"A Midsummer Night's Sex Comedy" (1982) - Directed By Woody Allen

I was looking through Allen's filmography recently and I discovered that A) the man has made an absurd number of films and B) there are a lot of them I haven't seen. So I plan to try and go through and fill in as many of the gaps as I can. My first stop (because it was on Netflix) is his 1982 ensemble comedy "A Midsummer Night's Sex Comedy."

The film takes place around the turn of the last century at a house in the country where 3 couples are staying for a weekend of fun and relaxation. One couple (the one that lives at the country house) is played by Mary Steenburgen and Woody Allen himself. They are having marital problems, more specifically problems in the bedroom. As a result of this, Andrew (Allen) has been throwing all his energy and attention into his inventions. He has designed a flying bicycle and a device which will supposedly bring us into contact with the astral plane? I think? Something like that, I don't think it is really supposed to make sense. Andrew and Adrian are joined by 2 other couples: Maxwell (played by Tony Roberst) and Dulcy (Julie Hagarty); a womanizing doctor and the nurse he picked up for the weekend; and Leopole (Jose Ferrer) and Ariel (Mia Farrow); a pompous but brilliant university professor and the woman he is marrying at the end of the weekend. It turns out Andrew and Ariel had an unfinished affair 20 years prior.

I'm not going to go into a lengthy plot recap because you should just watch it yourself, but basically there are a bunch of twists and trysts (never gotten to use the word tryst in something before!) and it all gets very farcical and silly but it always stays fun. There are a lot of very memorable and quotable lines and scenes and overall I enjoyed it quite a bit. He even manages to work in some interesting thematic stuff about how people and their perceptions of things can change so much over 20 years. Andrew and Ariel have been imagining "what if" scenarios about how their lives would be different if they'd gotten together when they were younger and had the chance and then 20 years later when they finally get the chance they discover that they're very disappointed with the whole thing and not very interested in each other after all. I thought that was the most effective part of the film.

I expect most Woody Allen fans probably don't rate this one among his greater works, but I think it was still worth seeing if only for those great scenes and bits of dialogue I mentioned. Also Allen, Farrar, and Hagarty are all very funny in the movie. So if you're looking for some light, funny Allen fun this is a good one to check out.