Should I bother seeing these Woody Allen movies?

Message Bookmarked

Bookmark Removed

I'm a huge fan, but for some reason I never got around to the following:
- Alice
- Interiors
- September
- Another Woman
- his New York Stories segment
- Hollywood Ending

― Shakey Mo Collier (Shakey Mo Collier), Thursday, 5 October 2006 20:09 (nineteen years ago)

yes
yes
no
if only for Gene Hackman
yes (Mae Questel!)
no

― Dr Morbius (Dr Morbius), Thursday, 5 October 2006 20:13 (nineteen years ago)

Of the three there I've seen I'd say yes to Interiors and Another Woman and no to Alice, but only because I don't remember a damn thing about it.

― jaymc (jaymc), Thursday, 5 October 2006 20:15 (nineteen years ago)

the voice of Olive Oyl?!?

― Shakey Mo Collier (Shakey Mo Collier), Thursday, 5 October 2006 20:15 (nineteen years ago)

(x-post)

― Shakey Mo Collier (Shakey Mo Collier), Thursday, 5 October 2006 20:15 (nineteen years ago)

- Haven't seen.
- Yes
- Haven't seen.
- Nah
- Yes!
- Avoid at all costs.

― C0L1N B... (C0L1N B...), Thursday, 5 October 2006 20:17 (nineteen years ago)

Alice was okay, but nothing more.

― M. White (Miguelito), Thursday, 5 October 2006 20:18 (nineteen years ago)

Another Woman
- his New York Stories segment

yes.

― a|ex (Pareene), Thursday, 5 October 2006 20:33 (nineteen years ago)

Yes.
Yes.
Maybe (I don't remember it--not a good sign.)
YES! (This is really underrated for some insane reason.)
Yes. Watch the Scorscese one too! It's great! Skip the Coppola one! It is garbage!
Meh.

― Alex in SF (Alex in SF), Thursday, 5 October 2006 21:01 (nineteen years ago)

Alex in SF OTM except I'd skip the Woody Allen NYS too(Scorcese one is real good) and 'meh' is being too kind to Hollywood Ending, I almost fell asleep in the theatre and I just don't do that.

― tremendoid (tremendoid), Thursday, 5 October 2006 23:32 (nineteen years ago)

I started an Another Woman thread a few months ago, after rescreening it; by far the best of his Bergman "homages," with a top-notch supporting cast (Hackman, Martha Plimpton, Sandy Dennis in freak-out mode)

― Alfred, Lord Sotosyn (Alfred Soto), Friday, 6 October 2006 00:19 (nineteen years ago)

the voice of Olive Oyl?!?

I think so, but Betty Boop too -- as his most mortifying mother.

Alice is a delightful trifle. Mia: "Ooooh, Coltrane..."

― Dr Morbius (Dr Morbius), Friday, 6 October 2006 12:45 (nineteen years ago)

i like them all except for hollywood ending. but i would watch hollywood ending too.

― scott seward (scott seward), Friday, 6 October 2006 12:48 (nineteen years ago)

Scott, I want you to review my movie someday. You are so not-mean!

― Beth Parker (Beth Parker), Friday, 6 October 2006 13:12 (nineteen years ago)

i can be mean! it's just that woody and me go way back. he was one of my boyhood idols, so i'm one of those people who finds his trainwrecks interesting. or at least worth watching once.

― scott seward (scott seward), Friday, 6 October 2006 13:39 (nineteen years ago)

Same here -- I remember Woody on Sat morning TV shows! Hwood Ending did have a few yuks, but how the mighty have fallen.

― Dr Morbius (Dr Morbius), Friday, 6 October 2006 13:49 (nineteen years ago)

i was a faithful reader of his comic strip!

― scott seward (scott seward), Friday, 6 October 2006 14:07 (nineteen years ago)

Which are the other NY Stories? One has the painter and "Like a Rolling Stone", and wasn't good, and the other one I don't remember at all.

(Yes to Interiors, Yes to Woody's NY Stories, haven't watched the other ones yet.)

― Casuistry (Chris P), Friday, 6 October 2006 14:08 (nineteen years ago)

Coppola = dull ripoff of Eloise

SPOILER

Woody = kvetching mom vanishes, reappears in the sky over Manhattan

― Dr Morbius (Dr Morbius), Friday, 6 October 2006 14:50 (nineteen years ago)

I tend to like Woody's "delightful trifle"-type movies, when he's indulging in some goofy genre excercise or just has a couple good light comic conceits he wants to work out.

― Shakey Mo Collier (Shakey Mo Collier), Friday, 6 October 2006 14:50 (nineteen years ago)

eg Zelig one of his 3 or 4 best I think

― Dr Morbius (Dr Morbius), Friday, 6 October 2006 14:56 (nineteen years ago)

I've seen all of those and Alice and New York Stories are the only ones that left any sort of impressions.

― darin (darin), Friday, 6 October 2006 15:30 (nineteen years ago)

the best thing in Zelig is when he's with the fat guys (discussing being fat, of course) and gets fatter... well okay there are a lot of great things in that movie but that's usually what I laugh hardest at. (see also "Sleeper")

― Shakey Mo Collier (Shakey Mo Collier), Friday, 6 October 2006 15:32 (nineteen years ago)

watched NY Stories on Monday - the Woody piece is indeed great. Random Larry David cameo! Mae Questa makes it, of course. And the scene of Woody rapturously sniffing the glutinous boiled chicken leg... the Scorsese one was okay but would've been so much better without the overbearing and unbelievably shitty music ("Whiter Shade of Pale"?! more than half a dozen times?! Made me want to stick a screwdriver in my ears.) Skipped the Coppola one.

will probably get Interiors next.

― Shakey Mo Collier (Shakey Mo Collier), Thursday, 12 October 2006 15:57 (nineteen years ago)

The Scorsese film is my favorite film of his between Taxi Driver and Goodfellas.

― Alfred, Lord Sotosyn (Alfred Soto), Thursday, 12 October 2006 16:15 (nineteen years ago)

woody allen should totally write a movie for larry david, actually.

― kyle (akmonday), Thursday, 12 October 2006 16:18 (nineteen years ago)

King of Comedy man

― Shakey Mo Collier (Shakey Mo Collier), Thursday, 12 October 2006 16:18 (nineteen years ago)

(x-post)

Larry clearly owes a huge stylistic debt to Woody

― Shakey Mo Collier (Shakey Mo Collier), Thursday, 12 October 2006 16:18 (nineteen years ago)

I've seen Curb just a couple times, but I think Woody's only gotten that mean and misanthropic in the last 10 years. (to good effect in Deconstructing Harry, bleccchhh in Match Point)

― Dr Morbius (Dr Morbius), Friday, 13 October 2006 13:30 (nineteen years ago)

that reminds me, having re-watched "Crimes and Misdemeanors" recently I don't really see how "Match Point" could be considered the MORE mysanthropic and nihilistic of the two. At least at the end of "Match Point" Rhys-Davies is totally wracked with guilt. At the end of "Crimes and Misdemeanors", Woody's optimistic doc subject commits suicide, the asshole gets the girl, and the murderer gets away scot-free and professes to feeling no remorse whatsoever.

― Shakey Mo Collier (Shakey Mo Collier), Friday, 13 October 2006 14:41 (nineteen years ago)

its beyond bleak! (Mr. Ed and Mussolini jokes aside)

― Shakey Mo Collier (Shakey Mo Collier), Friday, 13 October 2006 14:41 (nineteen years ago)

(also the optimist/rabbi is completely blind)

― Shakey Mo Collier (Shakey Mo Collier), Friday, 13 October 2006 14:42 (nineteen years ago)

"At least at the end of "Match Point" Rhys-Davies is totally wracked with guilt."

He IS? Not my interp at all. (Also, Rhys Meyers -- Rhys-Davies is the Indiana Jones/LOTR dwarf dude I think)

― Dr Morbius (Dr Morbius), Friday, 13 October 2006 14:53 (nineteen years ago)

ALSO the Indiana Jones sidekick!

― Alex in SF (Alex in SF), Friday, 13 October 2006 14:56 (nineteen years ago)

I think both Rhys-Meyers and Landau feel some degree of guilt, but I don't get the impression that either one of them is going to let it interfere with their lives.

― Alex in SF (Alex in SF), Friday, 13 October 2006 14:57 (nineteen years ago)

in the last scene of C&M Landau's very relaxed, explicitly discusses with Woody how he feels no guilt whatsoever (in the context of how he has a "great story"), how one day the weight was lifted and he didn't feel any fear of judgment, etc. Woody is confused, Landau walks off kisses his wife, smiling... up to that point in the movie he's been shown totally wracked with guilt, flashing back to family arguments, etc.

Rhys Meyers otoh (thx for the correction btw) at the end of Match Point is staring out the window moodily, practically chewing his knuckles as the newborn is brought in.

― Shakey Mo Collier (Shakey Mo Collier), Friday, 13 October 2006 15:07 (nineteen years ago)

Rhys-Meyers may have given a more watchable performance had he been allowed to simper smugly (like Landau) at the end.

― Alfred, Lord Sotosyn (Alfred Soto), Friday, 13 October 2006 15:10 (nineteen years ago)

Out of these, I have only seen Interiors and September and recommend them both heartily. Probably the former moreso than the latter, possibly just because it's the one I'm more familiar with.

There's a stillness to Interiors that I really like, lets you forget that what's going on is actually very manic, which is helped a lot by the amazing subdued (but still super 70's) art direction (and also i'm a bit of a sucker for good use of lampshades in film).
The major draw for me though, is Maureen Stapleton, who is as excellent as always. Her unknowing exuberance is great, and she is the only really colourful part of the film, and in the end she is the only one that can actually DO anything. Geraldine Page is great too, possibly too great really (maybe you end up disliking the character too much?).
It is also interesting to note the similarities between this and Autumn Sonata - at first i found it difficult to believe that they were made in the same year. (possibly just a result of them both being as Bergman-y as they can [i can't think of a better way to express that, but i'm sure there is one])

I only really watched September because of Elaine Stritch, and she was great - Could have done with a lot more screen time - and generally the whole thing could have been longer. She's great in the monologue(s?) she has and makes me wish she was used more often.
Also, I'm quite intrigued by the other two versions he (supposedly)shot with different casts - including christopher walken and mia farrows mother, but then again, he might have discarded them for a reason.

― Jedwin Van Pells (Jim Bob), Friday, 13 October 2006 20:35 (nineteen years ago)

You must be logged in to post. Please either login here, or if you are not registered, you may register here.