Everything I Know About Living, I Learned From Woody Allen
July 15, 2009
Most of you reading, I’m sure, went through a similar teenage development as I did. You start off, content with the way things are, accepting of the paradigm handed down to you from your parents, until, BAM, something out of nowhere rocks that foundation and sends you careening nose first onto the long road to adulthood. For me, it was Woody Allen. I was sixteen years old, nervous, and becoming increasingly skeptical of Catholicism. In other words, I was prime for an Allen conversion.
On a whim, I received a copy of Annie Hall and watched it. I was blown away. Not only did it help redefine what a film could be, but it also redefined what the world was like. No longer was I convinced that my experiences would be tied up in a pretty three-act arc with abundant lessons and happy endings for all. This is not to say that I now imagine the as world a bleak and uninviting place, however. That’s the other important lesson I learned from Annie Hall. Nothing matters, and that is totally okay.
Again, this seems to border on the depressive. Yet Allen approaches his own misgivings with such a nonchalant, playful attitude, that it’s hard to get caught up in feeling bad. Take this joke from the closing monologue of Annie Hall in which he describes his experiences with love:
“This guy goes to a psychiatrist and says, “Doc, my brother’s crazy; he thinks he’s a chicken.” And the doctor says, “Well, why don’t you turn him in?” The guy says, “I would, but I need the eggs.” Well, I guess that’s pretty much now how I feel about relationships; they’re totally irrational, and crazy, and absurd, but I guess we keep going through it because most of us need the eggs.”
All of this from a character who is already worrying about the universe expanding at age twelve, and by the time he is a grown man, is almost exclusively buying books with the word “death” in the title. Even though he’s intellectualized a certain amount of distance between himself and the world, he still can’t divorce himself from it completely.
I would be remiss if I didn’t look at what Allen has taught me about sex. His early film, Sleeper, envisions a dystopian future that, in true Woody Allen fashion, is terrible because nobody is having sex anymore. Everything You Always Wanted To Know About Sex celebrates everything deviant, from rabbis who love to be tied up with silk stockings to interspecies relationships.
Allen loves sex. He doesn’t try to hide it. This particular infatuation, however, only reinforces another contradiction that makes his persona interesting. To illustrate this, we must again turn to the golden standard of Woody Allen films, Annie Hall. While at a dinner party filled to the brim with intellectual elites, Alvie Singer (Allen) sneaks off into a bedroom to watch a Knicks game. His then-wife confronts him, complaining that he should be out socializing. Allen ignores this, explaining that the pure physicality of basketball is refreshing. Naturally, this leads him to suggest that they have sex immediately. “It’ll be great,” he explains, “because while all those PHDs will be in there talking about modes of alienation, we’ll be in here quietly humping.”
Throughout his entire work, a slight disdain toward intellectuals bleeds through. This is perplexing to an extent, mostly because it would be difficult to label him as anything but one himself. After all, Love and Death, a film set during the Napoleonic wars in Russia, contains a scene of nothing more than two characters working in titles from novels by Dostoevsky into their dialogue.
Yet, Allen has little patience for most forms of modern art, as well as most people whose intellectual pursuits stay purely, well, intellectual. A cursory examination of Allen’s life will show you how actual, tangible results are important to him. Consider that the man has been making movies since the sixties and is still working on a film a year, an impressive rate by any metric.
There’s little doubt that he’s one of the most accomplished filmmakers in American cinema history, but to me, he’s more important than simply the technical accomplishments of his films. I could continue, but it will be better for everyone involved if I cut myself off before this devolves into mere gushing. Instead, I’ll end with the joke that begins Annie Hall, one that, more than any other, defines perfectly the Woody Allen that I came to be enthralled by: “I would never want to belong to any club that would have someone like me for a member.”
Tags: Culture, Movies, Society
Just Briefly:
I contest the idea that Annie Hall is the “golden standard of Woody Allen films.”
No doubt, it is his popular hit- most well known, most watched etc.
But, I think any discussion of Allen’s oeuvre that singles out Everything You Always Wanted to Know About Sex, Sleeper, and Love and Death (Though all fun movies) while excluding Manhattan, Crimes and Misdemeanors, Hannah and Her Sisters, Deconstructing Harry, Broadway Danny Rose, and hell, even Match Point, is a poor overview indeed.
Not to be a dick about it, but if you don’t do enough research, it comes across as a journal entry.
I too discovered Woody Allen’s Annie Hall as a teenager going through a growing-up phase. Although it was officially Oscar worthy, it’s only one of my sentimental favorites. I have to say that the new legion of Allen films that have captured my interest as I have gotten older and fannatical are Hannah and Her Sisters, Manhattan (favorite for music and cinematography), and the often misunderstood Stardudst Memories. For pure fun, not to even mention its technical aspects, Zelig, will alwasy be one of my favorites from his “oeuvre”. Oh, and how could I forget The Purple Rose of Cairo, probably the best sans Woody he has done. Celebrity is another of this species. Filling in for Allen is the apt Kenneth Bronough who does a spot on Allen. This is probably the only time that DiCaprio (fresh off the boat) will ever be in a Woody flick again. SEE IT!
I almost forgot…to any interested/missed it, this was a Fresh Air interview from over the summer. It’s worth a listen because Terry asks him about Son Yi and he talks about his releationship with the characters he has played.
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=105400872