Hannah and Her Sisters
Encyclopedia
Hannah and Her Sisters is a 1986 American comedy-drama film which tells the intertwined stories of an extended family over two years that begin and end with a family Thanksgiving dinner. The movie was written and directed by Woody Allen
, who stars along with Mia Farrow
as Hannah, Michael Caine
as her husband, and Barbara Hershey
and Dianne Wiest
as her sisters.
The film's ensemble cast also includes Carrie Fisher
, Maureen O'Sullivan
, Lloyd Nolan
, Max von Sydow
, and Julie Kavner
. Daniel Stern
, Richard Jenkins
, Fred Melamed
, Lewis Black
, Joanna Gleason
, John Turturro
, and Julia Louis-Dreyfus
all have minor roles, as do Tony Roberts
and Sam Waterston
, who have uncredited cameo appearances. Several of Farrow's children, including a pre-adolescent Soon-Yi Previn
, have credited and uncredited roles, mostly as Thanksgiving extras
.
The film was for a long time Allen's biggest box office hit, without adjusting for inflation, with a North American gross of US$41 million. Adjusted for inflation it falls behind Annie Hall
and Manhattan
, and possibly also one or two of his early comedies. Hannah and Her Sisters won both Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor
and Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress
, the first movie to win both supporting actor awards since Julia in 1977, nearly nine years before. Midnight in Paris
recently surpassed Hannah and her Sisters' box office, with upwards of $48 million taken in, while it is still in theaters.
s, with almost all of it occurring during a 12-month period beginning and ending at Thanksgiving
parties hosted by Hannah (Mia Farrow
) and her husband, Elliot (Michael Caine
). Hannah serves as the stalwart hub of the narrative; her own story as a successful actress (a recent success as Nora in A Doll's House
) is somewhat secondary, but most of the events of the film connect to her.
An adulterous
romance between Elliot and one of Hannah's sisters, Lee (Barbara Hershey
), provides the main romantic entanglement of the film. Elliot attributes this to his discontent with his wife's self-sufficiency and resentment of her emotional strength. Lee has lived for five years with a reclusive artist, Frederick (Max von Sydow
), who is much older. She finds her relationship with Frederick no longer intellectually or sexually stimulating, in spite of (or maybe because of) Frederick's professed interest in continuing to teach her. She leaves Frederick, much to his sorrow (for he has grown dependent upon her), and has a secret affair with Elliot lasting for many months.
Mickey, another of Allen's neurotic characters, provides comic relief. Parts of his story are scenes from his previous marriage to Hannah and his horrible date with her cocaine-addicted sister Holly (Dianne Wiest
), shown in flashbacks; indeed, except for that one brief scene with Hannah, the only character from the main story he interacts with is Holly. Mickey's main story is one of a hypochondria
c confronting the possibility of an actual serious disease, but which turns out to be nothing. After a clean bill of health, he quits his job as a television producer and has an existential crisis
that leads to unsatisfying experiments with religious conversion
to Catholicism
and Krishna Consciousness. Ultimately, filled with the meaninglessness of life, he decides to commit suicide by rifle but narrowly misses shooting himself by accident as he holds the weapon. This causes him to take a long walk. He aimlessly stumbles into a theater, which is coincidentally showing the Marx Brothers
' Duck Soup (part of the 'joyous' declaration of war sequence is featured), and the film helps to remind him why life is worth living. The revelation helps to prepare him for a second date with Holly, which this time blossoms quickly (and mostly off-screen) into love and marriage.
Holly's story is the film's third main arc. She's an unsuccessful actress who flits from thing to thing in a desperate search for purpose in life and success. She dabbles in a catering business, funded by Hannah, but she ends up competing with April (Carrie Fisher
), her business partner and a fellow actress, for acting parts and a man (Sam Waterston
), ending with Holly giving up both. She decides to try her hand at writing. The career change forces her once again to borrow money from Hannah, a dependency Hannah perhaps welcomes and Holly resents. She writes a script inspired by Hannah and Elliot, greatly upsetting Hannah, who feels it is insulting to her and that it also reveals too much of her private life, and Hannah is puzzled by how Holly can know so much about her private life. In reality, Holly's information comes from Lee, who learned it from her secret lover, Elliot, a fact that threatens to expose the affair. Holly then sets aside her script due to Hannah's objections, and instead writes a story inspired by her own life, which Mickey reads and admires greatly, vowing to help her get it produced and leading to their first date.
A minor arc in the film tells part of the story of Norma and Evan (played by Maureen O'Sullivan
, Mia Farrow's actual mother, and Lloyd Nolan
, who were both in Never Too Late
20 years earlier). They are Hannah's parents, who still have acting careers of their own, careers disrupted at times by Norma's alcoholism
. Evan's flirtation and piano playing provide part of the entertainment during the Thanksgiving get-togethers.
By the time of the film's second Thanksgiving Lee has ended her affair with Elliot and married someone she met while taking classes at Columbia
. In a final coda
-like act, another year has elapsed and the film ends happily for the three sisters, now all married, and infertile Mickey has somehow impregnated his new wife Holly.
Part of the film's structure and background is borrowed from Ingmar Bergman
's Fanny and Alexander
. In both films, a large theatrical family gather for three successive year's celebrations (Thanksgiving in Allen's film, Christmas in Bergman's). The first of each gathering is in a time of contentment, the second in a time of trouble, and the third showing what happens after the resolution of the troubles. The sudden appearance of Holly's reflection behind Mickey's in the closing scene also parallels the apparition behind Alexander of the Bishop's ghost.
movies.
The film was screened out of competition at the 1986 Cannes Film Festival
.
nominations including Best Picture
. Woody Allen received two Academy Award nominations, winning one for Best Screenplay, Original and he earned a nomination for Best Director. His work on the film was also recognized with two BAFTA Awards.
Both Michael Caine
and Dianne Wiest
each won the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor
and Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress
, for their performances as Elliot and Holly, respectively. Hannah and Her Sisters was the last film to win in both supporting acting categories until The Fighter
in 2011. The film was also Oscar-nominated for Best Art Direction-Set Decoration
, and Best Film Editing
.
In France, the film was nominated for a César Award for Best Foreign Film
.
Critics Siskel and Ebert each rated the film among the top three of the 1986 film year
; Ebert's 1986 review of the film called it "the best movie [Woody Allen] has ever made."
The American Film Institute
nominated the film for ranking on the 1997 list of the 100 greatest movies, the list of the 100 funniest movies and the list of the 100 greatest love stories.
Welsh
band Mclusky
references the title of the movie in their 2003 song, "Undress for Success."
Woody Allen
Woody Allen is an American screenwriter, director, actor, comedian, jazz musician, author, and playwright. Allen's films draw heavily on literature, sexuality, philosophy, psychology, Jewish identity, and the history of cinema...
, who stars along with Mia Farrow
Mia Farrow
Mia Farrow is an American actress, singer, humanitarian, and fashion model.Farrow first gained wide acclaim for her role as Allison Mackenzie in the soap opera Peyton Place, and for her subsequent short-lived marriage to Frank Sinatra...
as Hannah, Michael Caine
Michael Caine
Sir Michael Caine, CBE is an English actor. He won Academy Awards for best supporting actor in both Hannah and Her Sisters and The Cider House Rules ....
as her husband, and Barbara Hershey
Barbara Hershey
Barbara Hershey , also known as Barbara Seagull, is an American actress. In a career spanning nearly 50 years, she has played a variety of roles on television and in cinema, in several genres including westerns and comedies...
and Dianne Wiest
Dianne Wiest
Dianne Wiest is an American actress. She has had a successful career on stage, television, and film, and has won two Academy Awards, two Emmy Awards and a Golden Globe Award. Wiest has also been nominated for a BAFTA Award.-Early life:...
as her sisters.
The film's ensemble cast also includes Carrie Fisher
Carrie Fisher
Carrie Frances Fisher is an American actress, novelist, screenwriter, and lecturer. She is most famous for her portrayal of Princess Leia in the original Star Wars trilogy, her bestselling novel Postcards from the Edge, for which she wrote the screenplay to the film of the same name, and her...
, Maureen O'Sullivan
Maureen O'Sullivan
Maureen Paula O’Sullivan was an Irish actress.-Early life:O'Sullivan was born in Boyle, County Roscommon, Ireland, the daughter of Roman Catholic parents Mary Lovatt and Charles Joseph O'Sullivan, an officer in The Connaught Rangers who served in The Great War...
, Lloyd Nolan
Lloyd Nolan
Lloyd Benedict Nolan was an American film and television actor.-Biography:Nolan was born in San Francisco, California, the son of Margaret and James Nolan, who was a shoe manufacturer...
, Max von Sydow
Max von Sydow
Max von Sydow is a Swedish actor. He has also held French citizenship since 2002. He has starred in many films and had supporting roles in dozens more...
, and Julie Kavner
Julie Kavner
Julie Deborah Kavner is an American film and television actress, comedian and voice artist. Noted for her role as Marge Simpson on the animated television series The Simpsons, she also voices other characters for the show, including Jacqueline Bouvier, and Patty and Selma Bouvier.Born in Los...
. Daniel Stern
Daniel Stern (actor)
Daniel Jacob Stern is an American film and television actor. He is known for his roles in the Hollywood films C.H.U.D., Diner, City Slickers and the first two Home Alone films, and as the narrator for the television series The Wonder Years.-Early life:Stern was born in Bethesda, Maryland to a...
, Richard Jenkins
Richard Jenkins
Richard Dale Jenkins is an American stage, film, and television actor. After beginning his career in theatre, Jenkins made his film debut in 1974, and appeared in supporting roles in numerous film productions in the 1980s and the 1990s. His breakthrough came in the 2000s for playing the deceased...
, Fred Melamed
Fred Melamed
Fred Melamed is a U.S. actor and writer.He was born in New York City, and received his theatrical training at Hampshire College and the Yale School of Drama. At Yale, he was a Samuel F. B. Morse College Graduate Fellow. He was also a nominee for the Irene Ryan Award, a prize conferred upon the...
, Lewis Black
Lewis Black
Lewis Niles Black is an American stand-up comedian, author, playwright, social critic and actor. He is known for his comedy style, which often includes simulating a mental breakdown, or an increasingly angry rant, ridiculing history, politics, religion, trends and cultural phenomena...
, Joanna Gleason
Joanna Gleason
Joanna Gleason is a Canadian actress and singer. She is a Tony Award-winning musical theatre actress and has also had a number of notable film and TV roles.-Early life:...
, John Turturro
John Turturro
John Michael Turturro is an American actor, writer and director known for his roles in the films Do the Right Thing , Miller's Crossing , Barton Fink , Quiz Show , The Big Lebowski , O Brother, Where Art Thou? and the Transformers film series...
, and Julia Louis-Dreyfus
Julia Louis-Dreyfus
Julia Scarlett Elizabeth Louis-Dreyfus is an American actress and comedienne, widely known for her sitcom roles in Seinfeld and The New Adventures of Old Christine....
all have minor roles, as do Tony Roberts
Tony Roberts (actor)
David Anthony "Tony" Roberts is an American actor. He is best known for his roles in several Woody Allen movies, usually cast as Allen's best friend.-Early life:...
and Sam Waterston
Sam Waterston
Samuel Atkinson "Sam" Waterston is an American actor and occasional producer and director. Among other roles, he is noted for his Academy Award-nominated portrayal of Sydney Schanberg in 1984's The Killing Fields, and his Golden Globe- and Screen Actors Guild Award-winning portrayal of Jack McCoy...
, who have uncredited cameo appearances. Several of Farrow's children, including a pre-adolescent Soon-Yi Previn
Soon-Yi Previn
Soon-Yi Previn or Soon-Yi Farrow is an American actress and wife of film director Woody Allen.-Early life and adoption:...
, have credited and uncredited roles, mostly as Thanksgiving extras
Extra (actor)
A background actor or extra is a performer in a film, television show, stage, musical, opera or ballet production, who appears in a nonspeaking, nonsinging or nondancing capacity, usually in the background...
.
The film was for a long time Allen's biggest box office hit, without adjusting for inflation, with a North American gross of US$41 million. Adjusted for inflation it falls behind Annie Hall
Annie Hall
Annie Hall is a 1977 American romantic comedy directed by Woody Allen from a screenplay co-written with Marshall Brickman and co-starring Diane Keaton. One of Allen's most popular and most honored films, it won four Academy Awards including Best Picture...
and Manhattan
Manhattan (film)
Manhattan is a 1979 American romantic comedy-drama film directed by Woody Allen about a twice-divorced 42-year-old comedy writer who dates a 17-year-old girl before eventually falling in love with his best friend's mistress...
, and possibly also one or two of his early comedies. Hannah and Her Sisters won both Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor
Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor
Performance by an Actor in a Supporting Role is one of the Academy Awards of Merit presented annually by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences to recognize an actor who has delivered an outstanding performance while working within the film industry. Since its inception, however, the...
and Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress
Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress
Performance by an Actress in a Supporting Role is one of the Academy Awards of Merit presented annually by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences to recognize an actress who has delivered an outstanding performance while working within the film industry. Since its inception, however, the...
, the first movie to win both supporting actor awards since Julia in 1977, nearly nine years before. Midnight in Paris
Midnight in Paris
Midnight in Paris is a 2011 romantic comedy-fantasy film written and directed by Woody Allen. The plot centers on a small group of Americans visiting the French capital for business and pleasure...
recently surpassed Hannah and her Sisters' box office, with upwards of $48 million taken in, while it is still in theaters.
Plot
The story is told in three main arcStory arc
A story arc is an extended or continuing storyline in episodic storytelling media such as television, comic books, comic strips, boardgames, video games, and in some cases, films. On a television program, for example, the story would unfold over many episodes. In television, the use of the story...
s, with almost all of it occurring during a 12-month period beginning and ending at Thanksgiving
Thanksgiving
Thanksgiving Day is a holiday celebrated primarily in the United States and Canada. Thanksgiving is celebrated each year on the second Monday of October in Canada and on the fourth Thursday of November in the United States. In Canada, Thanksgiving falls on the same day as Columbus Day in the...
parties hosted by Hannah (Mia Farrow
Mia Farrow
Mia Farrow is an American actress, singer, humanitarian, and fashion model.Farrow first gained wide acclaim for her role as Allison Mackenzie in the soap opera Peyton Place, and for her subsequent short-lived marriage to Frank Sinatra...
) and her husband, Elliot (Michael Caine
Michael Caine
Sir Michael Caine, CBE is an English actor. He won Academy Awards for best supporting actor in both Hannah and Her Sisters and The Cider House Rules ....
). Hannah serves as the stalwart hub of the narrative; her own story as a successful actress (a recent success as Nora in A Doll's House
A Doll's House
A Doll's House is a three-act play in prose by the Norwegian playwright Henrik Ibsen. It premièred at the Royal Theatre in Copenhagen, Denmark, on 21 December 1879, having been published earlier that month....
) is somewhat secondary, but most of the events of the film connect to her.
An adulterous
Adultery
Adultery is sexual infidelity to one's spouse, and is a form of extramarital sex. It originally referred only to sex between a woman who was married and a person other than her spouse. Even in cases of separation from one's spouse, an extramarital affair is still considered adultery.Adultery is...
romance between Elliot and one of Hannah's sisters, Lee (Barbara Hershey
Barbara Hershey
Barbara Hershey , also known as Barbara Seagull, is an American actress. In a career spanning nearly 50 years, she has played a variety of roles on television and in cinema, in several genres including westerns and comedies...
), provides the main romantic entanglement of the film. Elliot attributes this to his discontent with his wife's self-sufficiency and resentment of her emotional strength. Lee has lived for five years with a reclusive artist, Frederick (Max von Sydow
Max von Sydow
Max von Sydow is a Swedish actor. He has also held French citizenship since 2002. He has starred in many films and had supporting roles in dozens more...
), who is much older. She finds her relationship with Frederick no longer intellectually or sexually stimulating, in spite of (or maybe because of) Frederick's professed interest in continuing to teach her. She leaves Frederick, much to his sorrow (for he has grown dependent upon her), and has a secret affair with Elliot lasting for many months.
Mickey, another of Allen's neurotic characters, provides comic relief. Parts of his story are scenes from his previous marriage to Hannah and his horrible date with her cocaine-addicted sister Holly (Dianne Wiest
Dianne Wiest
Dianne Wiest is an American actress. She has had a successful career on stage, television, and film, and has won two Academy Awards, two Emmy Awards and a Golden Globe Award. Wiest has also been nominated for a BAFTA Award.-Early life:...
), shown in flashbacks; indeed, except for that one brief scene with Hannah, the only character from the main story he interacts with is Holly. Mickey's main story is one of a hypochondria
Hypochondria
Hypochondriasis or hypochondria refers to excessive preoccupation or worry about having a serious illness. This debilitating condition is the result of an inaccurate perception of the body’s condition despite the absence of an actual medication condition...
c confronting the possibility of an actual serious disease, but which turns out to be nothing. After a clean bill of health, he quits his job as a television producer and has an existential crisis
Angst
Angst is an English, German, Danish, Norwegian and Dutch word for fear or anxiety . It is used in English to describe an intense feeling of apprehension, anxiety or inner turmoil...
that leads to unsatisfying experiments with religious conversion
Religious conversion
Religious conversion is the adoption of a new religion that differs from the convert's previous religion. Changing from one denomination to another within the same religion is usually described as reaffiliation rather than conversion.People convert to a different religion for various reasons,...
to Catholicism
Catholicism
Catholicism is a broad term for the body of the Catholic faith, its theologies and doctrines, its liturgical, ethical, spiritual, and behavioral characteristics, as well as a religious people as a whole....
and Krishna Consciousness. Ultimately, filled with the meaninglessness of life, he decides to commit suicide by rifle but narrowly misses shooting himself by accident as he holds the weapon. This causes him to take a long walk. He aimlessly stumbles into a theater, which is coincidentally showing the Marx Brothers
Marx Brothers
The Marx Brothers were an American family comedy act, originally from New York City, that enjoyed success in Vaudeville, Broadway, and motion pictures from the early 1900s to around 1950...
' Duck Soup (part of the 'joyous' declaration of war sequence is featured), and the film helps to remind him why life is worth living. The revelation helps to prepare him for a second date with Holly, which this time blossoms quickly (and mostly off-screen) into love and marriage.
Holly's story is the film's third main arc. She's an unsuccessful actress who flits from thing to thing in a desperate search for purpose in life and success. She dabbles in a catering business, funded by Hannah, but she ends up competing with April (Carrie Fisher
Carrie Fisher
Carrie Frances Fisher is an American actress, novelist, screenwriter, and lecturer. She is most famous for her portrayal of Princess Leia in the original Star Wars trilogy, her bestselling novel Postcards from the Edge, for which she wrote the screenplay to the film of the same name, and her...
), her business partner and a fellow actress, for acting parts and a man (Sam Waterston
Sam Waterston
Samuel Atkinson "Sam" Waterston is an American actor and occasional producer and director. Among other roles, he is noted for his Academy Award-nominated portrayal of Sydney Schanberg in 1984's The Killing Fields, and his Golden Globe- and Screen Actors Guild Award-winning portrayal of Jack McCoy...
), ending with Holly giving up both. She decides to try her hand at writing. The career change forces her once again to borrow money from Hannah, a dependency Hannah perhaps welcomes and Holly resents. She writes a script inspired by Hannah and Elliot, greatly upsetting Hannah, who feels it is insulting to her and that it also reveals too much of her private life, and Hannah is puzzled by how Holly can know so much about her private life. In reality, Holly's information comes from Lee, who learned it from her secret lover, Elliot, a fact that threatens to expose the affair. Holly then sets aside her script due to Hannah's objections, and instead writes a story inspired by her own life, which Mickey reads and admires greatly, vowing to help her get it produced and leading to their first date.
A minor arc in the film tells part of the story of Norma and Evan (played by Maureen O'Sullivan
Maureen O'Sullivan
Maureen Paula O’Sullivan was an Irish actress.-Early life:O'Sullivan was born in Boyle, County Roscommon, Ireland, the daughter of Roman Catholic parents Mary Lovatt and Charles Joseph O'Sullivan, an officer in The Connaught Rangers who served in The Great War...
, Mia Farrow's actual mother, and Lloyd Nolan
Lloyd Nolan
Lloyd Benedict Nolan was an American film and television actor.-Biography:Nolan was born in San Francisco, California, the son of Margaret and James Nolan, who was a shoe manufacturer...
, who were both in Never Too Late
Never Too Late (1965 film)
Never Too Late is a 1965 film directed by Bud Yorkin. Filmed in Concord, MA in 1964 and 1965.In IMDB, the plot summary is as follows:"Middle-aged Harry lives comfortably with his wife Edith and his daughter and her husband. Though rather sour and a bit mean, he is in fact content. So when Edith...
20 years earlier). They are Hannah's parents, who still have acting careers of their own, careers disrupted at times by Norma's alcoholism
Alcoholism
Alcoholism is a broad term for problems with alcohol, and is generally used to mean compulsive and uncontrolled consumption of alcoholic beverages, usually to the detriment of the drinker's health, personal relationships, and social standing...
. Evan's flirtation and piano playing provide part of the entertainment during the Thanksgiving get-togethers.
By the time of the film's second Thanksgiving Lee has ended her affair with Elliot and married someone she met while taking classes at Columbia
Columbia University
Columbia University in the City of New York is a private, Ivy League university in Manhattan, New York City. Columbia is the oldest institution of higher learning in the state of New York, the fifth oldest in the United States, and one of the country's nine Colonial Colleges founded before the...
. In a final coda
Coda (music)
Coda is a term used in music in a number of different senses, primarily to designate a passage that brings a piece to an end. Technically, it is an expanded cadence...
-like act, another year has elapsed and the film ends happily for the three sisters, now all married, and infertile Mickey has somehow impregnated his new wife Holly.
Part of the film's structure and background is borrowed from Ingmar Bergman
Ingmar Bergman
Ernst Ingmar Bergman was a Swedish director, writer and producer for film, stage and television. Described by Woody Allen as "probably the greatest film artist, all things considered, since the invention of the motion picture camera", he is recognized as one of the most accomplished and...
's Fanny and Alexander
Fanny and Alexander
Fanny and Alexander is a 1982 Swedish fantasy drama film written and directed by Ingmar Bergman. It was originally conceived as a four-part TV movie and cut in that version, spanning 312 minutes. A 188-minute version was created later for cinematic release, although this version was in fact the...
. In both films, a large theatrical family gather for three successive year's celebrations (Thanksgiving in Allen's film, Christmas in Bergman's). The first of each gathering is in a time of contentment, the second in a time of trouble, and the third showing what happens after the resolution of the troubles. The sudden appearance of Holly's reflection behind Mickey's in the closing scene also parallels the apparition behind Alexander of the Bishop's ghost.
Cast and roles
- Mia FarrowMia FarrowMia Farrow is an American actress, singer, humanitarian, and fashion model.Farrow first gained wide acclaim for her role as Allison Mackenzie in the soap opera Peyton Place, and for her subsequent short-lived marriage to Frank Sinatra...
as Hannah - Barbara HersheyBarbara HersheyBarbara Hershey , also known as Barbara Seagull, is an American actress. In a career spanning nearly 50 years, she has played a variety of roles on television and in cinema, in several genres including westerns and comedies...
as Lee - Dianne WiestDianne WiestDianne Wiest is an American actress. She has had a successful career on stage, television, and film, and has won two Academy Awards, two Emmy Awards and a Golden Globe Award. Wiest has also been nominated for a BAFTA Award.-Early life:...
as Holly - Michael CaineMichael CaineSir Michael Caine, CBE is an English actor. He won Academy Awards for best supporting actor in both Hannah and Her Sisters and The Cider House Rules ....
as Elliot - Woody AllenWoody AllenWoody Allen is an American screenwriter, director, actor, comedian, jazz musician, author, and playwright. Allen's films draw heavily on literature, sexuality, philosophy, psychology, Jewish identity, and the history of cinema...
as Mickey Sachs - Carrie FisherCarrie FisherCarrie Frances Fisher is an American actress, novelist, screenwriter, and lecturer. She is most famous for her portrayal of Princess Leia in the original Star Wars trilogy, her bestselling novel Postcards from the Edge, for which she wrote the screenplay to the film of the same name, and her...
as April - Maureen O'SullivanMaureen O'SullivanMaureen Paula O’Sullivan was an Irish actress.-Early life:O'Sullivan was born in Boyle, County Roscommon, Ireland, the daughter of Roman Catholic parents Mary Lovatt and Charles Joseph O'Sullivan, an officer in The Connaught Rangers who served in The Great War...
as Norma - Lloyd NolanLloyd NolanLloyd Benedict Nolan was an American film and television actor.-Biography:Nolan was born in San Francisco, California, the son of Margaret and James Nolan, who was a shoe manufacturer...
as Evan - Max von SydowMax von SydowMax von Sydow is a Swedish actor. He has also held French citizenship since 2002. He has starred in many films and had supporting roles in dozens more...
as Frederick - Daniel SternDaniel Stern (actor)Daniel Jacob Stern is an American film and television actor. He is known for his roles in the Hollywood films C.H.U.D., Diner, City Slickers and the first two Home Alone films, and as the narrator for the television series The Wonder Years.-Early life:Stern was born in Bethesda, Maryland to a...
as Dusty - Julie KavnerJulie KavnerJulie Deborah Kavner is an American film and television actress, comedian and voice artist. Noted for her role as Marge Simpson on the animated television series The Simpsons, she also voices other characters for the show, including Jacqueline Bouvier, and Patty and Selma Bouvier.Born in Los...
as Gail
- Fred MelamedFred MelamedFred Melamed is a U.S. actor and writer.He was born in New York City, and received his theatrical training at Hampshire College and the Yale School of Drama. At Yale, he was a Samuel F. B. Morse College Graduate Fellow. He was also a nominee for the Irene Ryan Award, a prize conferred upon the...
as Dr. Grey - Joanna GleasonJoanna GleasonJoanna Gleason is a Canadian actress and singer. She is a Tony Award-winning musical theatre actress and has also had a number of notable film and TV roles.-Early life:...
as Carol - Bobby ShortBobby ShortRobert Waltrip "Bobby" Short was an American cabaret singer and pianist, best known for his interpretations of songs by popular composers of the first half of the 20th century such as Rodgers and Hart, Cole Porter, Jerome Kern, Harold Arlen, Vernon Duke, Noel Coward and George and Ira Gershwin.He...
as Himself - Lewis BlackLewis BlackLewis Niles Black is an American stand-up comedian, author, playwright, social critic and actor. He is known for his comedy style, which often includes simulating a mental breakdown, or an increasingly angry rant, ridiculing history, politics, religion, trends and cultural phenomena...
as Paul - Julia Louis-DreyfusJulia Louis-DreyfusJulia Scarlett Elizabeth Louis-Dreyfus is an American actress and comedienne, widely known for her sitcom roles in Seinfeld and The New Adventures of Old Christine....
as Mary - Christian ClemensonChristian ClemensonChristian Clemenson is an American film and television actor. He is well known for his portrayal of Jerry "Hands" Espenson in the television series Boston Legal, for which he won the 2006 Emmy Award for Best Guest Actor in a Drama Series.-Early life:Clemenson spent his childhood in Humboldt,...
as Larry - J. T. WalshJ. T. WalshJames Thomas Patrick "J. T." Walsh was an American character actor. He appeared in many well-known films, including Nixon, Hoffa, A Few Good Men, Backdraft, Miracle on 34th Street, Breakdown, and Good Morning, Vietnam.Walsh was known for his roles as "quietly sinister white-collar sleazeballs"...
as Ed Smythe - John TurturroJohn TurturroJohn Michael Turturro is an American actor, writer and director known for his roles in the films Do the Right Thing , Miller's Crossing , Barton Fink , Quiz Show , The Big Lebowski , O Brother, Where Art Thou? and the Transformers film series...
as Writer - Rusty MageeRusty MageeBenjamin Rush "Rusty" Magee was an accomplished composer and lyricist for theatre, television, and film and commercials.-Childhood and Education:...
as Ron - Sam WaterstonSam WaterstonSamuel Atkinson "Sam" Waterston is an American actor and occasional producer and director. Among other roles, he is noted for his Academy Award-nominated portrayal of Sydney Schanberg in 1984's The Killing Fields, and his Golden Globe- and Screen Actors Guild Award-winning portrayal of Jack McCoy...
as David
Box office
Hannah and Her Sisters opened on February 7, 1986 in 54 theatres, where it gained a stellar $1,265,826 ($23,441 per screen) in its opening weekend. When it expanded to 761 theatres on March 14, it garnered a less spectacular $2,707,966 ($3,809 per screen). Still, it went on to gross $40,084,041, and remains one of the highest-grossing Woody AllenWoody Allen
Woody Allen is an American screenwriter, director, actor, comedian, jazz musician, author, and playwright. Allen's films draw heavily on literature, sexuality, philosophy, psychology, Jewish identity, and the history of cinema...
movies.
The film was screened out of competition at the 1986 Cannes Film Festival
1986 Cannes Film Festival
- Jury :*Sydney Pollack*Alexandre Mnouchkine*Alexandre Trauner*Charles Aznavour*Danièle Thompson*István Szabó*Lino Brocka*Philip French*Sonia Braga*Tonino Delli Colli-Feature film competition:* After Hours by Martin Scorsese...
.
Critical reception
Hannah and Her Sisters received seven Academy AwardAcademy Awards
An Academy Award, also known as an Oscar, is an accolade bestowed by the American Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences to recognize excellence of professionals in the film industry, including directors, actors, and writers...
nominations including Best Picture
Academy Award for Best Picture
The Academy Award for Best Picture is one of the Academy Awards of Merit presented annually by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences to artists working in the motion picture industry. The Best Picture category is the only category in which every member of the Academy is eligible not only...
. Woody Allen received two Academy Award nominations, winning one for Best Screenplay, Original and he earned a nomination for Best Director. His work on the film was also recognized with two BAFTA Awards.
Both Michael Caine
Michael Caine
Sir Michael Caine, CBE is an English actor. He won Academy Awards for best supporting actor in both Hannah and Her Sisters and The Cider House Rules ....
and Dianne Wiest
Dianne Wiest
Dianne Wiest is an American actress. She has had a successful career on stage, television, and film, and has won two Academy Awards, two Emmy Awards and a Golden Globe Award. Wiest has also been nominated for a BAFTA Award.-Early life:...
each won the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor
Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor
Performance by an Actor in a Supporting Role is one of the Academy Awards of Merit presented annually by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences to recognize an actor who has delivered an outstanding performance while working within the film industry. Since its inception, however, the...
and Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress
Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress
Performance by an Actress in a Supporting Role is one of the Academy Awards of Merit presented annually by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences to recognize an actress who has delivered an outstanding performance while working within the film industry. Since its inception, however, the...
, for their performances as Elliot and Holly, respectively. Hannah and Her Sisters was the last film to win in both supporting acting categories until The Fighter
The Fighter
The Fighter is a 2010 biographical sports drama film directed by David O. Russell, and starring Mark Wahlberg, Christian Bale, Melissa Leo and Amy Adams. The film centers on the life of professional boxer "Irish" Micky Ward and his older half-brother Dicky Eklund . The film also stars Amy Adams as...
in 2011. The film was also Oscar-nominated for Best Art Direction-Set Decoration
Academy Award for Best Art Direction
The Academy Awards are the oldest awards ceremony for achievements in motion pictures. The Academy Award for Best Art Direction recognizes achievement in art direction on a film. The films below are listed with their production year, so the Oscar 2000 for best art direction went to a film from 1999...
, and Best Film Editing
Academy Award for Film Editing
The Academy Award for Film Editing is one of the annual awards of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. Nominations for this award are closely correlated with the Academy Award for Best Picture. Since 1981, every film selected as Best Picture has also been nominated for the Film Editing...
.
In France, the film was nominated for a César Award for Best Foreign Film
César Award for Best Foreign Film
This is the list of winners and nominees of the César Award for Best Foreign Film .-1970s:-1980s:-1990s:-2000s:-2010s:...
.
Critics Siskel and Ebert each rated the film among the top three of the 1986 film year
1986 in film
-Events:*April 12 - Actor Morgan Mason marries The Go-Go's Belinda Carlisle.*April 26 - Actor Arnold Schwarzenegger marries television journalist Maria Shriver.*May - Actress Heather Locklear marries Mötley Crüe drummer Tommy Lee....
; Ebert's 1986 review of the film called it "the best movie [Woody Allen] has ever made."
The American Film Institute
American Film Institute
The American Film Institute is an independent non-profit organization created by the National Endowment for the Arts, which was established in 1967 when President Lyndon B. Johnson signed the National Foundation on the Arts and the Humanities Act...
nominated the film for ranking on the 1997 list of the 100 greatest movies, the list of the 100 funniest movies and the list of the 100 greatest love stories.
Cultural references
The Mad Magazine parody of the film was titled "Henna and Her Sickos."Welsh
Welsh people
The Welsh people are an ethnic group and nation associated with Wales and the Welsh language.John Davies argues that the origin of the "Welsh nation" can be traced to the late 4th and early 5th centuries, following the Roman departure from Britain, although Brythonic Celtic languages seem to have...
band Mclusky
Mclusky
Mclusky , originally known as Best, were a three-piece post-hardcore group formed in Cardiff, Wales. The group consisted of Englishman Andy "Falco" Falkous from Newcastle Upon Tyne, Jonathan Chapple and Jack Egglestone , who replaced previous drummer Matthew Harding in late...
references the title of the movie in their 2003 song, "Undress for Success."
External links
- February 1986 review from Roger EbertRoger EbertRoger Joseph Ebert is an American film critic and screenwriter. He is the first film critic to win a Pulitzer Prize for Criticism.Ebert is known for his film review column and for the television programs Sneak Previews, At the Movies with Gene Siskel and Roger Ebert, and Siskel and Ebert and The...
- Film on IMDB
- Pageant Books and Prints Shop, website of the setting for a key early scene in the film