Woody Allen

[Matt]

Please, there's only room for one egomaniacal geriatric New Yorker in this thread.

[Walter Kurtz]

Midnight in Paris: My favorite film of all time. That has never changes since the night I saw it. I love Paris in the rain… or the sunshine I love Hemingway. I love the idea of Bunuel. I love Fitzgerald. I love architecture. I love Giverny. I love art. My two favorite short-riff/performances by male actors are in this movie--- Corey Stoll as EH and Adrian Brody as SD. Da-LEE! Da-LEE! I love both Rachel McAdams and Marion Cotillard. I very much like Lea Seydoux. I love what the movie says about us and nostalgia… it strikes a fucking deep chord.

You list everyone in your favorite movie of all time except the lead actor. No love for Owen carrying the film on behalf of the everyman? I agree that Corey Stoll is great as EH.

Actually, I thought OW did as good as - or better than - Woody Allen playing Woody Allen 30-50 years ago. I appreciated his performance much more in this role than I did Branaugh's in Celebrity. He also functioned as the sort-of Jason Bateman in Arrested Development and Seinfeld in Seinfeld. The sanest person in a world of crazies... and with far fewer aggravating tics than Allen or Branaugh displayed.

I'd also like to add something on Three Billboards. I liked it because Frances McDormand is just one of those people I like - as an actor - and in life. And I appreciated her doppelganger Alain Delon/Mr. Klein... just kept going and going and going... but hopefully with better results (I actually don't remember the movie one iota except that FM was doing an AD/MK and I hope she found U2, or found what she was looking for.

[Lowry_Sam]

I just thought it was shockingly lazily written, with characters purporting to be Londoners uttering dialogue that no actual Londoner would ever consider uttering, to the point where it really became unintentionally funny at times, and of course massively distracting.

I saw Match Point at home after hearing the rave reviews and found it unbearable. It wasn't just the script, which I found completely implausible. It was also the acting and for me called in to question Johansson's & Myers' abilities, particularly in their supposedly romantic scenes, which I found more suited to a film like Showgirls (ie. unsubtle) than a Woody Allen film. & if it was supposed to be a satire of the listless bourgeoisie falling in & out of love, it was pretty unconvincing. I had similar reactions to Midnight In Paris, To Rome With Love, & A Rainy Day In New York, so I'll probably steer clear of any future films where he uses a city's name to sell the film. It seems that Allen has been using the film's location as a gimmick to distract attention from a weak script for a while now.

Blue Jasmine was the only one I actually went to see during its theatrical release (because it too was getting rave reviews) & I found it to be the best of the post 2000 films I had seen up to that point, in particular because of Blanchett's performance, but I still wouldn't rank it among my favorites. The only recent one I've seen that has impressed me enough to consider ranking in his 10 best would be Cassandra's Dream, which apparently doesn't even warrant discussion for most people (because it strays so much from Allen's usual formulas?), but which I found refreshing as Allen tackles the crime film as a crime film rather than as a diversion or as comic relief or to contrast the world of art/education. Not sure how well the dialogue/scenarios rate in terms of locale credibility, but as suggested he seems to acknowledge that his first go at filming in the UK had problems and perhaps he therefore makes some ammends here.

[JSC]

I think the last truely great Allen film (and the last time he actually took an artistic risk) was Deconstructing Harry.
But that's just me (and I'm getting old).

[therewillbeblus]

Irrational Man and A Rainy Day in New York are two masterpieces of the last decade

[low]

It's just outside of a decade, but I think Magic in the Moonlight is a largely unsung modern classic, and one of my favorites.

[therewillbeblus]

Absolutely, it's even better than the two I mentioned

[nicolas]

No love for Coup de Chance? It’s my favorite of his since Blue Jasmine.

[therewillbeblus]

No love for Coup de Chance? It’s my favorite of his since Blue Jasmine.

I've got a little bit of love for it!

I think Allen has made a handful of bad movies at most, and some of those are perfectly watchable

[domino harvey]

If it ends up being his last film, at least it will be a good one and we should all be glad he didn’t stop at Rifkin’s Festival. But I wouldn’t rate it that high overall (and Magic in the Moonlight is his best modern film for me)

[JSC]

Don't get me wrong, it's not that I haven't enjoyed Allen's twenty-first century films (and there's a lot of them!) It's
just that for me they've often tended to come off as somewhat bland and going through the motions. Even Allen's
seemingly bottomless supply of one-liners don't always manage to keep some of these films afloat (but again, this is
probably just me getting old and cranky).

[Orlac]

I'm still amazed they cast him in ANTZ - love that movie!

[cantinflas]

No love for Coup de Chance? It’s my favorite of his since Blue Jasmine.

That was one of my favourites of 2023. Fittingly, it was the final film I saw at the Verona in Sydney shortly before it closed down.

I'll give a shout out to Crisis in Six Scenes. Loved seeing him on-screen again doing what he does, especially alongside Elaine May and things like the political banter he has with Miley Cyrus. A really funny and quite daring series.

[BoltzmannBrain]

Trump's truth social account (probably someone other than him since he appears to have had a stroke of some kind, hence the 7 day silence and uncharacteristic avoidance of the press) shared the Variety piece about Allen wanting to work with Trump again. Lol.

Allen said in the Maher podcast that he wishes he could direct Trump now that Trump is in the White House because he disagrees with the orange one so much, he didn't say that he wants to make a movie with him, so it's a bit strange that Trump's people would share that.

[Captain Paranoia]

Can't wait for the MosFilm follow-up to Rifkin's Festival.

Rifkin in Moscow, A film by Woody Allen...starring...Steven Seagal...music by Roger Waters.

[beamish14]

I'm still amazed they cast him in ANTZ - love that movie!

Him and Sylvester Stallone sharing the screen for the first time since Bananas

I like Crisis in Six Scenes as well

For my money, Scoop and Anything Else are his two most underrated post-Orion/Miramax gems. His performance in the latter is legitimately crazy, and both Stockard Channing and Christina Ricci are wonderful in it

[pistolwink]

Can't wait for the MosFilm follow-up to Rifkin's Festival.

Rifkin in Moscow, A film by Woody Allen...starring...Steven Seagal...music by Roger Waters.

If he asks fast he can probably get Gérard Depardieu.

[domino harvey]

I get the joke but I’d love to see Depardieu in an Allen movie

[bearcuborg]

For my money, Scoop and Anything Else are his two most underrated post-Orion/Miramax gems. His performance in the latter is legitimately crazy, and both Stockard Channing and Christina Ricci are wonderful in it

I had the same reaction to that one…I lost it in theater when he took a bat to that car. I bet he really loved doing that…

I love Woody thought Jason Biggs was Jewish…

If anything, his movies were always theater going worthy for the cinematography and music. If I hit the powerball, I’d love to fund his dream movie about the history of early jazz.

[pianocrash]

I get the joke but I’d love to see Depardieu in an Allen movie

He & Andie MacDowell both endeared me in Green Card, which I somehow have not revisited since I was about 11, but I also can't recall any other non-French appearance I've seen him in since.

Allen could get a Dimes Square cast top to bottom to work for absolutely nothing right now (blame his undeniable rizz), but even he, I fear, has a low tolerance for high NRG phonies (but not double entendres!).

[Lowry_Sam]

I'll give a shout out to Crisis in Six Scenes.

If anyone ever gets around to releasing his television work, hopefully they include Men of Crisis: The Harvey Wallinger Story, probably his most criminally underrated work (though it would make a better extra for Take The Money And Run or Bananas).

[MichaelB]

He & Andie MacDowell both endeared me in Green Card, which I somehow have not revisited since I was about 11, but I also can't recall any other non-French appearance I've seen him in since.

He was the lead in 1492: Conquest of Paradise, one of the leads in The Man in the Iron Mask and starred in the embarrassing US remake of My Father the Hero, plus one or two other 1990s films. He also plays a tiny, almost wordless part in Kenneth Branagh's Hamlet (I remember going "Who the hell's Reynaldo?" when perusing the cast list before the screening - Polonius' servant, usually cut.)

But he never got on with English and he was astute enough to realise that he was in danger of being stereotyped as a comedy Frenchman, so he very sensibly gave up and went back to France.

[Orlac]

I get the joke but I’d love to see Depardieu in an Allen movie

He & Andie MacDowell both endeared me in Green Card, which I somehow have not revisited since I was about 11, but I also can't recall any other non-French appearance I've seen him in since.

102 Dalmatians - I saw that the other week on Disney+ and actually rather enjoyed it.

[knives]

He’s a villain in a short cameo in Life of Pi as well.

[pianocrash]

I think my mind glossed over all of those appearances (save My Father The Hero, which even to my kid brain shouted NO!, but I'll blame that Tony Danza vehicle She's Out Of Control for refusing anything resembling that thereafter), likewise 1492 (again, not in my wheelhouse), but I was surprised to see him in Let The Sunshine In, more recently, being a real jerk to Valeria Bruni Tedeschi (the ultimate sin?), so at least I know he's all the more capable of being a paunchy French villain, if Rifkin ever ends up in Moscow.