Top Woody Allen films

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Woody Allen?

amateurist (amateurist), Monday, 19 May 2003 15:49 (twenty-one years ago) link

Yeeeeeeeeeeesssssss?

k0nigsberg14 (slutsky), Monday, 19 May 2003 16:03 (twenty-one years ago) link

i say allen is near flawless from '77 (annie hall) onwards to the mid 80's (hannah). interiors is a fine experiment, a movie i correlate more to keaton's dramatic career of the time (mr goodbar, reds, shoot the moon) than one from allen's timeline. broadway danny rose is a bit of a letdown, but still has its amusing situations and lines. the rest are gold.

pretty much in order for me:
stardust memories... the crown jewel.
purple rose of cairo... the absurdist heartbreaker.
annie hall... the pinnacle of neurosis.
manhattan... the love letter.
husbands and wives... the mature relationship dossier (and for my money, his best of the 90's, without hesitation)

of the "earlier, funnier work" i pick play it again, sam - although not directed by him, he wrote and starred in it and it's completely enjoyable slapstick measured by careful scenework and smart dialogue.

Dr. Annabel Lies (Michael Kelly), Thursday, 22 May 2003 22:00 (twenty-one years ago) link

Sweet and Lowdown is recommended, yes.

Sean Penn is great in that movie and I shall never forget how he always takes his girlfriends shooting rats.

Jan

Jan Geerinck (jahsonic), Friday, 23 May 2003 15:26 (twenty-one years ago) link

Broadway Danny Rose is in my opinion far and away the best WA film.
Annie Hall.
Crimes and Misdemeanours.
Zelig.


That's about it.
Most of them make me urp. He always picks cool women to star in his flicks. Mira S. and Tia Leone, the latter of which who looks impossibly good in slacks...and who looks visibly sickened when she has to kiss WA in "Hollywood Ending."

"Deconstructing Harry" is simply one of the most odious films I've ever tried to watch, a truly nasty piece of work. So awful I cursed that fucking film the whole time I tried to fathom why he even bothered.

I'm also in the minority in that I find his earlier "funnier" works desperately unfunny.

"Sweet and " isn't bad; Elaine May in "Small Time Crooks" is perhaps the sexiest and most adorable of all Allen's wimmen.

He should have stopped after "Danny Rose." It's like a bad New Yorker story that won't quit. Altho Spike Lee is a far superior filmmaker, and quite interesting in his way, I get the same feeling, New York chauvinism run amok in a fantasy world that never quite conceals the ugly reality of its creator's neuroses.

Jess Hill (jesshill), Sunday, 25 May 2003 17:08 (twenty-one years ago) link

two years pass...
His movie Everything You Ever Wanted To Know etc etc was on TV last night. I have lately been thinking I would like to watch lots more WA pictures, so was looking forward to this. But it was woeful! I had to turn off after about 25 minutes - the sequences with the jester and the sheep. As the king said to the jester, not funny!

the pinefox, Wednesday, 11 January 2006 13:46 (eighteen years ago) link

Cmon, the sheep episode is funny, as is the final sperm one. Hit n' miss otherwise, but I like John Carradine and the giant tit.

Annie Hall
Zelig
Sleeper
Manhattan
Love and Death
Hannah and Her Sisters
Radio Days
The Purple Rose of Cairo
Broadway Danny Rose
Deconstructing Harry

Dr Morbius (Dr Morbius), Wednesday, 11 January 2006 14:33 (eighteen years ago) link

No, there is little to no funny in Everything/Sex.

Zelig
Manhattan
Purple Rose of Cairo

I haven't seen a few of the other ones, but those three are all completely great. Before Annie Hall, they're all pretty painful; I don't know yet when he started pumping out the not very good stuff, but so far Celebrity is the only post-Annie Hall one I've seen that I really completely tanked. (But I haven't seen all of them.)

Casuistry (Chris P), Thursday, 12 January 2006 01:13 (eighteen years ago) link

Although I wonder if Mr. Fox would have enjoyed the Italian segment.

Casuistry (Chris P), Thursday, 12 January 2006 11:13 (eighteen years ago) link

Before Annie Hall, they're all pretty painful

You hate fun!

Dr Morbius (Dr Morbius), Thursday, 12 January 2006 14:55 (eighteen years ago) link

Actually (I'd forgotten) I saw some of the Italian segment too, and didn't like that either. I saw Celebrity years ago; maybe it wasn't terrible. It didn't have Woody Allen in it.

the bellefox, Thursday, 12 January 2006 17:12 (eighteen years ago) link

purple rose of cairo
manhattan
annie hall
bananas
sleeper

Jams Murphy (ystrickler), Thursday, 12 January 2006 20:57 (eighteen years ago) link

Well, I hate "fun".

Casuistry (Chris P), Thursday, 12 January 2006 23:01 (eighteen years ago) link

As in anything that feels the need to point to itself and say, "I'm bananas!"

Casuistry (Chris P), Thursday, 12 January 2006 23:02 (eighteen years ago) link

The pan across the rack of porn mags that includes National Review in Bananas: classic

Dr Morbius (Dr Morbius), Saturday, 14 January 2006 21:35 (eighteen years ago) link

Altho Spike Lee is a far superior filmmaker

*brain explodes*

polyphonic (polyphonic), Tuesday, 17 January 2006 07:44 (eighteen years ago) link

Purple Rose Of Cairo is perhaps his most perfect movie. There are no false notes whatsoever. The tone is beautifully controlled. The fantasy/reality stuff is handled with the lightest touch - a lesser film maker would have overcomplicated the situation with some nonsense about a magic spell or some kind of wacky invention which allows Jeff Daniels to escape the silver screen. It's a real loveletter to the silver screen. Wonderful!

After that...

Annie Hall
Crimes & Misdemeanours
Manhattan
and loads more...

stew!, Thursday, 19 January 2006 13:00 (eighteen years ago) link

yeah, i've read that purple rose is woody's favourite, maybe the "only one" that he hasn't felt like abandoning once it gets on the screen. His attitude towards his own films is quite hilarious.

Hannah is my favourite movie. Crimes & Mis, Zelig, Annie Hall and Brodway Danny Rose are great too. Bullets over Broadway and Everyone Says I Love You are great amongst the 90s stuff.

Did everyone love his speech at the Oscars a few years back? "Thanks, makes up for the strip search", haha what a legend.

Beagle Boy (Beagle Boy), Friday, 20 January 2006 14:02 (eighteen years ago) link

Zelig
Manhattan
Purple Rose of Cairo

Match Point, welcome to the club! Goddamn that was good movieing.

Casuistry (Chris P), Saturday, 21 January 2006 10:44 (eighteen years ago) link

1. Annie Hall
2. Sleeper

haven't seen a ton of them

älänbänänä (alanbanana), Saturday, 21 January 2006 15:33 (eighteen years ago) link

two years pass...

Watching this tonight for the first time in like 14 years. I never caught that Howard Cosell is wearing his full standard ABC Sports blazer w/ official emblem & everything:

http://img126.imageshack.us/img126/7069/134115bananaslut5.jpg

http://img509.imageshack.us/img509/3950/bananas1rd4.jpg

kingfish, Monday, 3 March 2008 04:18 (sixteen years ago) link

the worst allen film?

hollywood endings. ugh.

poortheatre, Sunday, 16 March 2008 18:16 (sixteen years ago) link

four months pass...

In Love & Death, Diane Keaton loses her russian accent about 30 seconds into her first scene.

kingfish, Thursday, 7 August 2008 03:44 (fifteen years ago) link

Woody lost his before the first scene.

Dr Morbius, Thursday, 7 August 2008 14:20 (fifteen years ago) link

That's my favorite, easily.

collardio gelatinous, Friday, 8 August 2008 19:57 (fifteen years ago) link

Hannah, that is.

collardio gelatinous, Saturday, 9 August 2008 13:51 (fifteen years ago) link


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