Stardust Memories 1980

type: Movie

language: English

duration: 89 min

genre: comedy-drama

theme: retrospective

director: Woody Allen

Score: 6 / 10

Stardust Memories is a 1980 American comedy-drama film written and directed by Woody Allen and starring Allen, Charlotte Rampling, Jessica Harper and Marie-Christine Barrault. Sharon Stone has a brief role, in her film debut. The film is about a filmmaker who recalls his life and his loves - the inspirations for his films - while attending a retrospective of his work. The film is shot in black and white and is reminiscent of Federico Fellini's 8½ (1963), which it parodies.

Plot

Sandy Bates is a director of comedy films. His latest film ends with a surreal sequence in which a character (played by Bates) is trapped on a train carriage surrounded by grotesque and unhappy figures. The character looks out the carriage window and sees another train filled with beautiful and happy people. Convinced he is on the wrong train, he tries unsuccessfully to get off the train before it speeds away. In the next scene, all the characters from the train wander aimlessly through an immense garbage dump. Bates’ character sees that the passengers from the other train have also ended up at the dump. Studio executives, having watched Bates’ film, complain that it is uncommercial and depressing. When this is conveyed to Bates, he insists that he no longer wants to make shallow comedy films, as this no longer feels honest to him.

Cast

More details

author	Woody Allen
director	Woody Allen
editor	Susan E. Morse
genre	comedy-drama
keywords	end faint flying saucer force garbage dump haunt id jersey shore listen lose louis armstrong married meet mental illness morning panic attack pass psychiatric hospital psychotic fan read stardust studio executive surround talk train carriage trap wait young couple
musicBy	Dick Hyman
producer	Charles H. Joffe Jack Rollins Robert Greenhut
publisher	United Artists
recordedAt	New Jersey
theme	retrospective