From October 2010 to October 2011 I revisited each film from writer, director, and actor Woody Allen in preparation for 2011 – the 40th anniversary of the release of what is considered by many to be Allen’s first film, Bananas. Of course he did release a few films prior, but it was Bananas that was the first to begin the yearly string of releases that came to be known as the quintessential Woody Allen film.
Allen has for years been one of my top five favorite directors, and looking back at his long career (one film per year for 40 years) it’s really quite astounding. Sure, it’s true that most of the time Allen doesn’t branch out nearly as much as other filmmakers. But there is a particular and familiar universe that he has created and lives in 99% of the time, and it’s a style all his own, a world where he invites you into every year – to meet new characters, and the stories they have to tell.
My reviewing skills are admittedly not very strong, and the famous quote from Truman Capote – “it isn’t writing at all – it’s typing” – is never more prevalent than with these short reviews, but none the less this was very fun for me to revisit all these movies again over the past months – and exciting to share at least a few of my basic thoughts to the world (ha!) on one of my top five favorite filmmakers. The timing couldn’t be more fitting as well not only because of the 40th anniversary of Bananas, but because that year saw the release, surprisingly enough, of Allen’s biggest financial success in the United States – Midnight in Paris. These are in order of release, beginning with 1971’s Bananas and ending with 2011’s Midnight in Paris.
Woody Allen
A Ghostlife Retrospective
Oedipus Wrecks (New York Stories)
Allen wrote, directed and starred in the final segment of this collection of shorts by New York’s most famous filmakers. The other directors were Martin Scorcese and Francis Ford Coppola (who co-wrote his segment with his daughter and future director Sofia Coppola). It’s a fluffy bit of cinema, but clever and cute all the same, especially the performance by Mae Questel. She plays the mother of Allen’s character, Sheldon, and an overbearing one at that. When she disappears during a magic act at a performance he and his fiance (Mia Farrow) takes her to, Sheldon thinks his worries have disappeared, but she returns in the grandest, most over-bearing fashion imaginable. What at first seems to be a situation that is simply too much to take, Sheldon soon comes to realize he not only misses his mother, but she is a bigger and more positive influence in his life than he ever realized. Trademark Allen – funny and light all the same.
B
1989