Cassandra's Dream

[MacGuffin]

Trailer

Release Date: November 30th, 2007 (limited)

Starring: Colin Farrell, Ewan McGregor, Tom Wilkinson, Hayley Atwell, Sally Hawkins 

Directed by: Woody Allen

Premise: Two brothers with serious financial woes are approached by a third party to commit a crime, but things go bad and the brothers become enemies.

[Gold Trumpet]

I'm more hopeful this film will be better than his last few. "Phases" for Woody Allen are nothing new. Once upon a time he went through an Ingmar Bergman phase. My problem with Match Point and Melinda and Melinda is that they were light on his trademark humor and opportunistic of bad ideas that people would respect. Match Point wasn't better because it had a few Bunuel sequences and genre mixing. It still was sloppy writing and not very good.

This film seems dedicated to the story and characters. I'll take that over his last few efforts. 

[matt35mm]

This reminds me of Before The Devil Knows You're Dead.  But this looks sexier.

[MacGuffin]

Woody Allen says new film reflects tragedy of life

How far would you go to get rich quick or clear a mountain of debt?

That is the question Woody Allen asks in his dark new movie "Cassandra's Dream," starring Ewan McGregor and Colin Farrell as working class London brothers desperate to get ahead in life.

"It's simply a story of some very nice young people who get caught up, because of their weaknesses and because of their ambitions, in a tragic situation that they bring upon themselves," Allen told reporters in Venice, where his picture is being presented at the annual film festival.

The Oscar-winning U.S. director returns to the theme of ruthless ambition and moral ambiguity which he explored in his 2005 film "Match Point," and said "Cassandra's Dream" reflected his view of life as a "tremendously tragic event."

"I've always felt that life itself, and this is no brilliant observation, is a tremendously tragic event, I mean a real mess," a distinctly downbeat Allen explained.

"I do have a bleak, pessimistic view of life and man's fate, the human condition, but I do feel there are some extremely amusing oases in that morass," the 71-year-old added.

"Cassandra's Dream" tells the story of brothers Ian (McGregor) and Terry (Farrell) and the fateful day they make a pact with their rich uncle, played by Tom Wilkinson.

Ian is an ambitious charmer who falls in love with a beautiful young actress and dreams of a better life in Los Angeles, while Terry has a gambling habit that gets out of control, fuelling his drinking and drug addiction.

Irish-born Farrell, star of "Miami Vice" and "Alexander," said being cast as a frail and vulnerable character racked with guilt was a refreshing change from action hero roles for which he is best known.

"It was really liberating to be able to just concern yourself with capturing moments of the common man, which is what I personally perceive myself much more to be," he said.

"(It was) very liberating to not be playing the hero."

McGregor said Allen's direction was quicker, less deliberate than other filmmakers he had worked with, relying on fewer takes for each scene and demanding extensive preparation.

"It's electric, it's wonderful, you get home at 4:30 in the afternoon, you can have a life, it's quite nice," he said.

[MacGuffin]

Woody Allen unveils 'Cassandra's Dream' at Toronto film festival

Despite more than three dozen films to his credit, legendary movie director Woody Allen insists that he really doesn't work all that hard, is lazy and just got into movies to meet women.

"You'll think I'm being facetious, but I'm not a dedicated filmmaker," he told reporters at the North American premiere of his latest film "Cassandra's Dream."

"I'm lazy. Making films is not the be-all and end-all of my life," he said Wednesday at the Toronto film festival.

He is renowned in the annals of filmmaking for a long list of movies which have been both commercial and popular successes, but while other filmmakers sweat the details, Allen insists he prefers to "shoot and go home and get on with my life."

"I don't have the patience to rehearse with actors ... or to shoot this way and shoot that way," he said, adding that he aspires to spontaneity in his movies.

"I'm not a perfectionist," Allen said. "I like to throw a lot of stuff on the wall and what sticks, sticks, what doesn't, doesn't.

It's been like that from his earliest movies, he insisted.

"I went into films for the most shallow of reasons, to meet women, and so that I wouldn't have a really arduous life of drudgery," he said.

His improvised, unstructured style of movie-making sits well with many of the actors who adore working with Allen, including Irish actor Colin Farrell, who is cast in "Cassandra's Dream" opposite Scotsman Ewan McGregor.

The pair play devoted brothers who clash in their in pursuit of very different goals.

Allen has "absolutely has no technique, which is beautiful," Farrell said. "He's just there to tell a tale."

For his part, Allen credits his actors' "incredible performances" for the success of his more than three dozen films since 1968, including "Annie Hall" (1977), "Hannah and her Sisters" (1986) and "Mighty Aphrodite" (1996).

"They make me look good," he said.

Depicted in popular culture as a fretful neurotic, Allen says in real life he is a centered, grounded family man.

"I just decided that my life is more important, my family, my children, my clarinet-playing, the basketball games, the baseball games, all the shallow stuff of life is more important to me than making a perfect film," he said.

"It's not worth it to brood about films. There are many, many more painful things in life than films."

His movies have typically been made for 15 million dollars or less, compared to the current Hollywood average film budget of 40 million dollars, which may explain why studios were willing to give him as much artistic freedom as he has enjoyed over the years.

"I've been very lucky and a bit of a con man because I spent my whole life in American films and always had complete artist freedom. Nobody read my scripts, no one had anything to say about casting, I always had final cut ... I always said, people thought I was joking, 'The only thing standing between me and greatness is me.'"

Explaining his decision for shooting films in Europe in recent years, rather than his hometown New York City -- which many critics consider to be the true star of many Allen films -- Allen said Hollywood studios lost interest in his work, while financial backers welcomed him with open arms in London, Spain, France and Italy.

"(US) film studios started to say, 'Look, we don't want to just put the money in a brown paper bag and you give us the film, we want to know, what's the film about or who's going to be in it'," he said.

"Then all of a sudden, London called," he said. "They put the money up and they didn't care who was in the film."

[cine]

i was at the premiere and i really loved it but because of woody, colin and ewan talking before the movie and cracking jokes, the audience was laughing at a lot of moments that weren't intended to be funny. it was a pretty chilling movie.. its essentially woody allen's 'morality play' of the 2000's.

[Pubrick]

"I'm not a perfectionist," Allen said. "I like to throw a lot of stuff on the wall and what sticks, sticks, what doesn't, doesn't.

he makes it so hard to defend him.

he probably thinks ppl who love Annie Hall need to get over it.

he's what grammy hall would call a 'real jew'.

[picolas]

i find colin farrell's expression on the poster hilarious. especially contrasted with the police tape logo and ewan mcgregor. what i'm trying to say is he's steve urkel.

and P, i was watching a doc/bio about him (allen) featuring a new interview and pretty much all he said in the interview was that he wasn't actually very good and nearly everything that had ever happened to him was "luck". i was peeved.

[ElPandaRoyal]

and P, i was watching a doc/bio about him (allen) featuring a new interview and pretty much all he said in the interview was that he wasn't actually very good and nearly everything that had ever happened to him was "luck". i was peeved.

The usual stuff. He uses the word "luck" a lt. Of course it's luck. You pick up the typewriter and press some buttons without really looking at them and then you have stuff like "Annie Hall", or "Manhattan" or "Zelig" ou "Husbands and Wives". Then he goes to the set and, without thinking twice, he places the camera and you get stuff like some of the shots in "Manhattan", "Interiors" or "Match Point".

I just think he doesn't care what people think about him or his work, but like it is not. Although I don't doubt that he went into filmmaking to meet the ladies.

[MacGuffin]

New Trailer here.

[Pubrick]

family is family.

woody.. just give it up.

[modage]

at least the poster is better.

[ElPandaRoyal]

The movie's gonna rock!

[Just Withnail]

The movie's gonna rock!

Yeah, well, it's definitely not woody.

[tpfkabi]

looks good to me.

if they market it at all i think it could do quite well.