Day 106 - Woody Allen

"Life is full of loneliness, misery, suffering and unhappiness, and its all over much too quickly" - Woody Allen (Annie Hall, 1977)

This year brings Woody Allen's 50th feature film, 'Coup de Chance', a French thriller said to be in a similar style to 2005s 'Match Point'. At the time of writing there are no official reviews, but there are positive noises from its preliminary viewings at film festival submissions. Even if the film ends up being average I don't mind, it's just exciting to know that there's some new content out there waiting (as long as it's better than his last film, 'Rifkins Festival')

"Those who can't do, teach. And those who can't teach, teach gym." - Woody Allen (Annie Hall, 1977)

Many probably quote Woody Allen without even knowing it. The above is the first quote which comes to mind - for much of my life I thought was a School of Rock original. I later realised that Jack Black is quoting Annie Hall to seem intellectual and build a rapport with the other teachers. Many have also probably seen Midnight in Paris (one of the most watchable movies of all time) without realising it is a Woody Allen movie.

Allen - "That's quite a lovely Jackson Pollock, isn't it?"
Woman at Museum - "Yes, it is."
Allen - "What does it say to you?"
Woman at Museum - "It restates the negativeness of the universe. The hideous lonely emptiness of existence. Nothingness. The predicament of Man forced to live in a barren, Godless eternity like a tiny flame flickering in an immense void with nothing but waste, horror and degradation, forming a useless bleak straitjacket in a black absurd cosmos."
Allen - "What are you doing Saturday night?"
Woman at Museum - "Committing suicide."
Allen - "What about Friday night?"

- Woody Allen (Play it Again Sam, 1972)

Alongside many other directors, he is often reduced to stereotype. It's understandable; It's easier to mentally place somebody in a oversimplified subcategory. Much like how people reduce Martin Scorcese to only his mob movies, despite those occupying only a small percentage of his filmography, people also reduce Woody Allen to neurotic comedy-drama's about relationships. Of course there is a large element of truth to this; you only need to read the quotes I've mentioned in this article to identify a strong thematic pattern, but regardless he still contains multitudes.

“To love is to suffer. To avoid suffering one must not love. But then one suffers from not loving. Therefore, to love is to suffer; not to love is to suffer; to suffer is to suffer. To be happy is to love. To be happy, then, is to suffer, but suffering makes one unhappy. Therefore, to be happy one must love or love to suffer or suffer from too much happiness.” - Woody Allen (Love & Death, 1975)

It seems like society reaches a consensus on what they want from a director based on their early successes. Continuing with the Scorcese comparison, 'Mean Streets', a film about Italian-American criminals, was his first major break-out hit and as a result, people put him in this box. Scorcese = Italian-American crime. As a result of this, his next film, 'Alice Doesn't Live Here Anymore' (my favourite Scorcese film), a comedy-drama about a mother and son moving from city to city in attempts to seek a better life, is almost entirely forgotten. But his following movie, Taxi Driver, returns to New York criminality and is therefore "quintessentially Scorcese" and so is remembered. That isn't to say it shouldn't be remembered, Taxi Driver is brilliant, but so is Alice Doesn't Live Here Anymore, only the latter doesn't slot easily into the category in people's already made up minds. For this reason his fantastic 80s comedies, The King of Comedy and After Hours, are largely forgotten too.

"I’m very proud of this gold pocket watch. My grandfather, on his deathbed, sold me this watch." - Woody Allen (The Steve Allen Show, 1963)

Woody Allen does slightly break this trend as he was already well known before Annie Hall, but for sillier humour than he subsequently went on to be known for. Like here in 1969s 'Take the Money and Run', where he attempts to play the Cello in a marching band:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6M_GqAVjThk

But Annie Hall, for which Allen won two academy awards (beating Star Wars to Best Director and Best Original Screenplay), was a different beast to his earlier movies and stand-up comedy. To elevate his work to another level, as well as sharpening his writing, Allen hired Gordon Willis (The Godfather) as cinematographer. The scale of Annie Hall's long lasting impact has meant that, despite following it with the extremely different Bergman-esque 'Interiors', a melancholy drama containing absolutely zero laughs, Annie Hall had already set the template for what people expect from a Woody Allen movie. And with good reason - it crams so much of what makes him great into 90 minutes and is, in my opinion (although he himself disagrees) stands out as his greatest work. It has since been imitated on countless occasions in films ranging from 500 Days of Summer's expectations vs reality scene, to the apartment in Se7en' being located under a subway train line.

"Life is divided into the horrible and the miserable. That's the two categories. The horrible are like, I don't know, terminal cases, you know, and blind people, crippled. I don't know how they get through life. It's amazing to me. And the miserable is everyone else. So you should be thankful that you're miserable, because that's very lucky, to be miserable." - Woody Allen (Annie Hall, 1977)

Annie Hall Scene - The Happy Couple:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ReHhtQ6yXM4

Although it is absolutely fair put him in a thematic box largely of his own making, that isn't to say his range isn't far broader than given credit for. I eluded to Interiors, which is the first clear example but there are many others. My favourite Woody Allen drama is 1988s 'Another Woman', an atmospheric psychological drama about emotional detachment and social compromise. 2005's 'Match Point', albeit overly English to quite a surreal degree, like it's been made by somebody who has never spent any time in England whatsoever, is another clear demonstration of variety. Yes it contains relationship dynamics, but it is far darker, thrilling, sexier and also far more British (weirdly British) than usual. Crimes & Misdemeanours also falls into the thriller-drama category, but due to Woody Allen being is in this movie, it can't help but occasionally fall into anxious cerebral comedy.

"Tradition is the illusion of permanence" - Woody Allen (Deconstructing Harry, 1997)

Allen was also ahead of the game when in 1983 he made Zelig, arguably the greatest mockumentary film of all time, prior to the release of This is Spinal Tap (not to mention Allen's 1969's mockumentary, Take the Money and Run). Although more well known, even the fact that he has a multitude of sillier films, such as 'Sleeper', 'Love & Death' and 'Scoop', provides further examples of his ability to deviate from social comedy-dramas. 

After receiving a worrying result from the doctors: - Woody Allen (Hannah & Her Sisters, 1986)

Allen - "This morning, I was so happy, you know.  Now I, I don't know what went wrong."
Gail - "You were miserable this morning!"
Allen - "No, I was happy, but I just didn't realise I was happy."

I think by now I've hammered home my point that he has a greater range than is given credit. Now that I've established this, I will be slightly hypocritical and acknowledge that it does still remain true that many of his best films do fall into the category of neurotic comedy-drama. 

"You can live to be a hundred if you give up all the things that make you want to live to be a hundred" - Woody Allen (Interiors, 1978)

For me, Woody Allen movies are consistently the most watchable of any film maker, which is particularly impressive given his work rate. Since 1969 he has been writer/director of 50 feature films. On top of this he played the lead protagonist in a further 6, resulting in an overall turnover of more than a film a year (as well writing 6 books and touring with his jazz band). And hardly any of the films are bad. Insane. In these movies a consistent perfect tone is achieved through finding equilibrium between tension, intrigue, drama, insight and light-relief, without ever being esoteric or overly pretentious. Tired or awake, happy or depressed, inspired or uninspired, there is rarely a time when a Woody Allen movie does not fit the bill. Comedy is famous for, more often than not, being of its time. Yet over the years, decade after decade, Woody Allen has managed countless comedic quotes which are not only still relevant over half a century on, but remain very funny, sharp and highly poignant to this day.

Here is Diane Keaton in 1975's 'Love & Death', with perfect comic delivery of Allen's writing:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X5cQcmAtjJ0 


My Woody Allen Movies Ranked - 
https://letterboxd.com/jacobh13/list/woody-allen-ranked/detail/ 


To end, I will indulge in mild narcissism and share some photos of me at various Woody Allen movie locations. I'm disappointed I didn't get a photo whilst I visited the pub from Scoop but at least there's the consolation that the only person who feels this disappointment is me.


Annie Hall (1977)


Wonder Wheel (2017)


Midnight in Paris (2011)


Manhattan (1979)


"No I  don't think you're paranoid. I think you're the opposite of paranoid. I think you walk around with the insane delusion that people like you." - Woody Allen (Deconstructing Harry, 1997)

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