Crimes And Misdemeanors [Blu-Ray]

If you had the opportunity to rid yourself of an extremely annoying person who threatens your entire comfortable existence and emerge scot free, would you take it? Would you film a positive spin on a pompous ass of a media maven if that was the only way to secure much needed funding to finish your own heartfelt documentary about a philosopher's quest for meaning in life? Woody Allen poses such engrossing questions in his pitch black comedy of upper middle class manners, "Crimes and Misdemeanors", his 25 year old masterpiece now available for the first time in a limited Twilight Time Blu-ray.Woody has been nominated 16 times for screenplay Oscars, and has won three: for "Annie Hall"(1977), "Hannah and Her Sisters"(1986) and "Midnight in Paris"(2011). Even in such celebrated company, "Crimes" stands out as the most penetrating and well knit of his New York based films as he explores the moral choices that define who his characters are and the course of their lives.While parallel story lines follow an extremely successful ophthalmologist (Martin Landau, in an Oscar nominated performance which is arguably his best) and a perennial failure of a documentary filmmaker (Woody himself, earning Best Director and Best Screenplay nominations) and their various romantic, sexual and familial relationships, no less than God himself figures prominently in the dialogue.Dr. Judah Rosenthal (Landau) finds his perfect seeming life upended by the demands of his mistress (Anjelica Huston), who morphs into a stalker when he tries to terminate their two year long affair. Driven to desperation because Dolores knows about his financial shenanigans ("Moving funds around isn't stealing") as well, he plots with his hard edged brother (Jerry Orbach), to arrange a contract killing. Before and after the killing, Judah grapples with his conscience and the possibility of getting caught. In one of several soulful conversations with his life long friend Ben (Sam Waterston), a rabbi on the verge of blindness, Judah proclaims that "God is a luxury I can't afford." In his fevered imagination, he interrogates his family members, especially his socialist aunt, at a long ago seder, raising profound moral and religious questions. His father espouses his belief in God, even over truth and expresses his governing credo: "the eyes of God are on us always." Judah, however, is determined to put aside the guilt associated with the murder he orchestrated and continue with his life as if nothing had ever happened.Cliff, the documentary filmmaker, finds his job has been cancelled when the media mogul sees footage linking him to Mussolini; his ice princess of a wife, Wendy Stern (Joanna Gleason), who hasn't slept with him in the year since the anniversary of Hitler's birthday, has "found someone" as she says to her brother, the media mogul (Alan Alda) and the film producer (Mia Farrow, when the mutual flame burned hot) with whom Cliff has fallen in love, rejects him for the media mogul. The philosophy professor, whose search for meaning in what he fears is a cold and indifferent universe has been life-affirming, leaves a suicide note, saying simply, "I went out the window."What's left? Well, since this is a Woody Allen movie, there are always old movies, such as the ones that Cliff watches with his niece and those he watches with the film producer, in a room surrounded with film stock andcanisters. Expert use is made of clips from Hitchcock's "Mr. and Mrs. Smith"(1941), with the line "I've given you the best years of my life" echoing Dolores' complaint to Judah and "This Gun for Hire" (1942), in which a squeamish character objects to the mention of cat gut as a murder weapon.Old music also permeates the soundtrack of "Crimes"; Cole Porter and Irving Berlin hold sway alongside J.S.Bach and Franz Schubert.There is so much to enjoy in "Crimes", not the least of which is the evocative and perfectly lit cinematography of Sven Nykvist, the longtime medium of Ingmar Bergman, Woody's primal inspiration since the days of "Love and Death"(1975)."Crimes" is a perfect finale to a decade which began with "Manhattan"(1979) and embraced "The Purple Rose of Cairo"(1985), "Hannah and her Sisters" and "Radio Days"(1987). Savor the best video incarnation of "Crimes and Misdemeanors". Appreciate its brilliance. Just don't expect a laughfest, although the one liner, "the last time I was inside a woman, it was the Statue of Liberty", might cause you to choke on your popcorn, or Milkduds.

`Crimes and Misdemeanors' written and directed by Woody Allen may very well be Allen's best film to date. It is a straight drama with intermixed humor. It has no parody or self-reference like `Stardust Memories', it has no gimmicks like `Annie Hall', and it is not leadenly serious like `Interiors'. While this does not necessarily make it a better movie, it has what seems to be the largest `name' cast of all Allen's works, even though he is able to attract `name' actors like flies to honey. It even has a real plot where events early in the movie create situations to which you expect a resolution by the time the credits roll.There is a very neat symmetry between two parallel series of events in the movie. The parallelism and it's nature are signaled by the title and the promise is realized far better than other works with similar titles. The liner notes compare the subject in this movie with `Love and Death', but I think the comparison is strained at best. The real issues in this movie are guilt and loss.The Crime is the murder of Landau's mistress (Angelica Houston) arranged by Landau's brother (Jerry Orbach), a gangster with access to contract killers. The motive for the murder is fact that the mistress has become impatient in her expectation that Landau will leave his wife (Claire Bloom) and threatens to reveal the infidelity to Bloom and the world. What makes the risk to Landau even greater is that he is a very successful and wealthy doctor of ophthalmology who has contributed much to local hospitals and other charities.The Misdemeanor is the dalliance of Allen's character with his assistant (Mia Farrow) while his marriage with wife Joanna Gleason is souring. The connection between Allen and Landau is based on the fact that one of Gleason's brothers is a rabbi (Sam Waterston) who is going blind and is being treated by Ophthalmologist Landau. The misdemeanor plot is enriched by Gleason's other brother, a highly successful television producer gloriously played with great ambiguity by Alan Alda's slipping between attractive and unattractive traits as easily as a duck takes to water.Allen is a marginally successful documentary filmmaker whose great ambition is to do a documentary on the life of a philosopher (probably a professor at NYU, loosely based perhaps on Sydney Hook). He is hooked up with Alda's TV producer to do a biographical documentary on the producer's career for PBS. Alda recommends Allen to PBS only as a favor to his sister.While the events leading to the `Crime' causes intense guilt and remorse on the part of Landau, his connection to the crime goes undetected by the police and he wakes up one morning with his sense of guilt lifted from his shoulders. The irony is that Allen's trivial misdemeanor is published by his loosing his wife, loosing his contract to do the documentary for the producer, and loosing his potential romantic interest (Farrow) to Alda.I'm reluctant to give away much more of the plots, but I will say that the events are shot through with this kind of irony, including the fact that while Landau gets off Scott free, the rabbi, a totally virtuous character, goes blind. On top of this, the two principles are depicted in such a way that you admire the criminal, Landau and feel little sympathy for his victim or the inept, nebbish filmmaker who gets the short end of the stick from all his colleagues and relatives.And through all of this, there is a finely crafted vein of humor, including a little aphorism from Alda on the nature of humor when he says that `If it bends, its funny. If it breaks, it's not'.This movie twists and turns and bends and threatens to break, and never does. Truly one of Allen's best!.

This is a chilling reminder of how a heinous crime can be committed to cover up and written off mentally to maintain a lifestyle of the rich and famous.

Woody Allen is a dedicated small documentary producer in a troubled marriage. His brother-in-law (played with great verve by Alan Alda) is a successful but obnoxious producer with an eye for the ladies. Meantime, Martin Balsam, also successful, has painted himself into a corner by succumbing to the charms of a determined stewardess who insists he abandon his family to start a new life with her. These lives, and others, overlap and the outcome is NOT what you expect. Dark and cynical, Allen shows again he can poke fun at himself and tell a great yarn at the same time. Note these classic lines: 'What good is the law, when I can't get justice?' or 'God is a luxury I cannot afford.'

Certains harcèlements -d'où qu'ils viennent peuvent mener au crime. C'est le cas dans ce film.

this Woody Allen movie is often overlooked, I think it is one of his best, two parallel stories, one with Martin Landau as a successful eye doctor driven to extreme measures to preserve his stable family life from hounding threats to expose him and blackmail him by his neurotic mistress, superbly played by Angelica Houston, there are no laughs in this story, just engrossing and gripping drama, the other parallel story is classic Woody Allen, he plays a documentary film maker, down on his luck, he is given a job as a favour by the brother of his wife, this hapless and hilarious experience is cleverly intercut with the Landau story to great effect. I would highly recommend this film, it is thought provoking and asks some quite deep questions about morality and murder, some very snappy clever dialogue as you would expect from a Woody Allen movie. I already had the DVD but have just bought the newly released Blu ray version which is a huge improvement on picture quality from the DVD. Highly recommended.

Great acting performances, darkly funny and quirky!! This is a classic Woody Allen film :).

The dvd was in good condition and arrived quickly. I would buy from this seller again.