woody allen

I dunno if I buy that as "sincere" but I love the desire to keep going.

nah, rephrase, if he means that then I think he's barking up an imaginary tree that sucks

He's pretty much always said this. He used to sit around with Sid Caesar going "If I could just write you one decent skit, I would be happy".

He's whined like this for years. However, classic lol: "I feel that what I’ve done so far is the . . . the bed of lettuce the hamburger must rest on."

The college dropout intellectual in him is never going to be satisfied that he's made more good films than, say, the Marx Brothers did. (or Chaplin, at least when it comes to features)

yeah but it's a (false) fanboy point of view. It's great if it works as a motor for him but it doesn't mean anything beyond that.

what is it supposed to "mean"? it's just the way he thinks.

Happy Birthday! Let's hope he has a Fanny & Alexander in him..

tons of Mubi links, incl audio analysis from Judd Apatow :o

http://mubi.com/notebook/posts/2593

a jewish american writer-director of relationship comedies, talking about his fondness for woody allen?

:o indeed

yeah, w/ the aspirations to high culture flipped.

I had such bad stomach flu today it reminded me of watching Knocked Up

I say this with no false modesty—that I feel I have done no really significant work, whatsoever, in any medium. I feel that unequivocally. I feel that what I have done so far in my life is sort of the ballast that is waiting to be uplifted by two or three really fine works that may hopefully come. We’ve been sitting and talking about Faulkner, say, and Updike and Bergman—I mean, I obviously can’t talk about myself in the same way at all. I feel that what I’ve done so far is the . . . the bed of lettuce the hamburger must rest on. I feel that if I could do, in the rest of my life, two or three really fine works—perhaps make a terrific film or write a fine play or something—then everything prior to that point would be interesting as developmental works. I feel that’s the status of my works—they’re a setting waiting for a jewel. But there’s no jewel there at the moment.

― shirley summistake (s1ocki), Wednesday, December 1, 2010 7:18 AM (Yesterday) Bookmark

is this from the paris review interview? crazy. you know groucho marx said of allen that allen was better than the marx brothers. what other american comedian of the last fifty years could make films that are respected by jean luc godard? he's just a genius, there's no other comedian like that really.

he was good quite a long time ago

which is fine, most artists go off the boil, but they usually disappear and don't get to be continually indulged and work with the best actors etc

Maybe 20 years of quite tremendous work, plus the same again of perfectly decent work, it's not a bad run.

He's so very erratic now. I thought VCB was mostly great, and I found Whatever Works to be mostly so offensively dreadful.

I'd still see his next movie though.

I'm showing something to my class this morning (couldn't get to it yesterday). I usually show the universe-is-expanding scene from Annie Hall, which kills me, but 12-year-olds just don't get it. So instead I found the Gershwin opening to Manhattan on YouTube--not particularly funny, but it looks and sounds great.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uyaj2P-dSi8

it's pretty funny

Yeah...Manhattan had such a huge effect on me when I saw it in '79 as an 18-year-old. My opinion of it has changed drastically over time--I find parts of it unwatchable now. My biggest problem is this yin and yang (which shows up in the opening monologue) between a) wanting to be a blow against pretension of all variety, and b) being very pretentious itself. But that's just me; I know that a lot people continue to count it among their favourite films ever.

see i love that anxiety

The blow-against-pretension half does produce one joke I always love: the merger between Commentary and Dissent.

"comsent"

"baseball bats work with Nazis"

I don't know why, but the Nazi joke is specifically one of the ones that makes me cringe...First of all, wouldn't baseball bats be the worst possible strategy against Nazis? Wouldn't that be kind of playing to their strength? Not that setting up a debate with Roberts Rules would necessarily be the best strategy, but I don't think baseball bats'll get you very far. There's something that just seems really smug about that joke to me.

he had one of the most amazingly consistent runs (three decades! imho) of any American director. It's a shame his 00s movies sucked, but yeah history mayne otm things don't last forever. as Allen would mournfully note himself.

i guess i've only heard tapes of his stand-up but i'd kind of put the 1960s as his first decade of greatness -- tbh i prefer them to almost all of his movies

I don't like Manhattan much – underwritten and overphotographed.

The argument b/w Yale and Isaac in the classroom is just painful.

on the other hand Husbands and Wives was the Height of Sophistication when I was eighteen.

The argument b/w Yale and Isaac in the classroom is just painful.

aw man this cracks me up. you think you're god/well I have to model myself after somebody lolz

Yale: Psychobabble
Isaac: One-liner

(repeat for five minutes)

lol @ manhattan overphotoraphed

Yale: Psychobabble
Isaac: One-liner

(repeat for five minutes)

c'mon this is how all comedy-duo routines work! You have a straight man and then you have the punchlines

Yeah, it's not fair to pick on that scene, but it's symptomatic of the larger problem with the movie. He hasn't learned yet to write enough sides to the characters.

that would have to wait until madonna's part in shadows & fog

and the Greek chorus in Mighty Aphrodite.

He hasn't learned yet to write enough sides to the characters.

Same here. Overall, I find Hanna and Crimes and Misdemeanors better films. He starts to lose me with Husbands and Wives.

H&W is my favorite.

I was iffy when it came out, tried again a couple of years ago but didn't really get anywhere. I will, somewhere down the road, try again.

By the way, I played both clips for my class this morning. As predicted, mass puzzlement over the universe-is-expanding clip. Me: "But don't you see, he won't do his homework because he says there's no point...he's 10 years old and he's worried about the universe expanding...it's funny!"

I saw Husbands and Wives recently and I'd consider it a middling work - not bad but not great. a lot of the acting is top-notch and I always love Judy Davis doing her "I am CRAZY and UPTIGHT" schtick. but honestly thought the most satisfying moment in the whole thing is when Juliette Lewis tells Woody how sexist and pretentious and stupid his novel is, it's basically an internalized critique of Allen's entire ouevre.

Is it weird that Interiors is my fave Woody movie? Nobody else seems to like it

never seen it. scared of the Bergman homage

i finally saw manhattan this year and i was blown away... think its p much perfect tbh

my interpretation of Manhattan has changed almost 180 from when I first saw it as a teenager, but that has only deepened my appreciation of it

Is it weird that Interiors is my fave Woody movie?

Yes--I think even Sarris, probably Woody's biggest fan at the time, was perplexed. (I might not be right about that.) Many critics were merciless. But a conventional wisdom quickly developed that if he hadn't made Interiors, there wouldn't have been a Manhattan. Anyway, eccentric favorites are always interesting.

I'm exactly where Shakey Mo is on Husbands and Wives.

over photographed !

oh my eyes!

tone it down to 23 frames a second could ya pal

oh man i LOVE the argument in the classroom actually despite it having that slightly-under-rehearsed feel. it is a little underwritten Manhattan too in parts but i kinda like that about his stuff. i thought that's what a lot of people liked about it? you can tell he only does 2 or 3 takes or whatever and has the actors say whatever they want so long as the general gist comes across. i still think "i wanna make sure that when i.. thin out that i'm.. well thought of" is brilliant.