Best of Woody Allen's Eightites Films

Zelig

Hannah is the best Woody Eightites Film

or Stardust Memories

Danny Rose

Zelig then Hannah

between hannah and purple rose and sex comedy for me

sex com would be my third and p rose my fourth, I think

broadway danny rose

xp just as long as there is some sex com love. LOOK, ARIEL! A FOSSIL!

Leaning toward Purple Rose, but I haven't seen most of these in years.

from there, to london -- a long-awaited opportunity to show her thomas carlyle's grave. then to italy, where i have consented to deliver a series of lectures on renaissance art. it will be a pleasure to bring tintoretto into perspective for his innumerable sycophants.

one of the sad things about midnight in paris was seeing woody's ability to write snobs reduced to having them talk limply about wine

It's what he cast Sam Waterston for!

people pass by vital structures in this city every day

The Purple Rose of Cairo is my vote: his most perfect script and direction, with a performance by Mia Farrow which I still don't think is adequately praised (it's hard to play a naif without making the audience gag).

As for the rest, I've made my peace with Hannah, which I learned to love in the last few years because it's still ALWAYS on cable and my mom loves it because she doesn't have sisters and envies how close Dianne Wiest, Barbara Hershey, and Mia Farrow are.

Zelig is a wry joke extended beyond its natural ten-minute running time.

Another Woman is the best of his Chamber Dramas, although the howlers are all time, like the young John Houseman grouchily saying, "I must finish my book on the Continental Congress" and Gena Rowlands looking anguished when she spots her mother's tears on "her favorite Rilke poem."

I haven't seen BDR in years and placed it in my queue.

My ranks:

Cairo
Radio Days
Hannah
Crimes (Alan Alda!)

Zelig then Radio Days

people pass by vital structures in this city every day

I cry at the opera.

i think i like hannah a little less than the ilx consensus and crimes and misdemeanors a little more

one of those two, i think

C&M has a lot of things representatively gross about Woody's writing and direction but it's fluid about changing from "tragedy" to comedy and it's got the once in a lifetime moment of Alan Alda reciting "Because I Could Not Stop For Death"

wait what is gross about it?

how he's all WELL DON'T YOU SEE THE EYES ARE THE WINDOWS OF THE SOUL and then includes a scene in which Angelica Huston's corpse LOOKS INTO MARTIN LANDAU'S SOUL. Poor Huston is reduced to being a shrill big ass in closeup.

Also, the long takes suggest he took that philosopher's windbag experience seriously.

experience = statements

yeah it is not maybe the most philosophically sophisticated movie but i am not the most philosophically sophisticated person

i love anjelica huston and alan alda in it. and everyone else.

Another Woman is the best of his Chamber Dramas

My affection for this one surprised me when I saw it, since it's such a minor film in his oeuvre. At the very least, I recall finding it superior to Radio Days (his other 1987 effort), which seems overrated (though it's amusing to see kid-Woody played by a young Seth Green).

"If it bends, it's funny."

radio days is totally charming, maybe underrated?

xxp lol. i like another woman, too, fwiw. gene hackman!

It's been a long time since I last saw C&M. I need to watch a bunch of these again tbh.

Gene Hackman's perf is the best serious Oscar un-validated performance in his OEUVRE.

I think I've seen Hannah more than any of the others (tho maybe not Zelig) because Al totally otm about it always being on TV. It really is.

Actually, Stardust Memories is my favorite Woody Allen film. I want to vote for that.

http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-08A787ZOGec/Ts1byykAxVI/AAAAAAAAA_s/-RgJeeUq74o/s1600/hannah-and-her-sisters-movie-still-475x357-pr-01_476x357.jpg

.. easily my favourite Woody Allen film and one of the best films ever.

I cannot watch any of Woody's chamber dramas. They all seem to me to have stepped directly out of the "quiddities and agonies of the ruling class" thread. But then, 99% of film dramas about the aspiring American middle class seem that way to me. They all seem to be making the agonized "am I not a man; do I not bleed?" speech in the context of a particularly bad paper cut.

crimes and misdemeanors is my favourite woody allen movie so that

'crimes' >>>>>>> 'match point'

never seen September & Another Woman

how i rate the rest

Broadway Danny Rose - small scale but totally love this little trifle
Crimes and Misdemeanors - probably overrating this but i found the drama part riveting + Alda
Hannah and Her Sisters - masterfully made but yeah the "quiddities" thing starts to take over/bug
The Purple Rose of Cairo - moving, didn't hold up on repeated viewings though
Zelig - should see this again, barely remember it
A Midsummer Night's Sex Comedy - slight but charming, great cast
Stardust Memories - flawed but lots of interesting stuff in it
Radio Days - very limp nostalgia
Oedipus Wrecks - terrible

i think mia farrow is so sweet in crimes and misdemeanors

Can the Sex Comedy stans explain their love, please? It's kinda right up there with, like, Shadows and Fog AFAIC, insofar as I've given it a couple of shots and totally don't dig it at all. Keeping in mind that I would happily rewatch most Woody films anytime.

It's the only one on this list I haven't seen -- the only Woody film I haven't seen outside the early 2000s turkeys.

From this era, I really really like Stardust, Zelig, and Crimes. Kinda tough to choose between those three...but I might say Stardust in a pinch.

crimes and misdemeanors is my favourite woody allen movie so that

Pretty close for me between Hannah and Crimes--I think the latter is more uneven (some of the Martin Landau stuff is tedious), but I'll give it my vote for Alan Alda, and for Jerry Orbach too. Broadway Danny Rose is very good. I've only seen Zelig once--an achievement, but I can't remember a thing. Haven't seen a full six of these.

haha i love shadows and fog (zey neeeeeed [my illusions]... like zey need ze aihr) but

1) tony roberts in a big part, woody/roberts camaraderie is never duplicated
2) everything jose ferrer says ("i had the privilege of explaining to her why michelangelo's ceiling was indeed great")
3) flying bicycle
4) woody pretending he likes the country

it is totally slight and in places stilted (like all woody post-annie-hall) but it has one of the best little casts he ever assembled.

the sleeper is Radio Days of course, a fabulous bit of work that.

is september good? i just watched the trailer for it and i always feel like i would like it, but the trailer made me think of interiors. then again i don't even hate interiors even though you're supposed to.

Controversially enough, although they're fine movies, I'm not really in love with the critical darlings from this era (Hannah and Purple Rose).

zelig has this problem where it only has three beats:

1) this guy can turn into other people (45 mins)
2) like a fascist! (25 mins)
3) love kills fascism (5 mins)

so i only love it when i'm not watching it.

is september good?

Elaine Stritch, smoking like a 19th century factory, imitates Bea Arthur and does okay. Sam Waterson gets another career-killer moment (I swear Woody must delight in destroying him): "Hurry. We've got to get back to the city if we're going to catch the Kurosawa film festival").

Kev, I <3 you even when you're wrong

Automatic thread bump. This poll's results are now in.

same top three films in my list but i would go 3 2 1

idly concluding that his best 90s stuff >>>> his best 80s stuff

Hannah and Her Sisters 21
Crimes and Misdemeanors 20
Broadway Danny Rose 9
The Purple Rose of Cairo 9

i suspect that hannah and her sisters and crimes & misdemeanors (the only woody-does-ingmar flick that i can stomach) are gonna win this poll. but i vote for broadway danny rose.

― pookkake (Eisbaer), Sunday, January 22, 2012 7:48 PM (3 days ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

lol i read ilx's mind. glad that broadway danny rose and purple rose of cairo (both better than the two winners IMHO) were tied for third and have SOME love amongst us.

i guess i prefer woody in his "blue collar schmuck telling stories about other blue collar schmucks" mode better than woody's films about the bellyaches of the Gabbneb set.

YAY!

(i liked both hannah and crimes and misdemeanors, btw. i liked danny rose more than these two because of how Woody slyly subverts his 70s nebbish persona [his character here has a spine and he genuinely LIKES his castoff clientele]. and i liked purple rose inasmuch as i see it as his version of sullivan's travels.)

i really need to see danny rose again.

have we voted on his 90s stuff yet?

Hannah and her sisters is one of the few films that makes me blub, so that one.

Didn't vote in this, but yeah, Danny Rose for me. Haven't seen all of them though.

oh man is Midsummer Night's... painful.

i've not seen it in years, and really want to see it again.

i have a p high tolerance for whimsy, fwiw

it's woody in ingmar mode ... in this case, smiles of a summer night ... only nowhere as good as the source (as is usually the case).

the lines are sooooo flat, and the Roberts-Woody friendship has no rhythm at all

the ugly italian-american caricatures in BDR always set me on edge, and im not normally a guy who bestirs himself to be offended by such portrayals

― maghrib is back (Hungry4Ass), Saturday, January 21, 2012 8:49 PM (2 weeks ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

otm. it also doesnt help that the dude playing the singer is like a less charismatic tony siragusa. sequences of woody & mia on the run, etc are p ok tho

dude playing the singer ain't playing

'stereotypes' didnt bother me (Jersey)

i know, maybe it should have been

the only one i've never seen from this lot is ..Sex Comedy. i thought it was meant to be terrible? dunno where i got that idea i must give it a watch. the trailer makes it look kinda like something from the
Love And Death/ Sleeper era
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FaA9qLZViPk

somehow i'd never seen stardust memories before. it's amazing!

It was received rather sourly in '80. Stylistically it's kinda halfway between Manhattan and Deconstructing Harry. A little too much Fellini pastiche.

morbs otm but some really funny lines it, also charlotte rampling

the scene where charlotte rampling talks to the camera, with all those cuts, blew my mind when i saw this movie as a kid, and is still what i remember first about it, before UFO invasions, parties in train cars and 'i prefer your earlier, funnier films'

It's great. I occasionally think it's my favorite Allen film.

the Rampling jump-cut scene is by far the best.

A little too much Fellini pastiche.

― World Congress of Itch (Dr Morbius), Friday, April 20, 2012 12:43 AM (8 hours ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

this is true, but it was still amazing to look at.

It also helps to actually like 8 1/2, which I do not.

you know it's funny; i don't either and generally don't like fellini. when i saw 8 1/2 i was like, i vastly prefer woody allen to fellini. but allen doing fellini works for me.

oh I get that.

Alfred, why don't you like 8 1/2?

(I don't either. I spent half a decade thinking I hated Fellini because the first two I saw were 8 1/2 and La Strada, and they both bored me to tears).

Besides being a bore, the movie's premise made no sense. Film directors don't get "writer's block" in the way a novelist does.

How you no?

allen doing fellini works for me.

so, Sweet & Lowdown too? (La Strada)

Film directors don't get "writer's block" in the way a novelist does.

And 8 1/2 didn't depict writers block like a novel would.

Considering there are few novels about writer's block, I'd say the concept defeats both media.

The Shining

stardust memories is way funnier than sweet and lowdown, iirc. only saw sweet and lowdown the one time when it came out, though.

Sweet and Lowdown is another of my most favorite Allen films. Maybe I should check out this Federanco Fanelli guy.

Considering there are few novels about writer's block, I'd say the concept defeats both media.

? I can think of a bunch of novels about writer's block. DeLillo's Mao, Malzberg's Herovits' World, Wonder Boys... writers love writing about writing (or not writing as the case may be)

My favorite Fellini is Nights of Cabiria. Don't have much use for him in general tho.

I'm not a huge Fellini/8 1/2 fan either. I'll take Scheider soft shoeing toward death for 15 minutes any day.

I haven't read Malzberg but those are the novels (and a few others, not many) I had in mind, Shakes.

New Grub Street, Keep The Aspidistra Flying, Secret Window, Secret Garden, Pigeon Post, Spooner, If On a Winter's Night a Traveler... it's practically it's own subgenre!

I dunno why I'm arguing, I tend to hate these books. well, except for the Malzberg and Calvino, which are really funny.

you've read Gissing? Nice!

nah that one I haven't read, actually

(not a big fan of Victorian-era novels in general)

It also helps to actually like 8 1/2, which I do not.

― Exile in lolville (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Friday, April 20, 2012 9:35 AM (3 hours ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

^^^^ this

that said: my liking Ingmar Bergman films doesn't necessarily make watching Woody's most Bergmanesque films that much more enjoyable.

RIP Nick Apollo Forte

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h3WzmKISWMc