Interiors movie storyline. Homage to Ingmar Bergman in this family drama involving a fashionable Long Island interior designer who tries to impose her overbearing, critical standards on her husband and her three grown daughters.
The film is a realistic look at the relationships among one artistically-oriented family; one daughter is a successful writer; the second is looking for an artistic outlet; and the third is an actress. The mother has been deserted by her husband, their father. She thinks and hopes they may reconcile, but she soon learns that he has other thoughts that circle about a new acquaintance, a woman who has had two husbands and is still lively.
Interiors is a 1978 drama film written and directed by Woody Allen. Featured performers are Kristin Griffith, Mary Beth Hurt, Richard Jordan, Diane Keaton, E. G. Marshall, Geraldine Page, Maureen Stapleton and Sam Waterston.
Page received a BAFTA Film Award for Best Supporting Actress and was nominated for an Oscar for Best Actress. The film received four other Oscar nominations, two for Allen’s screenplay and direction, one for Stapleton as Best Actress in a Supporting Role and another for Mel Bourne and Daniel Robert for their art direction and set decoration. It is Allen’s first fully-fledged film in the drama genre.
About the Story
The film centers on the three children of the narcissistic Arthur (E. G. Marshall), a corporate attorney, and Eve (Geraldine Page), an interior decorator. Renata (Diane Keaton) is a poet whose husband Frederick, a struggling writer, feels eclipsed by her success. Flyn (Kristin Griffith) is a vain actress who is away most of the time filming; the low quality of her films is an object of ridicule behind her back. Joey (Mary Beth Hurt), who is in a relationship with Mike (Sam Waterston), cannot settle on a career, and resents her mother for favoring Renata, while Renata resents their father’s concern over Joey’s lack of direction.
One morning, Arthur unexpectedly announces that he wants a separation from his wife and would like to live alone. Eve, who is clinically depressed, attempts suicide. The shock of these two events causes a rift among the sisters. Arthur returns from a trip to Greece with Pearl (Maureen Stapleton), a high-spirited and more “normal” woman, whom he intends to marry. His daughters are disturbed that Arthur would disregard Eve’s suicide attempt and find another woman, to whom Joey refers as a “vulgarian”.
Arthur and Pearl marry at Arthur and Eve’s former summer home, with Renata, Joey and Flyn in attendance. Later in the evening, Joey lashes out at Pearl when Pearl accidentally breaks one of Eve’s vases. In the middle of the night, Frederick drunkenly attempts to rape Flyn. Meanwhile, Joey finds Eve in the house, and sadly explains how much she has given up for her mother, and how disdainfully she is treated. Eve walks out onto the beach and into the surf. Joey attempts unsuccessfully to save Eve, but almost herself drowns in the attempt. She in turn is rescued by Mike and pulled to shore where Pearl resuscitates her with artificial respiration.
Interiors (1978)
Directed by: Woody Allen
Starring: Geraldine Page, Diane Keaton, Mary Beth Hurt, Kristin Griffith, Richard Jordan, E. G. Marshall, Maureen Stapleton, Sam Waterston, Missy Hope, Kerry Duffy, Nancy Collins
Screenplay by: Woody Allen
Production Design by: Mel Bourne
Cinematography by: Gordon Willis
Film Editing by: Ralph Rosenblum
Costume Design by: Joel Schumacher
Set Decoration by: Mario Mazzola, Daniel Robert
MPAA Rating: None.
Distributed by: United Artists
Release Date: August 2, 1978
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