: - stunning
Stardust Memories is a brilliant tribute to Fellini and Bergman that still manages to give us some of that classic Woody Allen humor every so often to lighten things up just a bit. The plot moves along at a good pace and I enjoyed the flashbacks that are interjected so masterfully into the film. The convincing acting held my attention all the way and the black and white footage is very tastefully done.
The action begins when overstressed movie director Sandy Bates (Woody Allen) is pushed into ... Read More
Rating: - Bergman/Fellini redux
Stardust Memories is an underappreciated Bergman/Fellini homage by Woody. It's really funny and has great cinematography. After Broadway Danny Rose,it's a favorite.
Rating: - One of my favorite Woody Allen films....
Critics did not like this film very much, calling it cruel and bleak, for example. I think it's one of Woody's funniest, most intelligent films, with classic scenes to rival his other films. This was one of the first films to really examine the stalker like quality of obsessed fans. Sandy Bates (Woody's character) is bombarded with people at the festival looking for some great insight into life, when Sandy really has none. There's a woman who sneaks into his hotel room thinking sleeping with him will by ... Read More
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Binding: VHS Tape
EAN: 9786302718911
Format: Black & White, Closed-captioned, NTSC
ISBN: 6302718910
Label: MGM (Video & DVD)
Manufacturer: MGM (Video & DVD)
Number Of Items: 1
Publisher: MGM (Video & DVD)
Release Date: July 05, 2000
Running Time: 88 minutes
Sales Rank: 6158
Studio: MGM (Video & DVD)
Theatrical Release Date: September 26, 1980