Looking for an Ending

The film is itself both intro and retro-spective. It looks at itself, it looks back at itself and wonders where it is headed. From the very beginning the question is on the screen - 'how will we end this?' All the way through we are given the opportunity to end it but never do, in fact the film ends more than once in order to provide a proper resolution. Some may find that this technique is the most important part of the film, and if you are a film buff it is well worth seeing for that very reason.

Stardust Memories combines a number of threads from his last three films. Once again we see supurb use of black and white photography capturing forms without the confusion of colour -a style he first used in Manhattan. Again from that film, Diane Keaton's quest for the ultimate mate in Manhattan becomes that of Sandy Bates in Stardust Memories. But the rather sarcastic humour of Manhattan has been replaced with that of Annie Hall and his earlier films. The only contributin from Interiors (Woody Allen's best film if you don't like Woody Allen) seems to be in the concentration of the camera through the duration of the shot.

Woody Allen is once again approaching the problem of Love and Death. His thoughts on those matters are barely philosophical. But his experience of those problems is significant because it is an experience common to us all; an experience that is clarified by the film. How can we resolve the two vast paradoxical forces of Love and Death (if there is no God?) What are we doing here? Woody Allen has only the meagrest suggestion of an answer.

Peter King