Husbands and Wives

Released during the height of the acrimonious and very public breakup between Woody Allen and Mia Farrow, Husbands and Wives—which happened to take divorce as its subject matter— would prove to be an expected lightning rod of controversy. Even more striking, perhaps, was that much of the fascination, and, for some, ire, directed at the film in 1992 centered on its radical look. Conceived by Allen and Carlo Di Palma with a ragged, jarring, documentary-style approach, the handheld camera ducking and swooping and barely keeping up with its harried, bitter characters, including an Oscar-nominated Judy Davis and Sydney Pollack (both brilliant) as a longtime married couple whose decision to split shakes up Allen and Farrow’s characters’ seemingly stable relationship. This remains one of Allen’s most rattling, confessional films.