Teen Movie Critic
Woody Allen
July 1, 1996
Woody Allen was born Allen Konigsberg in Brooklyn, NY, on December 1, 1935. After a stint at NYU, he joined up with Your Show of Shows as a gag writer. He provided comic material for such stars as Sid Caesar, Ed Sullivan and Art Carney. In 1961, Allen became a stand-up comic, and became popular among the Greenwich Village crowd. He made his feature acting and writing debut with the comedic farce, What's New, Pussycat? (1965). His first journey into actual filmaking was What's Up, Tiger Lily? (1966), a minor Japanese spy thriller to which was added Allen's own storyline and some very funny English dubbing. Allen has rarely just acted in films. Most of the time, he writes, directs and stars in his work. The few single acting projects he's done include the Herbert Ross comedy Play It Again, Sam (1972), based on one of Allen's own plays, Martin Ritt's The Front (1976) and Paul Mazursky's Scenes From A Mall (1991).
The first film Woody wrote, produced and starred in was the crime farce, Take the Money and Run (1969). It was considered a strong debut, and offered some of the Allen that was yet to come. Allen would later use the theme of love and death throughout his film career. He followed up his directing debut with three very funny (and very improbable) comedies:
- Bananas (1971), which has Woody as the leader of a Revolution in Latin America.
- Everything You've Always Wanted To Know About Sex (But Were Afraid to Ask) (1972), a collection of outrageous short sexual farcial vignettes.
- Sleeper (1973), a futuristic comedy that could be called Allen's last comedy to use mostly slapstick.
From then on out, Allen changed from Buster Keaton type humor to his so-called "intellectual" humor. He has had many influences for his stories; Kafka, Bergman, Fellini, among others. Plus, he has many themes that he uses to make fun of modern day life. The film that finally gave him true notice, was the bittersweet comedy, Annie Hall (1977). This film earned him the Best Director and Best Screenplay awards at the Oscars. Since 1977, his films have ranged from the uniquely original (Manhatten (1979), The Purple Rose of Cairo (1985)) to the embarrising (the dismally received Alice (1990) and Shadows and Fog (1992)). Also, whether they be comedies or dramas, he becomes at times overly sentimental about his subjects. Most of his stories seem to come from his true life. None seemed to parallel his public life more than Husbands a
nd Wives (1992), which seemed to be an allegory of the turmoil going on with Allen and longtime companion Mia Farrow in 1992. In recent years, things had been turning against him. When 1990 began, it seemed to most film audiences that Allen was becoming a relic of an age gone by. He didn't really bounce back in 1992, despite all the publicity surrounding Husbands and Wives.
But, in 1994, he became one of many comeback kids when his Bullets Over Broadway was deemed the most original and un-Allenesque to date. Nominated for seven Academy Awards, Allen was once again back in positive spotlight. He followed it up with Mighty Aphrodite (1995), which was critically lauded mainly for the scene stealing performance of Mira Sorvino (actor Paul Sorvino's daughter), as a hooker who is a fast talker, but not a fast thinker. In time, Allen will find an audience again. He's had ups and downs before, but most of the time he's bounced back up. Hopefully, we'll be seeing a lot of Allen in the future.
My rating on a scale of 1 to 10: 10
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