Conversations with Woody by Eric Lax

This is by far the most interesting article on Woody Allen I have read. Eric Lax talks about when he first met Woody Allen, he went to interview him about his new movie Bananas(1971) and Woody was very nervous and hardly answered any of his questions with more than a yes or a no. Eric Lax met with Woody Allen several more times visiting his sets occasionally. Eventually Woody loosened up around Eric and the two became good friends. They would continually have meetings where Eric Lax would tape record their conversations and instead of a simple "yes" Woody Allen would go on long and often hilarious monologues. Eric Lax never got a story run on Woody Allen but the two became good friends. What makes the article so interesting is that Eric Lax talks about and apparently Woody agrees with him that once he got to know him, Woody Allen wasn't as neurotic as his film counterparts. Simply because his life was more dull.

Lax, Eric. "Conversations with Woody" Woody Allen: A Casebook. Ed. Kimball King. New York, New York. Routledge. 2001.

Annie Hall a review by Robert Hatch

The review is quick to point out how Alvy Singer is essentially Woody Allen playing himself, this is something that greatly attributes to the auteur presence in his movies. Robert Hatch praises Annie Hall for its wit and clever way of dealing with relationships along with its breaking of the fourth wall with Woody Allen addressing the audience directly. Although the breaking of the fourth wall is praised here Robert Hatch also is quick to point out that Allen sometimes goes too far or explains a joke too deeply. Specifically the scene at the movie theater with the loud talker in the line where Alvy Singer literally pulls the subject of the discussion into the scene to provide his own words, and the scene where subtitles explain what Alvy and Annie are really thinking during their discussion on the balcony. Robert Hatch thinks that these jokes would of been funnier if they had kept a more subtle nature. I personally disagree and those two scenes in paticular were my favorites in the film. Robert also makes the point that while the ending joke of the movie is funny, it really doesn't make any sense. I would agree with this but neither me nor Robert Hatch seem to be sure if that was the point all along.

Hatch, Robert. "Annie Hall(review)" Perspectives on Woody Allen. Ed. Renee R. Curry. New York, New York. G.K. Hall & Co. Prentice Hall International. 1996

Auteur cinema and the ‘film generation’ in 1970s Hollywood,” by David A. Cook

The article begins with a brief explanation of Auteur theory and talks briefly about how Auteur theory was seemingly built around directors like Orson Welles and Alfred Hitchcock. It then goes into how films like Bonnie and Clyde (1967) and The Graduate (1968) and their inspiration from Cahiers du cinema along with box office success created a new era of film that focused on youth culture. Film changed forever when filmmakers were familiar with the concept of being the auteur and had grown up around film and television. The article also briefly talks about Orson Welle not writing his own films but never really goes into the subject. The article primarily focuses on how mainstream studios essentially tried to profit off of this revolution in cinema by copying formulas used in movies like The Graduate to appeal to the youth demographic. Then the article largely seems to forget about this point for several pages and focuses on several directors: Francis Ford Coppola, George Lucas, Steven Spielberg, Martin Scorcese, Brian De Palma, John Milius, and Paul Schrader.

The article makes various points about each director, be it Coppola falling victim to mainstream Hollywood and largely losing his label as an auteur or George Lucas's status as an auteur even though he has only directed three films. Then all of the sudden the article takes a turn back to one of its original points about films becoming too commercial. How artistic vision is lost in trying to fit to MPAA standards and how thanks to films like Star Wars merchandising has become more important than the film itself to studios. The article even goes as far to say videos ruin artistic vision for a disjointed seemingly random, angry conclusion about how art and auterism is seemingly lost. The article is much too disjointed in mood and whatever point it seems to want to prove, it ultimately fails.

Cook, David. "The 'Film Generation' in 1970s Hollywood". The New American Cinema. Ed. Jon Lewis. Durham and London. Duke University Press. 1998

The first half of Manhattan or how I respect football as a sport but hate how lives revolve around it.

I woke up this lovely saturday knowing there was not a chance in the world I was going to finish all 3 of my films before I left on sunday morning. But I didn't expect to not even finish one of my films. Packing and clothes hunting took up the majority of my morning, thought I was able to use part of that morning to watch the first 45 minutes of Woody Allen's film Manhattan. Right off the bat I noticed how good the score was and how the opening narration of the story was really cool. I didn't really enjoy all the pompous dialouge that seemed to know how full of crap it was. But the movie was so far enjoyable even though I couldn't take my mind off the irony of Woody dating a 17 year old in a film. After the first 45 minutes or so I had to take a break to do some more packing. Around Noon my Ipod died and this made me very angry. My grandmother came over to help me pack and after thinking of something to do about this I went out to get some extra clothes for the trip (can't get enough non-jean pants). While out I bought a cool little guitar simulator for my Nintendo DS entitled Jam sessions. Around 5:00 I went out to eat at Locos(love that grilled cajun shrimp). Now on my way home I am already packed, So I am expecting to get home, casually sit down and watch the rest of Manhattan. Errh, Wrong. This next part is my own fault, I had forgotten Smashing Pumpkins tickets went on sale today. SO I promply bought 4 (section NN :/. It could be worse) This takes about 30 minutes due to some computer trouble. By now my mother is home from my sisters wedding shower (which had a Georgia Bulldogs theme by the way). Just in time for the game! Wait...the game? I have to watch Manhattan! "Its Homework!" I cry. "watch it on the computer" she retorts. "But the computer is slow and I would really rather watch it in here, Football is the same quality anywhere, films are different." I whine. (In saddened tone) "Fine.." So now I go upstairs and ask Tina Jones some questions about what she is brining on the college trip. I come back, TV is still on, Georgia and Alabama are tied. I care enough about football to pay attention to UGA, it is of course our hometown staple. But damn if football doesn't interefere with a lot of my life. My sister and her fiance recieved a Bulldog Honey Moonpack for their shower by the way. Best wishes to them.

In conclusion, I now know why they don't play football in the streets of Manhattan.

Introduction to Theories of Authorship edited by John Caughie

This introduction begins with a quote from Alexandre Astruc from 1948. He speaks of a director expressing his thought onto the film. He calls this "Camera-stylo". The introduction states that while camera-stylo didn't take off its idea of associating film as artistic self expression became an important part of auteur theory. The main point that the introduction makes is that Auterism in itself was not proposed as a theory and more of a policy. Usually when someone is looked at as an auteur its an intentional effect. The director takes on a certain attitude as an auteur. While the film critics recognize film as art at its level between reality and fiction. It takes more to recognize the director as an artist. This is why we need auteur theory, to express that the direcot is indeed an author and an artist.

Possible Signatures in Sleeper and Annie Hall

- Both films use the same style title cards
- Woody Allen plays a neurotic fast talking character in both films
- Each film has several small rants on current culture
- *exclusive to Annie Hall* A shot with dialouge over it, but at first we can't see the characters. Eventually the characters walk into frame and once they catch up to the camera, it begins to follow them.

This is all I could find for now, but I am sure Manhattan will serve to find much more results. Because Sleeper and Annie Hall were actually very different in retrospect.

Falling In Love with Annie Hall

On the back of the DVD case for Annie Hall it states that the film "Established Allen as the premier auteur filmmaker." I haven't seen enough of Allen's films to truly judge that quote. But I can say that Annie Hall is a masterful, innovative, and funny film. Woody Allen once again co-writes, directs, and stars in Annie Hall. In the film he plays Alvy Singer a kind of famous comedian who is in a continuing relationship with part time night club singer Annie Hall(Diane Keaton). The film isn't structured normally. It often jumps around in its timeframe and mainly consists of two or more scenes in different time frames mixed with eachother for comedic effect. The two biggest stylistic choices in the film that I loved and were very innovative for their time were:

1. Breaking the fourth wall: Several times Alvy looks directly into the camera and addresses the audience.

2. Incorporation of Flashbacks. When the film often flashbacks it has the characters from the present actually interact with the flashbacks directly and they have discussions with eachother as the flashback goes on

Many films use this technique and without Annie Hall we wouldn't see films like Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind or Ferris Bueller's Day Off. Besides the technique in the film, we also get to see how well Woody writes dialouge. Everything sounds realistic and flows very well. Diane Keaton is excellent and has a great singing voice. Everything about Annie Hall was enjoyable, be its dialouge, acting, or distinctive style. It deserved every Oscar it won(Best Picture, Best Director, Best Original Screenplay, and Best Actress) and changed the film industry forever. I love Annie Hall

Scanning Sleeper

Woody Allen co-writes, co-scores, directs, and stars in the 1973 science fiction comedy Sleeper. Sleeper is about a man named Miles Monroe(Woody Allen) a neurotic health food store owner who goes into a comatose state after a small ulcer surgery in 1973. He was then put into a cryogenic state for 200 years, he awakes in the year 2173 only to discover the world is run by an oppressive dictator and he has involuntarily become a fugitive associated with an anti-government group known only as "The underground". After a raid on some of the underground Miles barely escapes and ends up disguising himself as a helper robot. This is where he meets the dimwitted poet Luna Schlosser (Diane Keaton). They go on the run together and after Miles is captured by the security police its up to Luna to free him from their mind control so they can bring down the evil dictator for the underground.

I was surprised by the style of Sleeper. The only way I can describe the films style is...a mix between Woody Allen's neurotic rants on 70's culture and a jazz tribute to silent physical comedy films with a little bit of Buster Keaton influence mixed in. The mix of these elements provides for an entertaining film and showed off a side of Woody Allen I had never seen before with his physical comedy. The film mainly focuses on a lot of cultural references to the 70's and Woody going on long often uninteruped rants about about the reference usually relating it to his childhood. The best part about this is that all of his rants seemingly fall on deaf ears. Everyone in the future has no idea what he is talking about, they give him blank stares as he just goes on and on. He seems to only be doing it to amuse himself since no one of real intelligence seems to be around.

Sleeper is a very funny movie with a lot of clever ideas. I would probably enjoy it more if I had more than just general knowledge about 70's culture. There is a paticular scene where Miles is being shown "artifacts" people from the future have collected. Except for some obvious pictures I didn't really know a lot of the people or things he was ranting about, stuff like this is a focal point of the movie and there are many similar scenes to this one that left me in the dark. This was not a problem, because like I said ridiculous physical comedy is present throughout the film. All in all Woody Allen works with his low budget very well and presents a funny satirical work in an inevitable future full of idiots.

Woody Picks

Sleeper (1973)
Annie Hall (1977)
Manhattan (1979)
Mighty Aphrodite (1995)
Match Point (2005)


I feel that this list encompasses what people consider the best work of Woody Allen and also has enough range to provide a wide(enough) spectrum for me to do apply Auteur theory to a really large and extensive body of work. Although the majority of the choices are from the same period, all of those choices are referred to as his best films. So I find it neccessary to focus on the peak of his career but also not completely leave out his more modern work.

*drum roll*

Woody Allen

Woody Allen is one of the most respected directors of the 20th century. With a large array of films most starring the man himself, he has become a household name among the film industry. With 43 films under his belt Woody Allen's style and persona has become a golden standard among films. Although some controversy(marrying his adopted daughter) has caused a falter in his recent popularity. His impact on comedy and the film industry is undeniable.

I think Woody Allen would be a good example of an auteur in the way that his actualy personality comes to life on the screen. He is known for being a very nervous and neurotic guy, his films are played out this way(often with him as starring as the most neurotic character) and I want to see how this applies into auteur theory. The results should be interesting.