A Woody Allen picture is a unique animal and not just a starring vehicle for a funny actor. In fact, it may not star him at all! Or it may not be funny!
I ignored Woody completely for years, knowing him only from his DC comics appearance in THE MANIAKS. When I finally opened my eyes to his films, it was because I had discovered Bogart first which led me to Woody's ode to Bogey.
I believe it was Allen who said, in STARDUST MEMORIES, that a creative person hates hearing that their old stuff as better. Note, however, that only a couple of these are newer than the early eighties. To be fair, there are dozens of Allen's later films that i have not seen. They look more interesting than good…and many don't look all that interesting either.
Even leaving the man's bizarre personal life out of the mix, he's had a fascinating film career that shows no signs of slowing up.
What about EVERYTHING YOU EVER WANTED TO KNOW ABOUT SEX? ZELIG? THE PURPLE ROSE OF CAIRO? And why do you like WHATEVER WORKS? That's one of my least favorites of his. (and of his serious works, MATCH POINT and his latest BLUE JASMINE are terrific)...
ReplyDeleteEVERYTHING YOU EVER WANTED TO KNOW ABOUT SEX was too much of a miss-mash for me. Parts of It I love (the opening bit, Gene Wilder's sequence) and parts just seem to be there to fill out the running time. Which is my problem with ZELIG. Seemed to me to be more clever than actually funny and then padded out past its cleverness. As far as WHATEVER WORKS, I guess I could relate as I've had several situations as an older man where I've ended up mentoring young women (NO hanky-panky!) in the ways of everything from cooking to the arts and pop culture.
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