Rent Another Woman (1988)
3.6 of 5 from 85 ratings
1h 17min
- General info
- Available formats
- Synopsis:
Middle-aged philosophy professor Marion Post (Gena Rowlands) would appear to have every advantage. After all, she has a rock-solid professional reputation, an equally secure marriage and enough spare cash to be able to rent a separate flat in which to write her latest book without interruption. But she is interrupted, thanks to an accident of ventilation, by the therapy sessions going on in the psychiatrist's office next door. Voyeuristically fascinated, Marion is particularly struck by the way that the unhappy experiences of his patient Hope (Mia Farrow) mirror her own, and realises that her life is nowhere near as materially and emotionally secure as she's been pretending. And when she decides to rely less on her beloved logic and reason and open herself up to dreams, imagination and passion, the scene is set for a life-changing transformation. - Actors:
- Gena Rowlands, Mia Farrow, Ian Holm, Blythe Danner, Gene Hackman, Betty Buckley, Martha Plimpton, John Houseman, Sandy Dennis, David Ogden Stiers, Philip Bosco, Harris Yulin, Frances Conroy, Fred Melamed, Kenneth Welsh, Bruce Jay Friedman, Bernie Leighton, Jack Gelber, Paul Sills, John Schenck
- Directors:
- Woody Allen
- Producers:
- Robert Greenhut
- Writers:
- Woody Allen
- Studio:
- MGM
- Genres:
- Drama
- Collections:
- Romantic Film Pairings for Valentine's Day, Top 10 Autumn Films
- BBFC:
- Release Date:
- 06/03/2017
- Run Time:
- 81 minutes
- Languages:
- English Dolby Digital 1.0
- Subtitles:
- English Hard of Hearing
- Formats:
- Pal
- Aspect Ratio:
- Widescreen 1.85:1
- Colour:
- Colour
- BLU-RAY Regions:
- B
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Reviews (1) of Another Woman
Drama of middle age. - Another Woman review by Steve
Through the eighties Woody's films increasingly became related to the experiences of middle age, with their nostalgia, strong theme of regret, a re-evaluation of values, and an anxiety that last chances to change have slipped away. Another Woman is the film that most directly confronts that condition.
Marion (Gena Rowlands) is a self absorbed and emotionally frozen professor in German philosophy who has turned fifty and remarried. She rents a room to write a book, and begins to hear speech from the room next door, where Mia Farrow is being treated for depression (she is called Hope!). Of course the voice is Marion's own inner disquiet and it provokes a reaction to her past and present relationships. So, a mid-life crisis.
This is a wonderfully imaginative and intense drama which utilises dreams, fantasy and flashback to sympathetically probe and resolve Marion's quiet, emotionally paralysing unease. It eschews Allen's frequent enthusiasm for abstract philosophical ideas to focus purely on the condition and conflict of Marion's heart in quite a forensic way.
I don't know why I didn't recognise how great this film was before rewatching it today. Maybe it is because I'm now middle aged. But it's a shame I missed its sensitivity, intelligence and wisdom. I think this would work pretty well as a stage play.
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