woody allen

I don't care so much about generational veracity in his films -- he seems to have stopped finding out about "new stuff" in 1972 (earlier for music) -- but the reheated concepts and dialogue have been mostly deadly.

I would see this one. The plot/concept actually appeals to me. I like when he writes against Hollywood redemption cliches in human relationships (e.g. Crimes and Misdemeanors) and it seems like that's where this one is going.

when I saw the trailer I kinda figured "huh, so it's san francisco from the 70s"
of course I'll see it, cuz I wish I lived in sf in the 70s

"who will see this" roll call

I don't think there was Virgin Airlines in the 70s.

Watched Stardust Memories again the other night - I imagine it to be one of the more maligned movies of his classic era, but I still love it. It's a great mess.

it's still sf in the 70s
xpost

has there been a post-peak poll? say from after, i dunno Bullets Over Broadway or somesuch? if not i'd like to see one.

wasn't his peak in like 1973 though?

or, charitably, 1986

Crimes and Misdemeanors was like 89 or so. That is a high point if not "the" peak

I like the original thread topic though. My goal for the year is to date someone way smarter than me. I think that would be cool.

smarter than Woody at any rate

Everyone Says I Love You would be my fave post-peak Allen film, but yeah, I mostly watch new Woody Allen films now in the same way that I sometimes watch newer episodes of The Simpsons: knowing they're not likely to be all that great, but still being able to catch the occasional glimpse of the old spark.

I'm sure Woody's smart

xpost

Put another way, new Allen or Simpsons still > any Edward Burns or Family Guy.

Midnight in Paris is bad Hallmark television.

This was shot in my neighborhood, yknow, the one with the poor people, and I actually saw woody in action so I sort of have to see it. It will probably be bad tho.

i agree with treeship about 'crimes and misdemeanors,' it's prob my favorite. light-years better than 'match point,' for sure.

Match Point is Crimes and Misdemeanours with kids.

(and s&m)

and grade school symbolism and performances

It brings up an important moral question though: is murder okay?

...if the director's made a reprehensible film?

i'm sad he likely doesn't have another Deconstructing Harry in him.

i loved everybody says i love you. and i loved vicky cristina barcelona. whatever works was execrable though, and midnight in paris was incredibly flawed, if charming in moments.

i walked out on two of those films.

i don't really understand how movies like whatever works even happen. that movie, and a few others, are so horrendously bad that even slight, silly films like to rome with love are masterpieces by comparison.

one thing i will say about whatever works though, is that larry david's suicide attempt -- where he just impulsively runs and jumps out the window -- is lol because it looks totally unlike how window jumping suicides are usually represented.

I wish I could find a full clip of the magic show from Scoop -- one of my favorite recent Woody Allen scenes in an otherwise fine but not amazing movie.

lol i love that movie, realizing full well that it is a very flawed, somewhat lazy film. the part about how in england he still drives on the right side of the road but then swerves to the left when he sees oncoming traffic was classic, causing him to die in a car accident during the film's climax, was classic.

ugh, typos.

yeah i liked that one too.

it was enjoyable and light, not super memorable for me but nothing I regretted seeing

"this guy? a serial killer? i would be very surprised if he has killed even one person."

we've got to put our heads together if we put our heads together there'd

be a hollow sound

Party at Woody's place:

http://si.wsj.net/public/resources/images/OB-XV554_mag071_G_20130613142614.jpg

^c'mon I'd never leave my screening room.

Marshall McLuhan predicted books would become art objects at some point. He was right.

My mother taught me a value — rigid discipline. My father didn’t earn enough, and my mother took care of the money and the family, and she had no time for lightness. She always saw the glass a third full. She taught me to work and not to waste time.

If you’re born with a gift, to behave like it’s an achievement is not right.

I love Mel Brooks. And I've had wonderful times working with him. But I don't see any similarities between Mel and myself except, you know, we're both short Jews. That's where it ends. His style of humor is completely different. But Bob Hope? I'm practically a plagiarist.

It’s been said about marriage ‘You have to know how to fight.’ And I think there’s some wisdom to that. People who live together get into arguments. When you’re younger, those arguments tend to escalate, or there’s not any wisdom that overrides the argument to keep in perspective. It tends to get out of hand. When you’re older, you realize, ‘Well, this argument will pass. We don’t agree, but this is not the end of the world.’ Experience comes into play.

http://www.esquire.com/features/what-ive-learned/woody-allen-0913

I agree with most of those, but this --

A corned-beef sandwich would be sensational, or one of those big, fat frankfurters, you know, with the mustard. But I don't eat any of that stuff. I haven't had a frankfurter in, I would say, forty-five years. I don't eat enjoyable foods. I eat for my health.

-- is the saddest thing.

I agree, especially since at most he'd be endangering the films we'll see from 94-year-old Woody.

Also his characterization of his mother suggests that The Floating Light Bulb, his '81 play, is significantly autobiographical.

I haven't had a frankfurter in, I would say, forty-five years.

: (

That robert weide doc mentioned upthread is on iplayer at the moment, v. highly recommended if you haven't seen it.

How Woody Became a Hack

... how could such a hurried, unrehearsed process not show up in the work? Watching post-2000 Allen films, nothing stands out so much as the lack of specificity in the performances. Sometimes the cast even sounds like it's running through a first-day table-read. Most actors will tell you that creating a fully rounded character is a process. Without adequate time to let that evolve, you are more often than not going to get performances heavy on emoting and archetype, light on originality and depth. (Perhaps this is the reason so many of Allen's male leads ape his famous inflections -- it's the only thing they have to latch onto.)

...Now consider this, from the book Directing Actors, by Judith Weston:

Woody Allen, in a 1994 New York magazine article, disclosed that the reason he uses one wide shot for most of his whole scenes is partly because it's quicker and cheaper, but mostly it is for the actors, because it is a way to "let them talk," and to allow overlapping.

It's the "quicker and cheaper" I'm interested in. Since 1977, Woody Allen has made at least one picture a year, an incredible streak. But consider what it takes to conceive, write, and direct a quality film, one that has something new to say and does it well. Could anyone produce such a movie on this tight schedule? Is it any wonder that Allen's camera setups are expedient, the themes repetitive, the acting cardboard, the characterizations clichéd? If Woody Allen were churning out genre potboilers, an assembly line approach might still yield a passable final product. But he's not; he continually attempts to wrestle, either comedically or dramatically with the deepest questions about the human condition. That takes time, effort, and most of all thought -- if you don't put these into it, if you're on automatic pilot, you're going to get a work that is basically stillborn.

http://www.kqed.org/arts/movies/article.jsp?essid=124365

his kid (maybe) is pretty funny - http://gawker.com/mia-farrow-says-woody-allens-son-may-actually-be-frank-1440233819?utm_campaign=socialflow_gawker_facebook&utm_source=gawker_facebook&utm_medium=socialflow

thread about ronan

What The Waht...

He then went home to change his bloody clothes and ate lunch at Wendy's before seeing a Woody Allen movie at Hollywood Hits, a theater not far from his Danvers home which he shares with his mother and two younger sisters, according to police.

http://news.yahoo.com/teen-raped-popular-teacher-killing-her-indictment-states-235247146--abc-news-topstories.html

well..

http://www.eonline.com/news/498566/mia-and-ronan-farrow-slam-woody-allen-s-golden-globes-tribute-via-twitter

O'Hehir triages the films into 4 periods:

http://www.salon.com/2014/01/11/making_sense_of_woody_allens_confusing_career/

http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2014/01/27/the-woody-allen-allegations-not-so-fast.html

more discussion on that one in the mia thread

Mia Farrow's son -- Ronan Seamus Farrow -- really creeps me out!