Douglas Norton selects his five essential films of Woody Allen…
Despite public scandal, unpredictable box-office returns, and a healthy mistrust of the “Hollywood system,” the man born Allen Stewart Konigsberg is one of the most prolific and gifted of modern filmmakers, writing and directing roughly one feature a year since his debut in 1966. He is also one of only a small handful of directors who are given complete freedom to make their movies in any way they see fit. Alongside a few misfires (Shadows and Fog, Small Time Crooks, Curse of the Jade Scorpion) his remarkably steady output has also given us a clutch of some of the best films of the past forty years. Tackling both slapstick and existentialism, the complexities of love and relationships, and the intricacies of our own flawed humanity, Allen continues to make movies his own way. His 49th feature credit, Blue Jasmine, is due July 26.
5. Match Point (2005)
Allen’s take on the crime thriller and the vagaries of luck and fate, as Jonathan Rhys Meyer’s tennis pro gets tangled with a rich British family and American femme fatale Scarlett Johansson in an engrossing tale of lust, greed and ‘family values.’ In some ways a variation on Crimes and Misdemeanors theme of guilt and conscience, Allen spins an ingeniously cynical mystery, full of devious noir-ish twists and turns of plot. The pacing is expert, and there is some great location shooting (this was Allen’s first film set in London).
After a string of less-than-well received films (Hollywood Ending, Anything Else, the dreadful Curse Of The Jade Scorpion) Match Point shows Allen back in top form, in a genuinely gripping fusion of cynical drama and genre piece. This is suspense that is truly suspenseful—Allen plays on the public perception of his own worldview to add a layer of unpredictability to the outcome. In his world, the guilty can get away with it, so all bets are off and a coin-flip is just as meaningful as any other mode of decision. As always, the casting is first-rate, and Rhys Meyers has never been better in his portrayal of a man who practically dares the universe to catch him out, perhaps hoping it will so he can have something to still believe in.
4. Crimes and Misdemeanors (1989)
Both deeply troubling and bitingly hilarious, sometimes at the same moment, Crimes and Misdemeanors examines ideas of guilt and faith, and the place of conscience in a society where conscience seems to grow more irrelevant every day. Allen plays a struggling documentary filmmaker who loses his lover (Mia Farrow) to a pompous but successful TV sit-com producer (Alan Alda in one of his very best film performances). In a parallel story, an eye doctor (Martin Landau) commits a heinous crime and ponders the weight of guilt, as one of his patients, a wise rabbi (Sam Waterston), goes slowly blind before his daughter’s impending marriage.
Thematically complex, heartbreakingly funny and philosophically challenging, this is perhaps his most complete and bleakest film, with some of Allen’s very best dialogue. He has always viewed life as a difficult and dangerous proposition, and in this film, more than in any of his others, he explicitly paints a universe that is an unknowable, indifferent place, where bad things can happen to good people while the guilty go unpunished. Yet there are also notes of luminous joy to show where the universe gets it right (check out the wedding dance scene). It is a profound balancing act of laugh-out-loud gallows humor and painful, resigned wisdom that grows more meaningful with every passing year and with every new viewing. An absolute masterpiece.
3. Sweet and Lowdown (1999)
Allen’s status as a devoted jazz musician is well known, and his regular Monday night gig playing trad jazz clarinet at Michael’s in New York City is an institution. So it’s kind of surprising that he took so long to make a film set fully in the world of musicians. In this fictional biopic, Sean Penn plays Emmet Ray, a talented but off-putting jazz guitarist whose arrogant, eccentric ambition and obsession with Django Reinhardt threaten to derail his career, until he meets a mute girl (Samantha Morton) whose love brings out the best, and worst, in him.
Penn captures both the helpless anger and pitiful frustrations of a musician who knows he is almost the best, and allows the charms and vulnerability of Ray to peek through his unpleasant surface at just the right moments. Morton does more with gesture and facial expression than many actresses do with a whole script of words. The music, arranged by Allen favorite Dick Hyman, is perfectly chosen and impeccably performed, carrying surprising emotional weight and, at times, some narrative heft as well.
One of Allen’s relatively neglected films, but a treat and a triumph just the same, especially for music lovers.
2. Annie Hall (1977)
No less true just because it’s a predictable choice, the follow-up film to Love And Death is still Allen’s signature film in the minds of many filmgoers. Co-written with frequent collaborator Marshall Brickman, Allen brings to bear many of his signature concerns in the story of Allen’s insecure neurotic Alvy Singer, and his loving and losing the flighty, beautiful Annie Hall (Diane Keaton). A wry but romantic view of life in New York City, pointed satire at the expense of trends and the trendy, silent-film style slapstick and 4th wall breakdowns, and subversive use of subtitles all work beautifully. But holding it all together is a winsome, heartfelt story of love as a tonic for the real and imagined pains of existence, and the film won a truckload of awards, including 4 Oscars and 5 BAFTAs.
By contemporary standards, calling Annie Hall a romantic comedy seems insulting somehow, but with this one, Allen altered the landscape of rom-coms forever, setting a bar of craft, intelligence and warmth that has only rarely been touched since. Keaton is simply wonderful, and both as director and lead actor, Allen never sets a foot wrong in the compact 93-minute running time. Every joke lands solidly, and the casting (by Allen regular Juliet Taylor) is spot-on even for small roles. Speaking of regulars, Allen would work with cinematographer Gordon Willis on seven more films. Watch for an early performance by Christopher Walken as Annie’s disturbed brother, and cameos by Jeff Goldblum and Sigourney Weaver. Number 31 on the American Film Institute’s list of the 100 Greatest Films of All Time. All that, and the best. Lobster scene. Ever.
1. Love and Death (1975)
Allen uses elements of Russian cinema and literature as a springboard for this goofy, wonderfully funny and inventive story of a hapless cowardly Russian, played by Allen. Despite his best efforts, he finds himself proclaimed a hero in the war against the invading Napoleon and the key figure in a plot to assassinate the general. The genially ridiculous narrative is just an excuse for a series of comic set pieces about rogue cannons, vainglorious duels, self-important existential dialogue, and inexplicable Russian genealogy (“Old Nehamkin was younger than Young Nehamkin—no one could figure that out”). This is also an early example of Allen’s employment of existing music for his soundtracks, rather than newly composed score (a habit he continues to this day). Here, the music of Sergei Prokofiev’s “Lt. Kije Suite” (originally written for a film also about a phony military hero) is put to excellent use.
Co-star Diane Keaton is in top comedic form as Allen’s reluctant love interest, Harold Gould bravely holds a straight face against some of Allen’s best non sequitur one-liners, and the margins are filled with a variety of interesting faces and performances by Russian actors and extras. There is a great sight gag based on the famous “rising lion” sequence from Eisenstein’s Battleship Potemkin, and the exchange of ‘letters’ between Keaton and Jessica Harper is a mini-masterpiece of mocking self-seriousness. Of all his early out-and-out comedies, this one bears up best to repeat viewings. You will never hear the word “wheat” in quite the same way.
Honorable Mentions
Manhattan (1979)
The Purple Rose of Cairo (1985)
Hannah and Her Sisters (1986)
Husbands and Wives (1992)
Vicky Cristina Barcelona (2008)
What do you make of our choices? Agree? Disagree? Feel free to leave your thoughts…
Douglas Norton is a full-time high school music teacher and part time film nerd from Lima, Ohio.
