There are two new Woody Allen films in the pipeline: Cassandra's Dream and Barcelona at Midnight (aka "Spanish project"). I think Woody has pretty much shrugged his shoulders at the USA. He's apparently better appreciated and supported in Europe, so it seems like a good move. One does what one must do to forge ahead. These will follow Match Point and Scoop, both filmed in England.
Woody Allen has always had an affinity for the Europeans, though. Yes, he loves New York City, Manhattan in particular, but he draws significantly from European art and culture. For example, recently, I watched one that clearly combines the two influences: Another Woman (1988), which I "get" a lot better than when it came out almost half a lifetime ago. Age and experience are good for that, I suppose. Another Woman follows a professor of German philosophy (Gena Rowlands) as she collides into her own accepted reality in New York City. What's going on in her life? What could she have done differently? Approaching sixty, what will she do now?
In Woody Allen's words: She gets a room where she's isolated, where she can work, and the truth starts coming in through the wall to her, though some kind of anonymous psychiatric patient who is really some version of her, and no matter how much she's blocked off the truth, it's coming right through the wall to her, and she can't put up walls anymore . . . . . And so as the truth starts to become known to her, she starts to get more and more involved -- she follows the woman patient, and she gets more interested, and she starts to learn about herself and what a cold fish she is and what en empty life she's had. (Quoted in Richard Schickel, Woody Allen: A Life in Film, 2003, pages 147-148).
Today's Rune: The Mystery Rune.
Birthdays: Edward Hopper, Stephen Vincent Benét, Alexander Calder, Amy Vanderbilt, Marcel Cerdan, Orson Bean (Dallas Frederick Burroughs), Oscar de la Renta, Louise Fletcher (UNC graduate), Paul Schrader (Affliction), Albert Brooks (b. Albert Lawrence Einstein), S.E. Hinton (Susan Eloise Hinton), Rufus Wainwright, Franka Potente, Sonija Kwok, Sharni Vinson.
Ciao, Manhattan!
8 comments:
I'd still have to say my personal favorite is "Broadway Danny Rose." And come to think of it, I've only read one book by Woody Allen. I believe it's "Without Feathers." Some very funny stuff.
I guess Europeans are easier on incestuous relationships, even though the daughter was adopted than Americans are. Maybe they understand that kind of humor better than I do but to be honest with you even though I have seen only a few Woody Allen movies except for "Sweet and Lowdown" I can't think of one other that I understood or enjoyed.
I like Charlie Chaplin Movies though, even though he was kicked out of the country and had a third wife that was very much his junior.
So, Woody can hang out with Roman Polanski and talk about what it's like to be a gifted, old pervert who's not properly understood in the USA.
Don't think of being dead as a handicap.
I hate America too.
Never read anything by him. Unsure we Europeans are easier on the incest, though for sure the blue bloods are...
That episode does discolour his genius a smidgeon...
I think in some ways I just don't get New York Humor. Woody Allen always just sounded sort of "whiney" to me. Never managed to make it all the way through any of his movies.
I caught "Another Woman" on television late one night, and was, like you, transfixed. I ended up buying it. It's become one of my favorites.
I still have not seen most of Allen's movies from the eighties-- Broadway Danny Rose, Purple Rose of Cairo, etc. I need to check that they're on my Netflix queue.
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