They say you either love Woody Allen or hate Woody Allen. I'm not a big fan of his work, per se - but only because I've never set aside much time to watch his movies. I have seen some of his more recent work, including Match Point, and I’m somewhat familiar with the sordid details of his personal life (Soon-Yi, anybody??)
All of that, however, is beside the point. This blog will be devoted to Allen and the works that influenced his films and contribution to entertainment and culture for roughly the past 44 years.
I don’t consider myself a “film buff” in any way, shape or form, but I do spend quite a lot of my time watching movies at home and at the theater. I love watching the Golden Globes and Academy Awards, even when it comes to categories I know nothing about. According to IMDB, Allen’s Vicky Cristina Barcelona was nominated for 28 awards and garnered 19 wins, including an Oscar – which is commendable my standards.
In doing a YouTube search for my “favorite” Allen clip, I was dead-set on finding the infamous fruit scene from Sleeper. When thinking of Allen’s films, one can usually assume slapstick, offbeat, raunchy, etc. The scientifically altered fruit in Sleeper (one of the only Allen film’s I’ve seen wholly) is classic, and portrays what I think the filmmaker is best known for. This scene is a silly, strange and unbelievable situation that one can’t help but laugh at.
In turn, the trailer for Match Point is the total opposite. This film expresses the cross over into the more explicitly cerebral, serious side of life.
The trailer for Vicky Cristina Barcelona is also darker and more of an artistic stretch from films like Sleeper and Bananas:
While both hint at love, deception and scandal (and have Scarlett Johansson running around naked at some point) – they are missing the quirky elements that were once present in earlier Allen films. Given that I haven’t seen most of his works, I’m going to end my first blog post here – in the hopes that by the end of the semester, I’ll really be able to give thoughtful insight into the strange mind that is Mr. Woody Allen.
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