Woody Allen

Heywood "Woody" Allen (born Allan Stewart Konigsberg; New York; November 30, 1935;) is an American film director, screenwriter, actor, comedian, and musician of Jewish origin. His prolific career spans more than six decades during which he has shot over fifty films.

He began his career as a comedy writer in the 1950s writing jokes and scripts for television and publishing several books of humorous short stories. In the early 1960s, he acted as a comedian with a penchant for delivering monologues instead of traditional jokes. In his performances he was reshaping his public personality as that of an insecure, nervous individual given to metaphysical and psychoanalytic reflections. According to Allen, his real-life personality is quite different. In 2004, Comedy Central ranked Allen fourth on a list of the 100 Greatest Comedians, while a UK poll ranked Allen third best. comedian.

By the mid-1960s, Allen was writing and directing films, first specializing in physical comedies before moving to European arthouse-influenced dramatic material over the next decade, then alternating between comedy and drama. He is often identified as part of the New Hollywood wave of filmmakers from the mid-1960s to the late 1970s, Allen often stars in his films, often using the character he developed in standup. Some of the best known of her more than fifty films are Annie Hall (1977), Manhattan (1979), Hannah and Her Sisters (1986), Crimes and Misdemeanors (1989) and Midnight in Paris (2011). In 2007, he said that Stardust Memories (1980), The Purple Rose of Cairo (1985) and Match Point (2005) were his best films. Critic Roger Ebert described Allen as "a movie treasure".

Allen has received many accolades and honors throughout his career. He has won four Academy Awards: three for Best Original Screenplay and one for Best Director. He also garnered nine British Academy Film Awards. His screenplay for Annie Hall was named Funniest Screenplay by the Writers Guild of America on its list of the 101 Funniest Screenplays. In 2011, PBS televised the film's biography Woody Allen: a documentary about his American Masters series.

In March 2020, the New York publisher Arcade Publishing published his memoir Apropos of Nothing (Apropos of Nothing) in the United States. Two months later the Spanish version arrived, edited by Alianza.

Beginning of his life

Allen as a high school student, 1953

Allen was born Allan Stewart Konigsberg in the Brooklyn borough of New York on November 30, 1935. He and his sister, Letty (b. 1943), grew up in Midwood, Brooklyn. He is the son of Nettie (née Cherry; November 8, 1906 – January 27, 2002), bookkeeper in her family's delicatessen, and Martin Konigsberg (December 25, 1900 – January 8, 2001), a jewelry engraver and waiter. His family was Jewish, and his grandparents immigrated to the United States from Russia and Austria and spoke Yiddish, Hebrew, and German. Allen's parents were born and raised on the Lower East Side of Manhattan.

His childhood was not particularly happy; His parents did not get along, and he had a difficult relationship with his stern and temperamental mother. Allen spoke quite a bit of German in his early years. He later joked that when he was young he was often sent to interfaith summer camps. While attending Hebrew school for eight years, he attended Public School 99 (now the Isaac Asimov School of Science and Literature) and Midwood High School, graduating in 1953. Unlike his comic character, he was more interested in in baseball than in school and his strong arms ensured that he was chosen first for a team. He impressed the students with his extraordinary talent with card tricks and conjuring.

To earn money, he wrote jokes (or "jokes") for agent David O. Alber, who sold them to newspaper columnists. At seventeen he legally changed his name to Heywood Allen and later went by the name Woody Allen. According to Allen, the first joke he published about him read: "Woody Allen says he ate at a restaurant that had O.P.S. prices, about people's wages." He was earning more than his parents put together.After high school, he attended New York University, studying communication and film in 1953, before dropping out after failing the course "Motion Picture Production";. He studied film at the City College of New York in 1954, but left before the end of the first semester. He taught himself rather than studying in the classroom. He taught at The New School and studied under writing teacher Lajos Egri. sup>p.74

Career

Comedy Writer

Allen began writing short jokes when he was fifteen, and the following year he began sending them out to various Broadway writers to see if they would be interested in buying one. He also began to be called "Woody Allen". One such writer was Abe Burrows, co-writer of Guys and Dolls, who wrote: "Wow! His things were dazzling & # 34;. Burrows then wrote letters of introduction of Allen to Sid Caesar, Phil Silvers, and Peter Lind Hayes, who immediately sent Allen a check for the jokes Burrows included as samples.

As a result of pranks Allen mailed to various writers, he was invited, already at nineteen, to join NBC's Writer's Development Program in 1955, followed by a job on The NBC Comedy Hour in Los Angeles. He later was hired as a full-time writer for humorist Herb Shriner, initially earning $25 a week. He began writing scripts for The Ed Sullivan Show, The Tonight Show, specials for Sid Caesar post- Caesar's Hour (1954- 1957) and other television shows. ^p.111 When he worked for Caesar, he earned $1,500 a week. He has worked alongside Mel Brooks, Carl Reiner, Larry Gelbart, and Neil Simon. He also worked with Danny Simon, whom Allen credits for helping shape his writing style. In 1962 alone he estimated that he wrote twenty thousand jokes for various comedians. Allen also wrote for the television show Candid Camera and appeared in a few episodes.

He wrote jokes for Buddy Hackett's sitcom Stanley and for The Pat Boone Chevy Showroom, and in 1958 co-wrote some Sid Caesar specials with Larry Gelbart. After writing for many of the top comedians and television comedy shows, Allen was gaining a reputation as a "genius," said songwriter Mary Rodgers. When given an assignment for a show, he would leave and return the next day with a "stack of paper," according to producer Max Liebman. Similarly, after writing for Bob Hope, Hope called him "half a genius."

Your daily writing routine could last up to 15 hours, and you could focus and write anywhere you needed to. Dick Cavett was amazed at Allen's ability to write: "He can go to a typewriter after breakfast and sit there until the sun goes down and his head is pounding, interrupting work only for coffee and a short walk.", and then spend the whole afternoon working." When Allen wrote for other comedians, they used eight out of ten of his jokes. When he began acting as a stand-up stand-up, he was much more selective, typically using only one joke in ten. He estimated that to prepare for a 30-minute show, he would spend six months of intensive writing. However, he enjoyed writing, despite the work: "Nothing makes me happier than opening a bunch of paper." And I can't wait to fill it up! I love doing it'.

Allen began writing short stories and cartoons for magazines such as The New Yorker; who drew on the New Yorker tradition such as humorists SJ Perelman, George S. Kaufman, Robert Benchley, and Max Shulman, whose material is modernized. His collections of short pieces include < i>Getting Even, Without Feathers, Side Effects and Mere Anarchy. His early comic fiction was influenced by delirious humor, influenced by SJ Perelman. In 2010, Allen released audio versions of his books in which he read 73 selections. He was nominated for a Grammy Award for Best Spoken Word Album.

Solid Talk

Allen in the early 1970s

From 1960 to 1969, Allen performed as a stand-up comedian to supplement his comedy writing. His contemporaries during those years included Lenny Bruce, Shelley Berman, the team of Mike Nichols and Elaine May, Joan Rivers and Mort Sahl, his personal favourite. Comedy historian Gerald Nachman notes that Allen, while not the first to do stand-up comedy, would eventually have a bigger impact than everyone else in the 1960s, redefining the meaning of stand-up comedy: "He helped turn it into a scathing, brutally honest satirical commentary on the cultural and psychological tenor of the time".

After Allen was taken under the wing of his new manager, Jack Rollins, who had recently discovered Nichols and May, Rollins suggested that he perform his written jokes as a monologue. At first, Allen resisted, but after seeing Mort Sahl onstage, he felt more confident giving it a try: "He's never had the nerve to talk about it before." Then Mort Sahl came along with a whole new brand of humor, opening up perspectives for people like me' Allen made his professional stage debut at the Blue Angel nightclub in Manhattan in October 1960, where he was introduced by comedian Shelley Berman. like a young TV writer who would interpret his own material.

His early stand-up shows with his different brand of humor were not always well received or understood by his audiences. Unlike other comedians, Allen spoke to audiences about him in a gentle, conversational style, often appearing to be searching for words, though he was well rehearsed. He acted 'normal', dressed casually and made no attempt to project a 'personality'; scenic. And he did not improvise: "I gave very little importance to improvisation," he told Studs Terkel. His jokes were created from life experiences and were usually presented with a very serious demeanor. that made them funnier: 'I don't think my family loves me. They put a live teddy bear in my crib."

The subjects of his jokes were rarely topical, political, or socially relevant. Unlike Bruce and Sahl, she did not discuss current events like civil rights, women's rights, the Cold War, or Vietnam. And though he was described as a "classic nebbish," he didn't tell Jewish jokes. Comedy writer Larry Gelbart compared Allen's style to Elaine May: "He just completely styled himself after her," he said. Like Nichols and May, he often made fun of the intellectuals.

Morning TV host Dick Cavett, who was among the minority who quickly appreciated Allen's unique style, remembers watching the audience at the Blue Angel mostly ignore Allen's monologue: 'I recognized immediately that there wasn't a young comedian in the country in the same class with him for sheer brilliance of banter, and I resented the fact that the audience was too dumb to realize what they were getting' It was his subdued stage presence, though initially unappreciated, eventually became one of Allen's strongest traits, explains Nachman: "The complete absence of veneer and showmanship was the best game any comedian has ever played." ever devised. This awkward naturalness on stage became a trademark." When he was finally noticed by the media, writers like The New York Times & # 39; Arthur Gelb describe Allen's nebbish quality as 'Chaplin' and 'refreshing'.

Allen developed an anxious, nervous, and intellectual persona for his stand-up, a successful move that secured him regular gigs in nightclubs and on television. He brought innovation to the stand-up comedy genre and his stand-up comedy is considered influential. Allen first appeared on The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson on November 1, 1963, and for nine years his guest appearances included 17 in the host's chair. He subsequently released three LP albums of live nightclub recordings: the self-titled Woody Allen (1964), Volume 2 (1965) and The Third Woody Allen Album (1968), recorded at a fundraiser for Senator Eugene McCarthy who was running for president.

In 1965, Allen had his own television special in Britain, The Woody Allen Show. In 1967 he hosted an episode of The Kraft Music Hall where he would intersperse humor with interviews with famous people, including conservative writer William F. Buckley. In 1969 he hosted his first American special for CBS television, which included a humorous spot with The Rev. Billy Graham. He also did stand-up comedy on other series, including The Andy Williams Show and The Perry Como Show, where he interacted with with other guests and occasionally sang. In 1971, Allen hosted one of his last Tonight Shows, which featured guests Bob Hope and James Coco.

Life magazine featured Allen on the cover of its March 21, 1969 issue.

Playwright

Allen with Broadway cast Play It Again, Sam (1969).

In 1966, Allen wrote the play Don't Drink the Water. The play starred Lou Jacobi, Kay Medford, Anita Gillette, and Allen's future co-star Tony Roberts. A film adaptation of the play, directed by Howard Morris, was released in 1969, starring Jackie Gleason. Not particularly happy with that version, Allen directed and starred in a second TV version in 1994, with Michael J. Fox and Mayim Bialik.

The next play Allen wrote for Broadway was Play It Again, Sam, in which he also starred. The play opened on February 12, 1969, and ran for 453 performances. Featuring Diane Keaton and Roberts, the play was significant to Keaton's fledgling career, and she said she was "in awe" of her performance. of Allen even before auditioning for the role of her, which was the first time she had met him.In a 2013 interview, Keaton said that she "she fell in love with him immediately"; and added: "She wanted to be his girlfriend, so I did something about it." After co-starring with Allen in the later film version of Play It Again, Sam later co-starred in Sleeper, Love and Death, Annie Hall, Interiors and Manhattan. He showed me the ropes and I followed his lead. He is the most disciplined person I know. He works very hard,' Keaton said.

In 1981, Allen's play The Floating Light Bulb opened on Broadway and ran for 65 performances. While receiving mixed reviews, it gave an autobiographical insight into Allen's childhood, specifically his fascination with magic tricks. He has written several one-act plays, including Riverside Drive and Old Saybrook, exploring familiar Allen themes.

On October 20, 2011, Allen's one-act play Honeymoon Motel opened on Broadway as part of a larger play entitled Relatively Speaking, with other two one-act plays, one by Ethan Coen and one by Elaine May.

On March 11, 2014, Allen's musical Bullets Over Broadway opened on Broadway at the St. James Theatre. The show starred Zack Braff, Nick Cordero and Betsy Wolfe. Allen received a Tony Award nomination for Best Book of a Musical. The show received six Tony nominations.

First films

Allen's first feature film was the Charles K. Feldman production What's New, Pussycat? (1965), for which he wrote the screenplay. He was disappointed with the final product, which inspired him to direct every film he wrote afterward. Allen's first directing effort was What's Up, Tiger Lily? (1966, co-written with Mickey Rose), in which Allen and his friends made a new English film about spies: Kokusai himitsu keisatsu: Kagi no kagi (1965), "International Secret Police: Key of Keys". In 1967, Allen played Jimmy Bond in the 007 parody of Casino Royale.

In 1969, Allen directed, starred in, and co-wrote (with Mickey Rose) Take the Money and Run, which received positive reviews. He later signed a deal with United Artists to produce several movies. Those films eventually became Bananas (1971, co-written with Rose), Everything You Always Wanted to Know About Sex* (*But Were Afraid to Ask) (1972), Sleeper (1973) and Love and Death (1975). Sleeper was the first of four screenplays co-written by Allen and Marshall Brickman.

In 1972, Allen wrote and starred in the film version of Play It Again, Sam, directed by Herbert Ross and co-starring Diane Keaton. In 1976 he played cashier Howard Prince in The Front, directed by Martin Ritt. The Front was a humorous and moving account of the blacklisting of Hollywood during the 1950s; Ritt, screenwriter Walter Bernstein and three of Allen's co-stars, Samuel "Zero" Mostel, Herschel Bernardi and Lloyd Gough, had been blacklisted.

Then came two of Allen's most popular films: Annie Hall and Manhattan. Annie Hall (1977) won four Academy Awards, including Best Picture, Best Actress in a Leading Role for Diane Keaton, Best Original Screenplay and Best Director for Woody Allen. Annie Hall set the standard for the modern romantic comedy and ignited a fashion trend with the clothing Keaton wore in the film. In an interview with journalist Katie Couric, Keaton did not deny that Allen wrote the role of her for her and about her.The film is ranked 35th in the American Film Institute & # 39; '100 Best Movies' and fourth on AFI's list of the '100 Greatest Comedies.'

Manhattan (1979) is a black-and-white film often seen as a tribute to New York City. As in many of Allen's films, the main leads are upper-middle-class writers and academics. Manhattan centers on the complicated relationship between middle-aged Isaac Davis (Allen) and seventeen-year-old Tracy (Mariel Hemingway) and her co-stars Diane Keaton.

Keaton, who made eight films with Allen, said: "He just has a mind like nobody else. He is bold. He has a lot of strength, a lot of courage in terms of his work. And that's what it takes to make something truly unique. Along with a genius imagination ".

1980s

Allen's films of the 1980s, including the comedies, have dark, philosophical undertones, and are influenced by European directors, specifically Ingmar Bergman and Federico Fellini. Stardust Memories was based on 8½ , which he parodies, and Wild Strawberries . A Midsummer Night's Sex Comedy was adapted from Smiles of a Summer Night. In Hannah and her sisters , part of the structure and background of the film are taken from Fanny and Alexander . Amarcord inspired Radio Days. September resembles the Autumn Sonata. Allen uses many elements from Wild Strawberries. In Smiles of a Summer Night, Allen references a scene from Wild Strawberries.

Stardust Memories (1980) features Sandy Bates, a successful filmmaker played by Allen, who expresses resentment and contempt for his fans. Overcome by the recent death of a friend from illness, Bates says, 'I don't want to make funny movies anymore' and a running gag involving various people (including visiting aliens) telling him that they appreciate his movies, “especially the beginning, funny.” Allen thinks this is one of his best movies. of the.

A Midsummer Night's Sex Comedy (1982) was the first film Allen made starring Mia Farrow, who took over the role of Diane Keaton when Keaton was filming Reds. He then produced a vividly idiosyncratic tragicomic parody of the documentary, Zelig, in which he played Leonard Zelig, a man who has the ability to transform his appearance to that of the people around him..

Allen has combined tragic and comedic elements in films such as Hannah and Her Sisters (1986) and Crimes and Misdemeanors (1989), in which he tells two stories that connect at the end. He also made three movies about show business: Broadway Danny Rose, in which he plays a New York show business agent, The Purple Rose of Cairo, a film that shows the importance of cinema during the Depression through the character of the naive Cecilia, and Radio Days, a film about her childhood in Brooklyn and the importance of radio. The film co-starred Farrow in a part that Allen wrote specifically for her.

The Purple Rose of Cairo was named by Time as one of the 100 Greatest Films of All Time. Allen ranked it as one of his top three films with Stardust Memories and Match Point. For "best" he said that he meant that they came closer to his vision. In 1989, Allen and directors Francis Ford Coppola and Martin Scorsese made New York Stories, an anthology film about New Yorkers. Allen's short, Oedipus Wrecks , is about a neurotic lawyer and his critical mother. Film critic Vincent Canby of The New York Times praised it.

1990s

Allen's 1991 film Shadows and Fog is a black-and-white homage to the German Expressionists and features the music of Kurt Weill. Allen made his acclaimed comedy drama Husbands and Wives (1992), which received two Oscar nominations: Best Supporting Actress for Judy Davis and Best Original Screenplay for Allen. Manhattan Murder Mystery (1993) blended suspense with dark comedy and marked the return of Diane Keaton, Alan Alda and Anjelica Huston.

He made lighter films such as Bullets over Broadway (1994), which earned an Academy Award nomination for Best Director, followed by a musical, Everyone Says I Love You (1996). The singing and dancing scenes in Everyone Says I Love You are similar to musicals starring Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers. The comedy Mighty Aphrodite (1995), in which the Greek drama plays a major role, won an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress for Mira Sorvino. Sweet and Lowdown, a 1999 jazz-based comedy-drama by Allen, was nominated for two Academy Awards, for Sean Penn (Best Actor) and Samantha Morton (Best Supporting Actress). In contrast to these whiter films, Allen veered into darker satire towards the end of the decade with Deconstructing Harry (1997) and Celebrity (1998).

During this decade, Allen also starred in the television film The Sunshine Boys (1995), based on the Neil Simon play of the same name.

Allen made an "appearance" phone-in comedy on the show Just Shoot Me! in a 1997 episode, "My Dinner with Woody," which paid homage to several of his films. He provided the voice of Z in DreamWorks' first animated feature, Antz (1998), which featured many actors he had worked with; Allen's character was similar to his previous roles.

2000s

Small Time Crooks (2000) was Allen's first film with the DreamWorks studio and represented a change in direction: he began doing more interviews and trying to get back to his slapstick roots. The film is similar to the 1942 film Larceny, Inc. (from a play by SJ Perelman) Allen never commented on whether this was deliberate or if the film was somehow inspired by him. Small Time Crooks was a relative financial success, grossing over $17 million domestically, but Allen's next four films flopped at the box office, including Allen's most expensive film, The Curse of the Jade Scorpion (with a budget of 26 million USD). Hollywood Ending, Anything Else, and Melinda and Melinda all have "rotten" on the film critic website Rotten Tomatoes and each earned less than US$4 million domestically.

Some critics claimed that Allen's early 2000s films were lacking and expressed concern that his best years are behind him. Others were less harsh; Reviewing Melinda and Melinda, which he disliked, Roger Ebert wrote: "I cannot escape the suspicion that if Woody had never made a previous film, if each new one were to debut of Woody at the Sundance festival, it would get a better reception". His reputation is not a dead shark but an albatross, which with admirable economy Allen has arranged for critics to take his own neck."

Allen in 2006

Match Point (2005) was one of Allen's most successful films of the decade, earning positive reviews. Set in London, it starred Jonathan Rhys Meyers and Scarlett Johansson. It's noticeably darker than Allen's first four films with DreamWorks SKG. In Match Point, Allen shifts his focus from New York's intellectual upper class to London's wealthy upper class. The film earned more than $23 million domestically (more than any of his films in almost 20 years) and more than $62 million in international box office sales. Match Point earned Allen his first Academy Award nomination since 1998, for Best Writing - Original Screenplay, with nominations for directing and writing at the Golden Globes, his first Globe nominations since 1987. In a 2006 interview with Premiere Magazine , he said it was the best movie he had ever made.

Allen reached an agreement to film Vicky Cristina Barcelona in Avilés, Barcelona and Oviedo, Spain, where shooting began on July 9, 2007. The film featured Scarlett Johansson, Javier Bardem, Rebecca Hall and Penélope Cruz. Vicky Cristina Barcelona won Best Motion Picture - Musical or Comedy at the Golden Globe Awards. Cruz received the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress.

"In the United States, things have changed a lot, and now it's hard to make good little movies," Allen said in a 2004 interview. "Greedy studios couldn't care less about good movies: if they get a good movie, they are twice as happy, but their goal is to make movies that make money". They just want these $100 million movies that make $500 million".

In April 2008 he began filming Whatever Works, a film aimed more at a mature audience, starring Larry David, Patricia Clarkson, and Evan Rachel Wood. Released in 2009 and described Like a dark comedy, it follows the story of a failed suicide attempt turned into a messy love triangle. Whatever Works was written by Allen in the 1970s, and the character of David was written for Zero Mostel, who died the year Annie Hall came out.

Allen was elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 2001.

2010s

Woody Allen at the Festival de Cannes 2015

You Will Meet a Tall, Dark Stranger, filmed in London, starring Antonio Banderas, Josh Brolin, Anthony Hopkins, Anupam Kher, Freida Pinto and Naomi Watts. Filming began in July 2009. It was theatrically released in the United States on September 23, 2010, following a Cannes debut in May 2010, and a screening at the Toronto International Film Festival on September 12, 2010. 2010.

Allen announced his next film would be titled Midnight in Paris starring Owen Wilson, Marion Cotillard, Rachel McAdams, Michael Sheen, Corey Stoll, Allison Pill, Tom Hiddleston, Adrien Brody, Kathy Bates and Carla Bruni, the first lady of France at the time of production.

The film follows a young engaged couple in Paris who see their lives transformed. It premiered at the 2011 Cannes Film Festival on May 12, 2011. Allen said that he wanted to "show the city emotionally"; during the press conference. "I just wanted it to be how I saw Paris, Paris through my eyes," he added. The film was almost universally praised, receiving a 93% on Rotten Tomatoes. Midnight in Paris won the Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay and became his highest-grossing film, earning US$151 million worldwide on a US$17 million budget.

His next film, To Rome with Love, was a comedy set in Rome released in 2012. The film was structured in four blocks with dialogues in Italian and English. It marked Allen's return to acting since her last role in Scoop.

Blue Jasmine was released in July 2013. The film takes place in San Francisco and New York, and stars Alec Baldwin, Cate Blanchett, Louis CK, Andrew Dice Clay, Sally Hawkins and Peter Sarsgaard. Opening to critical acclaim, the film earned Allen another Academy Award nomination for Best Original Screenplay, and Blanchett received the Academy Award for Best Actress. Allen co-starred with John Turturro in Fading Gigolo, written and directed by Turturro, which was released in September 2013. In 2013, Allen filmed the romantic comedy Magic in the Moonlight with Emma Stone and Colin Firth in Nice, France. The film takes place in the 1920s on the French Riviera.

From July to August 2014, Allen filmed the mystery drama Irrational Man in Newport, Rhode Island, with Joaquin Phoenix, Emma Stone, Parker Posey, and Jamie Blackley. Allen said that this film, as well as the next three he had planned, he was financed and fully supported by Sony Pictures Classics. His next film, Café Society, starred an ensemble cast, including Jesse Eisenberg, Kristen Stewart, and Blake Lively. Bruce Willis became a co-star, but was replaced by Steve Carell during filming. The film is distributed by Amazon Studios and opened the 2016 Cannes Film Festival on May 11, 2016, marking Allen's third time opening the festival.

On January 14, 2015, it was announced that Allen would write and direct a half-hour episodic television series for Amazon Studios, marking his first time developing a television show. It would be available exclusively on Amazon Prime Instant Video, and Amazon Studios had already ordered a full season. Allen said of the series: 'I don't know how I got into this. I'm out of ideas and not sure where to start. I guess Roy Price [the head of Amazon Studios] will regret this ".

At the 2015 Cannes Film Festival, Allen said, referring to his upcoming Amazon show, "It was a catastrophic mistake. I do not know what I'm doing. I'm reeling. I hope this is a cosmic embarrassment". On September 30, 2016, Amazon Video premiered the first production of Allen's television series, Crisis in Six Scenes. The series is a comedy that takes place during the 1960s. It centers on the life of a suburban family after a surprise visitor creates chaos among them. It stars Allen alongside Elaine May and Miley Cyrus. Cyrus plays a radical hippie fugitive who sells marijuana.

In September 2016, Allen began filming Wonder Wheel, set in the 1950s at Coney Island, and starring Kate Winslet and Justin Timberlake. The film served as the closing night selection at the 55th New York Film Festival on October 15, 2017, and was theatrically released on December 1, 2017, as the first film self-distributed to theaters by Amazon Studios.

His film A Rainy Day in New York, starring Timothée Chalamet, Selena Gomez, Elle Fanning, Jude Law, Diego Luna, Liev Schreiber and Rebecca Hall began production in New York in September 2017. Chalamet, Gomez and Hall announced, in light of the #MeToo movement, that they would donate their salaries to various charities.

In February 2019, it was announced that Amazon Studios had launched A Rainy Day in New York and would no longer finance, produce or distribute films with Allen. He filed a lawsuit for $68 million, alleging that Amazon gave "vague reasons" to get out of the contract, he dropped the film on "a 25-year-old baseless accusation" and made no payments. The film is scheduled to screen at European film festivals, including the Deauville American Film Festival in France.

In February 2019, Allen joined Mediapro, an independent Spanish TV movie company, to develop his next feature film. In May 2019, Variety magazine confirmed that the film's cast would include "Christoph Waltz, Elena Anaya, Louis Garrel, Gina Gershon, Sergi López and Wally Shawn, as well as production company Gravier Productions".

Years 2020

In February 2019, Allen partnered with Mediapro, an independent Spanish TV movie company, to develop his next film, Rifkin's Festival. In May 2019 < i>Variety magazine confirmed that the film's cast would include Oscar winner Christoph Waltz, Elena Anaya, Louis Garrel, Gina Gershon, Sergi López and Wallace Shawn and would be produced by Gravier Productions. At the end of October 2019, at the Rifkin's Festival, filming was completed and it entered post-production with the premiere scheduled to be in Spain in 2020.

In May 2019, it was announced that Allen had written a memoir and had attempted to sell it to several prominent publishers who turned it down. On March 2, 2020, it was announced that Grand Central Publishing would be releasing Allen's long-awaited autobiography. Allen titled, Apropos of Nothing, which was released on April 7, 2020, The book has been published in the United States, Canada, Italy, Spain, and France, among others. According to the publisher, the book is a "a comprehensive account of Allen's life, both personal and professional, describing his work in films, theater, television, nightclubs, and print... Allen also writes about his relationships with family, friends, and the loves of his life & #34;.

The decision to publish the book was met with backlash from Ronan Farrow, who cut ties with the publisher, along with Dylan Farrow, who also responded to the announcement of the release stating: "Hachette's publication of Woody Allen's memoir is deeply upsetting to me personally and a total betrayal of my brother". On March 5, 2020, 75 Grand Central Publishing employees held a walkout to protest the book. On March 6, 2020, In March, the publisher announced in a statement that the book's release was canceled and the rights would be returned to Allen, saying: “The decision to cancel Mr. Allen's book was a difficult one. Over the past few days, HBG leadership has had extensive discussions with our staff and others. After listening, we came to the conclusion that continuing to publish would not be feasible for HBG".

Novelist Stephen King criticized Hachette's decision to withdraw the book, saying it "makes me very uneasy. Is not the; I don't give a damn about Mr. Allen. What worries me is who will they bother next". PEN America executive director Suzanne Nossel also criticized the decision.On March 6, 2020, Manuel Carcassonne of Hachette's French branch, publisher Stock, announced that he would publish the book if Allen allowed it. On March 23, 2020, Arcade published the memoir in English and La nave di Teseo published it in Italian.

In June 2020, Allen appeared on Alec Baldwin's podcast Here the Thing and discussed his career as a comedian, comedy writer, and filmmaker, as well as his life during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Theater

Woody Allen natural size statuette in Oviedo, Spain

Although best known for his films, Allen has enjoyed a successful career on stage, beginning as far back as 1960, when he wrote skits for A to Z magazine. His first major The hit was Don't Drink the Water, which opened in 1968 and ran for 598 performances over nearly two years on Broadway. His success continued with Play It Again, Sam, which opened in 1969, starring Allen and Diane Keaton. The show ran for 453 performances and was nominated for three Tony Awards, although none of the nominations went to Allen's writing or performance.

In the 1970s, Allen wrote a series of one-act plays, notably God and Death, which were published in his 1975 collection Without Feathers. In 1981, Allen's play The Floating Light Bulb opened on Broadway. It was a critical success and a commercial failure. Despite two Tony Award nominations, a Tony Award for Brian Backer's performance (who won the 1981 World Theater Award, and a Drama Desk Award for his work), the play only ran for 62 performances. On a break from the stage, Allen returned to the stage in 1995 with the one-act Central Park West, an evening theater delivery, Death Defying Acts, which also featured new works by David Mamet and Elaine May.

Over the next few years, Allen had no direct involvement on stage, but notable productions of his work were produced. There was a production of God at the Banco do Brasil Cultural Center in Rio de Janeiro, and stage adaptations of Allen's films Bullets Over Broadway and September were produced in Italy and France, respectively, without Allen's involvement. In 1997, rumors that Allen returned to the stage to write a starring role for his wife Soon-Yi Previn turned out to be false. In 2003, Allen finally returned to the stage with Writer's Block, a night of two acts in one: Old Saybrook and Riverside Drive, which were made Off-Broadway. The production marked his debut as a stage director and exhausted his entire career. Also in 2003 reports appeared of Allen writing the book for a musical based on Bullets Over Broadway, and it opened in New York in 2014. The musical closed on August 24, 2014, after 156 performances and 33 previews.

In 2004, Allen's first full-length play since 1981, A Second Hand Memory, was directed by Allen and enjoyed an extended Off-Broadway run. In June 2007 it was announced that Allen would make two more creative stage debuts, directing a play he did not write and directing an opera, a reinterpretation of Puccini's Gianni Schicchi for the Los Angeles Opera which debuted at the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion on September 6, 2008. On his conducting the opera, Allen said, "I have no idea what I'm doing." His production of the opera opened the Festival of the Two Worlds in the Italian town of Spoleto in June 2009.

In October 2011, Allen's one-act play Honeymoon Motel opened as one in a series of one-act plays on Broadway titled Relatively Speaking. Also contributing to the plays are Elaine May and Ethan Coen with John Turturro directing. It was announced in February 2012 that Allen would be adapting Bullets over Broadway into a Broadway musical. It opened on April 10, 2014 and closed on August 24, 2014.

In March 2014, Allen's musical Bullets Over Broadway opened at the St. James Theatre. The cast included Zach Braff, Nick Cordero, and Betsy Wolfe. The show was directed and choreographed by Susan Stroman, known for directing the stage and film productions of Mel Brooks' The Producers. The show drew mixed reviews from critics, but received six Tony Award nominations, including one for Allen for Best Book of a Musical.

Music

Woody Allen with Jerry Zigmont and Simon Wettenhall performing at the Vienne Jazz Festival. Vienne, France, 20 September 2003

Allen is passionate about jazz, which often appears on his movie soundtracks. He began playing the clarinet as a child and took his stage name from clarinetist Woody Herman.He has performed publicly since at least the late 1960s, including with the Preservation Hall Jazz Band on the Sleeper soundtrack. >.

Woody Allen and his New Orleans Jazz Band have been playing every Monday night at the Carlyle Hotel in Manhattan for many years specializing in New Orleans jazz since the turn of the century XX. Plays songs by Sidney Bechet, George Lewis, Johnny Dodds, Jimmie Noone, and Louis Armstrong. The documentary Wild Man Blues (directed by Barbara Kopple) chronicles a 1996 European tour by Allen and his band, as well as his relationship with Previn. The band released the albums The Bunk Project (1993) and the soundtrack to Wild Man Blues (1997). In a 2011 review of a concert by Allen's jazz band, critic Kirk Silsbee of the Los Angeles Times suggested that Allen should be considered a competent music aficionado with a sincere appreciation of early jazz: "Allen's clarinet won't make anyone forget Sidney Bechet, Barney Bigard or Evan Christopher. His sharp tone and staccato strings of notes cannot come close to melodic or lyrical phrasing. Even his seriousness and the obvious regard he has for traditional jazz count for something."

Allen and his band played at the Montreal International Jazz Festival on two consecutive nights in June 2008. For many years he wanted to make a film about the origins of jazz in New Orleans. Tentatively titled American Blues, the film would follow the different careers of Louis Armstrong and Sidney Bechet. Allen stated that the film would cost US$80-100 million and is therefore unlikely to be made.

Influences

Allen has said that he was greatly influenced by comedians Bob Hope, Groucho Marx, Mort Sahl, Charlie Chaplin, W. C. Fields, playwright George S. Kaufman, filmmakers Ingmar Bergman, and Federico Fellini.

Many comedians have cited Allen as an influence, including Louis CK, Jon Stewart, Chris Rock, John Mulaney, Bill Hader, Aziz Ansari, Sarah Silverman, Seth MacFarlane, Seth Meyers, Bill Maher, Larry David, Albert Brooks, John Cleese and Garry Shandling.

Filmmakers who have cited Allen as an influence include Wes Anderson, Greta Gerwig, and Noah Baumbach.

Jobs

Filmography

You can consult the complete filmography of Woody Allen.

Selection of his filmography:

Literary works

Allen accumulates a remarkable production of books. Some of them are, in chronological order:

• No feathers. Barcelona: Tusquets; 1976. ISBN: 9788472235717
• Profiles. Barcelona: Tusquets; 1980. ISBN: 978-8472235939
• Counts without feathers. Barcelona: Reading Circle; 1991. ISBN: 978-8422638377
• Aspirin for two. Mk: Madrid; 1996. ISBN: 978-8473890175
• Manhattan. Barcelona: MaxiTusquets; 1999. ISBN: 978-8483106433
• How to end culture once and for all. Barcelona: Reading Circle; 2002. ISBN: 978-84226933
• Interiors. Barcelona: MaxiTusquets; 2002. ISBN: 978-8483108369
• The bulb that floats. Barcelona: MaxiTusquets; 2006. ISBN: 978-8483104682
• Don't drink the water. Barcelona: MaxiTusquets; 2006; ISBN: 978-8483104842
• About nothing. [autobiography]. Madrid: Alliance: 2020. ISBN: 978-8491819950
• Zero gravity. Editorial Alliance; 2022.

Theatrical works

In addition to directing, writing and acting in films, Allen has written and acted in several Broadway stage productions.

Awards

In his film career of more than 50 years, Allen has received many award nominations. He currently holds the record for the most Academy Award nominations for Best Original Screenplay, with 16 nominations and three wins (Annie Hall, Hannah and Her Sisters and Midnight in Paris). Allen has been nominated for Best Director seven times, winning for Annie Hall. Three of Allen's films have been nominated for the Academy Award for Best Picture, Annie Hall, Hannah and Her Sisters and Midnight in Paris.

Allen avoids award ceremonies, citing their subjectivity. Her first and only Academy Awards appearance was at the 2002 Oscars, where she received a standing ovation. As a New York icon, she had been asked by the Academy to submit a cinematic montage of clips of New York City in the movies, which was created by Nora Ephron, to honor the city after 9/11.

Personal life

Allen has been married three times: Harlene Rosen (d. 1956–1959), Louise Lasser, (d. 1966–1970), and Soon-Yi Previn (d. 1997-present). He also had a 12-year relationship with actress Mia Farrow and relationships with Stacey Nelkin and Diane Keaton.

Youth marriages and relationships

In 1956, Allen married Harlene Rosen. He was 20 and she was 17. The marriage lasted until 1959. Rosen, whom Allen called "the terrifying Mrs. Allen" in his stand-up act, sued him for defamation as a result of comments he made. he did during a television appearance shortly after their divorce. In his mid-1960s album Standup Comic, Allen said that Rosen had sued him over a joke she made in an interview. Rosen had been sexually assaulted outside her apartment. According to Allen, newspapers reported that she had been "raped." In the interview, Allen said: "Knowing my ex-wife, it probably wasn't a traffic violation." In an interview on The Dick Cavett Show, Allen echoed his comments and said that he had been sued for '$1 million';

In 1966, Allen married Louise Lasser. They divorced in 1970. Lasser appeared in three of Allen's films: Take the Money and Run, Bananas, and Everything You Always Wanted to Know About Sex* (*But Were Afraid to Ask). He also appeared briefly in Stardust Memories.

In 1969, Allen cast Diane Keaton in his Broadway show Play It Again, Sam. During the recording, she and Allen began a romantic relationship. Although they broke up after a year, she continued to star in her films, including Sleeper as a futurist poet and Love and Death as a composite character based on the novels by Tolstoy and Dostoevsky. Annie Hall was very important in the careers of Allen and Keaton. The role of her is said to have been written for her, as Keaton's birth name was Diane Hall. She then starred in Interiors as a poet, followed by Manhattan .

In 1987, she had a cameo as a nightclub singer in Radio Days, and was cast to replace Mia Farrow in Manhattan Murder Mystery after Allen and Farrow began to have problems with their relationship. In total, Keaton has starred in eight of Allen's films. As of 2018, Keaton and Allen remain close friends. In a rare public appearance, Allen presented Keaton with the AFI Life Achievement Award in 2017.

According to the Los Angeles Times, Manhattan was based on Allen's romantic relationship with actress Stacey Nelkin. His part in Annie Hall it ended up on the courtroom floor, and their relationship, which was never publicly acknowledged by Allen, began when he was seventeen and a student at Stuyvesant High School in New York. In December 2018, The Hollywood Reporter interviewed Babi Christina Engelhardt, who said she had an eight-year affair with Allen that began in 1976 when she was seventeen (they met when she was sixteen), and that she believes Tracy's character in Manhattan is a combination of any number of Allen's presumed real-life young lovers from that period, not necessarily Nelkin or Engelhardt. When she was asked, Allen declined to comment.

Mia Farrow

Allen and Mia Farrow met in 1979 and began a relationship in 1980; Farrow starred in thirteen of Allen's films from 1982 to 1992. Throughout their relationship they lived in separate apartments on opposite sides of Central Park in Manhattan. Farrow had seven children when they met: three biological children from her marriage to composer, pianist, and conductor André Previn, three foster girls (two Vietnamese and one South Korean, Soon-Yi Previn), and an adopted South Korean boy, Moses Farrow.

In 1984 she and Allen tried to conceive a child together; Allen agreed to this with the understanding that she did not need to be involved in the child's care. When the effort to get pregnant failed, Farrow adopted a girl, Dylan Farrow, in July 1985. Allen was not involved in the adoption, but when Dylan arrived, he took on a fatherly role toward her and began spending more time at her home. Farrow. On December 19, 1987, Farrow gave birth to their son Satchel Farrow (later known as Ronan Farrow). In 1991 Farrow wanted to adopt another child. According to a 1993 custody hearing, Allen told her that she would not object to another adoption as long as she agreed to his adoption of Dylan and Moses; that adoption was finalized in December 1991. Eric Lax, Allen's biographer, wrote in The New York Times that Allen was "there before [the children] woke up in the morning, he sees them during the day and helps put them to bed at night".

Soon-Yi Previn

Allen and Soon-Yi Previn in Venice.

Soon-Yi Previn and Allen, 2009.

In 1977, Mia Farrow and André Previn adopted Soon-Yi Previn, who had been abandoned in Seoul. At the time of her adoption, her passport stated that she was seven years old; A bone scan in the United States estimated that she was between five and seven years old. (Maureen Orth: (Vanity Fair, November 1992): "No one knows how old Soon-Yi is. Never seeing her, Korean officials estimated her age at seven on her passport." A bone scan that Mia had done with her in the United States determined her age to be between five and 7. In the family, Soon-Yi is considered to have turned twenty on October 8, 1992.) According to Soon -Yi, her first friendly interaction with Allen took place when she got injured playing soccer during her junior year of high school and Allen offered to drive her to school. After her injury, she began attending New York Knicks basketball games with Allen. She went to more games and they had teamed up by 1991. In September 1991 she began her studies at Drew University in New Sweater.

In January 1992, Farrow found nude photographs of Soon-Yi in Allen's home. Allen, 56, told Farrow that he had taken the photos the day before, approximately two weeks after he had sex with Soon-Yi. Both Farrow and Allen contacted their respective attorneys shortly after the photos were discovered. photographs. Soon-Yi was asked to leave summer camp because she was spending too much time taking calls from a "Mr. Simon", who turned out to be Allen.

In an August 1992 interview with Time Magazine Allen said: "I am not Soon-Yi's father or stepfather," adding: "I have never lived with Mia. I never slept in Mia's apartment in my life, and I never used to go there until my children arrived seven years ago. I never had family dinners there. I was not the father of her adoptive children in any sense of the word & # 34;. Adding that Soon-Yi never treated him like a father figure and that he rarely spoke to her before the affair, Allen seemed to see little problem with her relationship.

On August 17, 1992, Allen released a statement saying he was in love with Soon-Yi. Their relationship went public and "exploded into tabloid headlines and late-night monologues in August 1992".

Allen and Soon-Yi were married in Venice on December 23, 1997. They have adopted two children, Bechet and Manzie, and live in the Carnegie Hill section of Manhattan's Upper East Side.

Accusation of sexual abuse

According to court testimony, on August 4, 1992, Allen visited the children at Mia Farrow's home in Bridgewater, Connecticut, while she was shopping with a friend. During the next day, that friend's babysitter told her employer that she had seen "Dylan was sitting on the couch and Woody was kneeling on the floor in front of her with his head in her lap.";. When Farrow questioned Dylan about it, Dylan allegedly said that Allen had touched the "private part" of the song. of Dylan while they were alone in the penthouse. A woman employed to care for Farrow's children said that for about 20 minutes that afternoon she had not known where Dylan was, while a second said that, at one point, Dylan was not wearing any clothes. inside under the dress. Farrow told Dylan's pediatrician, who informed authorities.

Allen strongly denied the allegation, calling it "an inordinate and terribly damaging manipulation of innocent children for vindictive and selfish motives." He then began proceedings in New York Supreme Court for sole custody of Satchel, his and Farrow's son, as well as Dylan and Moses, their two adopted sons. In March 1993, a six-month investigation by the Yale-New Haven Hospital Child Sexual Abuse Clinic concluded that Dylan had not she had been sexually assaulted.

In June 1993, Judge Elliott Wilk rejected Allen's offer of custody and dismissed the sexual assault charge. Wilk said he was less certain than the Yale-New Haven team that there was conclusive evidence that there was no sexual abuse, and called Allen's conduct with Dylan "grossly inappropriate," although not sexual. In September 1993, the state's attorney announced that, despite having "probable cause," he would not file charges to "avoid the unjustifiable risk of exposing a child to the rigors and uncertainties of a criminal investigation." questionable prosecution', noting that even Justice Wilk, even working to a less severe standard of proof than proof beyond a reasonable doubt, had not been able to uphold the allegation of abuse. In 1993, the New York Child Welfare Agency of the state Department of Social Services closed a 14-month investigation and concluded that there was no credible evidence of abuse or maltreatment and the report was unfounded.

When Allen received a Golden Globe Award for Life Achievement in 2014, it caught the attention of the media. On February 1, 2014, New York Times columnist Nicholas Kristof, with Dylan's permission, published a column that included excerpts from a letter Dylan had written to Kristof about his memories and feelings. about the initial episode, public reaction to the issue, and Allen's award. On April 29, 2018, Ronan Farrow commented on the allegations on Preet Bharara's podcast, saying of Allen: "It's hard to get away from a huge cloud of suspicion over this guy and they should never have allowed that to other kids'. On May 23, 2018, Moses Farrow defended Allen against Dylan and Mia's accusations on his blog, saying he was on his home that day and that he did not let Dylan out of his sight throughout his father's visit. Allen's daughter, Bechet Dumaine Allen, seconded Moses' comments. On May 24, 2018, Ronan called Moses' comments part of a smear campaign against Dylan.

Works about Allen

Aside from Wild Man Blues, directed by Barbara Kopple, there are other documentaries about Woody Allen, including the 2001 cable television documentary Woody Allen: A Life on Film, directed by film critic Richard Schickel, which interweaves interviews of Allen with clips from his films and Meetin 'WA, a short interview of Allen by French director Jean-Luc Godard.

In 2010 the Spanish musician Jose Riaza released the album "El folk es el hogar". This album features Like Woody Allen, a song that questions conventional love relationships making various allusions to Woody Allen's relationship with his stepdaughter.

In 2011, the PBS series American Masters co-produced the documentary Woody Allen: a Documentary, directed by Robert B. Weide. New interviews provide insight and background with Diane Keaton, Scarlett Johansson, Penelope Cruz, Dianne Wiest, Larry David, Chris Rock, Martin Scorsese, Dick Cavett, and Leonard Maltin, among many others.

Eric Lax is the author of the book Woody Allen: A Biography. From 1976 to 1984, Stuart Hample wrote and drew Inside Woody Allen, a comic strip based on the Allen's film character.

In 2018, Woody Allen appears talking to himself about when he was young in the animated short film Woody & Woody, a work directed by Jaume Carrió and written by Laura Gost, winning the Goya award for best animated short film in 2018.

Note

1. ↑ Although almost all sources list their date of birth as on December 1, in their autobiography of 2020, Apropos of Nothing, Allen writes that he was actually born on November 30: "In fact, I was born on November 30, very close to midnight, and my parents advanced the date so that I could start the day one."Allen, Woody (2020). Apropos of Nothing (1st edition). Arcade Publishing. ISBN 978-1-951627-34-8.