Woody Allen: Film by Film Thread

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

  1. RayS

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

    Location:
    Out of My Element
    I agree with your point that it was difficult to accept Jesse's character's sudden evolution to the night club host who excels at schmoozing the guests. Kristen Stewart's character's transformation reminded me (in a positive way) of the reappearance of Mia Farrow's character at the wedding in "Crimes and Misdemeanors". She wasn't everything her would-be lover had envisioned her to be (or perhaps idolized her to be). That's my favorite scene in the film - but Woody quickly backs off that (to me, more interesting) path. I didn't even consider the film ending any other way than how it did - perhaps a lack of creative thought on my part. On the "Invested in the Romantic Story" Woody continuum, where the "This relationship is so improbable, who cares" cases ("Curse of the Jade Scorpion", "Magic in the Moonlight") sit at one end and total investment sits on the other ("Annie Hall", "Manhattan"), I place "Cafe Society" in the middle. As with you, I did like the question that the end of the film leaves one with.
     
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  2. tonyc

    tonyc Forum Resident

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    United States
    I noticed this early in the film and it really bothered me. But, either I got used to it or he sounded much better by the end of the film. Anyway, it did make me think that maybe Woody is in poorer health than we are led to believe and his days of actually appearing in one of his films are behind him.
     
  3. tonyc

    tonyc Forum Resident

    Location:
    United States
    When I watched "Irrational Man", I thought it was a movie that probably could have been made in a week if everyone worked 24 hours straight.

    On the other hand, "Café Society" seems extremely complicated. I'm thinking computer animation may have been used for some of the scenes. Nonetheless, this one impresses me simply from the standpoint of getting it done in time for his one movie per year contract.

    I wonder if any of his other films ever had difficulty of being completed in the time frame allotted?
     
  4. mrjinks

    mrjinks Optimistically Challenged

    Location:
    Boise, ID.
    I've read here and there that Woody went atypically way over budget with Cafe Society - something like $10 million. That doesn't happen very often.
     
  5. RayS

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

    Location:
    Out of My Element
    "Zelig" went famously well, well past the time allotted for completion because of the technical aspects.
     
  6. RayS

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

    Location:
    Out of My Element
    Yes, it looks like some money was spent on this film. And period pieces tend to be more expensive to begin with (Wasn't "Jade Scorpion" the most expensive movie he ever made for that reason?)
     
  7. Jason Pumphrey

    Jason Pumphrey Forum Resident

    Is Woody still using mono sound for his films?
     
  8. RayS

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

    Location:
    Out of My Element
    In the theater where I saw it "Cafe Society" was in Dolby 1.0.
     
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  9. tonyc

    tonyc Forum Resident

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    United States
  10. Jason Pumphrey

    Jason Pumphrey Forum Resident

    nice, sure he uses the same white text for the credits/titles as well.
     
  11. RayS

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

    Location:
    Out of My Element
    I will say it was exceptionally weird to see "Amazon Studios" in THE font.
     
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  12. RayS

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

    Location:
    Out of My Element
    Wow, what a gush. And a great reminder of why I never read reviews before I see movies (could he give away MORE of the plot in his summary-- I mean "review"?)
     
  13. tonyc

    tonyc Forum Resident

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    United States
    Don't you wish we saw the same movie he did? :)
     
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  14. mrjinks

    mrjinks Optimistically Challenged

    Location:
    Boise, ID.
    Yeah, Woody's last self-written role (To Rome With Love) was awful and I feared that it might be his last onscreen appearance in one of his films. The clip from the amazon show has already provided me with more laughs than that entire film, so I'm cautiously elevating my hopes for the series. The question is, what kind of discipline will I have in watching six 30-minute episodes? Should I savor them one per week for six weeks? One a night for a week? Binge the whole damned thing on a day off work? I'd like to choose the first option, but don't know if I can keep myself to that standard. Given Woody's comments about how difficult this project was for him, I highly doubt we'll get another series from him in the future.
     
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  15. I loved Cafe immensely
     
  16. tonyc

    tonyc Forum Resident

    Location:
    United States
    I liked it, too. Not to the degree of the review I posted which was the purpose of my comment. I thought the point of this thread was a more nuanced discussion?
     
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  17. Squealy

    Squealy Forum Hall Of Fame

    Location:
    Vancouver
    I just kept thinking all the way through, why doesn't he punch the dialogue up with some jokes, for God's sake? He's a comedy writer! (A sadistic comedy writer?) He seems to believe that if he puts anything remotely funny into a movie, no one will pay any attention to whatever serious theme he's trying to explore (or rehash) -- he still doesn't understand after 40 years that he would be better off illuminating his ideas with humour than by having characters earnestly discussing their feelings and spelling out the movie's message with voiceover.

    He's got Steve Carell in the movie playing an egotistical, lovestruck movie executive, and he doesn't get anything funny out of that. He casts Jesse Eisenberg, the actor he's needed for 20 years to be his onscreen surrogate, and doesn't give him a Woody-esque character to play (for the second time). There's almost a perversity to it. It was light, romantic material, there was no reason it couldn't have been played more humorously.
     
    Last edited: Aug 11, 2016
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  18. RayS

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

    Location:
    Out of My Element
    Yes, the clip left me with some promise that this will be entertaining.

    I am fairly certain I will go with the Friday night binge. I mean it's barely longer than watching a movie.
     
  19. RayS

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

    Location:
    Out of My Element
    Rex Reed's notion of the film being exceptionally funny left me perplexed.

    I wouldn't mind the voiceovers if they somehow drove the plot or at least were vaguely entertaining on their own. The voiceovers in "Radio Days" are great, and the iconic monologues in "Annie Hall" deserve the praise they get. For the last number of films the voiceovers are almost an insult to the viewers' collective intelligence (particularly in "VCB", where the voiceover describes what the audience can easily see and conclude).
     
  20. cgw

    cgw Forum Resident

    Location:
    Upstate NY
    The first thing I showed my son when he took up the cello.
    Signed, Mr. late -to-the-party
     
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  21. modrevolve

    modrevolve Forum Resident

    These boxsets look to mimic the DVD versions of the MGM boxes. So my guess is we are to expect

    Box 2
    Manhattan
    Stardust Memories
    A Mid Summer Night's Sex Comedy
    Zelig
    Broadway Danny Rose
    The Purple Rose of Cairo

    Box 3
    Hannah and Her Sisters
    Radio Days
    September
    Another Woman
    Crimes and Misdemeanors
    Alice
    Shadows and Fog

    Hannah and Her Sisters could be moved to box two depending on how they split these
    Sad I spent so much money on those TT releases [​IMG]

    [​IMG] [​IMG]
     
  22. Rfreeman

    Rfreeman Senior Member

    Location:
    Lawrenceville, NJ
    Saw Sausage Party animated film last night. It had some clever ideas but taken as a whole was pretty terrible. Maybe enough good material for a 22 minute TV show stretched out to feature length.

    But it has a character called Sammy Bagel Jr whose voice basically is Woody Allen, but more like the 70s version of him. This character was very entertaining, though probably not enough to be worth paying $14 to sit through the rest.

    I was wondering throughout the film if the character was actually voiced by Woody, as it was so spot on. I figured it was not as (a) that likely would have been promoted and come to my attention, and (b) it sounded more like younger Woody than old man Woody. And it was not, it was Ed Norton. But he did a damn good job of it and I was unsure until the reveal at the end.

    Interesting that they actually ID'd Norton as the actor in the film itself, not waiting for the credits. I figure they did that to avoid the likelihood of confusion as a defense against any potential claim Woody might make thst this infringed his right of publicity by misappropriating his persona, mannerisms, and voice.

    I used to do prerelease legal review of satirical material and could easily have suggested a defensive move like this to a client - who would have likely told me to go jump in a lake as parody if protected speech. But clearly here the studio wanted an additional defense as you can never be really sure how a court will handle a parody defense in any given situation.
     
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  23. RayS

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

    Location:
    Out of My Element
    [​IMG]

    I finished this one today and have to echo Mr. J's recommendation. Lax comes across as an extremely knowledgeable and sympathetic interviewer who clearly has Woody's ear and trust.

    Most interesting thing I learned - that there were massive reshoots on "Crimes and Misdemeanors", and the original "film within the film" was about an investigation of elderly communities, not about Lester. And that the terrific ending where the two primary characters finally interact was not in the original script (Woody instead had scenes with Sean Young, whose part, obviously, was cut entirely from the finished film).
     
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  24. mrjinks

    mrjinks Optimistically Challenged

    Location:
    Boise, ID.
  25. RayS

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

    Location:
    Out of My Element

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