Crimes And Misdemeanors

When the Woody Allen-Mia Farrow dispute went public last week, the lack of laughter was deafening. The question about Woody became an incredulous "would he?" He answered yes, he was in love with his 19-year-old foster daughter, Soon-Yi Previn Farrow. Crimes and misdemeanors, indeed, sniffed his severely disillusioned legion of fans. My reaction to this year's umpteenth FUSS (Fundamentally Ugly Sexual Skirmish) played like an out-take from the Three Faces of Eve. The inquiring-minds-want-to-know gossip in me let out "Wow!"

The psychoanalyst, white-haired and robust, leaned back in his black- leather chair, just next to a couch. Behind him was a wall of books - on sexuality, religion, suicide, Freud - the books of his profession. Martin Bergmann placed his right index finger on his lips and considered why he had accepted the role of Louis Levy, professor of philosophy, in the new Woody Allen movie, Crimes and Misdemeanors. "I kind of like Woody Allen," said Bergmann, born in Prague in 1913, raised in Palestine, and a Manhattan resident since 1940.

Woody Allen's "Crimes and Misdemeanors" is sort of "Fatal Attraction" for eggheads. The plots are strikingly similar. A successful family man (Martin Landau) finds an extramarital outlet for his lust, then finds his secure domestic world threatened when the other woman (Angelica Huston) becomes unreasonable. "Crimes and Misdemeanors" takes this story line and builds on it. Allen adds extra characters - including a less lethal love triangle involving his own character - and some, like, really deep ruminations about God and morality.

While the title of Woody Allen's new film, Crimes and Misdemeanors, echoes that of Crime and Punishment, this funny and haunting movie is more like Duck Soup Meets Dostoevsky. If the gifted writer/director/actor has learned anything during his erratic swings between comedy and tragedy, it's that humor is lighter and drama darker when they are side by side, as in this, his most ambitious movie. And, I think, his masterwork. A possible subtitle for Allen's provocative meditation on faith, hope and adultery is When Good Things Happen to Bad People.

The nation's long impeachment nightmare was a grim epic, devoid of live heroes. In the end, after the tumult and the tedium had dissolved in a long-anticipated anticlimax, the triumph belonged to the dead. If there are any laurels to be awarded, they must go to the likes of James Madison, Alexander Hamilton and George Mason. It was those men and their colleagues who wrote into the Constitution the central idea that virtually dictated the outcome of the 1999 impeachment trial of William Jefferson Clinton, and left his presidency intact but tainted, the nation shaken but stable.

Likable Betsy's Wedding, Alan Alda's most enjoyable writing/directing/ acting effort since The Four Seasons, ties the knot between Father of the Bride and Married to the Mob. Alda plays the distracted dad, a contractor who borrows money from his mobster brother-in-law to pay for daughter Molly Ringwald's nuptials. It only occurs to Eddie Hopper (Alda) that his future son-in-law Jake Lovell is, well, different when Eddie parks his pickup truck outside the Sutton Place townhouse of Jake's folks.

Hollywood Ending, Woody Allen's latest, is an intermittently amusing male-menopause comedy starring the writer-director as Val Waxman, a New York filmmaker challenged by assaults to his manhood and his career. Alas, the only thing hysterical about the film is that its hero suffers from hysterical blindness. Ever since Val's wife Ellie (human sunbeam T?a Leoni) decamped to take up with Hollywood studio chief Hal (Treat Williams), Val has lost his mojo. His films haven't clicked, and neither has his love life.

How do you take a weak-willed, arrogant, selfish man and present him to an audience in a sympathetic light? This was the question facing Martin Landau as he prepared for "one of the best roles of my life" - that of Judah Rosenthal, the distinguished ophthalmologist whose adultery threatens to ruin him in Woody Allen's grim, powerful (and, yes, occasionally funny) new work, Crimes and Misdemeanors. "The guy doesn't do a decent thing in the movie," explains the 55-year- old Landau.

The trouble with Harry? According to his wife's sister, with whom the self-involved writer enjoyed a torrid affair he details in his latest novel, Between Sisters, he makes money off other people's pain. According to Harry's own sister, he's led a life dedicated solely to the pleasures of sarcasm and orgasm. Harry is first to admit he's the lowest of the low. "I cheated on all my wives, I lie, I'm cowardly," he confesses to the Devil, who has to agree that Harry ranks among Hell's Most Wanted.

As Back to the Future-mania hits, with Part II coming out on video and Part III hitting theaters on the same day, you'd think that would be the big story in video this week. But, as John Belushi used to say, nooooo. Also being released are an impressive entry from Woody Allen, a harrowing story of World War II and a hit comedy starring Michelle Pfeiffer and the brothers Bridges. CRIMES AND MISDEMEANORS (1989) (Orion) $89.98. 104 minutes. Woody Allen, Martin Landau. While the title echoes Crime and Punishment, this funny and haunting film plays like Duck Soup Meets Dostoevsky.

Hollywood Ending, Woody Allen's latest, is an intermittently amusing male-menopause comedy starring the writer-director as Val Waxman, a New York filmmaker challenged by assaults to his manhood and his career. Alas, the only thing hysterical about the film is that its hero suffers from hysterical blindness. Ever since Val's wife Ellie (human sunbeam T?a Leoni) decamped to take up with Hollywood studio chief Hal (Treat Williams), Val has lost his mojo. His films haven't clicked, and neither has his love life.

The nation's long impeachment nightmare was a grim epic, devoid of live heroes. In the end, after the tumult and the tedium had dissolved in a long-anticipated anticlimax, the triumph belonged to the dead. If there are any laurels to be awarded, they must go to the likes of James Madison, Alexander Hamilton and George Mason. It was those men and their colleagues who wrote into the Constitution the central idea that virtually dictated the outcome of the 1999 impeachment trial of William Jefferson Clinton, and left his presidency intact but tainted, the nation shaken but stable.

The central charge in independent counsel Kenneth W. Starr's report is that President Clinton lied to the grand jury when he denied touching Monica Lewinsky in a sexual manner. It is that denial that prompted Starr to include the torrent of lurid detail on Clinton and Lewinsky's alleged sex life. Starr built his claim of a grand jury lie upon Clinton's similar denial in the Paula Jones sexual-harassment case, in which he testified that he did not have "sexual relations" with the former White House intern.

Today the Commentary Page welcomes back David Boldt as a regular columnist. David was the editor of the editorial page from 1987 to 1994, and his column appeared on the Metro Page until last month. As l'affaire Lewinsky unfolds, the Watergate scandal is being evoked at every turn. But it's worth taking a careful look back at just exactly what that earlier episode comprised. The simple answer is: A lot more than most people think. It went way beyond the burglary of the Democratic National Committee offices at the Watergate by a quintet of White House-controlled bandits.

The trouble with Harry? According to his wife's sister, with whom the self-involved writer enjoyed a torrid affair he details in his latest novel, Between Sisters, he makes money off other people's pain. According to Harry's own sister, he's led a life dedicated solely to the pleasures of sarcasm and orgasm. Harry is first to admit he's the lowest of the low. "I cheated on all my wives, I lie, I'm cowardly," he confesses to the Devil, who has to agree that Harry ranks among Hell's Most Wanted.

It was the worst of times. It was the worst of times. It was the time that Woody Allen fell from grace. His metamorphosis from American icon to tabloid target was as stunning as it was swift. With the revelation last August of his romance with 21-year-old Soon-Yi Farrow Previn, the adopted daughter of Mia Farrow, his longtime companion and star of his films, the walls around Allen's closely guarded private life came tumbling down. Then Farrow made her shocking allegations: that Allen had molested their 7- year-old adopted daughter, Dylan.

When the Woody Allen-Mia Farrow dispute went public last week, the lack of laughter was deafening. The question about Woody became an incredulous "would he?" He answered yes, he was in love with his 19-year-old foster daughter, Soon-Yi Previn Farrow. Crimes and misdemeanors, indeed, sniffed his severely disillusioned legion of fans. My reaction to this year's umpteenth FUSS (Fundamentally Ugly Sexual Skirmish) played like an out-take from the Three Faces of Eve. The inquiring-minds-want-to-know gossip in me let out "Wow!"

Likable Betsy's Wedding, Alan Alda's most enjoyable writing/directing/ acting effort since The Four Seasons, ties the knot between Father of the Bride and Married to the Mob. Alda plays the distracted dad, a contractor who borrows money from his mobster brother-in-law to pay for daughter Molly Ringwald's nuptials. It only occurs to Eddie Hopper (Alda) that his future son-in-law Jake Lovell is, well, different when Eddie parks his pickup truck outside the Sutton Place townhouse of Jake's folks.

As Back to the Future-mania hits, with Part II coming out on video and Part III hitting theaters on the same day, you'd think that would be the big story in video this week. But, as John Belushi used to say, nooooo. Also being released are an impressive entry from Woody Allen, a harrowing story of World War II and a hit comedy starring Michelle Pfeiffer and the brothers Bridges. CRIMES AND MISDEMEANORS (1989) (Orion) $89.98. 104 minutes. Woody Allen, Martin Landau. While the title echoes Crime and Punishment, this funny and haunting film plays like Duck Soup Meets Dostoevsky.

The psychoanalyst, white-haired and robust, leaned back in his black- leather chair, just next to a couch. Behind him was a wall of books - on sexuality, religion, suicide, Freud - the books of his profession. Martin Bergmann placed his right index finger on his lips and considered why he had accepted the role of Louis Levy, professor of philosophy, in the new Woody Allen movie, Crimes and Misdemeanors. "I kind of like Woody Allen," said Bergmann, born in Prague in 1913, raised in Palestine, and a Manhattan resident since 1940.