Woody Allen and me

When I was a kid, I listened to a lot of “Weird Al” Yankovic. I still do, actually. But, a lot more when I was a kid. Anyway, listening to Al got me into parody, and I developed a blanket love for anything that parodies something else. That got me into Mad Magazine and Cracked Magazine (which was basically a Mad rip-off and bore no resemblance to the website it has become).

I used to go to the library and ask the librarians to direct me to parody books. And I remember in the Spring Garden Road Library, in the humour and satire area, that was my first brush with Woody Allen. I borrowed one of his books, Without Feathers. And it was hilarious. I didn’t get the references to Kierkegaard (I just thought it was a funny name), but I loved his absurd humour. I borrowed a lot of his books from the library. I must have been 10 or 11 or something. My writing at the time was heavily influenced by Woody Allen’s absurdity.

Mighty Aphrodite: This was the first Woody Allen movie I ever saw. It was in my Philosophy 12 Advanced English 12 class. The teacher, Mr. Wolno, was using it to teach us about Greek choruses (I think he probably also wanted to teach us that Woody Allen is hilarious). It had been a while since he’d seen the movie, so he was caught off guard by the swearing and sexual dialogue. But he left the movie on. My friend Cameron and I loved it, and so we decided to seek out further Woody Allen films. (I remember almost nothing about Mighty Aphrodite. I haven’t seen it since high school, so I don’t know if it holds up.)

Annie Hall: Cameron downloaded it and we watched it at his house during one of our free periods. I remember liking it, but being disappointed that it wasn’t as funny as Mighty Aphrodite. Of course, I’ve since seen Annie Hall several times and I was just an idiot then. Annie Hall is crazy-good.

Crimes and Misdemeanors: Cameron downloaded it, same as the last one. And I loved this one without reservation, even though it was less funny than Mighty Aphrodite. It has fantastic acting and interesting moral questions. It’s just… really compelling. Update: Marc Trussler, a high school chum, tells me that he believes we saw Crimes in Misdemeanors in Philosophy 12 (also a Wolno class) and that sounds about right to me. Cameron was the only who reminded me that we saw Crimes and Misdemeanors in this time period, and we both assumed it was on one of our free periods. But no, good ole Mr. Wolno showed us two Woody Allen movies. Good teacher. Great teacher! (He encouraged me in my writing a lot.)

Melinda and Melinda: Saw this with Cameron and my girlfriend at the time. I don’t remember anything about this movie, other than Will Ferrell getting his sweater caught in a door and the phrase ‘obsequious banter’. I love that word. Obsequious.

Match Point: Cameron and I were both working at Rogers Video, and I think he probably saw it before me. I liked the movie a lot, especially the whole thing with the ring, but it’s got a very similar plot to half of Crimes and Misdemeanors, and I think Crimes and Misdemeanors is the better film.

Vicky Cristina Barcelona: I saw it in theatres with Cameron, then I saw it again with my girlfriend at the time (a different one than above). She and I argued about whether or not the relationship in the film was viable. (Mild spoilers:) She was in favour of the relationship, and I sided with Woody; the relationship didn’t work.

Scoop: I liked it, but it was not one of his best. I watched it On Demand in my living room.

Deconstructing Harry: After introducing the girlfriend of the era to Woody Allen through VCB (or maybe Match Point), we rented some other Woody Allen movies including this one, which I hadn’t seen. I don’t remember much about this one, other than I remember liking it, so I’ll have to watch it again. It also had interesting editing.

Manhattan: This movie has possibly the best opening sequence ever in the history of movies. I watch the opening sequence every so often. I love it so much. You should watch it. The rest of the movie, I’m not quite as taken with. It’s a pretty good movie, but the opening is spectacular. Also, I remember when I watched it the first time, I was struck by how beautiful Meryl Streep was when she was young. Not that she’s not beautiful now.

Bananas: Sometime in 2011, I decided to take Woody Allen movie-watching seriously, so I went back to some of his early movies. I watched most of the following movies on my own. Bananas has its moments, but I’ve got to say that I’m not a fan of slapstick Woody. I am not one of those people in Stardust Memories who prefers his “earlier, funnier” movies. I’m a fan of his “later, better” movies.

Every Thing You Always Wanted to Know About Sex * But Were Afraid to Ask: This, too, has some great parts. Gene Wilder is great in it. But still not quite my taste.

Sleeper: Same deal. Didn’t care much for it.

Love and Death: Same! Although you can see the progression Woody’s making over the course of these films, slowly moving away from slapstick and toward more substantive works. That he went straight from Love and Death to Annie Hall is pretty incredible, though. It’s a slow progression up till Love and Death, and then suddenly it’s a quantum leap.

Whatever Works: I don’t remember when I watched this, exactly. Only that I watched it alone, on my computer. The character of Boris sometimes went on for a bit too long, but I quite liked the movie in the end. I really enjoyed the back and forth with Boris and Melody.

Midnight In Paris: I saw this one with Laura. We were in Barcelona and tired after a long day in the sun frolicking on the beach. I talked Laura into seeing Midnight In Paris at the local original language movie theatre. It’s such a joyous movie (perhaps the most joyous of Woody’s entire oeuvre) and it made me smile from beginning to end. The opening is fantastic, reminding me of Manhattan. I also liked how there was music over the pictures and dialogue over the titles. Nice change of pace there. It also got us keyed up to go to Paris, where we were going the following week.

In Paris, I bought a book at Shakespeare & Company called Woody Allen On Woody Allen. It’s made up entirely of transcribed interviews with Woody Allen, and touches on every one of his movies up to 2002.

When we left France and got to Italy, we found ourselves at a hostel with a computer and internet we could use any time for free. I decided to get a bunch of Woody Allen films to watch during the rest of our travels. Annie Hall was among them, because Laura hadn’t seen it. I also got Crimes and Misdemeanors, which I wanted to see again.

When we were in Rome, Woody Allen was ALSO in Rome and I was very excited. I wanted to just see him! Maybe shake his hand and say something stupid like, “I love your movies.” I kept checking the internet for word on where he might be shooting his Rome-based movie (then called The Bop Decameron, but now called Nero Fiddled) to no avail. Then I started checking the French media and translating it. Woody was just scouting locations at the time, so no actual shooting was being done. But the newspaper told me which hotel he was staying at. Laura and I went to take a look at the hotel to see if we could contrive a way for me to run into Woody Allen. Sadly, there was no way to do so and we left Rome without meeting Woody. 

Zelig: Funny and inventive, but its documentary format never endeared itself to me. It’s an incredibly well-made film, but not one that I loved. Laura and I watched this one on our trip, on a tiny netbook.

Stardust Memories: This one! Oh man, it’s got some really brilliant stuff in it, but it’s all over the place! Every time a fan talks to the main character, it’s pretty hilarious. And Charlotte Rampling has a creepy scene in it that feels like it might never end. Really well done. But probably not one I want to see again. Also saw this one on the netbook, on our trip.


The Purple Rose of Cairo: (Spoilers ahead. Skip to next movie if you haven’t seen this one) This one is similar-ish to Midnight In Paris, but more sad and hopeless. It’s a good movie. Reality disappoints. I watched it with Laura, but in our home country, after the trip. Laura was displeased with the downer ending.

Broadway Danny Rose: I liked it, but wasn’t blown away. It might do with a rewatch. I feel I might have been distracted at the time. I appreciated the framing device; the storytellers were very amusing. Watched this one on my own.

Hannah and Her Sisters: I loved this one! I like ensembles and storylines that weave together and hearing characters thinking and title cards. Michael Caine and Barbara Hershey are particularly fantastic in it. (Spoilers) Woody says this is one of his movies where he let the characters off too easy. When it comes to endings, I prefer ambiguous over happy, and happy over unhappy. I also watched this one on my own.

Woody Allen: A Documentary: Just recently saw this three-and-a-half-hour-long documentary on Woody Allen and really enjoyed it. Seeing and hearing about Woody’s writing process just blows me away. Everything he’s written since the age of 16 came out of one typewriter. It’s going to be worth so much when he dies. But, as one interview subject says in the documentary, Woody’s parents both lived a good long time, so it’s possible we’ll have Woody Allen at 105 making a movie per year still.

I find Woody’s work and work ethic very inspiring. After watching the documentary, I wrote a page of the novel I’ve been working on in about ten minutes. Words don’t normally pour out of me that fast. Though I wish they did. Then maybe I could be as prolific as Woody.

Out of the 42 movies he’s made since 1966, I’ve seen 20. Not even half. My Woody Allen movie-watching quest will continue with Radio Days up next.