How to celebrate such a long career, characterized by the
plurality of talents, from its origin as a stand-up comedian to a respected
filmmaker, when the protagonist has always been so aware of the existence of
this veil of falsehood that wears the praise and awards? The man who, at the
beginning of his career, dared to deny the embrace of the expectations of his
audience, delivering the austere "Interiors", when everyone expected
another light comedy. The fearless one that made "Stardust Memories",
a risky thematic proposal that made several critics write that this would be
his last project. And recently, demonstrating a fascinating lucidity, he
deconstructed the nostalgic sense that embellishes everything it touches, in
"Midnight in Paris." This brave artist who annually ignores the
producers adulation, refusing Oscar spotlight to play jazz with his friends.
The elegant rebel who, without bending to any interest of the masses, anually has
all the great actors and actresses, medallions of several generations,
anxiously waiting for the chance to receive their timid instructions on the
film sets. Woody has become a label, being contested by nations that want to
pay him to enclose its characters in their territories. Impressive five decades
of rare qualitative constancy, tracing an alternative path paved by the dreams
of the boy of yesteryear, Allan Stewart Konigsberg, who at first thought he
could get some money writing humorous articles for the vehicles of the region.
This is a complete list of his films as a director, ranked
from worst to best.
48 - What's up, Tiger Lily? (1966)
Allen already demonstrates in his first work his tremendous sense
of humour daring to take a Japanese satire of the espionage films, in ascension
in the time, thanks to the James Bond of Sean Connery, and dub it. Soon in the
first scenes we see the director sitting in a respectable office, explaining
that he had been summoned by Hollywood to make the definitive espionage film.
When asked about the novelty of such a feat, he replies that it had already
happened other times, as in "Gone With the Wind." It takes three
minutes for the young filmmaker to show off his talent. Nowadays it is common
to see this artifice being used in films such as the horrible
"Kung-Pow", but he was the pioneer of this extremely dubious art.
47 - Oedipus Wrecks (segment of "New York Stories"
– 1989)
Driven by the lightness of the anthology format, Woody
exercises with great freshness his comedic talent. And undoubtedly, his half-length
is responsible for "New York Stories" still be remembered nowadays.
The efforts of Coppola and Scorsese are, at best, harmless. After a total
immersion in the existentialist dramas of "September" and "Another
Woman," the director revisits his more fun side, mixing themes already
worked on texts and inserting glimpses of situations that he would perfect in
his productions of the 2000’s, as in "Scoop", where a magic trick is
used as a narrative trigger.
The scene where Allen, initially disturbed by his mother
(Mae Questel, unbelievably looking just like the director's mother) being
summoned to aid in the magician's trick, can not hide the joy at seeing the
professional shoving several swords into the box where she went placed. Her
dissatisfaction with Mia Farrow's son's fiancée is the supernatural motive that
keeps her as an entity in New York's heavens. Only when he rediscovers an old
love, the fortune-teller/clairvoyant lived by the brilliant comedian Julie
Kavner, the poor mother, showing her approval, returns to her normal state.
Sheldon is not interested in understanding how the phenomenon occurred, he is
more interested in resolving his relationship with her. The inexplicable,
recurring theme in his films, again used as an unquestionably absurd and
foolish means, however, acceptable to achieve a greater good.
46 - Hollywood Ending (2002)
The idea of a film director who goes blind and needs to
pretend to see to keep working is funny in theory but does not support a
feature film script. Could have been a brilliant short, but it’s charming
nonetheless.
45 - Magic in the Moonlight (2014)
Some interesting reflections on skepticism, but Allen has
already proven to be capable of much better texts in the theme. Beautiful art
direction, competent cast performances, but tiresome and predictable.
44 - You Will Meet a Tall Dark Stranger (2010)
The bitter irony of the realistic ending is what redeems a boring
script that unfortunately can not make his characters sound interesting.
43 - To Rome, With Love (2012)
The story about the newlyweds was clearly inspired by
Fellini's "The White Sheik", the libertarian tone sounds quite
artificial, but the film comes into force when Allen is on the scene.
42 - A Midsummer Night's Sex Comedy (1982)
The script was conceived in just two weeks, commissioned by
the studio to "plug the hole" that would be caused by the delay in
production of "Zelig". The rush is easily noticeable in the finished
work (poorly developed characters such as the doctor who is shown as a person centered
but who tries to commit suicide by not having the love of a woman whom he has
just met), although he has some very scenes good, the whole is pretty bumpy.
Woody's weakest film up to that point. Seeking inspiration from his idol Ingmar
Bergman (specifically “Smiles of a Summer Night” - 1955), the screenplay
explores the flirtation game between three couples who gather in an idyllic
location to celebrate the wedding of one of them. It was the first project that
counted on Mia Farrow, in a long partnership that would yield great artistic
fruits and a huge problem in the justice.
Among the high points, I highlight Adrian's libido romper
with her husband, after receiving the spiced Dulcy, some sex tips (Allen:
"We can not have sex where we feed, besides, there's a man chanting the
"Lords Prayer" in the room, we will be blind"). To simplify his
opinion about the importance of sexual relations, Allen's character states:
"Sex relieves tension, while love causes tension." After the elegant
Leopold tells of her wild erotic dream with Dulcy, she is frightened and asks
him, "Jesus, what did you eat before you went to sleep?" They are
small moments where we can realize that, even creating something in a hurried
way, Woody Allen manages to make an above-average film.
41 - Irrational Man (2015)
Sinning for high philosophical pretension, the script gets
lost in act two, but the inspired presence of Joaquin Phoenix helps keep the
hope to the schoking end.
40 - Cassandra's Dream (2007)
An excellent ending in search of a plot that honors it. The
choice for the style and rhythm of contemporary thrillers highlights Allen's
discomfort with the material, but the excellence of the duo Ewan McGregor and
Colin Farrell make up for it.
39 – Alice (1990)
Alice (Mia Farrow) is a middle-class woman who feels bored
by her 16-year marriage and falls in love with an elegant saxophonist. In
search of happiness, she meets the acupuncturist Dr. Yang. The doctor realizes
that Alice's problem is in her mind and decides to prescribe strange and
mysterious herbs that provoke unusual reactions. The delirious and bittersweet
style that married perfectly in the wonderful “The Purple Rose of Cairo” leaves
to be desired here.
38 - Don't Drink The Water (1994)
In the early 1960s during the Cold War, the Hollander family
caused an international incident when Walter (Allen) took pictures of the
sunset in a region of delicate political situation. In order not to stop in
prison, the Hollanders take refuge in the American embassy. This film made for
television adapts one of his most famous plays, one of his funniest texts, involving
political and religious criticism.
37 - Everything You Always Wanted to Know About Sex...
(1972)
Similar to what happened with his first work "What's
Up, Tiger Lily?", Allen did not intend to approach this concept. United
Artists bought the rights to the eponymous book, written in 1969 by the popular
Dr. David Reuben. Woody was disgusted when Reuben went to the traditional
"Tonight Show" and quoted one of his comic phrases, without telling
the source. The young filmmaker then used all his comic verve and adapted the
book in the best possible way, highlighting the most absurd aspects in a comedy
of sketches.
Among its seven segments, there are two that I consider to
be masterpieces in the director's career: "What is sodomy?" And
"What happens during ejaculation?", they show a fully-fledged
screenwriter, seeking to subjugate the limits and surpass them. In the first,
Gene Wilder lives a doctor who falls in love with a sheep. The brilliance lies
in the fact that Wilder acts seriously, as if he were a character out of Ian
McEwan's novels. In the second, Allen interprets a sperm that undergoes an
existential crisis, just minutes before its great moment. Nuff said. The other
segments are fun but not very memorable.
36 - Small Time Crooks (2000)
Ray (Allen) is a dishwasher who has a great plan: rent a
shop next to the bank and use it as a front to build an underground tunnel to rob
it. The concept is simple as in the first comedies of his career, a kind of
gift for those fans who missed his most clumsy persona.
35 – Celebrity (1998)
Acid critic that disrupts the falsehood of the high society
lifestyle, the absurdity of projecting on the fragile fame industry the
insecurity that the individual feels, with the script evoking the best works of
Fellini.
34 - Everyone Says I Love You (1996)
The musical attempt is enchanting, with a brief and tender
moment when the character of Allen yields to the inspiring power of fantasy as
he sings the beloved Jazz standard “I'm Thru With Love”.
33 – September (1987)
Repressed love and hate circle threatens seemingly friendly
relationships over a weekend of a family/friends group at a country house. The
film that Allen remade from scratch, with another cast, had everything to be
chaos, but seen without unjust expectations can propose interesting reflections
that magnify the result. "Everything is random. With random origin in
nothingness and eventually disappearing forever. "
32 - Café Society (2016)
He embraces digital footage for the first time, but
continues marching in the rhythm of his own creative drums, the script touches
on essential themes in his filmography such as the existentialist discussion
about death, the irony of unrequited love and the acid deconstruction of
melancholy nostalgic, with the same vitality of his first works. In this
context, the beautiful tribute he lends to the most famous scene of his career,
the Queensboro Bridge of “Manhattan”, takes on even more symbolic contours. And
even the off-the-hook narration, a worn-out and usually harmful feature,
enhances the viewer's emotional investment by being championed by the
director's sympathetic voice.
31 - The Curse of The Jade Scorpion (2001)
Allen performs a lovely parody of the noir genre, set in the
forties, terribly attacked by critics at the time, but which, carefully
analyzed, proves to be superior to almost every comedy the industry releases on
a monthly basis, even nowadays.
30 – Scoop (2006)
The construction of the characters arcs is great and the
magician interpreted by the director, even though it is not very necessary in
the film, end up giving that charming tone which improves greatly on revisions.
29 - Shadows and Fog (1991)
Allen, with one of the best casts he has ever been able to
gather, pays a honest homage to German expressionism in the story of a fumbling
bureaucrat joining a group of men pursuing a murderer.
28 - Melinda and Melinda (2004)
The structure of the story, from two points of view, tragedy
and comedy, could be tiresome in less capable hands, but Allen injects
undeniable freshness into the project.
27 - Whatever Works (2009)
A film with the characteristic existentialist humor of
Allen, where a genius Larry David criticizes the dogmas of our society. To the
characters, it remains only to watch in shock their theories of life, their
certainties, fall miserably to the ground.
26 - Vicky Cristina Barcelona (2008)
Two young women, the conservative Vicky (Rebecca Hall) and
the adventurous Cristina (Scarlett Johansson), travel to Barcelona to spend
their summer holidays and end up engaging in amorous confusions with an
extravagant artist and her insane ex-wife. Something in the tone and rhythm of
this film, more than any element of the script, makes us end up wanting to
review soon, a kind of a magical aura which permeates the work.
25 – Bananas (1971)
Woody Allen's style was still shaping, but all his
courageous irony, as well as his authorial confidence, are already visible in
this work, which can be exemplified by the references that are made, such as
that of the Odessa staircase in "Battleship Potemkin".
24 - Mighty Aphrodite (1995)
Allen uses a classical greek theatre chorus in a very clever
way, with the presence of F. Murray Abraham to help count ellipses of the
narrative while satirising the tragical content of the story. A couple adopts a
boy and the adoptive father (Woody) decides to know who is the biological
mother of its son. He discovers that she is a prostitute, lived by Mira
Sorvino.
23 - Blue Jasmine (2013)
Since “Hannah and Her Sisters”, Woody did not make up a
female character with such passion for detail, without embracing the
ever-comical cartoon of extremes. Completely attuned to the world today, the
script establishes a jovial and biting social satire approaching class
distinctiveness in a post-economic crisis landscape. Allen consciously
abdicates some of his narrative features, such as his devotion to sentimentality,
for the sake of building bolder dialogues that do not spare his characters in
any moment. Generosity with his creations has never been the stronghold of the
director, but ideological sadism this time resembles at various points the way
the writer Tennessee Williams chose to address his plot. There is something of
R.W. Fassbinder, in the way he works the protagonist's tragedy. He plays with
our perceptions the moment we begin to convince ourselves of how the character
will act, which leads us to automatically exercise a moral judgment. The script
then hits us with a punch, by making us realize that we are as (or more)
vulnerable as the potential target of our stones. After all, we witness the
various "Jasmines" that exist in our society, aspiring only to
"have" (adding value to futility), living from a languid illusion
that corrupts the best human virtues.
22 – Sleeper (1973)
Miles Monroe is admitted to a hospital for a simple
operation but ends up waking up two hundred years later in a world inspired by
the works of H.G. Wells, Ray Bradbury and George Orwell. The director even
talked to science fiction master Isaac Asimov, assessing how to approach this
dystopian world of the future. Of course this chat must have made much more
laughter than real discussions about the topic, since the project proposal was
never to deal seriously about the future. Allen was beginning to show a
grittier mood, with more elaborate gags.
21 - Anything Else (2003)
In Jason Biggs, Allen's bold option, we find the young version
of the type that the filmmaker defended for most of his career. The script
builds a humorous philosophical tangle from a simple-minded situation that
happens on a taxi ride.
20 - Radio Days (1987)
At the beginning of World War II in New York, a simple
Jewish family has their dreams inspired by the radio programs of the time. The
film mingles the nostalgic vision of a narrator to the innocence of his
childhood. The radio, the union factor of the family, revealed behind the sound
waves.
19 - Stardust Memories (1980)
In the film, Allen explores one of the consequential aspects
of fame, the gathering of an entourage of admirers, some even fanatics, who
seek in the director a satisfaction of their personal desires. His character
seeks out a new path, an artistic challenge, experimenting in different genres,
but his audience quizzes him debauchedly and rejects him. Surely it is a response
of the filmmaker after the cold reception of the public with his project of
dreams: "Interiors." His fans are portrayed by the ugliest extras and
caricatures already assembled in a single project. They constantly approach him
with absurd arguments, analyze his works out of context and interpret them in
the most misguided way ("the humorist is a symbol for homosexuality"),
interrupting him in routine situations to apply for a job. Even beings from
space descend from their ships to assert to him that they prefer their early
comedic films.
18 – Interiors (1978)
The commercial success of the previous film only
established, more so, in the director's mind, the desire to demonstrate to be
able to emulate his idol: Ingmar Bergman. He always underestimated the value of
his own works, comparing them with the works that were performed by other, more
engaged directors of the day, without realizing that laughter is a more
forceful criticism than austerity. The fact is that the film deals with a very
strong theme, without ever appealing to the necessary subterfuge of comic
relief, making everything very reflective and austere.
17 - Manhattan Murder Mystery (1993)
How fascinating to realize the irresistible chemistry
between Woody Allen and Diane Keaton, one of the best movie partners. The humor
that sprouts in pieces subtly inserted between dialogues, a constant game of
scene between two artists that make clear the love and respect they feel for
each other. After a long hiatus, symbolized by the erratic Mia Farrow era, the
duo meets in a plot that honors the formula of classic Hollywood detective
thrillers. The director always wanted to approach this universe, so he took a
tense moment in his life to relax in the project, well deserved vacations. This
more unpretentious attitude in filming ends up being positively reflected in
the end result, considered by many to be his funniest film of the decade.
In the most tense scenes, putting into practice the
teachings of Hitchcock, Allen insists on exposing the public to the dangers,
leaving him always ahead of the characters, which enhances the suspense,
balanced with his characteristic sense of humor, element that, in a different
tone, was also present in the films of the British master. I quite like the way
the script instills his wife's obsession as the catalyst for a welcome renewal
in that worn-out relationship. The clumsy investigation connects the couple
again. It is also interesting how the plot, in a layer of interpretation less
apparent, conflicts with the concept of art socially considered as serious and
respectable (the husband does not bear to listen to opera), and popular art,
cinema, specifically the comedic genre, that playfully framed the ending, with
the direct reference to "The Lady from Shanghai" by Orson Welles.
16 - Bullets Over Broadway (1994)
In the 1920s, a theatrical author (John Cusack) was forced
to accept in the cast of the play a young woman (Jennifer Tilly) with no
talent, as she is the girlfriend of the gangster who produces the show. And as
if that were not enough, the bodyguard (Chazz Palminteri) of the young woman
decides to interfere all the time in the script of the play. The script is
excellent, perfectly balancing the love declaration of theater and the criticism
of the lack of freedom in the process of creating a piece of art.
15 - Husbands and Wives (1992)
Gaby (Woody Allen) and Judy (Mia Farrow) are shocked by the
news that Jack (Sydney Pollack) and Sally (Judy Davis), a very close couple of
them, are splitting up, most likely because Gabe and Judy are also distancing
themselves and now realize this. So as Jack and Sally try to meet new people,
Gabe and Judy's marriage turns out to be worn out and they begin to feel
attracted to other people. With a more intimate style of filming, consistent
with the intimate approach to the characters, Allen delivers a brutally real
portrait of a relationship that is going down, sinking into their illusory
perceptions of life.
14 - Sweet and Lowdown (1999)
Allen's homage to Jazz, his favorite style of music, could
not be more passionate, favored by a spectacular, visceral delivery of Sean
Penn, and a documentary structure that is set up by the script, with
"false testimonies", half-cut edition, resulting in a beautiful
delicacy.
13 - Take The Money and Run (1969)
The first ten minutes are great because we get to know the
young man's first steps in crime. Of course, before he tried a simple life,
like a cellist. The problem was to follow the street band, with its instrument
in one hand and, in the other, a chair. There was no way, for the route of
crime seemed to be at its destination. After petty thefts, he was arrested for
the first time. Inspired, he tried to flee using a bar of soap and his craft
expertise. A few days later, with his perfect soap revolver painted with shoe
grease, he ventured to cross the walls that imprisoned him. Bad luck, he did
not notice the torrential storm that punished that place, making, in a few
seconds, to the surprise of the police, his revolver turned a large ball of
foam. Comedy perfection with very low budget.
12 - Another Woman (1988)
In order to write her new book, an intellectual from New
York rents an apartment that has a psychoanalysis office as a neighbor. Through
her apartment you can hear the confessions of the patients, especially of a
pregnant patient, intensifying a dormant existential crisis in her. Allen emulates
John Cassavetes, including working with his muse, Gena Rowlands, with some of
the best dialogues ever written in his career. “And I wondered if a memory
would be something you have or have lost. ”
11 - Deconstructing Harry (1997)
Allen extrapolates the bond between fiction and reality, exploring
the monotony of life in one of the most brilliant films of his career. He acts
as a writer who creates a character in which his analyst tries to show him how
much he wants to control the world through his unfocused view of so many idealizations,
illusions, avoiding to see life as it truly is.
10 - Match Point (2005)
Chris Wilton (Jonathan Rhys-Meyers) is a professional tennis
player who, tired of the travel routine, decides to leave the circuit and
devote himself to teaching sports in an elite club. It is there that he meets
Tom Hewett (Matthew Goode), son of a wealthy family who soon becomes his friend
due to some interests in common. Invited to go to the opera, Chris meets Chloe
(Emily Mortimer), Tom's sister. Soon the two begin a relationship, to the joy
of her parents. Chris is shaken when he meets Nola Rice (Scarlett Johansson),
Tom's beautiful girlfriend who is not well accepted by his mother. Surprising
the world, Allen has renewed his art with the courage of a young man who is
trying to steady his name in the industry.
9 - The Purple Rose of Cairo (1985)
Inspired by Buster Keaton's "Sherlock Jr.", Woody
creates one of the most beloved unanimity of his career, impossible not to be
enchanted by the plot of this film. The trajectory of the protagonist
symbolizes the importance of art as a driving force to resist the sufferings
inherent to the human condition, something that the director himself would
rework in a beautiful sequence of "Hannah and Her Sisters. The waitress lived
by Mia Farrow, fragile figure, can not see herself in the reflection of the
mirror, without self-love, with her self-confidence destroyed after years of a relationship
with a typical coarse macho type. With no prospect of improvement in her living
condition, following the decrepitude of her devastated city by the Great
Depression, she decides to spend most of her free time inside the movie
theater, absorbing all the magic of that environment. The concept is simple,
the photography of master Gordon Willis, in his last partnership with Allen,
shows the fable elements of the plot, reserving for the internal cinema
environment a warmly ethereal glow, contrasting with the faded tones of the sad
world that the young woman finds when the lights turn on.
8 - Love and Death (1975)
In this comedy he explores the limits of his comfort zone,
using bold references to the literary work of Dostoievsky and Tolstoy (it is
worth remembering that in his earlier works he had been more protective of the slapstick
and popular humor), his fascination with his idol Ingmar Bergman (notice how he
films a Russian speaking directly to the camera), and a direct homage to his
favorite film, "The Seventh Seal." The greatness of the production
impresses and the director shows total confidence in his technique. Diane
Keaton again fills the screen with her charisma and beauty, living the
protagonist's cousin. Passionate about the complexity of the young woman, who
espouses very witty dialogues in her existentialism, a new element in the
director's work that would become a pattern, she is frustrated to realize that
she does not see him with the same eyes of overwhelming desire. The script
demolishes that austere seriousness that is usually present when discussing these
themes.
7 - Crimes and Misdemeanors (1989)
A New York doctor (Martin Landau) tries desperately to cover
up his wife for his life of betrayals. A documentary filmmaker (Woody) fights
temptation while producing his new film. The director examines the human soul
with disconcerting dialogues and strong inspiration in Dostoievski, working on
two stories of adultery. Years later he would return to a similar theme in
“Match Point”.
6 - Annie Hall (1977)
The most popular work of the director, laureate with the
main Oscar of the Academy, besides just acknowledgments to the performance of
Diane Keaton and the direction of Allen. The apex in the early part of his
career, which would begin the following year to take bolder paths. The more
sober style already shows the change of attitude soon in the initial credits,
title in white Windsor source, contrasting with the black background, adopting
the format that would accompany it for the following decades. After playing
with the future and the past of society, subverting as a caricature, Woody, for
the first time, appears as a character with which the public can identify.
There is a lot of himself in the script, making it even more interesting to
follow his stories about his childhood, especially the great sequence in which
his classmates reveal what they will become as adults, instituting a simple and
very efficient analogy: the house in which he grew up to the sound of the
fights of the parents, under a roller coaster.
5 - Midnight in Paris (2011)
Woody, demonstrating a fascinating lucidity, deconstructed
the nostalgic sense that embellishes everything it touches, evoking elements of
science fiction, with a charming tenderness that evokes "The Purple Rose
of Cairo." In choosing to make the journey in time performed by the
protagonist represent the realization that the past, however fascinating, was
not as perfect as he had idealized, the script highlights the importance of the
individual to seek full satisfaction in their own reality. A very mature and exciting
vision of a filmmaker who refuses to embrace creative conformism.
4 - Broadway Danny Rose (1984)
The film enchants mainly by the tenderness with which Allen
portrays the characters. The protagonist is revealed to us through a relaxed
chat, at a restaurant table, among comedians, lovingly remembering this talent
agent who truly bet on his artists, no matter how simplistic they appear to be,
of men who shaped dogs with balloons, even amateur magicians and one-armed
jugglers. He valued more the human element, the possibility of, overnight, a
stranger becoming famous for his Art, overcoming its limitations. Danny Rose
does not fully believe in the quality of the numbers of his agents, this is
what matters least, he genuinely has created a bond of friendship with them. By
selling his works, he extols their character and kindness, a sort of love
letter from Woody to the producer who bet financially on his work when he was
just a shy young unknown comedian: Jack Rollins. The very concept of
celebration of kindness, in an area so contaminated by egocentrism and dirty
play, already enhances the theme of the film.
3 – Zelig (1983)
Criticism is accurate, showing how people shape themselves,
even character, in order to please and be accepted. And, of course, dignitaries
with the most diverse interests begin to use Zelig’s words as allegory for
their activities. Zelig eventually becomes a sort of "Chance", the
gardener played by Peter Sellers in "Being There." Mia Farrow lives a
sweet doctor who believes that the phenomenon is psychological, a manifestation
of someone who can not express herself, leading the script to also address the
machismo of the time, showing the aggressive reaction of doctors to this new
hypothesis. The treatment process is so efficient, that he can even disagree
with other opinions, something unthinkable in his former reality.
2 - Hannah and Her Sisters (1986)
Inspired by "Fanny and Alexander" by his idol
Ingmar Bergman, Allen works on the evolution of a family nucleus through three
annual celebrations, from the standpoint of the leitmotiv advocated on the
scene: "The heart is a very, very elastic muscle." In the most
beautiful scene of the film, it captures what I consider the best explanation
for life. His character believed he was about to die, saddened also by the
impossibility of his wife becoming pregnant, without passion for the future,
then he walks aimlessly for a few hours, guided only by the spark of hope that
refuses to yield to the fatal disease which he believes he has. He even aimed
the rifle barrel at his own head, believing there was no motivation in his
existence. Nothing seemed to make sense until he entered a movie theater and,
even wrecking himself in an ocean of depression, he found himself smiling with
a comedy of the Marx Brothers.
The character concludes that even life being a ride on a
roller coaster of more lower than highs, those brief moments of comfort and joy
are worth the price of admission. And the unknown element inherent in all of
us, who pursued him with so many questions, would never be fully revealed, no
matter how insistently he asked. He then relaxes in the armchair, with all his
internal conflicts succumbing to the weight of that mild entertainment, and
allowed himself the pleasure of fun. The mood acquired in that session
motivated his spirit to face another day. And a year later, engaging in a much
happier relationship with another woman, in an unexpected act of fate, he is
thrilled to have fulfilled the dream of being a father. Classic Allen!
1 – Manhattan (1979)
Woody's best work as an actor. This film represents the
closing of the first cycle in Allen's career, after reaching the perfect mold
with "Annie Hall" and venturing into his first drama,
"Interiors." "Manhattan" is the perfect junction of drama,
romance and comedy, pioneering what many call the "Woody Formula".
From the beginning, to the sound of Gershwin's "Rhapsody in Blue,"
framing images of the city, to the excellent final dialogue between Woody and
Mariel, where he discovers to be less mature than her, we find a writer
confident and at his creative height. Black and white photography by Gordon
Willis, who claimed to have been his best film, lends even more elegance to the
project, including the iconic Queensboro bridge talk scene and the use of
shadows in the planetarium chat. The way Mariel behaves, his naturalness in
confronting Diane Keaton, when she asks about her occupation, who answers,
"I go to school," and her latent admiration for the older, refined
man, a complicated theme, the age difference in the couple, sound extremely
natural. The text is great, co-written by Marshall Brickman, repeating the
partnership of "The Sleeper" and "Annie Hall," but who
steals the show is Mariel (and when Meryl Streep is in the same cast, that's
saying a lot).
* Lista preparada para o site norte-americano "Taste of
Cinema". Link para a postagem original:
Nenhum comentário:
Postar um comentário