less a film and more a collection of anecdotes about radio stars, radio listeners, and one Jewish family in 1940s New York that serves as the glue holding everything together. It is nostalgia done perfectly, and I say that as someone who did not grow up with any of this, who has no personal connection to the era, and yet felt completely warm and transported throughout.
I read somewhere that this is Woody essentially making a plea to the future, that by taking the time to honor the pop-culture experiences that moved and shaped him, he is reaching for some semblance of immortality, hoping someone will do the same for him down the road. I did not notice that while watching but reading it I found myself immediately inclined to agree. there is poignant underneath all the frivolity here, something that goes beyond mere happy-go-lucky reminiscence. for a man who has spent a career thinking about mortality, Radio Days is less obvious about it than many of his other films, but it is there.
the period is captured beautifully, the cinematography, the art direction, the sepia tones. It reminded me strongly of The Purple Rose of Cairo, which I think is set around the same era, and which gave me the same feeling of warmth and affection for a time I never lived through. there is something about the way Allen depicts this period that makes you want to exist inside it.
Mia Farrow was my standout. she plays a talentless cigarette girl with aspirations of becoming a radio actress, a very different personality type from anything I have seen her play in his other films, and she is completely memorable in it. but my standout scene belongs to the rooftop near the end, Woody puts this beautiful song on it and the camera pans slowly to the skyline. I felt like I was about to levitate. That is the only way I can describe it.
less a film and more a collection of anecdotes about radio stars, radio listeners, and one Jewish family in 1940s New York that serves as the glue holding everything together. It is nostalgia done perfectly, and I say that as someone who did not grow up with any of this, who has no personal connection to the era, and yet felt completely warm and transported throughout.
I read somewhere that this is Woody essentially making a plea to the future, that by taking the time to honor the pop-culture experiences that moved and shaped him, he is reaching for some semblance of immortality, hoping someone will do the same for him down the road. I did not notice that while watching but reading it I found myself immediately inclined to agree. there is poignant underneath all the frivolity here, something that goes beyond mere happy-go-lucky reminiscence. for a man who has spent a career thinking about mortality, Radio Days is less obvious about it than many of his other films, but it is there.
the period is captured beautifully, the cinematography, the art direction, the sepia tones. It reminded me strongly of The Purple Rose of Cairo, which I think is set around the same era, and which gave me the same feeling of warmth and affection for a time I never lived through. there is something about the way Allen depicts this period that makes you want to exist inside it.
Mia Farrow was my standout. she plays a talentless cigarette girl with aspirations of becoming a radio actress, a very different personality type from anything I have seen her play in his other films, and she is completely memorable in it. but my standout scene belongs to the rooftop near the end, Woody puts this beautiful song on it and the camera pans slowly to the skyline. I felt like I was about to levitate. That is the only way I can describe it.
