Following Hiatus, Woody Allen Actually Writes Something Funny
Filed under: Comedy
In the earlier part of this decade, Woody Allen seemed to specialize in comedy alone -- 2000's Small Time Crooks, 2001's The Curse of the Jade Scorpion, 2002's Hollywood Ending, 2003's Anything Else -- and then he opted to switch gears after 2005's genre-divided Melinda and Melinda, following that up with dramas Match Point later that year, and both Cassandra's Dream and Vicky Crisitina Barcelona in 2008. (We'll skip 2006's Scoop, since everyone else did.)
Whew. My point is, even with a comedic prospect on the horizon with next year's Whatever Works, now is as good a time as ever to relish this New York Times piece he did in the manner of a production diary on the set of Barcelona. Mind you, only "excerpts" are provided, so instead of botching them all, let me just share one favorite portion:
"JUNE 20 - Barcelona is a marvelous city. Crowds turn out in the streets to watch us work. Mercifully they realize I've no time to give autographs, and so they ask only the cast members..."
See? There's the self-deprecating filmmaker we know and love and moderately miss. I for one will take this as a sign of funnier things to come.
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(Page 1)2. but it sounds so much funnier when he says everyone skipped it, because, come on, it wasn't his best work. even i didn't see it.
Posted at 12:30AM on Sep 11th 2008 by woodyfan
3. Even you didn't see it? You cannot say a movie is not someones "best work" if you haven't even seen the movie.
Oh, I see, your name is "woodyfan" so you must know what his movies consist of from their dvd covers and their taglines? Of course, of course.
Posted at 11:05PM on Sep 18th 2008 by Paul
4. woodyfan...... your point of "it sounds funnier" is odd... so journalists and bloggers have free range to distort facts if it leads to a mediocre joke?
maybe you should see scoop... you probably won't like it since you obviously already have an opinion... but i think it would make a good double feature with vicky cristina barcelona. scoop is definitely silly and doesn't have the serious themes that VCB has... but both are fun summer-like films... one light and breezy... the other a little more serious.
Posted at 6:33PM on Sep 20th 2008 by d
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1. with all due respect... what's with the snotty comment about scoop? first of all... i know a number of people who liked it. it's just light fun. not always a bad thing. but more importantly... you say everyone else skipped it. it happens to be his highest grossing movie in the last 20 years behind match point. that's worldwide with a 40 million dollar gross. here in the US... focus picked up the rights for 4 million. it grossed 10 in a limited run, and at least 13 on dvd rental. if you didn't like it... fine... but don't lie and say everyone skipped it because it's not true. behind all the dollars are tickets being sold and dvd's being rented. no skipping. don't lie.
Posted at 9:05AM on Sep 9th 2008 by d