MovieChat Forums > The Four Seasons (1981) Discussion > Is Sandy Dennis' character supposed to h...

Is Sandy Dennis' character supposed to have Asperger's?

posted 8 years ago by marvelass
3 replies | jump to latest

She was very socially awkward, would ramble about unrelated stuff and could spout facts/figures, and had total recall regarding past events, right down to the date/place/time and what everyone was wearing. The others would occasionally humor her or pull faces whenever she'd utter a non-sequitur, but nothing more was said about her idiosyncrasies.

Since there are clearly autobiographical elements in this film, and given the time in which it was written, could it be possible that one of Alda's friends upon which that character was based had some kind of likely undiagnosed autism?



.

[–] larpine-225-371665 8 years ago

Interesting call. I saw her as OCD, but it's hard to determine, for Alda sort of dismisses her situation as the result of a loveless marriage.

A husband who admittedly never loved her, had numerous affairs and her only child going away to college, Anne retreated into a world of loneliness and isolationism, which understandable could drive anyone with a minor disorder into moderate madness.

In the forth segment, Nick makes reference to Anne's work that had been recently published, (which was likely the result of the assignment that Kate spoke of during the college weekend), for she had moved on from photographing vegetables to people and was obtaining a success within a fairly short time that she never experienced while married to Nick.

The main take away to me was what a brilliant actress Sandy Dennis really was. I believe Dennis was Alda's lightning in a bottle just by the way he kept the camera on her during every scene.

[–] sage2112 8 years ago

So ... Marilu Henner has some sort of disease??

[–] marvelass 7 years ago

Does she display other symptoms of autism besides total recall?

.