``Hannah and Her Sisters'' Life is meaningless. That is the ultimate conclusion reached by humans.

Style like a novel

The 1980s were Allen's peak, and he was producing new works one after another like a gushing fountain. There have been 10 feature films and one omnibus film, from 1980's Stardust Memory to 1989's Felony and Misdemeanor . Not all of them were masterpieces, but in addition to ``Hannah and Her Sisters,'' ` `The Chameleon Man '' (1983), `` Broadway's Danny Rose '' (1984), `` The Purple Rose of Cairo '' (1985), His important works include ` `Radio Days '' (1987) and ``High Crimes and Misdemeanors,'' all of which were co-written with Mia Farrow. He won his second Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay for ``Hannah and Her Sisters''.

Centering around three sisters, it is structured like a group drama, and progresses in a novel-like style. Each episode is preceded by captions such as ``We had a great time'' and ``The Anxiety of the Man in the Phone Booth,'' which arouses curiosity about what will happen next. Allen himself makes the following statement in my translation of `` Woody on Allen '' (a collection of interviews written by Stieg Bjorkman and published by Kinema Junposha in 1995).

"I've always wanted to try something like that (with a structure like that). So while I was making this movie, I just wanted to try it out." When I was asked if it reminded me of British literature, like Dickens, I answered, ``Yes, that's what I was aiming for.'' Allen, who has also published several collections of short stories, must have been conscious of the <novel-like structure> of this work.

"Hannah and Her Sisters" (c)Photofest / Getty Images

However, upon rewatching it, it appears to be a collection of cynical jokes by Allen, who was a former stand-up comedian. When he was a comedian, he even released an album of just talk, where he used his unique nasal voice to tell a series of cynical and surreal jokes.

The first caption of the movie is ``Oh, how beautiful she is...''. If ``Hannah and Her Sisters'' were a comedy sketch, Allen would begin his soliloquy on stage like this, adapting a line from Elit (Michael Caine) that appears at the beginning.

``I recently found my ideal woman. Her name is Lee. She has beautiful eyes and a very sexy sweater. When I saw her at a Thanksgiving party, I couldn't help but want to go up to her and hug her. But, the other me says, ``Come on, stop being such an idiot. Lee is your wife's sister, right? It's true...but I can't control my feelings.''

Each caption seemed like the title of a comedy sketch, and I felt like I could hear Allen talking.

On the other hand, the scene in which the three sisters appear is the same as in `` Interior '' (1978), Allen's first serious work from the 1970s, and he seems to be also conscious of `` The Three Sisters '' by his favorite playwright Chekhov. It seemed to me. The scene in which Hanna's (Mia Farrow) second husband, Elliot, gives Hanna's sister Lee a collection of E.E. Cummings' poems and entrusts his feelings of love to the poems is literary.

Stand-up jokes and literary hobbies. By combining these elements, ``Hannah and Her Sisters'' becomes a work that feels both familiar and novel-like.

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