20 Comments

1. Yehudit:

Woody who?

Dec 1, 2005 - 12:16 pm 2. Ed Driscoll:

“Woody who?”

Heh (TM).

Actually, just when I was ready to write him off, the trailer that I mentioned in my post actually looks quite good–hopefully the film will be as watchable; or at least more watchable than his last few films.

Dec 1, 2005 - 12:37 pm 3. Sissy Willis:

The heart that loves is forever young . . . Oh.

Dec 1, 2005 - 1:25 pm 4. beautifulatrocities:

My fave Pauline Kael line was a remark when Woody started making painful faux-European films like Interiors. She said, “Isn’t it awful that Woody Allen wants to be Ingmar Bergman, when we’re already all SICK of Ingmar Bergman?”

Dec 1, 2005 - 2:12 pm 5. jerry:

I feel the same way about Woodie Allen as I do about Joyce Carol Oates. Great artists who ruined their reputation by not retiring sooner.

Dec 1, 2005 - 2:28 pm 6. Esbiem:

I have been a big fan of the Woodster since the early seventies. His point of view , for better or worse, seemed to parallel my self-observation. I call him the Shakespeare of our times. Alas his career took a turn for the worse when he seemed to live out his fantasies in real life instead of in his films. I confess, I never saw interiors and the other Bergmanesque film, but that was a conscious choice. His graphic use of language is what turned me away from enjoying his creations more than his lifestyle. I was one of his last defenders until it became apparent that he truly had sunk quite low. I am more than pleased to see that he is in his game again and look forward to his latest Zeligesque metamorphosis. See our photorial on his life over at elgintyrell. http://www.elgintyrell.com

Dec 1, 2005 - 2:40 pm 7. George Wallace:

Actually, I think Pauline Kael’s best Allen zinger — also said of Interiors — was:

“It’s deep, on the surface.”

Dec 1, 2005 - 2:46 pm 8. soccerdad:

Allen Koenigsberg?

Dec 1, 2005 - 2:54 pm 9. beautifulatrocities:

HA! “Deep, on the surface.” I love that! I’m gonna use it for my blog motto

Dec 1, 2005 - 3:08 pm 10. dick:

I guess it must all be in your point of view. I have only been able to stay awake in a Woody Allen movie twice. The rest of the time he just puts me to sleep because I am so tired of his eternal “poor little me” pose. When he grows up enough to get a life worth sharing, maybe he will be worth watching. Until then, he could turn out a movie a week and I could not care less. It is all such dreck!!

Dec 1, 2005 - 3:13 pm 11. Syl:

I don’t really care about anybody’s lifestyle.

And I’ll just remember Annie Hall.

And watch it again from time to time.

That’s all I need.

(Heck, I don’t mind his ‘poor little me’ pose. I found it rather endearing.)

Dec 1, 2005 - 3:17 pm 12. Silicon valley Jim:

I feel the same way about Woodie Allen as I do about Joyce Carol Oates. Great artists who ruined their reputation by not retiring sooner.

Amen to that. My first thought on seeing that Allen had turned seventy was that it means that he stopped being funny about the time that he turned forty.

Dec 1, 2005 - 3:31 pm 13. Ed Driscoll:

“It’s deep, on the surface.”

That’s terrific–I’ll file that one away for future use myself.

Dec 1, 2005 - 3:55 pm 14. JK Ribera:

Didn’t our host actually write a movie for Woody

Allen. He’s being strangely silent.

Dec 1, 2005 - 4:40 pm 15. Patrick Tyson:

I’d call him a sadistic, hippophilic necrophile, but that would be beating a dead horse.

—Woody Allen, Julie Bennett, Frank Buxton, Louise Lasser, Len Maxwell, Mikey Rose & Bryan Wilson, What’s Up, Tiger Lily?

The Europeans like pictures that drone on, and I’m good at making pictures that drone on.

Woody Allen in Wild Man Blues

…and so it goes.

Dec 1, 2005 - 6:29 pm 16. Esbiem:

Sure, Woody Allen repeats his same character over and over again in his films. In that he came to represent a known quantity, someone like say, the neighbor you speak to at the neighborhood parties. I introduced my 22 year old daughter to Woody’s “Love and Death” last night, she had never seen any of his films and she got it instantly, she laughed all the way through the film. I have enjoyed all of his films that I have watched, many over and over again, in one way or another, even the painful ones like “Mighty Aphrodite”. But by far the one that cracked me up the most was “A Mid Summers Nights Sex Comedy” with Mary Steenburgeon. He is a great talent, albiet flawed, but then again who isn’t. I have little patience for critics who demand that someone be 100% perfect in all that they do, whether we’re speaking of the President of the United States, the founder of a small business or a writer. Whould that a critic put his own work out there knowing that it is to be unflichingly criticised in the pages of the “press”.

Dec 2, 2005 - 7:45 am 17. Pat Curley:

The Curse of the Jade Scorpion (2001) was pretty clever, although it definitely showed that his career as a leading man was over; the romance between him and Helen Hunt was not credible.

Dec 2, 2005 - 12:48 pm 18. Charlie (Colorado):

He is a great talent, albiet flawed, but then again who isn’t.

Lots of us. The “flawed” part is easy.

Dec 3, 2005 - 9:49 am 19. Buddy Larsen:

LOL, Charlie-the-scalpel. What if your great talent is to be flawed? –not you, Charlie…heh heh (breaks out in sweat, tugs collar)….;-)

Dec 6, 2005 - 6:32 am 20. Buddy Larsen:

Another doozy akin to Pauline Kael’s is Mark Twain’s on Richard Wagner’s music “It’s much better than it sounds.”

Dec 6, 2005 - 4:48 pm

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