A Midsummer Night’s Sex Comedy

Summary

“What did you eat before you went to bed?”

In 1982, Woody Allen was coming off of one of the best creative periods in his life. He had won Oscars for Annie Hall, had proved his dramatic chops with Interiors, and once again wowed audiences with Manhattan to close out the Seventies. His first film in the Eighties, Stardust Memories had not fared as well with critics (I personally love it,) and Woody responded by creating a light comedy inspired by Ingmar Bergman’s Smiles of a Summer Night. A Midsummer Night’s Sex Comedy has been considered a slighter work of Woody Allen since its release, but there is still plenty for people to enjoy if they are fans of Allen’s work. The film was given a Blu-ray release by Twilight Time in 2015 which has been out-of-print for a while, and now MGM has given the picture a release on Blu-ray. Both releases feature the same transfer, although the Twilight Time release featured a trailer and an Isolated Score Track. 

In upstate New York in 1906, philosopher Professor Leopold Sturges (Jose Ferrer) is set to marry his much younger fiancée Ariel Weymouth (Mia Farrow.) The couple plan to head to the country for a weekend to visit his cousin Adrian (Mary Steenburgen) who is married to an inventor named Andrew (Woody Allen.) Andrew invents flying machines, including a bicycle that can hover in the air from helicopter blades. Andrew and Adrian have not been on the same page sexually for about a year, and Andrew does not know why the thrill seems to be gone. Leopold is unaware that there is a history between Ariel and Andrew of unrealized desire from when they were teenagers. Womanizing Doctor Maxwell Jordan (Tony Roberts) is also visiting the property with a nurse named Dulcy Ford (Julie Hagerty) who has very modern ideas about sexual freedom. As the weekend unfolds, numerous people try to slip out to couple with each other before Ariel and Leopold tie the knot.

As I mentioned, this film is a slighter work by Woody Allen, but that did not stop me from enjoying the picture. I should probably mention that I really like Woody Allen films and may be a little more forgiving of minor issues in some of his films than other reviewers might be. To each their own. As is often the case with Woody Allen comedies, the film is uncommonly beautiful for a comedy. Woody Allen shot the picture with legendary cinematographer Gordon Willis who he had worked with on many of his landmark films. Gordon Willis was known as the “Prince of Darkness” for his love of shadows and low light, but this film actually is mostly shot in the daytime or in exteriors at night, which means it is much lighter than his other output. Willis was one of the absolute finest cinematographers, and his work shines here.

The writing by Woody Allen finds Allen in a happy mood content to write about sexual desires and marital distress in an upbeat way. Considering that the film focuses on lust and infidelity, it is very lighthearted and tame in terms of what is presented onscreen. As other reviewers have pointed out, there are really only two issues with the picture. First off, the flying machines for Allen’s character are totally unnecessary. It’s out of place with everything else and somebody should have told him to go a different direction. The bigger issue is that Mia Farrow is presented as a truly alluring creature that both Woody Allen and Tony Roberts are driven wild by. I like Mia Farrow as an actress in a number of Woody Allen’s films, and I still like her in the film, but the writing should have been adjusted somewhat to avoid the idea of her being some sort of sex goddess. If that was the case, the film may have done better to put Mia Farrow in the role that Julie Haggerty had and bring on someone with serious sex appeal from that time such as Natassja Kinski or Bo Derek to play Ariel. Regardless, I don’t fault Mia Farrow so much for her performance as I fault the script. In terms of casting, all the key players are enjoyable. Mary Steenburgen had just starred in the excellent Melvin and Howard, for which she won the Oscar, and she is reliably good here. Jose Ferrer is great as the philosophizing Leopold. Tony Roberts made me laugh as the sex crazed doctor, and Julie Haggerty was also comedically on point in her role. 

Overall – A Midsummer Night’s Sex Comedy is a minor Woody Allen work, but I still had a good time watching it. It’s a whimsical little comedy that has plenty of enjoyable moments.

Video

Twilight Time released this film on Blu-ray in 2015, and this transfer is the same that MGM provided to them at that time. This is a good-looking presentation of the film in its original 1.85:1 aspect ratio. While it could be improved by a 4K scan, I was still happy to see that the master had a nice organic appearance. The print was in pretty good shape and Gordon Willis’s cinematography shines through. There is a little bit of aging to the transfer given that it has been around for more than a decade, but I wouldn’t worry about it. Fine detail in particular would be improved if a 4K scan was ever crafted, but I doubt that will happen at any time in the near future. While not perfect, there is no reason to complain about this release visually.

Audio

A Midsummer Night’s Sex Comedy arrives with a DTS-HD Master Audio Mono track. The film benefits from selections of classical music by Felix Mendelssohn that fit the lighthearted picture very well. While immersion is lacking, the dialogue is clear and there is nothing that I can see a fan being upset about.

Supplements:

None

Overall Scores:

Video – 3.75/5

Audio – 3.75/5

Supplements – 0/5

Overall – 3.5/5

A Midsummer Night’s Sex Comedy is an enjoyable Woody Allen comedy that doesn’t stack up against his best work, but is still a good way to pass the time. The film benefits from excellent cinematography by the legendary Gordon Willis, and has a good ensemble cast. The writing from the film could have used a little polishing due to the way that Ariel is described by characters (and the flying machine just seemed out of place from the rest of the film,) but I liked the other aspects of the script. Twilight Time had given the film a Blu-ray release in 2015, and MGM’s release uses the same master. I appreciate that collectors can purchase this film for an affordable price since the Twilight Time title has been out of print.

The film can be purchased at www.moviezyng.com.