Don't Make a Scene: Hannah and Her Sisters

The Story: I came for the "Jesus would throw up" line and stayed for the break-up.

I've always loved that line from Woody Allen's Hannah and Her Sisters and I knew that I'd be putting it in one of these Sunday Scene features. But, as I've been spending a lot of time on Billy Wilder's films lately—with their many romantic films with great age disparities—I thought it would be more than appropriate to present the Counterpoint to all those May-December romances.

 

They don't often work out.

 

Oh, of course, there are exceptions. People are people and your results may vary. 

Bogart and Bacall, for instance. That worked. But, if in order to "make your case", you have to explain who Bogart is...that should be a warning sign. It's just that age disparity can bring up differences with culture, with experience...with conversation ("Hey, honey, put on some Beatles.." "What are Beatles?" "You know (chortle), Paul McCartney's other band" "Who's Paul McCartney?")

It's like the joke you have to explain. If you HAVE to explain it, it probably wasn't worth telling.

Here, Max von Sydow plays the older man (and yeah, Max von Sydow skews the odds in his favor because he's so...damn...good) to Barbara Hershey's younger woman. Frederick and Lee. Teacher and Student. Authority Figure and Supplicant Looking for Daddy. His place. His rules. All red flags. Add to it that's he a frustrated artist and generally cynical about the world (so much, in fact, that you wonder what she saw in him...besides being Max von Sydow, of course) compared to her persona of youth and optimism. Experience versus Inexperience.

But, Inexperience learns and rather quickly. And Allen expands the minor irritations into needling consistencies that get under the skin. Then, the dis-believing, the counter-arguments, the accusations, the bargaining, the sympathetic ego-stroking and the outburst from whom no one returns. It's all there. The grief. And no intellectual superiority can solve it...or salve it.

 

The Set-Up: Lee (Barbara Hershey), the youngest of three sisters, is involved with her former teacher, Frederick (Max von Sydow) has just started an affair with the husband (Michael Caine) of her older sister Hannah (Mia Farrow) but before they can "make plans" to be more than in-laws, she has to break the news to her current room-mate.

 

Action.

 

EXT. STREET OUTSIDE FREDERICK'S LOFT - NIGHT 

Lee walks along the sidewalk in the rain; she's bareheaded. The streets are dark.

A car drives by; a pedestrian passes holding an umbrella. Lee passes a restaurant well lit inside by hanging lamps. 

The baroque music continues as she enters the loft, her head soaked. She closes the door, touching her soaking hair. 

FREDERICK (offscreen) You're late. 

Lee walks through the loft's living room area, unbelting her coat, towards the bathroom. She passes Frederick, who sits at a table in the kitchen area, drinking a cup of coffee and reading the paper. A plate with a half-eaten sandwich sits in front of him. The music stops. 

LEE (opening the bathroom door) Lucy and I kept talking, and I didn't realize how late it had gotten. 

FREDERICK (barely glancing up from his paper) You missed a very dull TV show about Auschwitz. 

FREDERICK  More gruesome film clips...and more puzzled intellectuals declaring their mystification over the systematic murder of millions. 

As he talks, Lee is seen turning on the bathroom light. She takes off her coat, hanging it on a hook, then begins to dry her hair with a towel.

FREDERICK (turning his head slightly in Lee's direction and gesturing) The reason why they could never answer the question "How could it possibly happen?" is that it's the wrong question. Given what people are, the question is (swallowing) "Why doesn't it happen more often?" Of course it does, in subtler forms. 

Frederick takes a bite of his sandwich and another sip of coffee as Lee walks out of the bathroom, tossing the towel down on the counter. 

LEE (moving her fingers through her wet hair) I have a little headache from this weather. 

She takes a kettle and fills it with water. 

FREDERICK (grunting, sipping his coffee) It's been ages since I sat in front of the TV... just changing channels to find something. 

As Frederick continues his monologue, Lee is busy in the background: striking a wooden match and lighting a burner on the stove for the kettle, taking a glass out of the cupboard, walking into the bathroom for some pills, filling the glass with water in the kitchen sink, and taking her pills. 

FREDERICK  You see the whole culture...Nazis, deodorant salesman, wrestlers...beauty contests, the talk show... 

FREDERICK  Can you imagine the level of a mind that watches wrestling? (gesturing) 

FREDERICK  Hmm? But the worst are the fundamentalist preachers...third-rate con men, telling the poor suckers that watch them that they speak for Jesus...and to please send in money. (picking up his sandwich) Money, money, money! (MORE)

FREDERICK (CONT'D) If Jesus came back, and saw what's going on in his name, he'd never stop throwing up. 

He takes a bite of his sandwich and a sip of coffee. Lee sets her glass on the kitchen counter and walks towards the bedroom area. 

LEE (impatiently, her hands in her hair) Oh, God, Frederick, could you please lighten up?! 

LEE  I'm really not in the mood to hear a review of contemporary society again. 

She starts to take off her wet clothes by the bed. Frederick takes off his glasses. He turns and looks at Lee in surprise. 

FREDERICK (standing up from the table) You know, you've been very nervous lately. 

LEE (sighing) I can't take this anymore. 

FREDERICK (walking over to the bed) I'm just trying to complete an education I started on you five years ago. 

LEE (unbuttoning her blouse) I'm not your pupil. (sighing, her hands at her side) I was, but I'm not. 

FREDERICK (sitting down on the edge of the bed) When you leave the nest, I just want you to be ready to face the real world. 

He pulls Lee down next to him on the bed.

LEE (putting her hand on Frederick's leg) Frederick, we're going to have to make some changes. 

She sighs. 

FREDERICK (quickly looking at Lee, alarmed) Like what? 

LEE Oh, you know what. I'm suffocating! 

FREDERICK (turning away, his hands clasped in front of him) Oh! Are we going to have this conversation again? 

LEE Yes, we're going to have this conversation again.

LEE I...I have to leave. I have to move out. 

FREDERICK (shaking his clasped hands intensely) Why? 

LEE (sighing) Because I have to!
FREDERICK (emotionally) What are you going to use for money?! 

LEE I don't know. I thought, maybe I'd move in with my parents for a while. 

FREDERICK Tch, oh. I always told you you would leave me. 

FREDERICK (looking at Lee) But...does it have to be now? 

LEE (hugging her arm with her other hand) Well, maybe it'll only be temporary, but I ha--I have to try. 

FREDERICK (taking Lee's head in his hands and looking at her) Oh...Lee, you are my whole world. 

(pausing) 

FREDERICK  Good God! Have you been kissed tonight?! 

LEE (reacting, pushing Frederick's hands from her face) No. 

FREDERICK (reacting) Oh, yes, you have! 

LEE (quickly standing up, defensively) No. 

FREDERICK (raising his voice) You've been with someone! 

LEE (overlapping, running away from the bed) Stop accusing me! 

Lee runs into the kitchen, her hands tight around her chest. 

FREDERICK (offscreen) I'm too smart, Lee! You can't fool me! You're turning all red! 

Lee, fraught with emotion, briefly puts her outstretched hands on the refrigerator door, then turns around and leans against it, hugging herself, her blouse still unbuttoned, her hair still wet and bedraggled. 

LEE Leave me alone!

Frederick enters the kitchen area and leans against the counter. 

FREDERICK (angrily) Oh, Christ! What's wrong with you?! 

LEE (leaning against the refrigerator, sighing) I'm sorry. 

FREDERICK Oh, couldn't you say something? You have to slither around behind my back! 

LEE (overlapping, her voice emotionally raised) I'm saying it now! 

FREDERICK So you met somebody else? 

LEE (sighing, nodding) Yeah. 

Frederick cringes, reacting. He puts his hand to his forehead; he sighs. 

LEE (walking into the bathroom) But you, God, you knew that was going to happen sooner or later. I can't live like this! 

FREDERICK (turning to face Lee in the bathroom, his arms crossed) Who is it? 

LEE (frantically putting things in her purse, glaring at Frederick) What's the difference?! It's just somebody I met! 

FREDERICK But who? Where did you meet him?

LEE It doesn't make a difference! I have to move out! 

FREDERICK You are, you are my only connection to the world! 

Lee turns and faces Frederick in the bathroom doorway. 

LEE (gesturing emotionally) Oh, God, that's too much responsibility for me. It's not fair! 

LEE  I want a less complicated life, Frederick. I want a husband, maybe even a child before it's too late. 

FREDERICK (reacting, his face in his hand) Jesus...Jesus! 

LEE (gesturing, moving closer to Frederick) Oh, God, I don't even know what I want. 

FREDERICK (sighing heavily, reacting) Oh... 

LEE (rubbing Frederick's shoulder tenderly) Tch, oh, what do you get out of me, anyway? I mean... 

(laying her head against his shoulder, sighing deeply) 

LEE  it's not sexual anymore. It's certainly not intellectual. 

LEE  I mean, you're so superior to me in every way that-- 

Frederick furiously shakes Lee away. He pounds his fist against a cupboard.

Lee, gasping, moves away. 

FREDERICK Please, don't patronize me!

He puts his hand on his forehead, then turns to the offscreen Lee. 

FREDERICK God! I should have married you years ago when you wanted to! 

FREDERICK I should have agreed. 

He walks over to Lee in another area of the kitchen. 

LEE (sighing) Oh, God, don't you know it never would have worked? 

Frederick turns away from Lee. He begins to pace near the counter. 

FREDERICK I told you, one day you would leave me... (leaning on the counter) for a younger man. I-- 

He loudly pounds his fist on the counter in despair and frustration,

then covers his eyes with his hands in sorrow.

 

Hannah and Her Sisters

 

Words by Woody Allen

 

Pictures by Carlo Di Palma and Woody Allen.

 

Hannah and Her Sisters is available on DVD and Blu-Ray from M-G-M Home Video.