Bullets Over Broadway (1994)

Director:

Woody Allen

Writers (WGA):

Woody Allen (written by) and
Douglas McGrath (written by)

Release Date:

18 enero 1995 (USA)

Genre:

Comedy | Crime

Frase comercial:

A killer comedy!

Plot:

In 1920s New York, a struggling playwright is forced to cast a mobster's talentless girlfriend in his latest drama in order to get it produced.

Plot Keywords:

Pearls | Dog | Night Club | Maid | Mob Hit

Awards:

Won Oscar. Another 15 wins & 12 nominations

Comentarios de los usuarios:

takes on the egotistical qualities in artists- and gangsters- in Allen's very funny send-up of Broadway

Cast

John Cusack	...	David Shayne
Dianne Wiest	...	Helen Sinclair
Jennifer Tilly	...	Olive Neal
Chazz Palminteri	...	Cheech
Mary-Louise Parker	...	Ellen
Jack Warden	...	Julian Marx
Joe Viterelli	...	Nick Valenti
Rob Reiner	...	Sheldon Flender
Tracey Ullman	...	Eden Brent
Jim Broadbent	...	Warner Purcell
Harvey Fierstein	...	Sid Loomis
Stacey Nelkin	...	Rita
Malgorzata Zajaczkowska	...	Lili (as Margaret Sophie Stein)
Charles Cragin	...	Rifkin
Nina Sonja Peterson	...	Josette (as Nina Sonya Peterson)

También conocida como:

Balas sobre Broadway (Spain) [es]
Disparos sobre Broadway (Argentina) [es]

Duración:

98 min

País:

USA

Idioma:

English

Color:

Color (Technicolor)

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Sonido:

Mono

Clasificación:

Netherlands:MG6 | South Korea:15 | Canada:14+ (Ontario) | Finland:K-11 (cinema release) (1996) | Iceland:L | Argentina:13 | Australia:M | Chile:14 | France:U | Germany:12 | Portugal:M/12 | Singapore:PG | Spain:T | Sweden:11 | UK:15 | USA:R

Filming Locations:

110th Street, Manhattan, New York City, New York, USA

Company:

Miramax Films

Trivialidades:

This is the second of two Woody Allen films using Irving Aaronson and his Commanders' performance of Cole Porter's "Let's Misbehave" during the closing credits. The first was 1972's "Everything You Always Wanted to Know About Sex * But Were Afraid to Ask."

Goofs:

Crew or equipment visible: When David stands in the street and argues with Sheldon Flender in the apartment above, the reflection of a powerful floodlight on a technical-looking stand is visible in the open window.

Quotes:

Cheech: You're lucky you're Nick's girl!
Olive: You're lucky you're an idiot!

Movie Connections:

References Sunset Blvd. (1950)

Soundtrack:

Thou Swell

takes on the egotistical qualities in artists- and gangsters- in Allen's very funny send-up of Broadway

Now this is something sort of rare, though not really: Woody Allen mixing satire and drama, and the satire actually even more convincing than the drama. The opposite was in a more serious affair, Crimes and Misdemeanors, where art and murder and infidelities all get into one big pot of personality crises. This is the same case with Bullets Over Broadway, though this time Allen's tackling of the ego-maniacal crutches of the Broadway scene- the aging star Helen Sinclair (Dianne Wiest, one of her very best performances, funniest too), the bumbling boob Olive Neal (Jennifer Tilly, appropriately annoying- and then how it sort of infects the outsiders to the major Broadway scene, one the protagonist David Shayne (John Cusack, excellent here), and Olive's bodyguard, Cheech (Chazz Palminteri, a character he could play in his sleep, but played pretty well anyway). Cheech is hanging around during rehearsals of David's first play he's writing and directing, following getting funding (on the condition of Olive as a psychiatrist) from a heavy-duty mobster, and soon he's suggesting ideas, and in the process becomes David's uncredited collaborator. But meanwhile infidelities are abound, with David falling for the wonderfully self-indulgent Helen, and a goofy romance between Olive and the thespian Warner Purcell (Jim Broadbent), leading to a purely ironic climax.

Allen's skills at navigating the neuroses of all the characters is very skilled, and sometimes the one-liners are surprisingly funny, all based on the personalities (Wiesst especially, in a voice that is a little startling at first, gives a classic line about the world 'opening' up, and her running gag with "don't speak"). Even with the more dramatic connections, which doesn't seem to be as much of Allen's concerns since it's pretty one-note with the mob side of things (and, frankly, the fates of Olive and Cheech sort of seem a little too contrived for the sake of the irony par for the course), we do get a very memorable bit to make things worth the while, like David and Cheech's down to earth talk at the bar. But if there's anything else to recommend more strongly it's for the sharpness of the script in the theater scenes, the backstage banter, the hilarious tension stirred up by grudges and ill-timed romances. Plus, there's a bit of an added treat for fans of past Allen films, where he casts Rob Reiner in a role sort of similar to that of Wallace Shawn in Manhattan. Not a masterpiece, but a very enjoyable work that's successful on its dark-light terms.