Woody Allen: Film by Film Thread

Discussion in 'Visual Arts' started by RayS, Aug 29, 2015.

  1. smilin ed

    smilin ed Senior Member

    Location:
    Durham
    Disappointed to read this. I'll watch it, of course, but I was really hoping for something better. I hope it's not his last time in front of the camera. I want him to write something for him, Alan Alda and Tony Roberts. And Dakota Fanning - just to piss off the Guardian journalist above!
     
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  2. smilin ed

    smilin ed Senior Member

    Location:
    Durham
    Watched the first episode. Didn't mind it and it's always good to see Woody.
     
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  3. RayS

    RayS A Little Bit Older and a Little Bit Slower Thread Starter

    Location:
    Out of My Element
    I can see it in lights now: "Didn't Mind It" - New York Times. :)
     
  4. Enjoyibg it 4 /6 so far . But agree it could have been half the length.

    Loved hearing the Jefferson Airplane's Volunteers over the opening credits. Nice change of pace over trad jazz and Dick Hyman.
     
  5. Rfreeman

    Rfreeman Senior Member

    Location:
    Lawrenceville, NJ
    Enjoying it on ep.2. Love seeing Woody and a young Woody surrogate too. Liked the old couple therapy early on.

    "A fugitive just ate my chicken!" :)
     
  6. smilin ed

    smilin ed Senior Member

    Location:
    Durham
    Could be his best review!
     
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  7. RayS

    RayS A Little Bit Older and a Little Bit Slower Thread Starter

    Location:
    Out of My Element
    For anyone with Amazon Prime, apart from "Crisis in Six Scenes" there's a lot of free Woody currently available:

    "Purple Rose of Cairo", "Bananas", "Love and Death", "A Midsummer Night's Sex Comedy", "Everything You Always Wanted to Know About Sex" and "Alice' (bless her heart)
     
  8. Fastnbulbous

    Fastnbulbous Doubleplus Ungood

    Location:
    Washington DC USA
    I watched the first two episodes of Crisis and could take no more. It was a ridiculous premise, which can actually beget great comedy. But it was also excruciatingly boring, the scenes interminable and pointless, and Woody's acting in particular so grating that I couldn't imagine subjecting myself to another four episodes. Miley Cyrus was actually one of the least objectionable things about it.

    There was once a time that Woody was the master of social satire. That time ended a long time ago.
     
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  9. MikeT

    MikeT Prior Forum Cretin and Current Impatient Creep

    Location:
    New Jersey, USA
    Totally Agree. My wife and I watched all 6 episodes just to see how it would end, and it was "torture" just trying to get to the end. I laughed only once, where in a later episode he mentions his blood test right after he had a doctor checkup (you have to hear it in context to understand).

    This new Woody Allen Crisis in six scenes is not only very poor by Woody Allen standards, it is poor regardless of who wrote, directed and acted in it.

    Ironically, my mother, who is a professional actress, was up for one of the book club ladies and would have had a few speaking lines, but after 2 callbacks was beat out by someone else.
     
  10. RayS

    RayS A Little Bit Older and a Little Bit Slower Thread Starter

    Location:
    Out of My Element
    "Crisis" is currently sporting a 17% on Rotten Tomatoes, leaving only "Company Man" (the Douglas McGrath disaster that has Woody in a small part) beneath it on the all-time Woody RT list.
     
  11. The Absent-Minded Flaneur

    The Absent-Minded Flaneur Forum Resident

    Location:
    The EU
    This comment is 11 months late and possibly of interest to nobody but me.

    But re-reading some Dostoevsky this week, I realised that the plot of Crimes and Misdemeanors has a precise source in the Mysterious Visitor section (the end of Book 6) of the Brothers Karamazov.

    A respectable man who is known - like Judah Rosenthal - for his philanthropic work, murders the woman he loves and gets away with it. Nobody suspects that he is the culprit. "And after that, the punishment began": for a while the man's conscience doesn't trouble him, but his remorse (unlike Judah's) grows with time. At last the critical existential moment arrives and he makes a public confession of his deed. Ironically his confession is not believed, but he says, "I feel joy and peace for the first time after so many years. I at once felt paradise in my soul as soon as I had done what I had to do."

    All Woody has to do is invert the whole meaning of the story!
     
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  12. vertigone

    vertigone Forum Resident

    Location:
    NYC
    Just scored quite a deal on ebay. Back in the 1990s, I started collecting Woody Allen movies and had reached almost 20 on VHS before DVD arrived and caused me to give up in frustration. So, I just got this lot of 23 movies on DVD (yes, I know about Blu-ray) for only $25/free shipping! The catch is that they come without their cases/artwork but, hell, I don't really have the space for that bulk anyway. Looking forward to watching some of these for the first time in 15-25 years! Alice is the only one here I've never seen.

    Alice
    Bullets Over Broadway
    Crimes and Misdemeanors
    Curse of the Jade Scorpion
    Deconstructing Harry
    Everyone Says I Love You
    Everything You Always Wanted to Know About Sex But Were Afraid To Ask
    Hannah And Her Sisters
    Hollywood Ending
    Husbands And Wives
    Love And Death
    Manhattan Murder Mystery
    Match Point
    Play It Again Sam
    The Purple Rose Of Cairo
    Radio Days
    Scoop
    Shadows and Fog
    Small Time Crooks
    Stardust Memories
    Sweet And Lowdown
    Take The Money And Run
    Zelig
     
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  13. RayS

    RayS A Little Bit Older and a Little Bit Slower Thread Starter

    Location:
    Out of My Element
    Congrats ... and you've saved the worst for last (IMO). :)
     
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  14. vertigone

    vertigone Forum Resident

    Location:
    NYC
    Haha, yes, I've always avoided it for some reason. I have no excuse anymore. At some point I will watch it, dutifully.
     
  15. RayS

    RayS A Little Bit Older and a Little Bit Slower Thread Starter

    Location:
    Out of My Element
    Watch "Jade Scorpion" or "Hollywood Ending" right before it, and it will SEEM better. :)
     
  16. adm62

    adm62 Senior Member

    Location:
    Ottawa, Canada
    Or Crisis ....
     
  17. sunspot42

    sunspot42 Forum Resident

    Location:
    San Francisco
    Yeah, I took a film studies course in college and we picked apart three films that semester - Citizen Kane (of course), Falling In Love (for the acting - it's otherwise something of a mixed bag) and Annie Hall. It was my first time watching the film, and I saw it forwards and backwards about a dozen times that semester and several times since. It held up to incredible scrutiny but I still love it to pieces - was just asked on Saturday what my favorite comedy is and without hesitation I said Annie Hall. It's brilliant work on several levels.

    Just ran across this thread. I've only seen maybe a dozen of Woody's films in whole or (substantial) part, but the rest have been on my to-do list for years (I'm not the film buff I was 20 years ago). Good to know Amazon Prime is streaming a bunch of them for free.
     
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  18. sunspot42

    sunspot42 Forum Resident

    Location:
    San Francisco
    Rampling is one of the most beautiful actresses of all time, but was perhaps too edgy to become the superstar she should have been.

    She was incredible in Zardoz, effectively stealing the film from Sean Connery in an orange diaper, which was no small achievement.

    (Sara Kestleman was pretty incredible in that one, too - the women definitely out-acted the men in that film.)
     
  19. sunspot42

    sunspot42 Forum Resident

    Location:
    San Francisco
    Adore Radio Days, which I far preferred to the slightly-icky Hannah And Her Sisters, even though the latter is loaded with killer dialog and great performances (even Mia Farrow is alright, and I usually can't stand her). But sign me up for anything nostalgic.

    Manhattan Murder Mystery was also great, although I confess to not remembering much of it. Need to see it again. Bullets I enjoyed at the time too, but not as much, and I can recall even less.

    I thought Midnight In Paris was wonderful. Nothing too deep, but infinitely charming and there was a touch of something more reflective under the surface, enough to keep it from being just so much cotton candy.

    Manhattan is definitely Annie Hall's darker sister. I can't say I liked it as much, but I respect it as a work of art. I thought Mariel Hemingway was incredible in it.
     
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  20. I own and have generally liked all Allen's films up to but not including Alice, apart from September. The weaker films start around 1982 through 84 (the initial films with Farrow) but then things pick up significantly with Purple Rose Of Cairo and Hannah And Her Sisters, Radio Days, Another Woman and the sublime Crimes And Misdemeanours.

    Beyond the 80's I really also like the following:

    Husbands And Wives
    Mighty Aphrodite
    Sweet And Lowdown
    Match Point

    Bullets is okay from the 90's but nothing else from that decade does it for me. I admire more than like the more recent films Vicky Cristina Barcelona, Midnight In Paris, From Rome With Love, Blue Jasmine and Magic In The Moonlight. The rest? Hmmm...........
     
  21. johnnyyen

    johnnyyen Senior Member

    Location:
    Scotland
    Yes, I liked it, but I did feel it was a bit inconsequential, unlike Blue Jasmine, which I thought was essential, and his best film for many years, maybe since Hannah And Her Sisters.

    I must give a shout out for Interiors, one of his greatest achievements, but rarely mentioned.
     
  22. I think I need to revisit Blue Jasmine. It left me cold in the theatre and even on second and third viewings on DVD, whilst I could easily admire Blanchett's performance and the other attributes of the film, I've never "enjoyed" it in the same way as I have many other earlier Allen films. Or am I just looking for an excuse to pick up the BD now it's cheap?
     
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  23. tonyc

    tonyc Forum Resident

    Location:
    United States
    I recorded Cassandra's Dream last night. I remember liking it more than most here upon first viewing. I want to see if I still feel this way. Also, I'm more familiar with Hayley Atwell since last viewing so I will pay more attention to her part in it.

    DirecTV is opening all the movie channels Thanksgiving weekend. There are quite a few other Woody Allen films that will be available for viewing.
     
  24. tonyc

    tonyc Forum Resident

    Location:
    United States
    Well, I liked Cassandra's Dream even more the second time.
     
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  25. RayS

    RayS A Little Bit Older and a Little Bit Slower Thread Starter

    Location:
    Out of My Element
    Yeah, I like "Cassandra's Dream" a lot more than most folks. Perhaps because the complaints about the accents and inaccurate portrayal of working class Brits is mostly lost on me.
     

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