LADIES AND GENTLEMEN,
Mr. Woody Allen
Part 1
Woody Allen is one of a handful of American filmmakers who can rightly be labeled as an auteur. His films, be they dramas or comedies, are remarkably personal and are permeated with Allen's preoccupation with art, religion and love. While the comedies are generally upbeat and the dramas rich in detail, most of his films are fiercely personal, betraying a yearning for physical beauty, a traditional sense of machismo, intellectual and professional acceptance and knowledge. Allen's obsessions with Judaism, the WASP world that eludes the Jew, and the balm of psychiatry--which may or may not chase these devils--are also never far beneath the surface of his work.
The Brooklyn-born Allen purported failed a film course at NYU during his first semester. Dropping out of college, he joined the NBC Writer's Program and began contributing material to such programs as "The Colgate Comedy Hour" and "Your Show of Shows". Allen also started a lucrative secondary career as a gag writer for such comics and nightclub performers as Carol Channing, Art Carney, Herb Shriner and Buddy Hackett. By 1960, he had begun his own successful career as a stand-up comedian, honing what would become his screen persona, the intellectual "schnook". Inspired by Hope, Nichols and May and Mort Sahl, Allen created humor that was based in the urban Jewish mentality, guilt-ridden and anxious. In his halting stammer, he would deliver monologues that would poke fun at everything from sex and marriage to religion and politics. His routines proved popular not only in Greenwich Village cabarets but also on college campuses and recordings. So successful was Allen that his audience came to believe he was that person on stage. (Despite protestations, he continued to nourish this belief in his onscreen characterizations).
In 1965, Allen made his feature film acting and writing debut with the farcical, but uneven, "What's New, Pussycat?", directed by Clive Donner. This film introduced recurring themes found in his work: romantic complications and the reliance on psychotherapy. Shortly thereafter, he debuted as a filmmaker of sorts by re-tooling a minor Japanese spy thriller with his own storyline and with English dialogue dubbed by American actors. The amusing result was "What's Up Tiger Lily?" (1966) that, along with the James Bond spoof "Casino Royale" (1967), which he co-wrote and acted in, launched Allen on one of the most successful and unusual filmmaking careers.
For a period in the mid- to late-1960s, Allen concentrated on the Broadway stage. "Don't Drink the Water" (1966), about a family from New Jersey caught up in spying in an unnamed Iron Curtain country, was a modest success. "Play It Again, Sam" (1969) was more successful. The central character, a film critic invokes the spirit of Humphrey Bogart as his guide through life and love. Successfully treading the fine line between fantasy and reality, the play was filmed in 1972 and began Allen's long association with actress Diane Keaton.
In 1969, Allen created two short films for a television special, "Cupid's Shaft,” an homage of Charlie Chaplin's 1931 classic "City Lights" that co-starred Candice Bergen, and a loose adaptation of "Pygmalion" in which Allen as a fake rabbi hired to teach a beautiful, but stupid woman (Bergen). That same year, he wrote, directed and starred in the feature "Take the Money and Run" which parodied both gangster films and cinema verite documentaries. The loose structure, lack of technical polish, and indebtedness to his nightclub routines are also evident in his next two features as well. "Bananas" (1971) was a south-of-the-border satire that lambastes both politics and mass media while "Everything You Always Wanted to Know About Sex* (*but were afraid to ask)" (1972) consisted of a series of skits loosely related to a title borrowed from a then-popular self-help book.
While Allen's films were not blockbusters, they did turn enough of a profit for the writer-director-star to begin creative control of his work. As the 70s progressed, Allen found his voice as a filmmaker. "Sleeper" (1973), about a 20th Century health food store owner who is cryogenically frozen and thawed out after two hundred years is filled with sight-gags yet has a curiously apolitical tone. "Love and Death" (1975) marked a leap forward for Allen as he interwove serious themes with the comedy. Set during the Napoleonic wars, the film not only spoofed Russian literature and culture as well as numerous classic films (e.g., "Alexander Nevsky") but also raised serious philosophical questions. "Love and Death" signaled Allen's higher aspirations and desire to be considered a "serious" moviemaker.
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