| "I have been young, and now am not too old; And I have seen the righteous forsaken, His health, his honour and his quality taken. This is not what we were formerly told". This is how the English poet Edmund Blunden addressed the philosophical question of why bad things happen to good people and vice versa . "Crimes and Misdemeanors" represents Woody Allen's attempt to tackle the same issue. Like this year's "Melinda and Melinda" it combines humorous and serious stories, but is a far better work. "Melinda and Melinda" suffers because its related <more> plot lines are artificially forced into the trite and over-schematic framework of a debate over dinner between two playwrights as to whether life is comic or tragic. Moreover, the supposedly "tragic" story seemed insufficiently serious to merit that description. "Crimes and Misdemeanors" has two plot lines; one, which may be thought of as "Crimes" tragic, the other, which may be thought of as "Misdemeanors", tragi-comic. The first concerns Judah Rosenthal, a successful New York ophthalmologist. Judah brilliantly played by Martin Landau is well-respected and regarded as a pillar of the community, but his private life is a mess. Unknown to his wife and family, Judah has been having an affair with Dolores, an air hostess. Dolores wants him to leave his wife for her; when he refuses to do so, Dolores threatens not only to inform his wife but also to reveal certain financial irregularities in his practice which could ruin his reputation. In order to silence Dolores, Judah turns to his brother Jack, a gangster with underworld connections, who offers to have her murdered. The other plot line concerns Clifford Stern, an idealistic but unsuccessful director of documentary films. Clifford is offered the job of directing the filmed biography of his own brother-in-law Lester, a successful producer. Under pressure from his wife, Clifford accepts, but only reluctantly as he despises the shallow, conceited and Philistine Lester. Clifford's own marriage is in trouble and during the making of the film he meets, and begins an affair with, Halley, Lester's assistant. Halley shares Clifford's idealism and they plan to make a documentary about Louis Levy, a philosopher whose work Clifford admires. This is one of Woody's darkest films, both physically and morally. Most of the action takes place in darkened interiors, and the predominant tones- browns, greys and dull yellows and oranges- are sombre. Morally, the film seems at least at first sight to reflect a world in which evil triumphs over good. Judah, after agreeing to Jack's suggestion that they should have Dolores murdered, is initially plagued by feelings of guilt, but as time passes and he realises that the police do not suspect him of involvement in the crime, these feelings fade away and he resumes his old life. Louis Levy commits suicide, which causes Clifford to doubt the optimistic, life-affirming philosophy he had taught. On a less serious level, Clifford is sacked from his job by the odious Lester, who even manages to seduce Halley away from him. The mood is lightened by occasional touches of characteristic Allen humour, mostly from Woody himself as Clifford, but much of this is of a dark, cynical nature, more so even than in most of his movies. "I don't know from suicide, y'know. Where I grew up in Brooklyn we were too unhappy to commit suicide". Yet the film is not, in my view, dominated by pessimism to the utter exclusion of all else. It is that rare thing, a Woody Allen film that takes a positive view of religion. Elsewhere, his attitude has generally been one of religious scepticism, such as in "Hannah and Her Sisters" where Woody's character, suffering from a crisis of existential angst, adopts several religions only to reject them all in favour of a "live for today" philosophy. Here, however, religious and secular views of life are contrasted, and not always to the detriment of the former. Woody has often used his Jewishness for comic effect; here he raises some more serious points about Jewish identity, as the religion-versus-secularism debate takes place in the context of Judaism rather than Christianity. Judah was brought up as an Orthodox Jew, but has rejected his religious faith in favour of a bleak, nihilistic world-view, unable to accept his father's idea that the eyes of God see everything. Images of the eye and of sight are important in this film . Some of the most important scenes in the film are the conversations between Judah and one of his patients, a Rabbi named Ben. Although Ben another very good performance from Sam Waterstone is slowly losing his sight, his religious faith enables him to bear the prospect of blindness with stoicism and he never loses his belief in a higher power or in an essential moral order in the universe. He may lose his sight in a physical sense, but in a moral sense he can see more clearly than any other character in the film. This is not a religious film in the sense that, say, "The Passion of the Christ" is a religious film. Woody is always too much of a pessimist ever to echo Blunden's conclusion that "Over there are faith, love, virtue in the sun". Nevertheless, it is a film which like two other great Woody films of the late eighties, "Hannah" and "The Purple Rose of Cairo" discusses themes of philosophical and theological import and one that acknowledges the power of faith in peoples' lives. What shall it profit a man if he gain the whole world and lose his soul? It is those who have succeeded in worldly terms, Judah and Lester, who have, metaphorically if not literally, lost their souls, whereas Ben and Clifford, less blessed by worldly success, have retained their integrity. 9/10 <less> |
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