|
Home >
Gallery
> Entertainment
> Woody Allen
Woody Allen
The leading comic actor of his generation and
one of America's most prolific, respected filmmakers, Allen
Stewart Konigsberg, b. Brooklyn, N.Y., Dec. 1, 1935, adopted
the stage name Woody Allen when, at 16, he began his career
as a gag writer for a public relations agency. He wrote gags
for TV stars Sid Caesar and Garry Moore and in the early '60s
performed his own material in nightclubs and on television.
He made his film debut as an actor/screenwriter for What's
New, Pussycat? (1965). In 1969, Allen wrote, directed, and
starred in Take the Money and Run, and--except for the rare
occasions when he has acted in other people's films--he has
claimed complete control of his work ever since.
Allen built his early films as a showcase for
his comic persona, the traditional schlemiel of Jewish humor
and folklore. "Woody" is a nervous wreck, an urban
neurotic overloaded with complexes and phobias, yet beneath
his unprepossessing facade is a would-be Romeo, a man aflame
with sexual desire. Allen cast himself wildly against type:
in Take the Money and Run he is a bank robber; in Bananas
(1971) he becomes the dictator of a banana republic; in Sleeper
(1973) he's a time traveler adrift in a loony futuristic mise-en-scene;
in Love and Death (1975) he's a 19th-century Russian peasant.
Throughout these surreal dislocations Allen remains Woody,
a nebbish who wisecracks his way through his misadventures.
Annie Hall (1977) inaugurated Allen's Manhattan
series. In these films, which include Manhattan (1979), Hannah
and Her Sisters (1986), Crimes and Misdemeanors (1989), Alice
(1991), and Husbands and Wives (1992), Allen has become the
poet laureate of metropolitan mating dances, a moralist who
blends comedy with drama as he circles his favorite themes
in a variety of moods, from the universal affirmations of
Hannah to the sweeping uncertainties of Crimes, a work that
is the equivalent of a metaphysical shrug. (Portions of Husbands
seem to recapitulate the domestic scandal that erupted in
1992 between Allen and his longtime lover, Mia Farrow.)
While Allen's Manhattan comedies have become
increasingly sober and contemplative, he has not forsaken
the comic fantasy of his early work--A Midsummer Night's Sex
Comedy (1982), Zelig (1983), and The Purple Rose of Cairo
(1985) evince his ongoing delight in magical juxtapositions;
Broadway Danny Rose (1984) and Radio Days (1987) are as genial
as early Allen farce. Interiors (1978), September (1987),
and Another Woman (1988), however, are static, humorless tributes
to Ingmar Bergman, a director Allen idolizes but whose work
he imitates at a perilous cost to his own artistic integrity.
If Allen's evident unwillingness to be "merely
comic" has sometimes corroded his work, he is still capable
of taking surprising turns that pay off, and he has continued
to demonstrate visual virtuosity and an often exhilarating
infatuation with the act of making movies.
Foster Hirsch
Find out more about Woody
Allen at the Internet Movie Database
Celebrity Autographs and Historical Signatures
http://www.pretzelboycentral.com
|
