Stars: Woody Allen, Mia Farrow, Jose Ferrer, Julie Hagerty, Tony Roberts, Mary Steenburgen

Director: Woody Allen

Summary: Three ill-assorted couples spend an intrigue filled summer weekend in the countryside changing partners, changing clothes and changing their lives. Woody Allen's turn of the century comedy romance is a sexual merry go round of wit, wisdom and wisecracks.

This wonderful, frothy treat from Woody Allen follows three couples frolicking in the countryside at the turn of the century. At a beautiful farmhouse in upstate New York, wealthy Andrew (Allen) passes his summer days tinkering as a hack inventor and attempting to make love with his frigid wife, Adrian (Mary Steenburgen). Then Leopold (Jose Ferrer), a self-possessed scholar, and his future wife, the highly sexed Ariel (Mia Farrow), come for a visit. The second couple added to the mix is Maxwell (Tony Roberts), a doctor, and his current girlfriend, Dulcy (Julie Hagerty), a nurse who advises Adrian on her sex life. It turns out that Andrew once had an innocent romance with Ariel, but he's one of the very few men she has met and not slept with. Now Andrew is very much interested in Ariel again--and she in him. And thus begins this whimsical farce of lust, love, and longing among friends.

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Woody Allen's 1982 homage to Bergman and Shakespeare, A Midsummer Night's Sex Comedyis a delight from start to finish and must rate as one of his most joyous films. The period setting--Edwardian up state New York--gives the whole thing a misty, elegiac quality.

Part Midsummer Night's Dream(the magic supplied by visions through a spirit glass) and part Smiles of a Summer Night(Bergman's source material provides the basic plot and ensuing couplings), it's a gentle satire on male sexuality and frustration. Allen handles the angst with the lightest of touches. He plays a Wall Street broker who spends his holidays inventing flying machines (they work, with telling consequences). He and his wife (Mary Steenburgen) are increasingly depressed by their ailing sex life. Cue the arrival of weekend guests: crusty academic (Jose Ferrer) and beautiful blue-stocking fiancée previously in love with Allen (Mia Farrow, of course); and insatiable doctor (Tony Roberts) with his latest squeeze, a nurse (the excellent Julie Hagerty). Eighty minutes of unravelling, discovery and renewal follow, accompanied by a Mendelssohn sound track. This is one of Allen's most treasurable pictures.

On the DVD:A Midsummer Night's Sex Comedyis presented in widescreen that recaptures the pleasure which greeted the setting of this most pastoral of Allen's films on its first release; it really does glow with summery light. The standard stereo soundtrack is perfectly acceptable. Extras include the original theatrical trailer and multiple language soundtracks.--Piers Ford

Aspect Ratio:	1.85 Wide Screen, 16:9 Anamorphic Wide Screen
Main Language:	English
Region:	Region 2
Special Features:	Original Theatrical Trailer, Interactive Menu Screens, Chapter Selections
Subtitles:	Dutch, French, Greek, Hungarian, Polish, Portuguese, Spanish
Year:	1982
Release Date:	August 19, 2002
Runtime:	84 minutes
Certification:
Catalogue Number:	22931 D V D
Keywords:	Sex, Comedy, General, Wide, Screen, Midsummer, Night's
Genre:	Comedy