In Woody Allen’s Melinda and Melinda (2004), two playwrights tell different versions of the same story, one comic and the other dramatic. Two decades earlier, Allen did a variation of this with two films about the interpersonal relationships of a sextet isolated in a country house. Set at the turn of the 20th Century in the woodlands of New York, A Midsummer Night’s Sex Comedy (1982) is a comic look at an assembled group’s desires and disappointments. Set during modern times in the woodlands of Vermont, September is a dramatic look at an assembled group’s desires and disappointments.
Buy September Blu-rayAfter a recent suicide attempt, Lane (Mia Farrow) has stayed at her Vermont home, which she is in the market to sell as she needs the money. She has feelings for Peter (Sam Waterson), an ad man with dreams of being a novelist. Peter has feelings for Stephanie (Diane Wiest) and dreams of them being together. She is Lane’s best friend and is married with children so can’t return the feelings. And yet, she appreciates Peter’s unrequited interest during her visit over the month of August. Lane hasn’t noticed anything between Peter and Stephanie, nor has she noticed the feelings Howard (Denholm Elliot), an older neighbor, has towards her, although he has tried to keep them to his dreams as he helped her through her recovery.
Further complicating matters is Lane’s brash mother, Diane (Elaine Stitch), a former actress, and her stepfather Lloyd (Jack Warden) are also staying at the house. Diane barely notices Lane’s feelings. She talks to Peter about him writing her biography, which would involve a traumatic time when Diane and Lane (at 14) were embroiled in a public scandal. Lane has no interest seeing her life return to gossip pages.
An evening party that Diane initiates, forcing Lane to cancel her plans with Peter, gets disrupted by a thunderstorm. The characters open up to each other as the clouds open up above. The next day, as prospective buyers look at the property, secrets are revealed that alter the characters’ perspective of their relationships and the audience’s perspective of the characters.
The video has been given a 1080p/MPEG-4 AVC encoded transfer displayed at the original aspect ratio of 1.85:1. The beige color palette used by production designer Santo Loquasto and costume designer Jeffrey Kurland is broad and the variety of shades comes through on screen. That’s due in part to how well lit the scenes are by cinematographer Carlo Di Palma and his team, who also make good use of shadows, which the video also handles well. The image is clean and presents fine textural details. Film grain is pleasing and increases when the actors stand in front of curtains as sunlight shines through.
The audio is available in DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0 Mono. Dialogue sounds clear. The jazz songs on the soundtrack play with good fidelity. The track is free from hiss and signs of defect. Also, free of extras.
September is Allen’s take on a chamber drama. He had written characters of these demographics frequently up to this point. While the stakes related to their affairs of the heart likely won’t rate high for the audience, they are to the characters because of their emotional investment, which viewers can sympathize with, if not empathize. Allen and the cast do a great job creating dialogue that sounds natural, which increases the authenticity of the characters.
