Woody Allen

Paper Summary:

This paper explains that people think of Woody Allen's roles in his movies as a true extension of himself---a 5'6", 120 pound New York City "nebbish", a Jewish term that is softer than "loser" but refers to someone insignificant. It describes Woody Allen as a cult before his time. The author groups Allen's films into categories such as "City Stories" like "Manhattan" and "Annie Hall", the "Reaching for Effect" films (usually financial disappointments) like "Shadows and Fog" and "A Midsummer Night's Sex Comedy", the "Satires" like "Bananas"and "What's Up, Tiger Lily", the highly persona films like "Manhattan Murder Mystery" and "Stardust Ballroom" and the truly weird unclassifiable movies like "Purple Rose of Cairo" and especially "Zelig". The paper relates that, throughout his films, Allen's leitmotif are insecurity in the midst of plenty, unhappiness within joy, indecisiveness in a time of clear direction and estrangement without really undoing the knot that bind lovers, husbands and wives, or good friends together.

From the Paper:

"The more introspective Allen becomes, whether in the few interviews he gives (often to foreign film buffs, rather than American sycophants), the more one sees that he is serious about comedy, and comedic about serious subjects. It seems easy for someone as both clever and creative (again, the two do not always mesh) to laugh at anything funny. But, Allen is one of those who differentiates between something comedic and something comic: the first is like falling on a banana peel, while the truly comic is seeing someone about to step on that peel. So, Allen is not a slapstick-oriented writer or director."

More papers on Woody Allen:

• Essay # 73394 : "Satire in Woody Allen's Works"
• Film Review # 129148 : "Three Films by Woody Allen"
• Essay # 22666 : "Woody Allen's "Annie Hall"

APA Citation:

MLA Citation: