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Reading Woody Allen’s memoir, there are passages that will forever change the way I think about him. I cannot unread, unhear, unknow them.
ByMark Harris, a journalist and cultural historian. He is a regular contributor to New York Magazine.
Photo: Snap/Shutterstock/Snap/Shutterstock
Photo: Snap/Shutterstock/Snap/Shutterstock
There are two short passages in Woody Allen’s autobiography Apropos of Nothingthat will forever change the way I think about him. I cannot unread, unhear, unknow them. I wish I could. I’ll get to them shortly.
First, though, I want to explain that I took the assignment to read this book because I wanted to know how Allen made his movies and what he thinks about them. I realize that sounds about as credible as “I only go to PornHub for the user comments,” but let me explain. I already knew, or thought I did, what Allen has to say about the two events that have defined how he is now perceived, the first the circumstances under which his longtime girlfriend Mia Farrow’s daughter Soon-Yi Previn, became his lover, the second the accusation that he molested his then-7-year-old daughter Dylan Farrow. They are the scandals that, before rehashing them for dozens upon dozens of pages, he claims with eyelash-batting coyness that he hopes aren’t the reason you’re reading this book. (P.S. I’m pretty sure you’re not reading this book.) He has responded to both exhaustively in the past; in this book, he continues to do so, exhaustingly and finally, exhaustedly.
What Woody Allen, at 84, thinks of himself is reasonably clear (a more apt phrase might be “unnervingly simple”). But what he thinks about the movies he has spent the last half-century directing is not. There may be no American filmmaker alive other than Terrence Malick who has volunteered less insight into his art — his writing process, his taste in actors, his creative struggles, when he thinks he succeeded or failed, why he made the choices he ma
Woody Allen - A Documentary [DVD]
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The iconic writer, director, actor, comedian and musician Woody Allen agrees for the first time to have a camera document the creative process that guides each of his films. With this unlimited access for a year and a half, director Robert Weide, Emmy® winner and Oscar® nominee, captures the daily life of one of the living legends of the seventh art with the aim of offering us the definitive biography about Woody Allen. From his childhood and adolescence to his first professional works, Woody Allen: The Documentary reviews Allen's long career from his work as a scriptwriter and stand-up comedian on TV shows during the 50s and 60s, to his first projects as a director with Take the Money Take the Money and Run, 1969, Bananas (1971), Sleeper, 1973, and The Last Night of Boris Grushenko (Love and Death, 1975), including his most admired and awarded films such as Annie. Hall (1977), Manhattan (1979), Zelig (1983), Broadway Danny Rose (1984), Purple Rose of Cairo (1985), Crimes and Misdemeanors (1989), Husbands and women (Husbands &, Wives, 1992), Bullets Over Broadway (1994) and Poderosa Aphrodite (Mighty Aphrodite, 1995), until her most recent European journey with Match Point (2005), Vicky Cristina Barcelona (2008) or Midnight in Paris (2011). The documentary features the participation of actors Antonio Banderas, Josh Brolin, Penélope Cruz, John Cusack, Larry David, Seth Green, Mariel Hemingway, Scarlett Johansson, Julie Kavner, Diane Keaton, Martin Landau, Louise Lasser, Sean Penn, Tony Roberts , Chris Rock, Mira Sorvino, Naomi Watts, Dianne Wiest, and Owen Wilson , from his collaborators Marshall Brickman, Mickey Rose, and Doug McGrath, from cinematographers Gordon Willis and Vilmos Zsigmond, from his sister and producer, Letty Aronson, from the producers Robert Greenhut and Stephen Tenenbaum, his representatives Jack Rollins and Charles H.
Woody Allen was born on November 30, 1935, as Allen Konigsberg, in The Bronx, NY, the son of Martin Konigsberg and Nettie Konigsberg. He has one younger sister, Letty Aronson. As a young boy, he became intrigued with magic tricks and playing the clarinet, two hobbies that he continues today. By Michael Rubino © dvdverdict, February 14, 2012 permalink Judge Mike Rubino needs the eggs. Comedy is easy. Dying is hard. Woody Allen is a lot of things: one of film's great auteurs, a legendary comedian, and a prolific yet polarizing figure in the pop culture landscape. If there's one thing he isn't, it's comfortable talking about his movies. After over a decade of writing letters asking permission, director Robert Weide finally talked Allen into sitting down in front of a camera for a documentary about his life and films. Woody Allen: A Documentary is an exhaustive two-part chronicle of Allen's career. After getting kicked out of NYU, Allen began writing jokes for the paper, and then for television comedians. Pretty soon Allen, himself, was a celebrity, showing up on game shows and doing stand-up in nightclubs. His transition into filmmaking, and then becoming an Oscar-winning art house hero, is half hard work and half dumb luck. Yet despite making a film a year for over 40 years, Allen is still unsatisfied; he yearns to make a "great" film before he dies. Weide's documentary features a chronological look at Allen's filmography, and includes interviews with many of the actors, producers, and collaborators involved (as well as some of Allen's colleagues). The doc, which premiered on PBS, features appearances by Josh Brolin, Dick Cavett, Sean Penn, Martin Scorsese, Chris Rock, Diane Keaton, and more. I started watching Woody Allen films when I was in middle school. I think my first one was Deconstructing Harry, and from there moved on to Small Time Crooks and Annie Hall. While my classmates were obsessing over American Pie, I was busy trying to understand the references Allen was dropping in Love and Death. His lightning-fast jokes, his pretentious references, and his occasionally artistic sensibilities as a filmmaker appealed to me. It can be frustrating, then, to watch him be so nonchalant about his body o
Allen broke into show business at 15 years when he started writing jokes for a local paper, receiving $200 a week. He later moved on to write jokes for talk shows but felt that his jokes were being wasted. His agents, Charles Joffe and Jack Rollins, convinced him to start doing stand-up and telling his own jokes. Reluctantly he agreed and, although he initially performed with such fear of the audience that he would cover his ears when they applauded his jokes, he eventually became very successful at stand-up. After performing on stage for a few years, he was approached to write a script for Warren Beatty to star in: What's New Pussycat (1965) and would also have a moderate role as a character in the film. During production, Woody gave himself more and better lines and left Beatty with less compelling dialogue. Beatty inevitably quit the project and was replaced by Peter Sellers, who demanded all the best lines and more screen-time.
It was from this experience that Woody realized that he could not work on a film without complete control over its production. Woody's theoretical directorial debut was in What's Up, Tiger Lily? (1966); a Japanese spy flick that he dubbed over with his own comedic dialogue about spies searching for the secret recipe for egg salad. His real directorial debut came the next year in the mockumentary Take the Money and Run (1969). He has written, directed and, more often than not, starred in about a film a year ever since, while simultaneously writing more than a dozen plays and several books of comedy.
While best known for his romantic comedies Annie Hall (1977) and Manhattan (1979), Woody has made many transitions in his films through Full Press - Click Here