woody allen

http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/woody-allen-pays-tribute-ingmar-95679

The younger generation is just basically film-ignorant. Not just about Bergman, but Antonioni, Truffaut, Kurosawa, Bunuel. Film is not part of their general literacy. But the Bergman films remain great. They are great films — just as are the Bunuel films, the Kurosawa films, all of the films of that great flourishing of European cinema — all those films were great, great movies. The Seventh Seal was great then, and it’s great now. They don’t know The Bicycle Thief; they don’t know Grand Illusion. And many, many of them don’t know Citizen Kane. If they do know it, they know it as something they happened to see on television. They don’t have the same general reverence — which I’m not criticizing them for — there’s no reason why they would or should. It’s just a different time. Their icons and their heroes lie in a different area.

woody more or less otm

megalol that that quote is immediately followed by:

The first Bergman I ever saw was that one because there was talk in the neighborhood that there was a nude scene. This was unheard of in any American film, that level of advancement.

Dennis Perrin:

"Watched Woody Allen's You Will Meet A Tall Dark Stranger last night. Message: realists are forever fucked and compromised, desperation can lead to horrible choices, and the only truly happy people are delusional and superstitious. Sort of like Bananas with an English accent."

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y2rCnTF1xlo

WHERE ARE THE JOEKS

The still looks like a Stillman outtake.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2011/may/06/woody-allen-top-five-books

this was a nice read

That was indeed a nice read, thanks! "Epitaph of a Small Winner" sounds very intriguing.

The comments on that article are moronic otoh, even by the usual standards of guardian commenters.

"If you become obsessed with films or baseball or your children -- or if, in my case, you're worried about how the third act is going to turn out -- you become focused on that and you don't think about the terrors of life. You become focused on something that's apparently meaningful, but it's no more meaningful than the outcome of the Yankees game. I'll say, 'Gee, the Yankees lost today,' and the non baseball fan will say, 'So what?' It's as meaningful as his life or my life. They're specks of light in an eternal void having no meaning whatsoever in a universe that's eventually going to not exist. In the end, like in Stardust Memories, we all get flushed. The beautiful ones, the accomplished ones, the Einsteins, the Shakespeares, the homeless guys in the street with the wine bottles, all end up in the same grave. So, I have a very dim view of things, but I think about them, and I do feel that I've come to the conclusion that the artist can not justify life or come up with a cogent reason as to why life is meaningful, but the artist can provide you with a cold glass of water on a hot day."

http://blogs.laweekly.com/stylecouncil/2011/05/woody_allen_midnight_in_paris.php

given his 00s track record I'm really skeptical of this one. all of his movies have sucked since Match Point, which is an extremely long fallow period for him imho. have you seen this yet Morbz?

no. I've skipped a whole bunch of the recent ones, but am intrigued by The Purple Rose of Cairo comparisons.

(if I do see this, it will be early, bcz of spoilerrific plot apparently)

When French producers first approached Allen (who has directed five of his last six pictures abroad) about making a film in the City of Lights, he happily agreed. "But I had no idea for Paris at all -- none," he says. "So I asked myself: what do you think of when you think of Paris? Well, romance is what you think of -- at least it's what I think of. I'm not going to do a political thriller in Paris. If I was making a film in Berlin, a different thing comes to mind."

gives you some idea of how much of a "sense" of his "locations" this guy has at this point

very unkind to Vicky Christina Barcelona, SMC - not a "great" film but extremely enjoyable

I dunno, as Lubitsch said, I prefer Paris Paramount to Paris France.
xp

ugh, hated VCB.

im sure this movie will be wretched, but i liked this part of the interview:

Now, at age 75, with a career as a comic, writer and filmmaker that spans a half-century, Allen himself has become an iconic part of American cultural lore -- something that gives him more than a bit of pause. "I was thinking with great horror the other day that, since I'm a known person, a hundred years from now someone will make a movie about New York in my time, and I will be, let's say, not an important character in it, but a peripheral character," he says. "Someone will go into Elaine's, and there I'll be, played by some schlemiel, because I'm conceived of as a schlemiel, and he'll have glasses on, and he'll be a gloom-ridden recluse who shivers at the thought of going out into the country -- some execrable exaggeration of what people think I am. And that will be my hell. If I'm ever in a work of fiction as part of the atmosphere, they'll be doing to me the same unjust things as when I show Ernest Hemingway sitting at a bar talking the way he talks."

sure but further retreat into a robot-world constructed of old hollywood cliches and dostoyevsky glosses is not what our man needs right now

that said i just read too far into that nyt article and was spoiled and omg

ugh, hated VCB

^^^Morbz otm

don't hate, appreciate

there were no jokes, but then there was no drama either. it was just ... there. it seemed very aimless and misshapen to me.

totally

there was a lot of drama! especially when penelope cruz shows up! without cruz it would have been as you say. but no, you are the hater. of fun.

she was so bad she won her Oscar for it.

vcb is p lol

i mean that camera

she came across as an empty stereotype to me. the fiery, passionate, latin. she shows up, breaks some dishes, has some sex, yells = eh, whatever.

xp

vcb is easy to pick apart but very watchable. it's the only woody allen movie my gf has made it through iirc.

the american boyfriend in VCB was lolsy.

shakey mo i feel bad for you son

VCB was great fun. But oh my Whatever Works was offensively dogshit.

i havent seen VCB but i made the mistake of trying trying to watch Cassandra's Dream... i couldnt even finish it, it was so bad

jeez, even my editor liked this one.

'match point' was the last good one, yeah -- and it's not a patch on 'crimes and misdemeanors.'

woody's interviews are more entertaining than his films at this point.

match point incredible terrible and also bad

Woody on his next one -- Eisenberg! Inevitable.

“The new film stars Alec Baldwin, Ellen Page, Jesse Eisenberg, Penélope Cruz, Judy Davis, Roberto Benigni, and myself,” he explained. “It’s a broad comedy of various interwoven tales. I’m in one of them. All of the parts are significant. There just happened to be a part that I could play. I can’t play the love interest anymore, and of course this is tremendously frustrating, because that’s really what I want to play. But that’s not as believable anymore. I have to play Pops, the backstage doorman at the theater or something like that. But in this one there is a part for me.”

Caught the new Ebert show for the first time, and both Lemire and Vashtevhnatvskiyy were over the moon about Midnight in Paris -- like "best since the '80s" raving.

match point incredible terrible and also bad

This.

xp i saw that too and i do not trust them

"best since the 80s" - no. But decent. Can we say "best since Deconstructing Harry"?

woody made some excellent movies in the 90s... husbands & wives, manhattan murder mystery, everybody says i love you...

mighty aphrodite!

“The new film stars Alec Baldwin, Ellen Page, Jesse Eisenberg, Penélope Cruz, Judy Davis, Roberto Benigni, and myself,” he explained. “It’s a broad comedy of various interwoven tales

someone might be able to smack this down by naming an ensemble piece he made more recently that sucked - melinda & melinda? - but if this is anywhere close to deconstructing harry i can see it being a good thing, & it might be preferable seeing him dealing in vignettes, rather than seeing a single angle stretched to full length.

I can’t play the love interest anymore, and of course this is tremendously frustrating, because that’s really what I want to play. But that’s not as believable anymore

TRANSLATION: "I really wanna tap Juno, but I'll have to do through avatar Zuckerberg."

We have this argument every four years -- whenever Woody makes a film that doesn't inspire a public flogging.

Loved Scott and Zelda in "Midnight in Paris."

I have to say, having seen the "MiP" trailer, that I'm kind of loving Owen Wilson as the Woody surrogette.

He's great in it (though not nearly as dweebish as a true Woody-manqué) and I say that as someone who has never liked him in anything, ever.

there was an article about this in the NYT EVERY DAY last week. sheesh.

"sweet and lowdown" was the last WA i enjoyed

Can we say "best since Deconstructing Harry"?

I think we can, yeah. Although the tone is completely different. But the tone of Deconstructing Harry is different than any other Allen movie, IMO. This one is a lot more Purple Rose of Cairo. Owen Wilson is surprisingly great as the Allen stand-in. Kathy Bates as Gertrude Stein is pitch-perfect casting. Adrian Brody as Salvador Dali is over the top, but what makes it work is that it's also not far off the mark. I think the scene where the Owen Wilson character pitches a movie idea to Luis Bunuel will be talked about for decades, at least in art and film schools. I won't give it away, but it's a genius gag.

Thinking about this the next day, and remembering how many big laughs are in it. Like Hemingway asking the coquettish young girl if she's ever shot a wild animal who was charging at her. As if the answer could possibly be "yes".