woody allen

If I like the person enough then I'm sure I've some way of dealing with it.

Er........what a shit reply.

But of course the second I met someone as clever as I, I fucking went and got engaged to him. *sigh* Maybe I'm not as bright as I thought.

My point being, there are different kinds of smart. Wot-evah works...

To answer the (fascinatingly perverse) question, I date girls who are not as cultivated as me, and deal with this by attempting to fill them up with my junk. When I find a girl who can match me, and who just happens to be model-like, I freak out.

'well, i'm very shallow and empty and have no ideas and nothing interesting to say.'

'and i'm exactly the same way.'

haaaaa

I forgot how high Woody Allen's voice is. It's higher than mine, I think.

^ My kinda revive.

Actually, I noticed in his recent Fresh Air interview, his voice is getting a little raspy and old-mannish!

I just watched Annie Hall and I felt like freaking Big Bertha bcz of his little voice.

Whereas his voice makes mine seem a little more manly.

So: engaged in this very slow chronological watch-through of his films, and was thoroughly expecting his career to be back-loaded with crap. But I think Sweet & Lowdown might be one of my absolute favorites.

he's pretty great up through 2000 - but the 00s have been a bad decade for him. a lot of crap

Whatever Works is great! Esp. the monologue at the beginning. I've sworn off the Times.

totally disagree - watched it Saturday and thought it was terrible. Larry David couldn't sell that dialogue, which wasn't any good to begin with for the most part, and everything seemed so half-assed and predictable and tired...

I think after a decade of bad films (Match Point excepted) its time Allen and I parted ways. he's definitively past it now.

how do u think he'll react?

whinily

his recent work makes What's New Pussycat? look masterful.

sad but true

What's New Pussycat has jokes at least

god i hate WNP

couldn't make it through anything else tbh

i mean whatever works

an equally unmemorable title

Woody hates WNP too! The question is why he doesn't hate these scripts he's shooting.

well he's never been a good judge of his own work but at this point I assume he just continues out of habit

Doesn't he periodically call a lot of his disasters his favourite film to date when making them?

I dunno, but he said he wanted to scrap Manhattan when he finished it.

I want a copy of this:

http://img.amazon.ca/images/I/51T-PMA6C-L._SL500_AA240_.jpg

I think a lot of those are available online somewhere.

Doesn't he periodically call a lot of his disasters his favourite film to date when making them?

To his credit, he usually hates his films.

Move over Scarlett Johansson — Woody Allen has a new muse: France’s first lady, the model-turned-singer Carla Bruni-Sarkozy.

The brunette beauty will appear in Woody’s next film in a role that is, as yet, undefined, reports Bloomberg.

“He offered me a role in his next movie,” Carla told a French TV show yesterday.

“I don’t know for what character, but I said yes. I’m not an actress at all,” says the wife of France’s president Nicolas Sarkozy. “Maybe I will be terrible. But, in my life, I cannot let such a chance go.”

Previously, Woody, 73, has waxed lyrical about 25-year-old Scarlett — who has starred in three of the director’s movies, Match Point, Scoop and Vicky Cristina Barcelona — saying, “She’s very charming, very bright, very amusing.

“She livens the set up. The minute she walks on the set, the amperage goes up 200 points… Whenever there’s a part she could play, she would probably always be my first choice.”

this fuckin guy

Thorough summary of Woody's first 20 years in showbiz, including the magazine ads he did:

http://blog.wfmu.org/freeform/2010/02/the-early-woody-allen-.html

Links to some clips from "Hot Dog", a kids' show from '71 which is the first time I remember seeing him on TV. Woody & Jo Ann Worley on how money is made:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1AtALhw0Ksc

Q. How do you feel about the aging process?

A. Well, I’m against it.

[....]

Q. Were you prepared for the firestorm of media coverage you set off by casting Carla Bruni-Sarkozy in your next movie, “Midnight in Paris”?

A. I was very surprised at the level of journalism that occurred in relation to her.

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/09/15/movies/15woody.html?src=me&ref=general

Love that first answer. The whole interview is pretty entertaining.

Ime, Woody has two well-developed schticks: Funny Woody with his gulping delivery of every line and Artsy Woody who stays behind the camera and creates little drawing room dramas. I can't say I'm much taken with either schtick. I can take them or leave them. Mostly leave them.

funny Woody was frequently great and still has (hot) flashes of brilliance

I can't remember the last movie he did that was genuinely funny tbh. nothing this decade.

Curse of the Jade Scorpion maybe

http://img696.imageshack.us/img696/6595/050708095500.jpg

I haven't seen Love and Death in ages, but that might be about the safest film of his you can watch now.

Take The Money And Run

So in case anyone else stuck through this doc until the end, thoughts? Frankly IMO this eviscerated each defense point Allen and his defenders have brought up through the years: the Yale clinic 'diagnosis', the polygraph, even the fucking train which Moses was stating a few years ago wasn't there (it is indicated in the initial investigation docs and they showed exactly where it was in relation to where the abuse allegedly happened). I've seen a fair amount of criticism of the documentarians, mainly around their last project (which I still haven't seen, the Russell Simmons one), but that criticism seemed to circle around whether they were sufficiently nice to their interviewee (who was called in by Oprah, and not them, at the last minute). I've seen no substantive take downs of what they've revealed, all of which seems to be fairly factual and damning.

the yale clinic diagnosis thing was the most suspect thing ever. almost unbelievable situation. they had the interviewers destroy their notes, they had woody allen come to do a press conference to reveal that they had decided he was innocent. makes you wonder what other shit was going on over there (or still is?)

The Simmons doc is good

another thing that stuck out to me was the recorded phone conversations: I barely recognized Allen in these recordings, his voice sounded an octive deeper half the time, and none of his mannered stuttering, etc. He sounded downright menacing at times, and at one point sounded ... nuts? drunk? It was in the second episode I think, and he just starting responding to her in some weird, disconnected manner, repeating some words.

If you watch his press conference and every other interview, it seems almost glaringly obvious he's lying. He coughs, for one thing, right before he is asked something direct.

and my take on Moses' flip: I'm guessing he got paid off. Mia was at his first wedding. They have a mothers day card from him to her from not even that long ago. They mentioned his first wife believed Dylan. Wonder what that divorce was like.

How does Mia Farrow come off?

Fine? Like... a loving mother who didn’t really want to do any of this. She certainly doesn’t come across as crazy, manipulative, scheming, or ditzy.

It’s very clear the only reason this wasn’t prosecuted was because the state investigator didn’t want to put dylan on the stand an retraumatize her. He is also clearly haunted by this decision and he apologizes to her for that in the last episode.

I tend to believe the worst of Woody Allen while also believing she was manipulative and scheming. Both things can be true. Does the documentary challenge this?

It’s hard to see how she would be manipulative in this case since there is lots of evidence that she didn’t know that the doctor would call the police; that she wanted to handle everything privately; and she had to be coaxed into even participating in this doc.

yeah, on some of the phone calls it sounded like she didn't want to believe it, which is how an ordinary parent would react if they were in shock.

Look, I've said this before in this thread, but I'm really uncomfortable with assuming that someone describing a childhood of abuse must be lying for money. I'm also uncomfortable with taking alleged abuse victims' complicated and shifting attitudes toward their abusers as evidence that they are lying. Can we please find a way to talk about this that does not involve accusing Moses Farrow of lying about his personal experience of growing up in the Farrow household? It is entirely possible imo that both Woody and Mia are bad people; we don't have to make Mia into a saint in order to believe Dylan.

this was very hard to watch, particularly the clips of 7-year-old dylan telling her mom about what happened to her. horrifying.

one thing that was new to me was how quickly, in 1992, the media accepted woody allen's self-serving version of what happened: headlines reading "woody's in love" and shit like that.

I'm also uncomfortable with taking alleged abuse victims' complicated and shifting attitudes toward their abusers as evidence that they are lying. Can we please find a way to talk about this that does not involve accusing Moses Farrow of lying about his personal experience of growing up in the Farrow household?

Thanks for saying this, Lily.

I tend to believe the worst of Woody Allen while also believing she was manipulative and scheming. Both things can be true.

― So who you gonna call? The martini police (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Tuesday, March 16, 2021 11:31 AM (five hours ago)

NB that Mia is still a vocal supporter of Polanski:

I'm upset that apparently the Farrow family decided to use a clip of me, without my permission in their film. I hear it clearly does NOT represent my feelings. Sad how so many "victims" will abuse another if they see some benefit to themselves, even a family member in some cases.

— Samantha Jane Geimer (@sjgeimer) March 15, 2021

(and in response to a sympathetic reply:)

Thanks, having my life used by others who seek advantage for themselves is nothing new. You would think anyone who has had someone in their family victimized would behave differently.

— Samantha Jane Geimer (@sjgeimer) March 15, 2021

one thing that was new to me was how quickly, in 1992, the media accepted woody allen's self-serving version of what happened: headlines reading "woody's in love" and shit like that.

There was the lazy guff about autobiographical connections between his romantic life and Husbands and Wives, perhaps to sell an uncommercial film (and still one of his best for those who can still watch him).

Speaking of, several Woody films - including my personal fave Crimes & Misdemeanours - are basically about how there's no morality to existence, you can do heinous shit and not get punished for it at all. Which I realise isn't a thought he came up with himself.

https://www.journaloftheplagueyear.ink/blog/the-germaphobe

I've never been a Woody Allen fan, but I'm also not comfortable making inferences based on the themes or subject matter of his films. There's well enough gross stuff on its own.

I agree in broad terms but woody spent his career inviting us to blur the line between him and his onscreen persona

and it's not like you have to do "reading" on Manhattan, it's the text not the subtext

I know, it's gross. It just seems a precarious road to go down, whether in film, music, literature, whatever. As does the contrary, for that matter. Cosby was a family man, etc., a role model, "The Cosby Show," and so on.

I think we can think about how artist's work dovetails with their personal lives without then jumping to the conclusion that any artist whose work expresses troubling themes must be a bad person in real life

What I found interesting years ago was the non-stuttering, focused guy he was in serious interviews.

I don’t think it changes anything about Allen’s terrible behavior (including trying to paint Farrow as a monster in the press), but white ladies who adopt a bunch of babies from other parts of the world give me pause, and, as Lily says, there’s no reason not to believe Moses’s account of his own experience growing up in that family.

I think some of the stuff from Moses is at least a little suspect. He was clearly enamored with Woody and he may not have had a great relationship with Mia. You can kinda surmise that Mia had her own issues as a parent, but his take that she was the real monster seems at odds with the other (nine?) kids and he seems essentially estranged from the entire Farrow clan. And according to Ronan, Woody was not above bribing his kids to publicly back him. And that major minor authoritative detail Moses dropped about there not even being a train set in the attic was contradicted by police reports.

Some stuff in this was new to me. Woody had to see a therapist about his inappropriate behavior towards Dylan. And that Yale clinic stunt punctuated with a press conference out front “clearing” him was transparently bogus and ridiculous. Some of those taped phone conversations were chilling. Mia point blank asking him, multiple times, where he and Dylan disappeared to for 20 minutes that day and his repeated blank non-answer of “just wait and see, all that will come out, just wait and see” “why can’t you tell me now” “the truth will come out” etc.

Stacking the accusations (which seem entirely credible) with his public handling of it reveals a genuinely fucked up human being. Woody’s charming persona in press conferences seriously dropping this *cough cough* “the wild imaginative vindictiveness of a woman scorned” bullshit delicately stepping around the fact that this scorning was you fucking her (and borderline your) daughter since she was in high school. Also you’re here in the first place because you’ve been accused of sexually abusing another daughter, this one 7 years old. The one you’ll sue for sole custody of shortly.

Fuck Woody Allen tbh. I suspect he’s not a good guy.

he should be shot. i'm extremely bitter about how his fans have behaved over the years tbh

This sent me down a rabbit hole that led to my discovering that Woody Allen has been featured on postage stamps in Togo and Mozambique https://t.co/ol1p2RzXF7 pic.twitter.com/TWO8JcRnhW

— Screen Slate (@ScreenSlate) July 21, 2021

Sorry for the huge embed, but that Mozambique stamp is too good

the eyes on the Togolese one...

i almost want to torrent his new film because i suspect it would be enjoyable in a "so bad its good" manner but i probably won't bother.

A Rainy Day in New York? It's on Prime. There's actually another one, filmed afterwards, called Rifkin's Festival. It has only been released in Spain.

Not even released in Togo, that's how bad it is.

yes, rifkin's festival was the one. i wouldn't even want to watch on prime as i wouldn't like to boost the analytics.

The film-after-next will be his 50th! Not including What's Up Tiger Lily?, which barely counts. Wonder what delights he has in store for us?

i watched a few minutes of Rainy Day. It's bad. Rifkin's is supposed to be okay.

I sadly know enough movie bros who believe in some shade of Woody Allen Innocent and even they couldn't find a way to defend Rainy Dar or Rifkin's.

https://www.thewrap.com/woody-allen-rifkins-festival-box-office/

Woody Allen has posted the lowest box office opening weekend of his career with his 49th film, “Rifkin’s Festival,” grossing just $24,000 on Friday and Saturday from 26 theaters, according to box office sources.

Most of the theaters screening the film are owned by Landmark Theaters, whose flagship Los Angeles location posted the highest single theater total for the film with $2,300. Other theaters outside of Landmark’s circuit screening the film include the Quad Theatre in New York City, where the film grossed $1,600 over two days.

wondered if this was an RIP. almost is.

Also, in a thankless move but as someone who has often spoken his view of truth to power, Wallace Shawn writes about why he took the role in Rifkin's Festival.

woody allen and twiggy. i feel vindicated in never liking this fraud

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X2VCbxVVDQk

The Twigster destroyed him.

The film-after-next will be his 50th! Not including What's Up Tiger Lily?, which barely counts. Wonder what delights he has in store for us?

A French-language 'Sinister Thriller'...and then retirement from film to write books and short pieces.

https://variety.com/2022/film/global/woody-allen-retirement-1235375939/

I thought this was going to be about Rosie O-Donnell on Howard Stern:

In the case of Allen, the film was 1999's Sweet and Lowdown, with Sean Penn and Uma Thurman. "I had done an HBO special where I said everything about him," O'Donnell told Stern. (Spoiler: She did not have good things to say about Allen.) "And then I got on my show. So it's the first year of my show and I get a call and they said, 'He wants you to be in (Sweet and Lowdown). I said, 'Please send him my HBO special.' And the woman said, 'Oh he's already seen it.' And I said, 'Send it anyway with two words: F--- and no.' And I sent it to him."

According to O'Donnell, Allen's team persisted in asking after her to play a role despite her comments. "They called back and said, 'He really wants you to do it. He'd like to talk to you about it,'" she recalled. "I said, 'I'm not doing it. I'm not working for him or with him and being associated with him.'"

Allen also was reportedly surprised when Mia Farrow didn't want to star in Manhattan Murder Mystery after the allegations emerged.

Cosmic levels of self-absorption, zero self-awareness.

Guess we'll never get to see some of these.

Woody's next 50: pic.twitter.com/ZGI6ZW2fgY

— Tim Heidecker (@timheidecker) June 21, 2016

He’s retiring to spend more time marrying his family. https://t.co/CLW0SOsYRe

— Ariel Dumas (@ArielDumas) September 18, 2022

Allen's people now saying the original source misquoted him, and that he has no plans to retire from filmmaking.