A humorist after my own heart
Some humorists make you laugh till your stomach hurts. Others can make you chuckle ruefully. Woody Allen makes me glad I’m me. [1]
I first fell for Allen’s words, not his movies. I read White Feathers first (or it may have been Side Effects) and moved on to the scripts of Annie Hall, Manhattan and a couple of others I don’t recall now. I must have been in my under-grad then. I’m not sure what directed me to his books at the USIS library, but I suspect I’d have found his works sooner or later. It’s difficult to imagine who would have replaced Allen had I not discovered Allen.
Over the years, I’ve watched many of his movies (although I’m glad that I still have quite a few saved for rainy days ahead) - from the truly sublime ( Crimes and Misdemeanors , Zelig , Annie Hall, Manhattan), the utterly delightful ( Deconstructing Harry, Manhattan Murder Mystery) to strictly-for-fans only ( Sleeper, Don’t drink the water, The Front, The Purple Rose of Cairo). It’s good to be the fan of a man who is not only a genius, but also prolific. Just compare the experience of being a Woody Allen fan to being a fan of, oh, David Mamet or David Lynch - with Allen you simply get more.
I suspect age may have had something to do with how thoroughly I fell in love with Woody Allen. For a 17 year old, to live in a big city, have sparkling conversations with friends, listen to jazz, visit museums, and yes, deal with existential problems (Allen’s characters almost exclusively have existential problems - infidelity, temptation, boredom… You don’t often come across characters who have bad jobs, or no-job, no-money, and most certainly never no-apartment) all represented the very best of “adulthood”. Allen’s world was the stuff my dreams were made of.
I’m older now, and I still want to turn into an Allen character when I grow up. Technically, I’m supposed to be living that life I dreamt about at 17 (and in a way, I suppose I am, although I don’t live in the Upper East Side or hang around Swedish film festivals). Now, I simply appreciate their fine escapist quality. I don’t resent the 20-something artists their real estate. They seem to be so sweetly unhappy with their lot that I don’t grudge them the odd 2-bedroom-apartment-with
Also, Allen is an optimist. I can’t think of a single movie of his at the end of which I felt cynical. Things that are liable to make one want to kill oneself in real life - losing the love of your life, getting caught committing murder, or having your spouse of several years cheat on you - only seem to leave Allen’s characters perplexed and mildly annoyed. And in almost all of these cases, you just might manage to live happily ever after (or as happy as one’s neuroses will allow) after all. No, you don’t want Woody Allen for lessons in morality. You watch them to amuse yourself.
A good number of my friends are NOT Allen fans. Their complaints range from
“he looks like he does, and yet ends up with very pretty ladies”, “he married his own daughter, for crying out loud!”, “they talk too much in his movies”, to “he’s a twisted guy who makes twisted movies”… As for the first complaint, I admit it was a bit awkward to see him pair up with Julia Roberts, but in his old movies, honestly, it didn’t feel at all weird to see him with Diane Keaton or any of his other leading ladies. He’s never vain about his looks - whether he’s playing a cheesy, unsuccessful talent manager, an oily Latin lover, or a husband dumped by Meryl Streep for a woman, his looks are an essential part of the charm. As for his personal life, well, he’s no more or no less koo-koo than tens of other Hollywood stars (including the erstwhile matinee idol - Tom Cruise). Who cares what he does with his life as long as he makes such wonderful cinema?
This week-end, I watched Match Point. I found it a bit boring at first (the first two-thirds are pretty slow going), but the last third convinced me that the master hasn’t quite lost his touch yet. It is such a thoroughly delightful movie. But I fear that Allen may have become dated. The average age of the audience was 55. This figure was skewed by 7 or 8 odd people below 35, all of whom, I was glad to note were desis. I can see how selling Allen may be a difficult proposition when the mainstream audience needs Kiera Knightly to draw them into watching Austen, and Ashton Kutcher to make sequels to Sidney Poitier flicks (*shudder*).
I turn to the other humorists I’ve been writing about when I need to be cheered up, or need to get away from my life’s madness. I turn to Allen when I need to be reminded about myself. [1]
[1] Reading back, I realize some of this stuff sounds very vain - after all who am I to say that Woody Allen reminds me of me? I can only protest that when I say some of these things, I do so with the greatest degree of awe. A lot more of “Allen reminds me of the best I want to be”, with just the odd dash of “he reminds me of who I am.” [2]
[2] While I don’t want to sound very vain, I don’t mind sounding somewhat vain.
Comments (18 comments)
One liners, that’s a major part of hollywood and so was of Woody Allen’s movies. From a “creative” perspective, most of his movies were repetitious that would make Henry Ford’s “model T” proud. Most of his characters were either extremely smart or plain dumb. Nothing in the middle. Almost all his charecters had emotional problems and atleast one came from a broken home, and predominantly all were new york jews, except for the occassional family butcher/gardener etc. As you rightly pointed out, everybody had “existential angst” in them, and they all spoke extremely fast. Acting wise, less said the better. His style lost its charm after Annie Hall. His movies were a cinematic equivalent of Sidney Sheldon’s books.
My favourite one liner, “Tradition is an illusion of permanence”. I think it is either from Annie Hall or Deconstructing Harry.
d.n.a. / April 4th, 2006, 9:21 pm / #
I am a big fan of Woody’s movies and my most favorite one is Play it Again, Sam.
Nithya / April 4th, 2006, 11:18 pm / #
Doz: Okay, you have got to stop this. How am I supposed to get any work done if you insist on putting posts about my favourite humorists?
As you’re probably figured out by now, I’m a huge Allen fan (I think the term someone used on my blog was Woody worshipper) - though I can’t say I share your optimistic take on his movies. If my life looks increasingly like a Woody Allen film it’s not because I live in the Upper East or watch Swedish films, it’s because almost every relationship I’ve ever been in has ended the way Allen’s relationships end - in hilarious catastrophe -, because I’m increasingly aware of how my obsessions with philosophy and death make me ridiculous, because I find myself being as neurotic and as opinionated as Allen at his best. It’s not the gorgeous houses I relate to - it’s the paranoia. The reason I love Allen is that he is able to create a vision of the world where things are comic and deeply emotional at once, because he understands that you can be deeply hurt or depressed by something on the one hand and be laughing yourself silly about it on the other. It’s the serio-comicness of it that I love - an attitude I associate as much with Joseph Heller and Philip Roth as with Allen. Allen doesn’t just remind me of me, he makes my laugh at myself, which is more important.
Obligatory movie plugs (using your classification, and in addition to the ones you already mention): Truly sublime (Hannah and her Sisters, Love and Death), delightful (Mighty Aphrodite, Midsummer Night’s Sex Comedy, Bullets over Broadway, the ‘Oedipus Wrecks’ section from New York Stories, Everything you always wanted to know about Sex) and the strictly for Woody fans (Bananas, What’s up Tiger Lily?, Sweet and Lowdown, Shadows and Fog, Curse of the Jade Scorpion, Hollywood Ending)*. Oh, and not to forget his memorable turn in Casino Royale as Jimmy Bond.
* I know, I know, I didn’t leave much out did I? But I just realised from IMDB that I’ve seen except Take the Money and Run and Sounds from a Town I love.
Nithya: Yes, Play it again, Sam was a delightful film too. Though you do know that it wasn’t directed by Allen, though he did write it and act in it?
Falstaff / April 5th, 2006, 1:05 pm / #
[...] A warmish post on Woody Allen at etcetera I suspect age may have had something to do with how thoroughly I fell in love with Woody Allen. For a 17 year old, to live in a big city, have sparkling conversations with friends, listen to jazz, visit museums, and yes, deal with existential problems (Allen’s characters almost exclusively have existential problems - infidelity, temptation, boredom… You don’t often come across characters who have bad jobs, or no-job, no-money, and most certainly never no-apartment) all represented the very best of “adulthood”. Allen’s world was the stuff my dreams were made of. [...]
DesiPundit » Woody And I / April 5th, 2006, 3:49 pm / #
Always want to read something even remotely positive about poor Woody, easily one of the funniest guys on the planet .. agree with you about “Match Point” .. I flat out loved it by the end, but it took a while to get there.
Keith Demko / April 5th, 2006, 5:57 pm / #
Ditto on the ‘friends complaints’. To them, I usually suggest ‘Bullets over Broadway’. I strongly believe it’s impossible to hate that movie and they don’t have to know he was responsible for the brilliance (which is a shame really).
Manoj / April 5th, 2006, 6:14 pm / #
Woody allen is everyman’s dream.
In his stand up routine: Today, I will try to ponder over some of my past issues … in detail … and we will carefully analyse them … and you can ask me any questions at the end.
bharath / April 5th, 2006, 7:28 pm / #
Ah! I love Allen too. I’ve read all of his books but haven’t seen any of his movies. Pradeep Sebastian, one of my favourite columnists, has written on his middle-brow appeal here in “Why We Need Woody Allen”.
Anirudh / April 6th, 2006, 12:58 am / #
he is definitly a great film maker, telling stories that ’s rooted deeply into pur everyday lives, and at the same time, daring us to dream.
Yes, we do take q’s from movies on how we live our lives, I still do, all the time. Funny how Woody managed to set the right mood most of the time, its in the candor and also sense of space.
gp / April 6th, 2006, 2:48 am / #
Sorry to nit-pick, but the book was “Without Feathers”, not “White Feather”. Attributed to a line purportedly from Emily Dickinson, “Hope is the thing with feathers”. (I’m no Emily D fan, you can ask Falstaff to verify that).
There’s been enough said here about his films. I personally prefer his early literate-burlesque style - the Howard Cosell take that opens “Bananas”, his wooing of the Countess in “Love and Death” - even though the films suffered thematically because they often seemed like a collection of great one-liners. His later films are NOT laugh-a-minute, but they’re probably better films for that reason.
What I really freak on, however, is his writing. (I once produced “God”. The nice thing about Calcutta is that it worked.) He wrote two of my all-time favourite short stories, “The Whore of Mensa” and “The Kugelmass Episode”. The latter was adapted into a Hindi film called “Shakuntalam” some time in the ’80s, with Anuradha Patel playing Shakuntala, the local version of Emma Bovary.
Thanks for this series, I’ll be back on Wodehouse later. That needs LOTS of time.
J.A.P.
J. Alfred Prufrock / April 6th, 2006, 6:23 am / #
d.n.a: I must disagree with you. To call Allen repetitive is to call Wodehouse formulaic… It’s a matter of style - one that I enjoy very much, so I don’t mind if I can identify a movie as been an “Allen” after listening to the lead characters for 2 minutes… I remember an interview where a black actor complained that Allen’s movies were full of white people. The respose from John Waters was that you don’t see very many black people in the Upper East side. As for the acting - I remember other interviews where many actors mentioned that he rarely gives direction - I suppose that makes his characters come across as being a lot more natural (? inasmuch as stuttering, endless conversations about existential angst can be natural - and they are, to some of us)
Nithya: I haven’t watched Play it again, Sam. It’s on my Netflix queue tho, and am looking forward to it
Anirudh: Thank you for that article. I miss the Hindu, and this reminds me why I should catch up more regularly.
JAP: Thanks for catching that. Unforgivable of me to have gotten it wrong, after I take the trouble to find a link to the book! Remember both “The Whore of Mensa” and “The Kugelmas Episode”. I have watched Shakuntalam as well. Naseeruddin Shah plays a Parsi Kugelmas, if am not mistaken (is he a dentist or an accountant?). I’ve been trying to recall who played Shakuntala. I watched the movie first, and read the story many years later. I do miss Indian “parallel cinema”…one stood a chance of watching something delightful and unexpected like Shakuntalam. The modern “Hinglish” avatar isn’t so bad (when it isn’t horrendously bad that is), but it is far less literary than the old kind. I wait for your comments on PGW with bated breath.
Falstaff: Thank you. I knew I was missing something important. Hannah and her Sisters is definitely one of my absolute favorites. I have watched some of the others you mention, but not all of them. Which is a great thing, because I have much to look forward to.
I can’t help interpreting your comment here through the lens of your post from yesterday. I know exactly what you mean. Sometimes I fear that in imagining or aspiring to be part of Allen’s world, I’m only trapping myself… I’m increasingly unsure if this world I’ve managed to invent for myself (with its own set of wierd rules & goals that have more in common with Allen’s comedies than they do with reality) is all that it’s cracked up to be. Practically everyone I know keeps telling me otherwise - that I don’t live in the real world, that I complicate everything. Yet I only get more stubborn with age in not even wanting to make things simpler for myself - as all those “others” (friends, family, relatives) seem to have so effortlessly accomplished. At the end of the day, I console myself I that at least I stuck to my “principles” (however useless and imaginary they may be)…I don’t think I’m making sense any more, so I’ll stop.
Btw, Take the money & run would fall into the strictly for fans only category.
DoZ / April 6th, 2006, 11:19 am / #
I know it is “to each their own” and all and I even agree with “To call Allen repetitive is to call Wodehouse formulaic… “. But, the difference is the medium they performed in. I’ve not read any of Allen’s works. May be they read better than on screen. But for a movie, my evaluation system is different from that of a book. This differentiation has been done to death, so I’ll refrain from the same.
“…I suppose that makes his characters come across as being a lot more natural… ”
I’ll have to vociferously disagree here! To me, all actors comes across as “imitation” of Allen himself to various degree! Some movies made me feel like I’m watching a Balachander’s TV serial (where you can literally see KB on the actor’s shoulders and going “idha…idha…idhathan edhirpathen”). I don’t think that comes from “less intervention” from the director.
d.n.a. / April 6th, 2006, 11:45 am / #
DoZ,
Annie Hall, Manhattan and Crimes and Misdemeanors and truly sublime, indeed. Yours truly is another who will pick these 3 in particular. (I haven’t seen “Hannah and her sisters” though.)
And as JAP had already said, it should be “Without Feathers”.
Zero / April 7th, 2006, 1:21 am / #
though i havent read or watched any of Woddy Allen’s works, i must say i enjoyed reading ur post immensely and like the saying goes ‘there is alwayz a first time…’ hez big on moi list now
Swathi / April 7th, 2006, 6:30 am / #
Zero: I would very strongly recommend both Hannah & Her Sisters and Deconstructing Harry. As much as I enjoy the others, these are my personal favorites.
Swathi: Thank you. Hope you get to sample Allen’s works soon.
DoZ / April 7th, 2006, 10:34 am / #
This is a really nice article on Woody Allen’s existentialist themes -
God, Suicide and the Meaning of Life
Tarun / April 7th, 2006, 2:07 pm / #
This is my first comment ever. I too love Allen a lot. He shows the complexity in our nature. I just saw ‘Another Woman’ on DVD. Allen only directs the movie. He doesn’t act in it. I had never heard of the movie before, but I really liked it. I would recommend watching it.
purnima / May 5th, 2006, 1:25 pm / #
Purnima, Thanks for the tip. I haven’t watched this movie. That’s the great thing about Allen - so much to catch up on.
DoZ / May 5th, 2006, 4:49 pm / #
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