Crimes and Misdemeanors

 Crimes and Misdemeanors, the 1989 film directed by Woody Allen, is a heartbreaking, chilling and cynical look at a group of intersecting individuals within New York City. The film follows Judah Rosenthal an ophthalmologist who is torn after murdering his mistress Dolores Paley, and Cliff Stern, a documentary film maker trapped in a loveless marriage. Stern pines after Halley Reed, a producer, while sabotaging a documentary based on the successful T.V producer Lester who also happens to be his brother-in-law. The film manages to pervert and contradict the messages within the novel Crime and Punishment by Fyodor Dostoevsky. These messages include the central existentialist point of bad faith and contextualizing it in a rapidly progressing capitalist and materialistic America lead by Ronald Reagan. This essay will look at bad faith exhibited through the characters of Judah Rosenthal, Dolores Paley, and Cliff Stern. The bad faith riddled throughout this film heavily pertains towards bad judgement and non-traditional moral ethics. Additionally, we will explore how bad faith is presented through Judah's persistent sense of guilt and his conversations with a Rabbi who is a patient that is going blind and fictional bantering with his deceased family . Cliff's bad faith musings comes through his younger niece, and the Professor Louis Levy a brilliant philosopher who is the subject of his documentary. Crimes and Misdemeanors subjects the audience to Woody Allen's view of bad faith, that God is a moral burden we put on ourselves. While Crime and Punishment echoes the central theme that moral salvation and redemption could be found within God, Crimes and Misdemeanors approaches the theme from the opposite direction. Moral integrity and faith no longer can come from the message of God but rather material wealth, social status, and brevity. The individuals who pursue their own selfish actions and dismiss a religious rhetoric or a traditional moral philosophical view of life prosper. But those who cling on fate and religious beliefs are blinded or left wearing glasses, unaware and unable to see this rapidly changing world.

Last Year At Marienbad

Last Year At Marienbad (1961), is  the follow up film of Alain Resnais’ ground breaking and experimental film Hiroshima Mon Amour. Written by Alain Robbe-Grillet and starring Delphine Seyrig and Giorgio Albertazzi, it is as divisive 52 years after its release as it was at its debut. The film can be be aptly summarized in a synopsis, but it would be nowhere near a conclusive and accurate portrayal of the events that are depicted. The audience follows A (La Femme) and X (L’Homme), in the spa hotel Marienbad. X continuously hounds A with events and memories that happened last year at Marienbad, when the two were apparently lovers.  A man named M who could be a lover, husband, or guardian, but is never made clear, keeps watch and is wary of the two while the events take place. However A is unsure and unaware of these assertions and memories. Thus begins a surrealist and existentialist trip within the memory and existence of these two individuals.