Woody Allen

[Markson]

For the first time since appearing in El Guapo's Picking Up the Pieces, Woody is slated to act in a film he didn't direct: he's playing a pimp in a John Turturro film.

[stroszeck]

I never thought I would live to see the day Woody Allen would take the Eddie Griffin role in a remake of Deuce Bigelow: Male Gigolo. Awesome.

[nsps]

In the general blu-ray thread, Manic mentioned new Japanese releases of Small TIme Crooks, Everyone Says I Love You, Mighty Aphrodite and Bullets Over Broadway. Anyone know any details about them? As RobertAltman stated, these also came out in Sweden recently (along with Celebrity, Hollywood Ending and CotJS). Can anyone comment on any of these releases? Would it be safe to bet that both country's releases use the same transfer/encode?

[Markson]

The Woodman set to make next film in Copenhagen?

[JabbaTheSlut]

Yep, it's a pot-comedy set in Christianshavn.

[Titus]

I picked up that Swedish blu ray of BULLETS OVER BROADWAY (daaveedee.com has it here). I've only sampled it, but it looks quite good to my eyes. It seems a touch dark to me, and there's some noticeable print damage, but very respectable overall. Quite a lot of grain, too.

And it appears to be Region Free.

[mfunk9786]

Hickory dickory dock!

[Dylan]

Alden Ehrenreich! Woody must have liked Tetro.

[domino harvey]

Allen once offered Tonya Harding a role, would cast LiLo if the opportunity arose

[domino harvey]

Oof

[mfunk9786]

I like Allen and the Soon Yi thing never bothered me all that much, but I can't put myself in the mind of Ronan Farrow nor can I judge him for that - that must be a very uncomfortable family dynamic to be in to say the least. Also, I can't hear about Allen and Farrow's saga without thinking of this:

[Gregory]

What is "Boom RT"?

[domino harvey]

She's saying "Boom," like "There it is" or "Oh Snap" and RT is "Retweet"

[Matt]

That shit ain't classy. It's been 20 years. Move on.

[willoneill]

We should move on, yes. Ronan Farrow doesn't have to, though. That`s fair game.

[Gregory]

If the people involved want to say something about it publicly, there are good and bad ways to do that. Putting it on Twitter and making a pointed joke out of it seems clearly intended to make Woody the target of it (not "we've come to terms with this so we can laugh about it now" but "Boom"). And they know he won't fire back. So this seems a little tacky to me as well.

[fdm]

(never mind)

[Dylan]

While at the bookstore today (killing time before seeing To Rome With Love - which is magnificent, by the way), I flipped through that book I mentioned a few posts ago that had details about the production of Stardust Memories - " Woody: Movies From Manhattan." According to this book, the filming of Stardust Memories lasted 31 weeks (still the longest for any Woody Allen film), and that included numerous re-shoots (but not including what Gordon Willis described as a lengthy pre-production period). The book notes that the actor who played the character of Nat Bernstein (now spoken of in the film, but never shown) underwent a sex change after his scenes were shot and thus was not available for re-shoots. Also interesting is that both production designer Mel Bourne and Stephen Bach considered the original script the best they'd ever read. After the film was finished, Bach was reportedly shocked by it & Mel Bourne said it didn't come out the way he felt it was going to at all, strongly suggesting that this was because of the way it was cut together.

All of this is pretty tantalizing to me. I think, more than any other Woody Allen film, I want to see everything that was filmed for Stardust Memories. From these reports, it sounds like it could've been a few different movies. The fact that nobody involved really ever talks about its production (except for Woody, but he never got into the finer details, like the fact that the film shot for almost an entire year) also intrigues.

Has the original shooting script for Stardust Memories ever surfaced?

[Dylan]

Does anybody know if Darius Kondji is back as the DP for the Woody Allen film that's shooting this summer?

[Roger Ryan]

Does anybody know if Darius Kondji is back as the DP for the Woody Allen film that's shooting this summer?

No, he's not. According to yesterday's New York Times profile on the cinematographer, Kondji was asked by Allen to do the new film, but declined since he wanted to pursue other projects. Apparently, this is not a personal falling out as Kondji had nothing but praise for Allen's hands-off approach on the three films they collaborated on.

[Dylan]

Thanks, Roger. I await his final DP choice. I do think the Khondji-shot films are (by a mile) the most visually beautiful and technically impressive Woody Allen films since the Carlo DiPalma/Sven Nykvist days, and I kind of wanted to see him become the next regular Woody DP.

That said, the first cinematographer that comes to mind that I'd like to see Woody working with is Mihai Malaimare Jr. (Tetro, The Master). Of course, there's also the impossible dream of mine that he'll work with Vittorio Storaro or Christopher Doyle someday.

[kekid]

I am not sure if this is the right place to ask this question. If not, please move it as appropriate.
Is the 20-film Blu Ray box set of Woody Allen's films confirmed? If so, when is it expected?

[fdm]

I am not sure if this is the right place to ask this question. If not, please move it as appropriate.
Is the 20-film Blu Ray box set of Woody Allen's films confirmed? If so, when is it expected?

Last I read it was corrected on amazon.es to be dvd only.

[Dylan]

According to IMDB, Javier Aguirresarobe is the cinematographer on Woody's latest. They previously worked together on Vicky Cristina Barcelona, which after Anything Else I thought was the best-looking of Woody's 00s output, so this is good news (but I hope Khondji comes back at some point).

[Markson]

New Woody piece in The New York Times.