Woody Allen: Funny or Serious?

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My real problem is that I just can't get over Diane Keaton.
But would you rather watch a funny or a serious Woody Allen flick?
Or has this question been posed before...

― jim wentworth (wench), Friday, 20 February 2004 04:58 (twenty years ago) link

funny. I mean it depends what you call funny. Obviously Annie Hall has funny parts but is really quite serious in parts however everything you ever wanted to know about sex... is meant to be funny and isn't really that funny at all.

― ipsofacto (ipsofacto), Friday, 20 February 2004 05:01 (twenty years ago) link

i like the ones that are serious about being funny

― ryan (ryan), Friday, 20 February 2004 05:08 (twenty years ago) link

The seriously funny ones.

― maypang (maypang), Friday, 20 February 2004 05:09 (twenty years ago) link

i'm with maypang, give me manhattan or annie hall or crimes and misdemeanours, the dramas perforated with 'funny'.

i'm going to a double bill this weekend, stardust memories & manhattan - i hope my girlfriend makes it through stardust memories...

― stevie (stevie), Friday, 20 February 2004 09:29 (twenty years ago) link

Funny. His stand-up album is the pinnacle of his recorded output.

― Andrew Farrell (afarrell), Friday, 20 February 2004 10:33 (twenty years ago) link

I saw that double at the Curzon about a year ago. Stardust is still pretty funny, if somewhat eliptical and dream like - and you can always keep her busy Sharon Stone spotting.

― Pete (Pete), Friday, 20 February 2004 10:49 (twenty years ago) link

purple rose of cairo oooooooooooh

― jody (Jody Beth Rosen), Friday, 20 February 2004 11:16 (twenty years ago) link

i love stardust, but my gf's not a woody fan per se, though she's loved all the woody movies we've seen together. but stardust is so (brilliantly) self-indulgent, i'm wincing that she might hate it.

― stevie (stevie), Friday, 20 February 2004 11:35 (twenty years ago) link

None of the funny ones are bad, which I wouldn't say of the serious ones. Yeah, it's the ones that combine the two so well that I love best - Anni Hall, Manhattan, Hannah and her Sisters.

― Martin Skidmore (Martin Skidmore), Friday, 20 February 2004 18:17 (twenty years ago) link

I've got two of his movies at home for tonights viewing. Love & Death and Crimes and Misdemeanors.

― Chris V (Chris V), Friday, 20 February 2004 18:18 (twenty years ago) link

I have a soft spot for Radio Days, but the pinnacle of his work in my squelching mind -- the casting of Max Von Sydow in Hannah and Her Sisters and the bit about explaining what the 1970s were like via TV clips in Sleeper.

"We suspected that people were sentenced to watch this man as a form of punishment."

"...You're absolutely right."

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Friday, 20 February 2004 18:19 (twenty years ago) link

ten months pass...

Woody Allen: Funny AND Serious

http://www.apple.com/trailers/fox_searchlight/melinda_and_melinda.html

Radha Mitchell, Will Ferreell, the guy from Dirty Pretty Things - this could be great.

― milozauckerman (miloaukerman), Sunday, 16 January 2005 01:25 (nineteen years ago) link

"Playwrights Max and Sy argue that the same story can be either be drama or comedy, depending on how it is told. Max's tragic tale unfolds on the screen: a distraught woman named Melinda arrives unexpectedly at a dinner given by her old friend, Laurel. As the story gets under way, Sy cuts in with his comic version, in which Melinda is the neighbour of Hobie and his thrusting filmmaker wife Susan. The film cuts continuously between the two versions of the tale, which turn out to have distinctive parallels. Needless to say, one of the film's life lessons is that tragedy often leaks into comedy, and vice versa."

― milozauckerman (miloaukerman), Sunday, 16 January 2005 01:26 (nineteen years ago) link

hm, remember what a crap-fest crimes and misdemeanors was, and how all sortsa scenesters dug it balls and all?

< / baiting >

― Remy IS THE Snush (x Jeremy), Sunday, 16 January 2005 01:33 (nineteen years ago) link

crimes and misdemeanors was great!! who are these "scenesters"?

anyway good premise for this one, i can only hope. but i'm not getting my hopes up TOO high, all things considered.

― s1ocki (slutsky), Sunday, 16 January 2005 02:12 (nineteen years ago) link

'interiors' is so brilliant and perfect IMHO, so i have to go with serious.

― noizem duke (noize duke), Sunday, 16 January 2005 02:15 (nineteen years ago) link

interiors is hilarious

― s1ocki (slutsky), Sunday, 16 January 2005 07:20 (nineteen years ago) link

haha just kidding, noize duke you impress me, i thought no one in the world had actually seen interiors!

― s1ocki (slutsky), Sunday, 16 January 2005 07:21 (nineteen years ago) link

its so fucking honed down to just pure torture! there is one funny line tho, and from keaton no less

― noizem duke (noize duke), Sunday, 16 January 2005 07:39 (nineteen years ago) link

Judging from the trailer torture is exactly the word.

― milozauckerman (miloaukerman), Sunday, 16 January 2005 08:07 (nineteen years ago) link

him and Albert Brooks should just get together with Steve Martin and have a big smug-off.

― Tracer Hand (tracerhand), Sunday, 16 January 2005 08:16 (nineteen years ago) link

The Melinda and Melinda trailer is intriguing! It'll prob. be the first Woody film I see since Small Time Crooks. I mean, it's got three things working for it:
a) interesting premise
b) Will Ferrell!
c) Radha Mitchell (where ya been, girl?)

― jaymc (jaymc), Sunday, 16 January 2005 09:58 (nineteen years ago) link

Also, I saw Interiors, and while it didn't think it was brilliant or nuthin', I def. think it gets a bad rap.

― jaymc (jaymc), Sunday, 16 January 2005 09:58 (nineteen years ago) link

Sweet and Lowdown, despite an overrated Sean Penn performance, is full of the music of Django Reinhardt, the Pizziarellis and Howard Alden. Ain't one thing wrong with that.

― Ash (ashbyman), Sunday, 16 January 2005 10:25 (nineteen years ago) link

INTERIORS PWNS ALL.
The less funny he's trying to be, the funnier he is.

I don't remember the exact quote but
"I'm not in the mood for your lesbian friends with their endless gossip about New York poetic has-beens." or something like that always gets me going.

― Aaron Hertz (AaronHz), Sunday, 16 January 2005 10:41 (nineteen years ago) link

like turns you on?

― s1ocki (slutsky), Sunday, 16 January 2005 17:30 (nineteen years ago) link

What happened to the one with Winona in it? Or was it shelved bcuz Winona=batshit?

― Jimmy Mod always makes friends with women before bedding them down (ModJ), Sunday, 16 January 2005 17:33 (nineteen years ago) link

ash are you saying sweet & lowdown is good DESPITE sean penn's performance? you crazy

― s1ocki (slutsky), Sunday, 16 January 2005 17:44 (nineteen years ago) link

Sweet and Lowdown was the last good movie Woody made, and for my money the best one he's made in 10 years.

― jaymc (jaymc), Sunday, 16 January 2005 17:51 (nineteen years ago) link

agreed

― s1ocki (slutsky), Sunday, 16 January 2005 17:54 (nineteen years ago) link

Is Celebrity worth watching at all?

― milozauckerman (miloaukerman), Sunday, 16 January 2005 17:58 (nineteen years ago) link

ehhhh

― s1ocki (slutsky), Sunday, 16 January 2005 18:06 (nineteen years ago) link

like turns you on?
dude...

― Aaron Hertz (AaronHz), Sunday, 16 January 2005 22:41 (nineteen years ago) link

ihttp://www.trigonalmayhem.com/meandwoody.jpg

― MY FAVOURITE LIGHTER IS CHEESEBURGER (trigonalmayhem), Sunday, 16 January 2005 22:43 (nineteen years ago) link

...that Interiors scene is funny for the same reason Fassbinder films (sometimes) are. OTT assholism in film characters just makes me laugh.

Celebrity is worth seeing once or twice...

― Aaron Hertz (AaronHz), Sunday, 16 January 2005 22:45 (nineteen years ago) link

zelig is fantastic!

― Emilymv (Emilymv), Monday, 17 January 2005 15:39 (nineteen years ago) link

Manhatten Murder Mystery is me and Dawn...

― mark grout (mark grout), Monday, 17 January 2005 15:50 (nineteen years ago) link

emily otm. zelig's one of my favourite movies

― s1ocki (slutsky), Monday, 17 January 2005 17:24 (nineteen years ago) link

my uncle told me he wz killed in the tsunami; anyone else hear that one?

― fcussen (Burger), Monday, 17 January 2005 17:27 (nineteen years ago) link

three months pass...

well "melinda & melinda" was just awful.

― cozen (Cozen), Saturday, 14 May 2005 17:03 (eighteen years ago) link

I was hoping this thread was going to be less reasoned than it is. sorta just an exchange of 'funny' 'serious' 'funny' 'serious' all the way to the bottom.

― Remy (x Jeremy), Saturday, 14 May 2005 21:50 (eighteen years ago) link

He's sunny. Or ferious.

― Casuistry (Chris P), Saturday, 14 May 2005 22:59 (eighteen years ago) link

"I'm pretty liberal. I hope that's not going to, um, be a problem"

"In bed, you mean?"

"Well in bed I'm more of a left-wing liberal."

― Tracer Hand (tracerhand), Sunday, 15 May 2005 00:56 (eighteen years ago) link

His new thriller-ish film is a smash at Cannes

― Chris L, Sunday, 15 May 2005 01:59 (eighteen years ago) link

two months pass...

"melinda & melinda" was good and nice! czn, explain.

― jermaine (jnoble), Friday, 22 July 2005 21:53 (eighteen years ago) link

one year passes...

I've just bought his new book. It's quite funny in a strangely serious way.

― Ned Trifle II, Friday, 6 July 2007 13:45 (sixteen years ago) link

It's a compilation of pieces that appeared in The New Yorker (mostly), yes? Like the others?

― Dr Morbius, Friday, 6 July 2007 13:51 (sixteen years ago) link

i still love that line from melinda and melinda, it's as good as any joke in any of his other movies

― Tracer Hand, Friday, 6 July 2007 13:52 (sixteen years ago) link

Woody was in my dream last night. He'd gained some weight, filling out his old man jowls a bit, grown a goatee, and put his hair into some wacky hippie braids. I told him he looked much younger and healthier.

― kenan, Friday, 6 July 2007 13:52 (sixteen years ago) link

new book is so, so, so s.j. perelman. which, you know, no one else on earth writes like that anymore, so more power to him.

― ghost rider, Friday, 6 July 2007 13:53 (sixteen years ago) link

one year passes...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qo2Lo28FNpg

― Dr Morbius, Monday, 29 June 2009 15:11 (fourteen years ago) link

(a very astutely crafted trailer)

― Dr Morbius, Monday, 29 June 2009 15:12 (fourteen years ago) link

five months pass...

http://7.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_ktzpiwTH8r1qz6f9yo1_500.gif

― Elvis Telecom, Thursday, 3 December 2009 04:41 (fourteen years ago) link

peace god

― BIG HOOS aka the steendriver, Thursday, 3 December 2009 14:44 (fourteen years ago) link

That's literally nauseating.

― Of course I want frosting. I'm a Scorpio. (kenan), Thursday, 3 December 2009 14:49 (fourteen years ago) link

Friends and I are working our way through a Woody Allen box set. "Everything You Ever Wanted to Know About Sex" wasn't as funny as I'd hoped, but the long riff on the runaway tit had me loling. "Manhattan" was both funnier and more serious than I remembered. Seems to be wiser every time I watch it, which maybe just means I get a little older every day.

Looking forward to "Love and Death" and "Stardust Memories," neither of which I've seen.

― BIG HOOS aka the steendriver, Thursday, 3 December 2009 14:53 (fourteen years ago) link

Two of my favorites!

― Of course I want frosting. I'm a Scorpio. (kenan), Thursday, 3 December 2009 14:56 (fourteen years ago) link

"Manhattan," I understand, is the one film that Woody himself hates. He didn't want it released, iirc. It's probably my favorite Woody movie. I theorize that he hates it because it's too close.

― Of course I want frosting. I'm a Scorpio. (kenan), Thursday, 3 December 2009 14:58 (fourteen years ago) link

Stardust Memories is awesomely ugly, has some of his funniest/most vicious imagery in it

― strange asses outside liquor stores (Shakey Mo Collier), Thursday, 3 December 2009 17:25 (fourteen years ago) link

Manhattan's neck-and-neck with Annie Hall as his best imho

― strange asses outside liquor stores (Shakey Mo Collier), Thursday, 3 December 2009 17:25 (fourteen years ago) link

wow, he hates manhattan? that explains his last 20 movies or so

― Dominique, Thursday, 3 December 2009 17:41 (fourteen years ago) link

http://blogs.suntimes.com/scanners/sdm2.jpg

― strange asses outside liquor stores (Shakey Mo Collier), Thursday, 3 December 2009 17:42 (fourteen years ago) link

I detest that movie. That should have been Woody's face photoshopped over the Vietcong guy.

― Hell is other people. In an ILE film forum. (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Thursday, 3 December 2009 17:55 (fourteen years ago) link

HOOS, presuming you haven't seen em, I'd watch Bob Hope in Monsieur Beaucaire before Love & Death, and 8-1/2 before Stardust Memories. Then you'll see exactly what he was goin' for.

SM was widely detested on its release but I've come to admire its balls; it certainly doesn't succeed like Annie Hall and Manhattan, but at least he was stepping outside his comfort zone with every other film (ie Interiors).

― Feingold/Kaptur 2012 (Dr Morbius), Thursday, 3 December 2009 18:14 (fourteen years ago) link

I agree that SM doesn't quite work, but I also agree about the vicious imagery. I like it a lot. But then, I'm a fan.

― Of course I want frosting. I'm a Scorpio. (kenan), Thursday, 3 December 2009 18:18 (fourteen years ago) link

That image is violently overstated. He may have been trying Something Else, but he hadn't a clue yet.

― Hell is other people. In an ILE film forum. (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Thursday, 3 December 2009 18:19 (fourteen years ago) link

five years pass...

still hilarious

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VV2N4KSh3x4

― piscesx, Tuesday, 14 April 2015 01:09 (nine years ago) link

two years pass...

I started watching Interiors and tbh I did find it kind of funny, the people are all so ridiculous, this peculiarly cold WASP-y self-absorption gone to rot

― Οὖτις, Wednesday, 20 September 2017 17:31 (six years ago) link

even so I didn't make it to the end. maybe later.

― Οὖτις, Wednesday, 20 September 2017 17:32 (six years ago) link

Sam Waterston as a Maoist is hilarious!

― the Rain Man of nationalism. (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Wednesday, 20 September 2017 17:32 (six years ago) link

and Geraldine Page fluttering about a vase I could pick up at Pottery Barn for $9.99

― the Rain Man of nationalism. (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Wednesday, 20 September 2017 17:33 (six years ago) link

haha yes to both

― Οὖτις, Wednesday, 20 September 2017 17:35 (six years ago) link

I think an underrated "serious" Allen movie is Another Woman.

― Rod Steel (musicfanatic), Wednesday, 20 September 2017 20:19 (six years ago) link

you made this error earlier this year, Alfred -- Waterston plays a documentarian whose subject is a Maoist.

― ice cream social justice (Dr Morbius), Wednesday, 20 September 2017 20:24 (six years ago) link

Maureen Stapleton's introductory scenes are very funny

― ice cream social justice (Dr Morbius), Wednesday, 20 September 2017 20:24 (six years ago) link

you made this error earlier this year, Alfred -- Waterston plays a documentarian whose subject is a Maoist.

― ice cream social justice (Dr Morbius),

my version is funnier

― the Rain Man of nationalism. (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Wednesday, 20 September 2017 21:52 (six years ago) link

three years pass...

― xzanfar, Monday, 7 December 2020 15:44 (three years ago) link

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