A Midsummer Night's Sex Comedy (1982)

(Traveling through the films of Woody Allen)

Title: A Midsummer Night's Sex Comedy
Release Date: 16 July 1982
Directed by: Woody Allen
Starring: Woody Allen, Mia Farrow, Mary Steenburgen, Jose Ferrer
IMDB: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0084329/

My Rating: (3/10) ★★★✩✩✩✩✩✩✩

I have tried to force myself to get through this movie three separate times, and on each occasion my mind wanders and I find myself thoroughly bored. This was the first Woody Allen film I ever tried to watch, and now that I'm examining his career I understand we got off to a very bad start. The combination of Mary Steenburgen and Mia Farrow is deadly, not to mention the rest of the neurotic ensemble in mostly period clothes, brooding about their philosophical troubles while doing their best Woody Allen impressions. Jose Ferrer is especially irritating. There are no sympathetic characters and no one to root for. It aims to be a quirky sex farce, but the pacing is off and the comedy doesn't land. The only redeemable quality is getting to see Woody Allen ride a flying bike. 

While important in the examination of Allen's canon, at least for the simple fact that it was the first time he worked both in an ensemble cast and with Mia Farrow,  this is my least favorite of his films to date.

Stardust Memories (1980)

(Traveling through the films of Woody Allen)

Title: Stardust Memories
Release Date: 26 September 1980
Directed by: Woody Allen
Starring: Woody Allen, Charlotte Rampling, Jessica Harper
IMDB: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0081554/

My Rating: (9/10) ★★★★★★★★★✩

A complex and multi-faceted look inside the mind of a successful film director, stunted by his own early success and experiencing the loss of his own anonymity. This film explores, in a metatheatrical way, the sycophantic nature of the public who throughout the film declare their love and adoration for Sandy Bates (Allen), constantly interrupting his life and shining flashbulbs in his face at the most inopportune times. Meanwhile, the studio execs for Sandy's next film are determined to change the ending and make it more commercial.  The film, they say, suffers from too much reality and "reality is not what the public wants." Ultimately, the film shows that unless you figure out a way to blind yourself to the insurmountable negatives in this world, your life will ultimately be meaningless.

Brilliantly shot in black and white, the photography is outstanding and unique. Creative wide shots tell a much greater story than the closeups other directors might have chosen, and Woody works with a mostly new cast of collaborators. Of particular note, Charlotte Rampling as Dorrie. 

It's interesting to watch his films mature though it is hard to believe him when he says they aren't autobiographical. 

Manhattan (1979)

(Traveling through the films of Woody Allen)

Title: Manhattan
Release Date: 25 April 1979
Directed by: Woody Allen
Starring: Woody Allen, Diane Keaton, Mariel Hemingway, Meryl Streep
IMDB: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0079522/
My Rating: (7/10) ★★★★★★★✩✩✩


Thought this film was delightful and appreciated the true mature sensibility present in Woody's acting. Here he plays Isaac, a 42 year old man dating a 17 year old (played by Mariel Hemingway). At first, I thought Mariel Hemingway was dreadful but she soon grew on me as the youngest person in Isaac's circle and the only voice of reason. Diane Keaton shines again, as does Meryl Streep who plays a lesbian, over-the-shoulder-hair enthusiast. Obviously a love poem about NYC, perhaps it did not pack quite the emotional punch I was expecting post-Interiors and Annie Hall. Delightful, but ultimately not one of my favorites. 

Interiors (1978)

(Traveling through the films of Woody Allen)

Title: Interiors
Release Date: 2 August 1978
Directed by: Woody Allen
Starring: Diane Keaton, Mary Beth Hurt, Kristin Griffith, Geraldine Page, Maureen Stapleton
IMDB: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0077742/
My Rating: (9/10) ★★★★★★★★★✩

This film touched me on a profoundly deep level. Woody Allen's first foray into drama is the startling story of three sisters coping with their emotionally unstable mother after their father walks out on her. Diane Keaton as the older sister is reserved and nuanced, yet reveals a world of emotion boiling just beneath the surface. Mary Beth Hurt as the younger sister left with the day-to-day burden of caring for their mother gives an incredibly honest performance while Geraldine Page as the matriarch is beautifully imperfect and gives a performance always rooted in her profound love for her husband, never in the cliches of mental anxiety.

Heavily influenced by the films of Bergman, this film consists of beautifully composed shots full of symbols and double meanings. It's a quiet film, where the soundtrack to the film really helps tell the story--I'm talking the ambient noise here. There are startling moments in the sound design that really support the powerful images and story. My favorite Woody Allen film yet!

Woody Speaking about Interiors

Annie Hall (1977)

(Traveling through the films of Woody Allen)

Title: Annie Hall
Release Date: 20 April 1977
Directed by: Woody Allen
Starring: Woody Allen, Diane Keaton, Paul Simon, Christopher Walken
IMDB: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0075686/
My Rating: (9/10) ★★★★★★★★★✩

"You know how you're always trying to get things to come out perfect in art because it's so difficult in life"

Originally titled Anhedonia, or the inability to find pleasure from normally pleasurable events, this movie follows Alvy Singer (Allen) in his failed relationship with Annie Hall. Diane Keaton turns in a strong performance but, for me,  this movie belongs to Woody Allen. For the first time in his body of work I saw a mature, deeply complex protagonist. His character as a complex, multi-faceted everyman. As me. Someone who has a tendency to sabotage their own happiness, yet lacks the true self awareness to see that he is clearly the cause of his own displeasure. Annie says to Alvy late in the film "You're incapable of enjoying life. You're like NYC, you're like this person, you're like this island unto yourself..." and then tells him "You know how wonderful you are...you're the reason that I got out of my room, that I was able to sing, get more in touch with my feelings..." This succinct summation of a person's ability to encourage happiness in others while prohibiting their own is a profound revelation to me. It's lovely how it is mirrored in Alvy's suggesting of an analyst, college courses, and certain books to Annie and then being left behind by her enlightenment in these areas. 

Technically, the long shots are beautifully and creatively composed and help the audience to get lost in the story. I only counted one instance that made me want to stab my eyes out (about fifteen minutes into the film Tony Roberts and Woody have a lengthy dialogue which begins with them so unidentifiably in the background of a wide shot. This shot holds as it takes them at least 45 seconds to come into frame. They slowly travel to camera but just trying to read the shot for the first half of the scene pulled me out of the film).

The stories are true! This film marks the beginning of a more mature era of filmmaking for Woody Allen. Deeply complex, boldly personal, and quite touching on many levels. 

Woody Allen Interview, 1971

The first part of a 4 part interview with Woody Allen that I adore

The first part of Woody's 1965 appearance on Johnny Carson

An on-the-set interview with Woody Allen while he was filming Sleeper

Love and Death (1975)

(Traveling through the films of Woody Allen)

Title: Love and Death
Release Date: 10 June 1975
Directed by: Woody Allen
Starring: Woody Allen, Diane Keaton, James Tolkan
IMDB: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0073312/
My Rating: (5/10) ★★★★★✩✩✩✩✩

"I was walking through the woods thinking about Christ. If he was a carpenter I wonder what he charged for bookshelves..." Woody Allen is a neurotic soldier in Czarist Russia, a pacifist, and haplessly in love with his 2nd cousin (twice removed). Together they formulate a plot to kill Napoleon but the true story lies in the courtship of Sonja by Woody Allen's nervous Boris Grushenko. Together, these cousins philosophize as sport and challenge each other's world views. It's no wonder Boris falls for his cousin.

In the chronology of Woody Allen films, this holds a bizarre place. His next film, hailed as the first film from a more mature filmmaker, will win the academy award while his last five films were all jam-packed-with-as-many-jokes-as-they-can-handle comedies. Love and Death perhaps shows a softer side of Allen, content not to lay it on so thick. He actually speaks directly to the camera in several moments of the film and it seems in these sequences Woody himself is struggling to exhibit the meaning in his film. Showing the audience that there is a deeper level here, not just the comic but also the tragic. That they are connected, do not exist without each other. And while this film doesn't quite work for me (though some of my favorite lines are here), in the context of the greater whole this dissatisfaction with making light, comic films devoid of "meaning" will lead to much greater things.

Sleeper (1973)

(Traveling through the films of Woody Allen)

Title: Sleeper
Release Date: 17 December 1973
Directed by: Woody Allen
Starring: Woody Allen, Diane Keaton
IMDB: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0070707/
My Rating: (8/10) ★★★★★★★★✩✩


Woody Allen directs Diane Keaton for the first time. She turns in a kooky, high energy performance and, surprisingly, I'd never realized she was such a beauty in her younger years. [Side note, film is a playground for any fantasy you can dream up so why NOT dream up a world in which the lovable loser wins the pretty girl in the end. It's the dream we all have of getting what we want that we feel we miss out on.] I must say I am enjoying this journey through Woody Allen's early films because more than anything it contextualizes his neurotic side. I find him endearing in his younger days, embodying the inept social nitwit that we all must feel is hiding inside of us. I enjoyed this film in particular because as a director he continues to play--doing what he does so well but unafraid to let it live and breathe in a variety of different genres. Here, science fiction.  You have to be a confident director to spoof such a unique genre and nail it masterfully. And knowing that his confident mastery is hidden behind his neurotic persona makes it all a bit more meaningful. I know his films mature in the next few years, and I'm eager to see the growth, but with such a large body of work it's good to know there are at least half a dozen films where all he seemed to care about was making an audience laugh. 

*It's also interesting to note that Joel Schumacher designed the costumes for this film. 

Everything You Always Wanted to Know About Sex* (*but were afraid to ask) (1972)

(Traveling through the Films of Woody Allen)

Title: Everything You Always Wanted To Know About Sex* (*but were afraid to ask)
Release Date: 6 August 1972
Directed by: Woody Allen
Starring: Woody Allen, Louise Lasser, Lynn Redgrave, John Carradine
IMDB: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0068555/
My Rating: (8/10) ★★★★★★★★✩✩


Directing seven vignettes about sex, each edging toward perversion in some way, seems like it would be a wet dream for Woody Allen. Its obvious his sexually dark mind comes in handy with this work because each vignette is twisted while remaining stylistically clear, thematically consistent, and funny (okay, to varying degrees but each lands in some way). Highlights are the first vignette in which Allen plays a court jester who gets his hand stuck inside the Queen's chastity belt and the last vignette which takes place inside the brain/body of a man who is about to have sex with his date for the first time. For someone like me, looking back on Allen's career and trying to keep it in perspective, you can really see the burgeoning of a very masterful storyteller. It was refreshing to see each vignette look and feel so different while somehow managing to keep the very distinct Woody Allen style of comedy that he is known for. Pulling off a Fellini inspired short while treading the waters of Lake Neurosis seems like it could be very tricky to navigate, but Woody Allen does so skillfully and seemingly with little effort. 

Bananas (1971)

(Traveling through the Films of Woody Allen)

Title: Bananas
Release Date: 28 April 1971
Directed by: Woody Allen
Starring: Woody Allen, Louise Lasser, Carlos Montalban
IMDB: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0066808/
My Rating: (6/10) ★★★★★★✩✩✩✩


While generally sustaining the comedic tone throughout, parts of this movie feel too contrived to laugh at. Woody Allen's third feature as director follows the life of Fielding Mellish, a lovable loser who becomes president of San Marcos after his girlfriend Nancy (Louise Lasser) tells him he needs to be more of a leader. Woody Allen really begins to shapethat nervous character he's known for playing, and that may be the greatest success of this film. His neuroses are endearing, and at times he is quite attractive. 


As a whole the shots are usually funny and interesting and a lot of the sequences are hysterical (special mention to the breakup scene between Nancy & Fielding which seems like it could have been improvised), but not everything lands the way it may have been intended. I watched a four part interview with Woody Allen on youtube, shot right after Bananas was released, and I found that to be much more entertaining. But perhaps that's the big joke?

Take the Money and Run (1969)

(Traveling through the Films Of Woody Allen)

Title: Take the Money and Run
Release Date: 18 August 1969
Directed by: Woody Allen
Starring: Woody Allen, Janet Margolin
IMDB: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0065063/

My Rating: (8/10) ★★★★★★★★✩✩


Three years after his directorial debut, Woody Allen came back with his next film--the first film in which he wrote, directed and also starred. He plays Virgil Starkwell, an inept petty thief who goes to prison for unsuccessfully robbing a bank. The film is a hilarious mockumentary style film told through "old footage", voice overs and interviews. It's easy to see the comic genius of Allen, flourishing often and especially in my two favorite sequences--A) when Virgil finds himself chained to five other prisoners attempting to make a daring prison escape. "I'm not with them, I wanna stay!" B) When young Virgil plays cello in the marching band.

I've never really been into Woody Allen before, but I thoroughly enjoyed this film. Janet Margolin as Virgil's devoted and innocent wife was sweet and fantastic and I look forward to seeing more from Woody, who's neuroses actually came across as endearing this time around. 




http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0065063/

What's Up, Tiger Lily? (1966)

(Traveling through the Films Of Woody Allen)

Title: What's Up, Tiger Lily?
Release Date: 2 November 1966
Directed by: Woody Allen
Starring: Tatsuya Mihashi, Akiko Wakabayashi, Mie Hama
IMDB: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0061177/
My Rating: (6/10) ★★★★★★✩✩✩✩


I'm starting with Woody Allen films so I had to watch his very first directorial effort, which is a pre-existing Japanese spy film overdubbed with an Allen penned comedic script. He rearranges scenes to suit his new narrative and dubs in voices of his friends (our hero, Japanese spy Phil Moscowitz is on a mission to find the world's best egg-salad recipe). There is even a gratuitous strip tease at the end which hints at Woody Allen's slightly perverted side. I'm giving the film six stars because of social context--though it wasn't a film I especially enjoyed, I can see what's funny about it and how some might find it side splitting. The conceit is well done, and Allen usually avoids the obvious joke, which is noteworthy. 

Change of Course...

I started chronologically and ended at 1908. It's been more than a year since I've posted, so obviously I need a new plan. So I've decided to explore what I love--directing. I will be watching films clumped by director.