Woody Allen

Discussion and info on people in film, ranging from directors to actors to cinematographers to writers.
Post Reply
Message
Author
User avatar
Randall Maysin
Joined: Tue Apr 02, 2013 12:26 pm

Re: Woody Allen

#776 Post by Randall Maysin » Fri Dec 04, 2020 2:18 pm

knives wrote:
Fri Dec 04, 2020 2:14 pm
What about the millennials on this board?
Dat was sort of at the back of my head but i forgot about it! Yeah, Id say this place is...to a moderate but undeniable degree...an exception. But honestly thats it. School, the rest of the internet, even my brother, basically everything else....!!!!

User avatar
Randall Maysin
Joined: Tue Apr 02, 2013 12:26 pm

Re: Woody Allen

#777 Post by Randall Maysin » Fri Dec 04, 2020 2:21 pm

I mean i dont actually know who is and isnt a millennial here, Im just talking about my overall impression of everyone over the years. Id characterize this place as not really nice, but unique and admirable anyway. :-$ Lol

User avatar
knives
Joined: Sat Sep 06, 2008 6:49 pm

Re: Woody Allen

#778 Post by knives » Fri Dec 04, 2020 2:22 pm

I just don’t think that generalization stands water because it applies to people regardless of generation.

User avatar
Randall Maysin
Joined: Tue Apr 02, 2013 12:26 pm

Re: Woody Allen

#779 Post by Randall Maysin » Fri Dec 04, 2020 5:00 pm

Oh ya right, Hahahahaha.

User avatar
furbicide
Joined: Thu Dec 29, 2011 4:52 am

Re: Woody Allen

#780 Post by furbicide » Fri Dec 04, 2020 7:21 pm

Randall Maysin wrote:
Fri Dec 04, 2020 2:12 pm
Im wracking my brains trying to find a memory of a millennial ever admitting they were wrong about anything, or showing any evidence of shame (except for petty and meaningless virtue-signaling, of course). Im drawing a blank.......But. Maybe thats because they Dont Need To....!!!
I’m a millennial, and I’m happy to admit that I was wrong one time.

User avatar
therewillbeblus
Joined: Tue Dec 22, 2015 3:40 pm

Re: Woody Allen

#781 Post by therewillbeblus » Fri Dec 04, 2020 7:30 pm

Woody Allen, on the other hand, is not a millennial

User avatar
FrauBlucher
Joined: Mon Jul 15, 2013 8:28 pm
Location: Greenwich Village

Re: Woody Allen

#782 Post by FrauBlucher » Fri Dec 04, 2020 7:32 pm

therewillbeblus wrote:
Fri Dec 04, 2020 7:30 pm
Woody Allen, on the other hand, is not a millennial
There is a joke in there somewhere
furbicide wrote:
Fri Dec 04, 2020 7:21 pm
Randall Maysin wrote:
Fri Dec 04, 2020 2:12 pm
Im wracking my brains trying to find a memory of a millennial ever admitting they were wrong about anything, or showing any evidence of shame (except for petty and meaningless virtue-signaling, of course). Im drawing a blank.......But. Maybe thats because they Dont Need To....!!!
I’m a millennial, and I’m happy to admit that I was wrong one time.
That many? :wink:

User avatar
furbicide
Joined: Thu Dec 29, 2011 4:52 am

Re: Woody Allen

#783 Post by furbicide » Sun Dec 06, 2020 8:25 pm

therewillbeblus wrote:
Fri Dec 04, 2020 7:30 pm
Woody Allen, on the other hand, is not a millennial
Now you mention it, what even is he? Seems a little too ancient to be the recipient of an "OK Boomer".

User avatar
FrauBlucher
Joined: Mon Jul 15, 2013 8:28 pm
Location: Greenwich Village

Re: Woody Allen

#784 Post by FrauBlucher » Sun Dec 06, 2020 8:35 pm

Allen is part of, ironically, the generation referred to as the Silent Generation (1928 to 1945), which is between The Greatest Generation and the Baby Boomers. Not sure who thinks of these names

User avatar
therewillbeblus
Joined: Tue Dec 22, 2015 3:40 pm

Re: Woody Allen

#785 Post by therewillbeblus » Sun Dec 06, 2020 9:05 pm

Looks like Tom Brokaw coined the Greatest Generation, though he wasn't a part of it

User avatar
cantinflas
Joined: Sat Dec 08, 2007 1:48 am
Location: sydney

Re: Woody Allen

#786 Post by cantinflas » Sun Jan 03, 2021 8:51 pm


User avatar
cantinflas
Joined: Sat Dec 08, 2007 1:48 am
Location: sydney

Re: Woody Allen

#787 Post by cantinflas » Sun Jan 10, 2021 5:31 am


Stefan Andersson
Joined: Thu Nov 15, 2007 1:02 am

Re: Woody Allen

#788 Post by Stefan Andersson » Fri Jan 22, 2021 6:07 pm

A French story on cut scenes from famous films; includes color photographs of scenes cut from Annie Hall:
http://www.slate.fr/story/68187/scenes-coupees-films

User avatar
Dylan
Joined: Tue Nov 02, 2004 9:28 pm

Re: Woody Allen

#789 Post by Dylan » Fri Jan 22, 2021 6:17 pm

Stefan Andersson wrote:
Fri Jan 22, 2021 6:07 pm
A French story on cut scenes from famous films; includes color photographs of scenes cut from Annie Hall:
http://www.slate.fr/story/68187/scenes-coupees-films
For those interested, more pictures and a lot of information (in English) on the Annie Hall deleted scenes can be found here. Hopefully these surface one day, if they still exist (I seem to recall Woody's friend and biographer Eric Lax implying at least once that they do, but I can't recall the specific source at the moment).

beamish14
Joined: Fri May 18, 2018 3:07 pm

Re: Woody Allen

#790 Post by beamish14 » Fri Jan 22, 2021 7:41 pm

Dylan wrote:
Fri Jan 22, 2021 6:17 pm
Stefan Andersson wrote:
Fri Jan 22, 2021 6:07 pm
A French story on cut scenes from famous films; includes color photographs of scenes cut from Annie Hall:
http://www.slate.fr/story/68187/scenes-coupees-films
For those interested, more pictures and a lot of information (in English) on the Annie Hall deleted scenes can be found here. Hopefully these surface one day, if they still exist (I seem to recall Woody's friend and biographer Eric Lax implying at least once that they do, but I can't recall the specific source at the moment).

There have been rumors for years of a VHS copy of the Annie Hall workprint that has screened for "insiders". I've always wondered how photos of Michael Keaton from
Purple Rose of Cairo ever snuck out.

User avatar
Dylan
Joined: Tue Nov 02, 2004 9:28 pm

Re: Woody Allen

#791 Post by Dylan » Fri Jan 22, 2021 11:50 pm

beamish14 wrote:
Fri Jan 22, 2021 7:41 pm
There have been rumors for years of a VHS copy of the Annie Hall workprint that has screened for "insiders". I've always wondered how photos of Michael Keaton from Purple Rose of Cairo ever snuck out.
I've also heard rumors about an Annie Hall workprint VHS, but I don't know anybody who has actually seen it. If true, I imagine whoever might have it has been asked to keep it close to the vest, and asks the same of those they share it with.

A few pictures of Michael Keaton as Tom Baxter/Gil Shepherd in The Purple Rose of Cairo appeared in Bob Weide's excellent Woody Allen: A Documentary. On a related note, I can't remember if that documentary also included pictures from the first version of September, but I believe it did.

User avatar
Dylan
Joined: Tue Nov 02, 2004 9:28 pm

Re: Woody Allen

#792 Post by Dylan » Sat Jun 19, 2021 5:53 pm

According to Vittorio Storaro, plans are underway for Woody Allen's next film to begin filming in early August. The screenplay is set in Paris and Allen has described it as being along the lines of Match Point.

User avatar
bearcuborg
Joined: Fri Sep 14, 2007 2:30 am
Location: Philadelphia via Chicago

Re: Woody Allen

#793 Post by bearcuborg » Sun Jun 20, 2021 10:01 pm

Wonderful news!

User avatar
therewillbeblus
Joined: Tue Dec 22, 2015 3:40 pm

Re: Woody Allen

#794 Post by therewillbeblus » Sun Jun 20, 2021 10:15 pm

Dylan wrote:
Sat Jun 19, 2021 5:53 pm
Allen has described it as being along the lines of Match Point.
Hopefully more like Cassandra's Dream!

User avatar
therewillbeblus
Joined: Tue Dec 22, 2015 3:40 pm

Re: Woody Allen

#795 Post by therewillbeblus » Tue Jul 13, 2021 2:34 pm

Apparently a spanish blu of Anything Else emerged a few months ago, but it's similarly cropped to 1.78 like the German release..

User avatar
therewillbeblus
Joined: Tue Dec 22, 2015 3:40 pm

Re: Woody Allen

#796 Post by therewillbeblus » Thu Jul 29, 2021 4:27 pm

Godot wrote:
Wed Feb 06, 2019 1:34 am
bearcuborg wrote:
Sun Jan 20, 2019 7:45 pm
Manhattan Murder Mystery is one of those movies I could play daily for background noise when I’m working.
Me, too! When I was in college, we watched Purple Rose, Radio Days, and Hannah and Her Sisters in the background while we played Scrabble. Aside from the obvious references to cinema and the Central Park atmosphere, much of what I love about Manhattan Murder Mystery is the way it reinforces marriage. It shows the warts of marital relationships, the temptations and arguments and pulling away from each other, but ultimately it shows the strength in magnetically winding those strands back around the core. It feels like I'm watching the characters from Annie Hall, picking up the thread of their lives 25 years later (I know, that's not exactly an original take on the film). I love the scenes with Alda seducing Keaton and Huston seducing Allen, and both our main spouses finding the attention bemusing and flattering but not deterred from their constant thoughts about their relationship (and solving the mystery, of course). And it's spot-on with its mockery of marital dynamics - I laugh every time when Keaton wakes in the middle of the night suspecting her neighbors, and Woody tries to control her with "As your husband, I command you to go back to bed! I command you!" (paraphrasing) The foursome dinner in the NJ speak-easy (with Sopranos extras listening in on the morbid hypothesizing), with the shifting flirting and interplay among the couples, is wonderful. My favorite scene is the blackmail (or threatening) attempt by telephone, with Woody's friends timing their playing of tape recorded phrases on multiple players, as Keaton laughs and rolls her eyes; it feels partially scripted and then improvised and then the actors seem to barely suppress laughter at Woody's wild gestures.
Nice appreciation! I just revisited Manhattan Murder Mystery for the nth time, a film that I used to love as a kid, decreased in my esteem during my 20s, and that I'm back in love with again. It's such a breezy follow-up to Husbands and Wives and Allen's general output from the previous 15 years- works that, even when light and joyful, were usually also drenched in some strain of somber undertones (i.e. The Purple Rose of Cairo's fantastical nature sourced in a sublimation for being trapped in a powerless state of reality-soiled oppression and malaise; Broadway Danny Rose's stark look at how anti-karmic our world is, as Danny's humility is not reciprocated with validation for his good-naturedness, as well as the philosophical implications of people telling stories about a man in the past tense without truly knowing him- subtly treating the complex dignity and worth we wish to actualize as reduced to second-hand reminiscence). Manhattan Murder Mystery, however, doesn't have a shred of pathos in its sardonic posturing towards disintegration of marital harmony (or the act of murder, for that matter). Allen and Keaton sit comfortably in their roles, even when they're fighting, recognizing discord, or entertaining flirtations with another. The commentary seems to suggest that if two people are actually a good match and possess similar morals, they can prevail through the arguments and that bouts of doubt will be trivial in the scheme of mutual respect and matured intimacy.

I don't think that it's a coincidence that this film comes after Allen's therapeutic, yet aggressive, regurgitation of his fallout with Farrow in Husbands and Wives, having settled into his relationship with Soon-Yi and regained his ability to express confidence in relationships. The choice of Keaton to play his wife reads as a sigh of optimism, professing an embrace of trust, not only in romantic partnerships, but in long-term relationships between men and women of any kind, as Keaton is clearly the primary example from Allen's life of a woman who he can maintain affinity with despite the relationship evolving into something different (some may say devolving into a lesser form of intimacy, but this film indicates Allen has gained a new skill in recontextualizing the linearity of social development away from binary states and towards additional options in the grey). I wonder if his journey with Farrow, and the associated existential processing, helped him to realize this key difference through comparison. Regardless of the specifics of any epiphanies, Keaton's inclusion only solidifies the softer tone that breathes possibility and security into relational tension. The film appears to be an externalization of Allen's refurbished faith in the opportunities of life, a tremendous feat after the trauma he'd been through. He continues to mock his own ingrained faulty characteristics that weigh down a relationship but also has hope that he can be flexible, (re)learn to trust his current partner by resigning some of these defective traits from time to time, and ultimately act the hero if push comes to shove. Or, if not in actuality, he can bring himself to do so bare, as himself, in the safe space of the movies. He hasn't been able to do that for some time*.

This film isn't Allen at his best, but it does mark a return to the ethereal spirit of his branded temperament, in which his neuroses and cheeky observances of human behavior can coexist in a controlled environment of the familiar for him. I've always felt that Allen's use of New York as a milieu reflects a self-conscious and authentic irony- for while this overwhelming city would destroy the psyche of someone so neurotic if foreign to them, Allen's comfortability with such intense conditions transforms a potentially fear-inducing environment into one of security and love. This incongruity of personality and social context invites evidence of our potential to reframe stimuli into consolation with resilience. The restoration of form alerts us that Allen is back to his old self, and under the climate of his oeuvre's progression and personal stressors outside of the film, this is an extremely significant and empowering statement, amusingly subtle by dulling itself from the loudness of the direct-previous entries in his body of work.

The film also contains two of my favorite WA moments -not including the tape recorder bit, though that's a good one! The first is the scene where Keaton and Allen become trapped in the elevator, which plays out like a compilation of every one of Allen's phobias coming to fruition at once in their respective, overlapping worst-case scenarios... the claustrophobia and fear of death are provoked, but then the body's emergence from above under those suffocating circumstances is just icing on the cake! Allen is laughing at himself by making everything he fears the most come true, and yet he prevails and stays alive and successfully completes the scene to return to a level of calm in the next frame. What is superficially a hysterical self-deprecating setpiece also functions as a therapeutic acknowledgement of his skillful adaptability and the impermanence of fear to control his emotional stability.

The other highlight is the Lady From Shanghai gag at the end, which doubles down on its self-reflexivity to move beyond mere emulation into recycling the footage as reflected in the mirrors as the scene is literally copied! *Allen is clearly drawing a fantasy in this film, but instead of concealing himself in the clothing of expressionism or direct-Fellini or Bergman homages as he did during the troubling years during the demise of his marriage to Farrow, he allows himself to materialize from those protective layers he felt compelled to don during the last several traumatizing years. Manhattan Murder Mystery is a fantasy, but one that rests nakedly in the realm of familiar spaces and with familiar supportive people again (in the actual cast and the representations of relationships in his life); Allen engaging in tacit exposure therapy, as he slides out of hiding ready to greet the world again... well halfway, like he used to do, and has always done.

For Allen, is there any other way? I think he sees life as a series of half-measures between real and imaginary, whether on a cosmic relationship with the unknown- conflicted between atheist certainty and agnostic recognition (and occasional acceptance in his later work) of enigmas in love, morality, death, etc. - or the corporeal navigations of interpersonal dynamics and needs, and how one oscillates between growth as communally shared and individually isolated, through a nonlinear pattern of social-emotional evolution that transcends the ideologically-promised mirages of 'improvement'. I think Allen sees these half-measures as the meaning of life, the meshing of contradictory ideas and moods that can be found even in the roots of his own comedy- combining his existential dread with humor, joking as a defense mechanism for anxiety- significantly without invalidating the honesty of that joke. All of this operates under a distinct tone in Woody Allen movies, one that he can only achieve with the magic of movies acting as a filter to glaze a version of Life with a spiritually-conscious glow of possibility. We can only ever get halfway, never fully 'there', never 'fixed' or omniscient or expunged of our angsts, doubts, and insecurities, but we can sometimes access a form of acceptance where fears and opportunities coalesce. Allen affirms and occasionally caresses this worldview of fatalistic compromises in his work, often in his more deceptively-airy films. Like this one.

User avatar
yoloswegmaster
Joined: Tue Nov 01, 2016 3:57 pm

Re: Woody Allen

#797 Post by yoloswegmaster » Mon Aug 23, 2021 10:08 am

A 10-disc Woody Allen boxset will be released in November from a company called Quiver Films.

User avatar
hearthesilence
Joined: Fri Mar 04, 2005 4:22 am
Location: NYC

Re: Woody Allen

#798 Post by hearthesilence » Mon Aug 23, 2021 12:16 pm

That price is ridiculous - it's peanuts - but maybe not surprising. Searching for Quiver turns up a distribution company that mostly makes VOD deals with the major streamers for filmmakers looking to distribute their work, so maybe it's basically Allen's camp handling their catalog on their own?

User avatar
swo17
Bloodthirsty Butcher
Joined: Tue Apr 15, 2008 10:25 am
Location: SLC, UT

Re: Woody Allen

#799 Post by swo17 » Mon Aug 23, 2021 12:26 pm

Hopefully it covers 1994-2007

User avatar
hearthesilence
Joined: Fri Mar 04, 2005 4:22 am
Location: NYC

Re: Woody Allen

#800 Post by hearthesilence » Mon Aug 23, 2021 12:58 pm

What about the previous decade? All of those titles go for like $100 now.

Post Reply