and that is the decade when the national "narrative" endorsed such a philosophy very shamelessly.
― Pangborn to be Wilde (Dr Morbius), Friday, 20 July 2012 16:20 (eleven years ago) link
Yet Allen is often treated in the press as if he were even more important than (Bergman and Fellini).
haha was this really the case or is this just another vaguely dumb thing in this article? also is this guy like a respected critic and stuff, i'm very confused
― thomp, Friday, 20 July 2012 16:27 (eleven years ago) link
At peak Woody respectability, say '86-92, it's not much of an overstatement.
― Pangborn to be Wilde (Dr Morbius), Friday, 20 July 2012 16:35 (eleven years ago) link
A film that professes to address the rampant amorality and self-interest of the 1980s gives us an ophthalmologist (Martin Landau) who arranges to murder his mistress and gets away with it and a socially concerned documentary filmmaker (Allen) who isn’t rewarded for his good intentions. But both characters seem equally motivated by self-interest, and we are asked to care much more about Allen’s character as a fall guy than about the murdered mistress (Anjelica Huston).
i think this really misreads the movie tbh. Always thought Allen's self-interest is pretty clear.
― Call Surgeon General C. Everett Koop. Poo-poo-pa-doop. (stevie), Friday, 20 July 2012 20:35 (eleven years ago) link
exactly
― Will Chave (Hurting 2), Friday, 20 July 2012 20:36 (eleven years ago) link
I mean that's the whole point of the screening room scene where he's made a doc comparing Alda's character to Mussolini, isn't it?
― Will Chave (Hurting 2), Friday, 20 July 2012 20:37 (eleven years ago) link
BTW the mistress is also quite selfish - she's ready to destroy a family out of possessiveness and jealousy.
― Will Chave (Hurting 2), Friday, 20 July 2012 20:38 (eleven years ago) link
mia farrow clearly makes the right decision in that movie
― a hauntingly unemployed american (difficult listening hour), Saturday, 21 July 2012 00:20 (eleven years ago) link
― thomp, Friday, 20 July 2012 17:27 (Yesterday) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink
tbh throwing out bergman & fellini just as ~serious filmmakers & stylists~ is p weak & makes me want to rep for allen, who's very varied, inventive, structurally interesting, thoughtful, &c. i guess some of his stuff being comedy pigeonholes him outside of a certain canon but he's important.
― , Blogger (schlump), Saturday, 21 July 2012 00:47 (eleven years ago) link
A little something about a familiar house.
― Ned Raggett, Tuesday, 27 November 2012 21:37 (eleven years ago) link
I wouldn't have thought they'd used some interiors for scenes.
― saltwater incursion (Dr Morbius), Tuesday, 27 November 2012 21:44 (eleven years ago) link
Great that they did, though. Still have a fondness for that film.
― Ned Raggett, Tuesday, 27 November 2012 21:45 (eleven years ago) link
saw a double feature of manhattan and the purple rose of cairo on 35mm last night; prob gonna die sometime this week. this is i think the first time i've seen the former (and i've seen it many many many times, thanks to a high school crush on mariel hemingway) with the brightness properly calibrated.
― difficult listening hour, Sunday, 6 January 2013 16:10 (eleven years ago) link
in purple rose i like when someone insisting on the necessity of getting jeff daniels back into the movie before they turn off the projector says "ya want an extra guy running around?!"
― difficult listening hour, Sunday, 6 January 2013 16:14 (eleven years ago) link
i heard louie ck got a part in his new movie? will probably go see it if so. how many times have i been shocked that woody allen's new movie is great? (ummm, first time was purple rose of cairo, then again on manhattan murder mystery, then a third time on deconstructing harry) all had long stretches of bombs between so i'm always hoping i'll hear the new one is surprisingly awesome.
― messiahwannabe, Monday, 7 January 2013 05:23 (eleven years ago) link
don't hold your breath
I will see it cuz it was shot in my neighborhood tho
― Welcome to my world of proses (Shakey Mo Collier), Tuesday, 8 January 2013 00:04 (eleven years ago) link
almost headed up to see that same double feature, dlh! just a few blocks from my apartment. now I really wish I had :( should probably check the runtimes for the rest of the week.
― Clay, Tuesday, 8 January 2013 01:19 (eleven years ago) link
The problem is that Woody's weaknesses have gotten worse, and he's so impervious to change in his dotage that he seems incapable of pleasant surprises.
(There's a reason Chaplin made one reviled film in his 70s.)
― saltwater incursion (Dr Morbius), Tuesday, 8 January 2013 01:53 (eleven years ago) link
Saw the Manhattan showing on Friday. Won't get a chance to see any of the others, I don't think, since I'm out of town til Friday.
― "It's the Stay-Puft Marshmallow Drunk!" (kingfish), Tuesday, 8 January 2013 02:15 (eleven years ago) link
Hannah and Her Sisters and Sleeper out on blu-ray this month, in MGM's apparent campaign of releasing the Allen classics two at a time.
― Public Brooding Closet (cryptosicko), Tuesday, 8 January 2013 02:54 (eleven years ago) link
I watched To Rome with Love recently. Some of the scenarios and characters in it were really good, but it felt that by pulling all the stories together, it created nothing more than the mad ramblings of an old man. If Allen had concentrated on one idea rather than three or four ( I especially like the Baldwin, Esinberg scenes) it could have made a rich, brilliant film. It's a shame, it feels like Allens losing his ability to weave a good yarn, and is using his film budget to pitch half baked storylines.
― PatrickBatemanisascarydude (captain rosie), Monday, 14 January 2013 17:24 (eleven years ago) link
Last night I listened to this interview with him from 2007 or so. One funny detail: he's pretty adamant in saying that he has stopped writing comedies and now wants to focus more on serious drama. This right before Midnight in Paris...
― Chief Duff (Eazy), Monday, 14 January 2013 17:34 (eleven years ago) link
If we agree that there’s more to intellectual legitimacy than name-dropping, what is it in Allen’s work as a comic Jewish writer-director-performer that earns him that legitimacy — a legitimacy that is denied to, among others, Elaine May and both Mel and Albert Brooks?
w/ the exception of annie hall and manhattan, IMO mel brooks's best work holds its own against woody allen's. plus i give mel brooks brownie points for standing by david lynch at the beginning of lynch's career.
albert brooks is a pompous bore who is loved only by similarly pompous & boring boomers.
― oh no! sirap notlih vs. ognir rrats FITE!! OH NO!!! (Eisbaer), Monday, 14 January 2013 17:45 (eleven years ago) link
"both Mel and Albert Brooks"
ah yes, both of the famed Brooks Brothers
― space phwoar (Hurting 2), Monday, 14 January 2013 18:04 (eleven years ago) link
Woody had a humor piece in the NYT yesterday; i'm scared to read it.
― saltwater incursion (Dr Morbius), Monday, 14 January 2013 18:11 (eleven years ago) link
That Rosenbaum piece is monumentally OTM.
― Tarfumes The Escape Goat, Monday, 14 January 2013 18:25 (eleven years ago) link
it is monumentally boring challops
― space phwoar (Hurting 2), Monday, 14 January 2013 18:43 (eleven years ago) link
Would Elaine May have had a better rep if she were any way as prolific a film-maker as Woody, or hadn't made Ishtar (which I'm not saying is anywhere near the disaster its rep paints it as, but which is a pretty widely reviled financial flop)? Has Woody made a movie as bad as Life Stinks, Dead And Loving It or Robin Hood? Have Albert Brooks' movies ever really been more than great ideas that aren't taken the distance they deserve (thinking Lost In America here in particular)?
By the same token, has Woody made films as purely and brilliantly comic as Young Frankenstein? I'm not sure either.
― I had such a fontasy (stevie), Monday, 14 January 2013 18:45 (eleven years ago) link
Mel Brooks made six watchable-to-very funny films from 1968-77, and as always his fine TV-writing and comedy-album (2000YOM) career is nearly forgotten. As a filmmaker, oeuvre looked at in toto, he can't touch Woody Allen, who didn't go into the dumper until the mid-late '90s.
Zelig > Young Frankenstein
― saltwater incursion (Dr Morbius), Monday, 14 January 2013 18:49 (eleven years ago) link
Has Woody made a movie as bad as Life Stinks, Dead And Loving It or Robin Hood?
Celebrity, Deconstructing Harry, Everyone Says I Love You, and Anything Else, just off the top of my head.
― Tarfumes The Escape Goat, Monday, 14 January 2013 18:54 (eleven years ago) link
See, I *loved* Everybody Says I Love You...
― I had such a fontasy (stevie), Monday, 14 January 2013 18:55 (eleven years ago) link
Eh, there's a charming moment or two, but for the most part it struck me as boilerplate at best.
― Tarfumes The Escape Goat, Monday, 14 January 2013 18:58 (eleven years ago) link
how is it boilerplate?? its a musical!!
― zero dark (s1ocki), Monday, 14 January 2013 19:00 (eleven years ago) link
Yeah, ghosts doing a song'n'dance number to 'enjoy yourself' in an undertaker's is pretty far from boilerplate to me!
― I had such a fontasy (stevie), Monday, 14 January 2013 19:04 (eleven years ago) link
That's the problem: Woody seemed to think just doing a musical -- regardless of quality or intent -- would somehow force himself out of his cliches. It didn't.
― Tarfumes The Escape Goat, Monday, 14 January 2013 19:07 (eleven years ago) link
I mean, Albert Brooks?! What is he even doing in the discussion?
― space phwoar (Hurting 2), Monday, 14 January 2013 19:35 (eleven years ago) link
bcz Lost in America is one of the great comedies of the last 30 years?
― saltwater incursion (Dr Morbius), Monday, 14 January 2013 19:55 (eleven years ago) link
one hot film every 30 year average
― space phwoar (Hurting 2), Monday, 14 January 2013 19:59 (eleven years ago) link
as opposed to Woody's average of six cold films for every lukewarm one
― the little prince of inane false binary hype (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Monday, 14 January 2013 20:00 (eleven years ago) link
i hope ppl make fun of you guys when you are really old Jews.
― saltwater incursion (Dr Morbius), Monday, 14 January 2013 20:02 (eleven years ago) link
Modern Romance is great you fucking savages
and if you're gonna mention bad Woody, mention Hollywood Ending which is an all-time piece of shit
― berner herzog (fadanuf4erybody), Monday, 14 January 2013 20:11 (eleven years ago) link
It has some funny blindness gags. (yeah, i know) The last film was as bad as any i've seen.
― saltwater incursion (Dr Morbius), Monday, 14 January 2013 20:14 (eleven years ago) link
still haven't forced myself to watch that one, looked too similar to Best Exotic Marigold Hotel
― berner herzog (fadanuf4erybody), Monday, 14 January 2013 20:29 (eleven years ago) link
whatever works was also terrible -- larry david & evan rachel wood should be very ashamed of themselves for appearing in it.
vicky cristina barcelona was little more than an 70-something's dirty dream of directing softcore lesbian porn featuring Scarlett Johansson and Penelope Cruz.
― oh no! sirap notlih vs. ognir rrats FITE!! OH NO!!! (Eisbaer), Monday, 14 January 2013 21:18 (eleven years ago) link
i.e. it was very good
― keef qua keef (Jordan), Monday, 14 January 2013 21:19 (eleven years ago) link
for a great comedy it's not very funny. i remember like modern love a lot, though.
whatever works, yes, that is an egregiously terrible film now i think of it.
― I had such a fontasy (stevie), Monday, 14 January 2013 21:39 (eleven years ago) link
liking modern love
Original poster:http://filmfanatic.org/reviews/wp-content/uploads/2007/02/Modern-Romance-Poster.jpg
New poster for Blockbuster era:http://www.movieposterdb.com/posters/09_10/1981/82764/l_82764_694d11b4.jpg
― Chief Duff (Eazy), Monday, 14 January 2013 21:58 (eleven years ago) link
you mean this one?
http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51OXNdGwoZL._SL500_AA300_.jpg
― fit and working again, Monday, 14 January 2013 22:07 (eleven years ago) link
lol
― zero dark (s1ocki), Monday, 14 January 2013 23:10 (eleven years ago) link