On the heels of Annie Hall, the Oscar-winning romantic comedy that rocketed Woody Allen to the front ranks of American filmmakers, Manhattan continued Allen’s romantic obsessions in a slightly darker, more pessimistic vein. Allen stars as Isaac Davis, a TV comedy writer sick of the pap he is forced to churn out and harboring dreams of being the great American novelist. His love life is in barbed-wire territory: he is tormented by his second ex-wife Jill (Meryl Streep), a lesbian who has written a tell-all book about their marriage, and he is dating teenager Tracy (Mariel Hemingway), to whom he refuses to commit, and keeps hinting that a breakup may be imminent. Isaac’s disillusioned (and married) best friend Yale (Michael Murphy) has begun an affair with the cerebral writer Mary Wilke (Diane Keaton). While Isaac makes a last minute, sink-or-swim decision to quit his job and devote all of his time to book writing, and neurotically moans about what the lack of a full time job will do to him (My parents won’t have as good of a seat in the synagogue, he moans. They’ll be far away from God… away from the action) Yale is crippled by his lack of resolve, as indicated by his inability to leave his wife Emily (Anne Byrne). Meanwhile, Isaac and Mary) begin to fall for one another. Tracy then tells Isaac the basic truth that none of his hung-up friends and past lovers fully realizes: You have to have a little more faith in people. Manhattan is both a seriocomic dissection of perpetually dissatisfied New Yorkers and an ode to the city itself, filmed in glorious black-and-white by ace cinematographer Gordon Willis, and set to a score of rhapsodic George Gershwin music.~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
‘Flashbacks of a fool’ is something special, its not your typical coming of age movie, in fact it’s more the opposite, it’s a movie of reflection. Daniel Craig plays Joe Scott, a fading Hollywood star, instantly recognisable to the public, but his hedonistic lifestyle of sex, drugs, and celebrity has taken its toll. Flash-back to his 70’s childhood and the small-town English seaside life set to the beat of Roxy music and Bowie. Joe’s rites of passage as a young man lay the foundations for the Hollywood dream he goes on to experience.
The seventies scenes are beautifully shot and are a credit to director Baillie Walsh, who previously worked on music videos for Kylie, Oasis and Massive Attack. His music video background is evident, many of the scenes carry so much style that they wouldn’t look out of place on MTV, yet the cinematography and the musical number at the films climax doesn’t distract from the story in any way.
Movies.ie had access to all the stars and crew of the movie in advance of the Irish premiere this Tuesday. We have so much content that we decided to make this week ‘Flashbacks Week’. Every day, we’ll carry a new feature and focus on a different area of the movie.
Today we have a behind the scenes feature (see below), which shows us some of the scenes from the film, mixed with some of the movies nostalgic seventies soundtrack. Here, director Ballie Walsh gives some background information on the film and gives us a taste of whats in store.
Here’s what’s in store for the rest of the week
On Tuesday, we talk to Daniel Craig, who as well as starring in the film, also worked as executive producer. Click Here for this article
On Wednesday, we talk to director Baillie Walsh in detail, the pressures he faced in getting his first feature off the ground and his working relationship with good friend Daniel Craig. Click Here for this article.
On Thursday, we’ll be chatting to the other cast members in the film, upcoming stars Harry Eden and Jodhi May. Click Here for this article
On Friday, we’ll carry a raw, unedited video with Bond himself Daniel Craig, we’ll also be uploading our monthly video podcast, which will have some extra features to tie in with the movie. Click Here for this video
You can subscribe to our monthly podcast on Itunes by clicking here. It’s free to do and will help you keep up to date with our monthly show.
‘Flashbacks Of A Fool’ opens in Irish cinemas this Friday, April 18th