Apparently Woody Allen is filming his next film in Spain. An article in the guardian complained that he should never have left Manhattan. It said that this was the environment he best understood and best expressed, and there was no reason for him to go anywhere else. His London films have been interesting, but not great. It does seem like he is searching for something in the wrong places - but then he's also said it's simply easier to make films in Europe. I'm not sure. Is it possible that a good filmmaker belongs to a time and a period, and as soon as that is over, and he has left it, he can never make good films again? The films with Woody in them have normally been the best, but only when he was a young man. Perhaps this is terribly cruel. I do have faith in him making good films again but, as the article said, writers shouldn't be afraid of belonging to and understanding only one small space in time and place. I think he will make one more great film, and it will be about Manhattan, nostalgically, and possibly starring Diane Keaton. Well, we'll see.
After the success of The Queen, plans are now being made for Thatcher. This, while clearly unoriginal in origin, if you see what I mean, sounds like it might be more interesting: focusing on the tensions in the build-up to the Falklands War.
1 comment:
While I do hope he makes that movie I do wonder if he will make such an obviously final film?
I do still love all of the Woody Allen films, especially the ones that he's in. And actually I think a lot of people liked Melinda and Melinda and Match Point. But yes it is difficult. His last batch of good films were about 10 years ago. Everyone Says I Love You is one of my all time favourites, Mighty Aphrodite and Deconstructing Harry all come from that period. Hardly anyone got to see Celebrity in the UK which was a shame because it was good he was just in contractual difficulties, and then Sweet and Lowdown which I liked too. And I have a soft spot for Small Time Crooks. But that was 10 years ago!
I remember being disappointed by Curse of Jade Scorpion when it came out in 2001 and ever since then I've been continually slightly disappointed.
Will he ever return to his full powers? I don't know. But perhaps controversially I don't think that it's New York that's the problem. I think he's a director who directs himself best of all, and ever since he's aged he's found it harder and harder to cast himself in the leading role. Since that's happened I think he's only made two really good films where he isn't the lead: Everyone Says I Love You and Bullets Over Broadway. With Bullets Over Broadway he had a co-writer which may be one of the most under appreciated things about the best Woody Allen films, and with Everyone Says I Love You it was an ensemble piece.
He has managed to hook himself back into the other good ones in that period by dating a prostitute so the age difference thing wouldn't matter (Deconstructing Harry, Mighty Aphrodite) or by dating somebody closer to his own age (Small Time Crooks). But I don't think, despite recent evidence to the contrary, Woody feels that it is possible for somebody his age to fall in and out of love on screen and the movie going audience to believe it.
In recent years he's played the crazy older guy who you go to for advice, or simply not appeared at all. Both of these have destablised a writing style that had been long established. I believe it is his inability (nobody is stopping him but himself) to have himself star in his own movies which has caused his films to tail off rather than the location that they are in. Otherwise, the decline would have started with Match Point rather than some 5 years earlier.
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