A Midsummer Night's Sex Comedy

Starring:Thomas Barbour, J. David Copeland, Tony Farentino, Mia Farrow, JosÃ© Ferrer, Sol Frieder, Julie Hagerty, Michael Higgins, Timothy Jenkins, Kate McGregor-Stewart, Adam Redfield, Tony Roberts, Moishe Rosenfeld, Mary Steenburgen, Boris Zoubok
Studio: MGM (Video & DVD)
Product Type: DVD

Amazon.com

In A Midsummer Night's Sex Comedy, Woody Allen mixes Shakespeare, Ingmar Bergman, and the music and art of the turn of the century. Allen plays Andrew, an inventor, whose listless marriage to Adrian (Mary Steenburgen) has lost all erotic zip. He welcomes two pairs of friends to his country home: college professor Leopold (José Ferrer) and his fiancée Ariel (Mia Farrow), and dentist Maxwell (Tony Roberts) and his suffragette nurse Dulcy (Julie Hagerty). Before long, everyone's lusting after everyone else's partner, and the plot twists and turns to a happy and magical conclusion. It's a light and airy film, perhaps a deliberate break from Allen's previous production, the caustic Stardust Memories; but the tone may also be due to his new relationship with Farrow, who went on to star in Allen's films for the next 10 years. --Bret Fetzer

Description

Teeming with all "the beauty of an impressionist painting" (The New York Times), A Midsummer Night's Sex Comedy is writer/director Woody Allen's "lightest and most sensual film" (L.A. Weekly) to date. Starring Allen, Mia Farrow (directed by Allen for the first time), Jose Ferrer, Julie Hagerty, Tony Roberts and Mary Steenburgen, A Midsummer Night's Sex Comedy is a dazzling, uproarious masterpiece from "America's best comic filmmaker" (The Film Journal)! Love is in the air and magic is afoot when turn-of-the-century inventor Andrew and his wife Adrian host a country wedding for the pompous philosopher Dr. Leopold and his young fiancÃ(c)e Ariel. But when Andrew's best friend, the randy Dr. Maxwell Jordan, and his lusty nurse Dulcy turn up for the festivities, the stage is soon set for thwarted seductions, mismatched mates and magical mayhem, as Maxwell falls for Ariel, Ariel seduces Andrew, Leopold beds Dulcyand the bride and groom say "I do"to everyone except each other!

Customer Reviews:

A Fun Film With Great Scenery.......2007-06-23

Filled with lush scenery, babbling brooks, and nighttime scenes, A Midsummer Night's Sex Comedy, from writer/director Woody Allen, is a fun and pleasant film. There are great laughs in this modern take on a classic comedy premise. The acting is fine, highlighted by Mia Farrow and Mary Steenburgen. As a nice piece of trivia, this marks the first time that Woody directed Mia Farrow. Tony Roberts is excellent in this movie. This is Woody-lite compared to the films that would follow. The film is well worth the minor time investment (just shy of an hour and a half) and is a recommended four stars.

Aesthetically Charming. .......2007-06-17

Not a lot of clash between myself and the other reviewers when it comes to this movie. This is a second tier Allen production and has none of the depth, feeling or ideas of Husbands and Wives or Manhattan. It's light but fun stuff. The value of a Midsummer's Night Sex Comedy revolves around its visual delights. These are wonderfully beautiful frames to gaze at and I'm sure most viewers longed to be transported to the beautiful natural scenery in which its set in the same way I did. Tony Roberts is very enjoyable here and I wish that Allen continued to make use of him in his later work. This is the only role in which I found Mia Farrow to be physically attractive as she was a solid and believable presence in the character Ariel. The plot's convoluted and light which makes for a humorous, breezy endeavor. It's a good time and this is unusual because that's not the way most of us feel about Woody's films. The theme is of infidelity and a little more infidelity after that so it's entirely expected and fits soundly within the rest of his oeuvre.

Light and Sensual Smile.......2007-02-20

Woody Allen's "Midsummer Night's Sex Comedy" that was made in 1982 between "Stardust Memory" (1980) and "Zelig"(1983) is considered by many as a lesser Allen's work or even failure. It was even nominated for a Razzie (Mia Farrow) for crying out loud. Well, failure or not, I'd take this silly, funny, humorous, beautifully photographed with Felix Mendelssohn's Symphony No. 3, Violin Concerto in E Minor, Piano Concerto No. 2 and "A Midsummer Night's Dream" suite for the soundtrack little treasure over the majority of Hollywood comedies any day or night including midsummer night. Spoofing Shakespeare's classic comedy and highly successful Ingmar Bergman's "Smiles of a Summer Night", Woody made a light comedy about six very different people - three couples in a turn-of-the-century who gathered together in a country during the weekend party in search for love, understanding and meaning of life and death which has his own unique style. Allen does not take things too seriously and laughs at and with his characters providing the best comical scenes in the movie as an inventor. One scene is his first appearance with the wings on his back when he tries to fly and another when he pedals his flying bicycle in a very ET - manner. Funny and memorable.

Lacks Courage.......2006-07-04

The problem with AMNSC is the simple fact that Allen didn't seem to be able to commit to making it into any particular type of movie. In the final analysis, Midsummer... feels like an exercise preparing Allen for his wonderful series of movies in the mid-eighties that mixed humor, pathos and love so perfectly than a movie in its own right. Here we have a Woody that never goes for the jugular but seems content to beat around the bush and never quite spit it out already. Each of the parts work just fine but they don't come together for a compelling or thought provoking narrative. A minor work.

Excellent. Recommend Highly........2005-08-27