Another Woman

Another Woman is a Bergmanesque (cinematography is by Bergman's DOP, Sven Nykvist and thematically the film owes a good deal to Bergman’s Wild Strawberries) autumnal-toned representation of middle-aged, middle class alienation in which Allen eschews the jokes and goes for serious reflection with Gena Rowlands in the lead as a woman facing the emptiness of her well-ordered life.

A professor of philosophy, she is writing a book and to find a quiet space to do so rents an office in a downtown Manhattan building. One day she realizes that she can hear every word of a therapy session taking place in the office of a psychiatrist next door in which a woman (Mia Farrow) is revealing her innermost anxieties. Eavesdropping, the sessions become a catalyst for her examination of her own life.

It is a neatly convenient premise for the director to explore his ideas about authentic and inauthentic living and is much more successful in this respect than the tonally similar September of the previous year and even more so than Allen’s first attempt at doing Bergman, Interiors (1978),  Heading up a typically fine ensemble cast that includes Gene Hackman and Ian Holm, Rowlands is excellent in the lead role.

 

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