Die Herbstzeitlosen

What a wonderful little movie! Simple story of thwarted lives and new-found love boasts one of the best casts in movie history.

Shirley MacLaine stars as a Jewish widow in 1969 New York who is pursued by a strange Italian, Marcello Mastroianni. He's waited for 23 years for her to be available. She has 2 troubled daughters, Kathy Bates and Marcia Gay Harden. Bates is fat and unhappy; Harden is nuts. Her mother, Jessica Tandy, is afraid of anything new. Also along for the ride are Sylvia Sidney, Joe Pantoliano, Louis Guss, Charles Cioffi, Bob Dishy, Doris Roberts, Helen Hanft, and cute Matthew Branton.

With 1969 New York as a backdrop, anything is possible. The Mets win the World Series.... We land on the moon..... And Mastroianni lands MacLaine! Simple, sweet, and beautifully acted.

The accents waver a tad, but on the whole this film is well written and acted. Tandy and Sidney are splendid as the old women looking for once last thrill--they move to Florida.... Bates and Harden are heartbreaking as the bickering sisters.... MacLaine and Mastroianni are perfection.

A rare chance to see 4 Oscar winners in one film!

I can't think of a film that had a better cast, story and acting.

I absolutely loved this film and its performances. It is about a Jewish family in 1969 Queens but as we know, human stories can be about any religion or ethnicity.

My review was written in December 1992 after watching the movie in a Manhattan screening room.

A modern, absurdist sensibility informs the soap opera "Used People", making this Fox release an unusual and problematic entry in the crowded holiday sweepstakes. Terrific cast should ensure a hefty audience sample.

Peopled with an eye toward the growing market segment that patronzed its stars' hits "Steel Magnolias", "Driving Miss Daisy" and "Fried Green Tomatoes", the Largo film actually harks back to '50s weepies. With Shirley MacLaine as its spine, the film updates the type of pictures that Shirley Booth (e.g., in "About Miss Leslie") or Jane Wyman routinely used to make.

Actor Todd Graff has scripted an actors' showcase, with heightened performances by the ensemble eschewing the naturalism favored by mainstream fare. Whether viewers will get with the program is another matter; film's trailer emphasizes its comedic elements (and sight gags) while hiding its more ambitious melodramatic segments.

Set in 1969 in the Sunnyside section of Queens, New York, the film limns the colorful family life of a Jewish matriarchy centered around MacLaine, whose husband (Bob Dishy) has just died. Key characters include her protective mom (Jessica Tandy), dysfunctional children (Kathy Bates and Marcia Gay Harden), both of whom have been divorced, and Tandy's best friend (Sylvia Sidney).

Enter Marcello Mastroianni, MacLaine's secret admirer who uses the family's sitting shiva after Dishy's funeral as his occasion to make his platonic affection for her manifest. As shown in flashbacks, he met Dishy in his brother Charles Cioffi's bar 23 years ago and encouraged him to continue his marriage to Shirley rather than leave her.

The family's rejection of Mastroianni and cross-cultural antics between them and Mastroianni's Italian-American clan make for some effective comedy in the middle reels but Graff's work is built around highly dramatic confrontation scenes. In particular, a heart-rending fight between MacLaine and daughter Bates becomes the film's emotional core, marred only by Graff's frequently obvious dialogue.

As demonstrated in her previous picture, "Antonia & Jane", British director Beeban Kidron is fond of injecting caricature and satire, here personified by Harden's character who keeps imitating movie icons like Marilyn Monroe and Anne Bancroft in "The Graduate". Latter motif digresses at length as she and Mastrroianni's brother-in-law (Joe Pantoliano) engage in a Dustin Hoffman/Bancroft sex scene that segues to light bondage.

Least successful element of black humor involves Harden's young son (Mathew Branton), who believes grandpa Dishy's spirit is protecting him. Throughout the film he places himself in suicidal situations only to be saved by luck. Like Graff's other subplots, this yields a heartwarming resolution but is tough sledding along the way.

MacLaine's precise acting is laudatory and balanced by a very sympathetic turn by twinkle-eyed Mastroianni, in his best English-language role so far. The support ensemble is excellent, with Sylvia Sidney, perfectly matched opposite Tandy, stealing most of her scenes adroitly. Harden's work, as it was in "Miller's Crossing", is promising but brittle compared with the ease shown by her vet co-stars.

Both Tandy and Bates have essentially supporting assignments but fans will appreciate their lack of showboating here. David Watkin, who covered similar territory in lensing "Moonstruck", photographs the action unobtrusively while capturing some memorable images, such as Harden visiting a cemetery or MacLaine dancing in her apartment. Rachel Portman's score handily supports the film's serious mood and helps avoid risibility.

After seeing this film, still not available on DVD, one wants to say, "How did this movie ever get made?" It is funny, intelligent, sensitive, and perceptive. No exploding cars. No teens making out. No monsters from outer space. Used People is just excellent and thoughtful entertainment of a sort that makes one want to cheer. The script is unusually good, and the acting is outstanding. The leads, Marcello Mastronini and Shirley McLaine, could not have been selected and directed with greater care. Kathy Bates, Jessica Tandy, and Marcia Gay Harden are terrific. The photography is outstanding, and the sets recreate the 1940s and late 1960s very believably. The contrast between Jewish and Italian families in New York is most amusing. Why were no academy awards lavished on this film? Perhaps because it is out of step with contemporary cultural norms and deals essentially with seniors, i.e. people who have lived through much and have a measure of wisdom. Don't miss it.

My feeling is that the film could have been better. As a whole, it is a little irregular, lacking some cohesion. However, the parts it is composed by are very nice, charming, funny, smart. The collection of well-developped and unique characters is excellent, and all actors do a great job. Then, although with reservations, I consider it a good and singular romantic comedy.