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ALLEN, WOODY.   Term Paper ID:19932 Click to get this paper

Essay Subject: Examines filmmaking style (personal vision) & major themes (personal voice) in [Annie Hall], [Manhattan], [Crimes & Misdemeanors], [Hannah & Her Sisters].... More...

7 Pages / 1575 Words 3 sources, 7 Citations, MLA Format $28.00 Return to List of Papers

Paper Abstract: Examines filmmaking style (personal vision) & major themes (personal voice) in [Annie Hall], [Manhattan], [Crimes & Misdemeanors], [Hannah & Her Sisters]. Paper Introduction: This study will focus on the filmmaking style (personal vision) and major themes and messages (personal voice) of Woody Allen as expressed in several of his films. As a filmmaker who relies primarily on his own cinematic personality, Allen has created a style, a vision, which reflects that personality. It is, as Foster Hirsch points out, the style of the nightclub comic, a persona which served Allen well in his earlier pre-filmic career and has served him well in the film world. It is a style which brings along with it the voice of the nightclub comic as well, despite the fact that Allen deals with more profound topics than many other comics and comic filmmakers. As Hirsch writes, "In Annie Hall, Woody plays a stand-up comic, claiming on film the same kind of control over and intimacy with his audience that he enjoyed during his cabaret Text of the Paper: The entire text of the paper is shown below. However, the text is somewhat scrambled. We want to give you as much information as we possibly can about our papers and essays, but we cannot give them away for free. In the text below you will find that while disordered, many of the phrases are essentially intact. From this text you will be able to get a solid sense of the writing style, the concepts addressed, and the sources used in the research paper. Allen's character is shatteredby the suicide, but there is maintained a black comedy undertone whichprevents this half of the movie from ever becoming as fully dark as theLandau plot. . Of course, whichever half of Crimes and Misdemeanors we mightchoose to favor or focus on, the themes are the same---sex (orrelationships) and god (or morality and religion). As Burton writes, Allen taps into some subconscious striving of thelate 2 th century: "Most of the underlying themes of his movies . New York: Limelight, 1991.Lax, Eric. Inother words, Allen as a man, as a human being, seems to work out his issuesabout his art and craft through the making of the films themselves. Greatabstractions like God, death, the afterlife, and the future of the worldare shredded as they pass through Allen's comic blender" (Hirsch 159). As Hirsch writes, "In Annie Hall, Woody plays a stand-up comic,claiming on film the same kind of control over and intimacy with hisaudience that he enjoyed during his cabaret period. Works CitedBurton, Dee. Everything thatWoody haddone as a performer . 81-82). The film simplypenetrates more deeply the same subject matter that has always concernedWoody: sex, intellect, art, neurosis, and above all, tying everythingtogether, himself" (Ibid. . For example, discussing relationships (perhaps more accurately thetheme which Allen disguises and discusses as "sex") in Manhattan with hisfriend Yale, Allen (Ike) says, "How long were you gonna see her withoutsaying anything to me?" And his friend Yale responds, "Don't turn this intoone of your big moral issues" (Lax 358-359). Heraises basic themes --- from sex to God --- but the statements he makesabout them in storytelling terms are not resolutions. . New York: William Morrow, 1984.Hirsch, Foster. Allen is trying to remain trueto his artistic ideals, his moral sense of what is right and true, and hisrelationship with Farrow evaporates. The murder plot growsout of an extra-marital affair the Landau character is having, an affairwhich threatens his marriage and his career. We see, then, that the films of Woody Allen work on several levelssimultaneously --- from the comic to the tragic --- from the cynical to thedeeply moral --- and that this multilayered thrust results in large partfrom Allen's desire and ability to explore profound themes in a style whichis primarily comic and seems to undercut the seriousness of those themes.A great part of the subtle power of Allen's movies is their ambiguity. It was too neat and tidya finish for him. It is a style which brings along withit the voice of the nightclub comic as well, despite the fact that Allendeals with more profound topics than many other comics and comicfilmmakers. In discussing the making of Manhattan in Lax's book, Allen notes thathe has insisted all along on a filmmaking style which does not interferewith the transmission of the message from the screen to the audience.Although the viewer might disagree with Allen with respect to his moredeliberately profound and less successful films --- Interiors andSeptember, for example --- it is true that, I with respect to his moresuccessful and "funny" films, he does succeed in making style secondary to,or at least complementary to, the voice which carries the themes. And the same can be said for all of Allen's films---the audience isreceiving the vision and voice of a filmmaker who is, or seeks to be, incomplete control of his artistic product, and is at the same time afilmmaker whose on-screen persona comes from a character who is entirelyout of control in every realm, from sex to religion. As Hirsch writes with respect to Allen's combining of his nightclubcomic's style and his moralistic voice, "He belittles big themes by talkingabout them in a careless, offhanded manner, while little matters, concernsof merely local significance, he treats with mock solemnity. He neverpreaches but rather presents the issue and tries to be as honest and asself-deprecating as possible. He begins with twocomic anecdotes, looking directly into the camera and thereby establishinghimself as the master of ceremonies, the man who will summon the charactersand arrange the order and duration of the scenes. The coming together of the characters played byLandau and Allen indicate Allen's effort to meld the comic and the tragic,and it is up to the viewer to determine the degree of Allen's success inmelding the two approaches. He has also recognized --- especially in Annie Hall,Manhattan, Hannahand Her Sisters --- that the audience identifies with moral dilemmas themore it can identify with the character facing those dilemmas. This leaves us, then, with sex and God as the primary issues ---along with death --- of Allen's personal voice. What disappointed him was his inability to successfully write theending he wanted . Life is more ambiguous, more unpleasant than that, andlife is what he wants to portray accurately" (Lax 277). Annie Hall and Manhattan are often said to be departures in theirrealism from the more fantastic works which preceded them, but in fact theywere a part of the continuous growth of Allen in both voice and vision. Allen's refusal to pretend to have answers to thequestions he raises is a major part of his charm and popularity. This is inreference to the suicide of the elderly man who is seen by Allen'scharacter as a wise guru-type philosopher. Through the use ofa comic vision, Allen is able to communicate the themes he loves --- sex,relationships, God, death, anxiety, art --- in ways which honor thosethemes, depths but which make them accessible and palatable to hisaudience. There is always thiscontradiction between the vision and the voice, however, or, moreaccurately, this apparent contradiction, for Allen is always dealingseriously with his themes, even though that seriousness is couched incomedy. Above all, both vision and voice are shaped by Allen's moralconcerns. He recognizes the moral elements ofrelationships and religion, but he never pretends that he is "more moral"than others. The questions having to do with work --- as opposed to thosedealing with sex and God---are more or less treated as an inherent andoften unstated or understated element of the filmmaking process itself. He questions everything, and this perpetual doubting --- of God,of pleasure, of women, of himself --- leads to a kind of despair which iscolored comical by his vision and by the off-handed twist this puts on hisvoice. led up to Annie Hall . Love, Sex, Death & the Meaning of Life. . Manhattan opens with amore disguised version of the controlling comic monologue....... . The serious issues with which his voice deals are painted by hiscomic style in such a way that the audience is led to consider problems oflife and love and death which in more somber contexts they might balk at. The Allen character, in themeantime, is losing the Farrow character to an entirely egotistical andsuperficial filmmaker played by Alan Alda. ---mortality, sexuality, anxiety and the ongoing struggle to find meaning in asociety that appears to value shallowness --- are universal issues thataffect people at the level of their unconscious. New York: Alfred Knopf, 1991.----------------------- 9 There is the sense in this moreserious movie that --- as in his more "funny" movies --- everything is atany moment ready to slip out of control --- relationships, God, careers,moral values, life itself. Certainly Crimes and Misdemeanors deals with more weighty issues thanAnnie Hall and Manhattan and Hannah and Her Sisters. Of course, sex and religion (more specifically, God) are the twothemes which most preoccupy Allen. . . Perhaps it is not aswholly successful a film as the other three, because there seem to be twomovies going on simultaneously --- the love interest of Allen's and MiaFarrow's characters, and the murder story focusing on Judah, MartinLandau's character. . In any case, the Landau plot is by far moreserious than any theme in Annie Hall, Manhattan or Hannah and Her Sisters.Even the "comic" half of Crimes and Misdemeanors is marked by goings-onmore serious than issues treated in the other three films. As we read in Lax, "It was a very popular movie --- forWoody, 'always a dubious sign' --- but he feels it is a somewhat middlebrowpicture. He has obviously beenable to do that and he has managed it, he says, by 'directing minimally toget the writing across. I Dream of Woody. He is continuously asking, What is the right thing to do? For the most part,issues of love and relationships, and God and faith are left up to theviewer to resolve. Work is certainly important in Allen'sfilms, but often his character is employed in some facet of show businessor the arts. Woody Allen. He allowsthat we need relationships, we need sex, but he himself does not presume tohave the answers as to how to do it successfully and happily and morally.He allows that we need some relationship with God, but he has an ongoingstruggle to bring together the idea of God and the state of the world, thestate of his own life. Itis, as Foster Hirsch points out, the style of the nightclub comic, apersona which served Allen well in his earlier pre-filmic career and hasserved him well in the film world. Theopening alerts us to the fact that what we are about to see is WoodyAllen's Manhattan, and no other" (Hirsch 28-29). Allen himself, with respect to the ending of Hannah and Her Sisters,gives the opinion that, when he does comes to more conclusive decisions inhis filmmaking, he feels somewhat more dissatisfied than when he maintainshis ambiguity. The humor and the anxietyhe depicts seem to spring consistently from his own unconscious" (Burton11). Whatis truth? The result was a movie that ended like almostevery movie, with happy endings all around....... There seems to be an effort on Allen's part tolighten, or undercut, the Landau plot with the more comic-oriented part inwhich he himself stars. Of course, Allen's moral voice is not a moralizing one. I've never wanted to put obstacles or flamboyantstyle between the digesting of the material and the audience'" (Lax 36 ). . . As weread in Lax in a passage dedicated to an analysis of Manhattan, Allen"became a director primarily to protect his writing. As a filmmaker who relies primarily on his own cinematic personality,Allen has created a style, a vision, which reflects that personality. This study will focus on the filmmaking style (personal vision) andmajor themes and messages (personal voice) of Woody Allen as expressed inseveral of his films. Allen recognizes in these films that human beings are concerned withmany profound issues which also frighten them, and he has discovered thatinvestigation into those themes is more successfully handled through theuse of comedy, or comedy interspersed with tragedy and more seriousapproaches. AsHirsch writes, "Annie Hall, far from springing full-grown and all at oncefrom the comic's imagination, is a movie with a past. As he seeksto resolve these dilemmas, he arrives at the melding of vision and voice, amelding which seems to capture the themes of his era and one way whichmakes those themes accessible and palatable for his audience. If this paper is not what you are looking for, you can search again: Search for: or Click here to request an essay written just for you.