Lauren Wilcox Gets an 'A'

The Washington Post is running a must read feature entitled Stardust Memories, complete with photos. The piece looks at whether or not Woody Allen's NYC still exists, or ever existed in the first place.

Nothing of the previous era seemed to remain at all. This revelation was critical, I felt, to more than just this quarter-acre. It is practically the municipal pastime, mourning the disappearance of the "real" New York, but the question seemed fair: Did the "real" New York City, as Woody Allen saw it -- a place that for him always "existed in black and white, and pulsated to the great tunes of George Gershwin," that "metaphor for the decay of contemporary culture," which he "romanticized all out of proportion" -- still exist? Had it ever existed at all?

Paris, 2009: Not so fast

In a previous post, we had alerted readers to Woody Allen's Summer Project 2009. That project was supposed to be shot in Paris, and at a budget in the low to mid 20s. But for various reasons, the Paris project has been pushed back until Autumn 2010. It's a long time coming, and we hope Woody Allen can sustain his youthful vigor long enough to see the project through.

In the meantime, Woody Allen will shoot his next film this Spring/Summer in NYC. The budget for that film should also be in the 20s, which is small fortune relative to his career standards. This marks the second time in recent years that the director will have a long lay off between films. During his last layoff, he tried his hand at opera and a tour with his jazz band. Hopefully, he'll find a fun project to fill his time in between his NYC and Paris shoots, whether a stage production, film production, or a run of New Yorker shorts. Or, maybe another novel.

Axel Kuschevatzky Interviews Woody Allen

We'll have more to say about these interviews in the coming days, but until then they're posted here for you to take it. Thanks to those who alerted us to the clips.

Cold Souls, Odd New Film

"Woody Allen's turn came, and he opened his box and his soul is a little chickpea. So he's super upset, and he said there's no way he made 43 movies and his soul is a chickpea." -- Cold Souls writer/director Sophie Barthes, explaining that the genesis of her film came from a dream, as quoted by Peter Knegt at indieWIRE.

Woody Allen at Prague Castle

Woody Allen and his band were guests for a performance and reception at Prague Castle, according to the Prague Daily Monitor:

Czech President Václav Klaus received world-renowned US film maker Woody Allen, on a visit to the Czech Republic, at Prague Castle today ahead of a concert Allen, a keen clarinet player, and his New Orleans Jazz Band will give in Prague later Saturday.

Allen turned up at Prague Castle along with his wife, sister and two kids.

Klaus entered the room at the moment when Allen and his family were surrounded by photographers. To make them notice his presence, Klaus pulled Allen's sleeve.

You can find more information and a short interview here. If any of our readers have a translation of Allen's recent interview with Reflex Magazine, we'd be glad to post that as well.

ABC News Australia: Woody Allen at 73

We're not able to embed the video, so you'll have to follow the link found in the post title. The interview itself is vintage Woody Allen, but not special. If you've seen an Allen interview in recent years, this one is a good representative of his most common responses to a series of tired questions.

"I'm not putting down my films...I do have some good films...but..."

"Just work..."

"I am an atheist..."

"...the same lonely, terrified life..."

"Judy Davis is just one of those actresses that has got it..."

"When I was younger and I could get the girl..."

"...there are no perks of age...there is no upside to getting older at all, it's all negative..."

"...I would trade all the wisdom I've gained for, say, 30...35 years wiped off the calendar..."

Happy Birthday, Woody Allen

Today is Allen's birthday, and it's difficult to know what to offer up from the vantage point of this blog. So, we'll have to content ourselves with this: we wish Woody Allen decades more productivity, the good luck of an accidental masterpiece, and the comfort of dying in one's sleep.

Woody Allen to Perform, Tour Poland

Place this in the curiosity bin.

It's being reported that Woody Allen will tour Poland in conjunction with a performance of his band.

While Allen is often regarded as quintessentially "Jewish," whatever that means, it's actually odd to think of him in those terms. Not that he's the Harry Block character from Deconstructing Harry, a Jewish man whose sister demurs his "antisemitism." It's just that Allen's art transcends ethnic constraints.

Maybe it's a subjective blindness, but I identify Allen more in terms of creative ancestry than ethnic ancestry---more in terms of Marx, Bergman, and Fellini. Put differently, while I recognize that Allen's aesthetic sense owes something significant to his biography, I've never seen his work as steeped in a kind of caricatured "Jewishness."

Whatever the case, it will be interesting to hear Allen's reflections on his tour. He is a man whose perspective on life could be described as immutable; one of Allen's charms is observing how his near-static aesthetic and existential identity plays against the loud, dynamic backdrop of modern life. In a recent review of Mere Anarchy, Jordan Hoffman describes it this way:

If you love the ramblings of a thousand year old Jewish man as much as I do, you’ll love this book. It’s as good as Allen’s other three short (and I mean short!) story collections. But, maybe, in a way funnier, in that it is the year 2008 and he’s talking about answering services and EST.

The more out of touch Woody is, the more endearing, I say. He mocks California as a state overrun by new age shysters with names like Galaxie Sunstroke. His tales of film producers aren’t of slick young people in fashionable clubs, but Yiddish-speaking momsers kvetching over derma.

We shouldn’t wonder what happened to Woody to make him seem irrelevant. Instead we should ask where did we, as a culture, go wrong that we’re not on his wavelength anymore.

People, whether famous or unknown, often return from such "tours" in a stirred state of disbelief. They look back on the carnage of history with more questions than answers. Such stirrings would be unexpected from a man who once penned, "Given what human beings are, the question is why doesn't it [atrocity] happen more often." We know that Allen will not give himself to the temptation of celebrity, of sensationalizing his impressions to assuage a deeply held sense of self-importance. But we also know he would not paper-over one of Western civilization's great horrors.

All things considered, his Polish tour has the makings of a good interview.

Untitled Summer Projects 2009, 10 and 11

The intelligent people over at Criterion Forum's Woody Allen board have helped us piece together his upcoming projects, for the years 2009, 10, and 11 respectively. All three projects will be based in Europe, the first will likely be filmed in Paris. The other two locations are uncertain, but Spain is likely. Based on the Criterion discussion, previously published reports and press releases, we know that Mediapro and Gravier Productions will produce the films at a budget of 22 million, a sharp increase over recent Allen films. It appears that crew members will enjoy the luxury of free coffee after lunch.

Whatever Works is not one of these productions. So, health providing, the film-loving public can anticipate at least four more Allen films. Whether or not Whatever Works marks his final NYC film is unknown. As Allen once quipped, if he can't match Bergman's quality, he might be lucky enough to match his quantity. We should be so fortunate.

(HT: Tim. Thanks for your help.)

The Foreign Filmmaker

Rumors of Allen filming his next movie in this city or that will be fast and furious from now on. We've brought your attention to reports of a 3 film deal in Spain, beginning with a film in Oviedo. This morning comes yet another rumor that Allen's next film will not be shot in Oviedo, let alone Spain.

Woody Allen has proved his popularity in France once again, with "Vicky Cristina Barcelona" opening at No. 1 and taking in $3.9 million from 412 screens in its opening weekend, the most of any of the director's films in French history, the film's distributor, Warner Bros. France, said Monday.

A total of 412 prints of the film were released in the territory, making for a per-screen average of 1,150 filmgoers. The movie was especially popular on Paris' 94 screens, with 208,554 tickets sold over the weekend. Allen is said to be planning to set his next film in the French capital.

We're happy that Allen gets to realize his life long dream of filming overseas, to make the kind of movies he's loved since he was young. But we're also sad. Whatever Works might one day be categorized as one of his final, perhaps the final, NYC film. But taking one thing with the other, we hope he continues on in Europe.

Next Movie: Spain?

A few weeks back we linked to a published report stating that Allen has signed a three-movie deal with Spain. Whether this means the Spanish government or a Spanish producer is uncertain. This morning Cafe Babel reports that Allen's next film will be set in Oviedo. They write:

Rumours on the circuit are that he will indeed be shooting his next film in the Asturian capital of Oviedo, where a bronze statue of him stands after he received the Principe de Asturias Prize for the Arts in 2002.

We'll keep you posted as confirmation becomes available.

Bollywood Tries its Luck at Match Point

Indian director Anurag Basu is currently filming with Hrithik Roshan in a rumored remake of Match Point. We know precious little about this project, but will post more information as it becomes available.

Update: More information on the project here. Its working title is Kites. The film is based on Match Point, but is being shot in several countries. A loose adaptation, we'd assume. There is still no word whether or not Woody Allen is aware of the project, let alone involved.

The Low-Life Element

Earlier this month, Woody Allen brought Gianni Schicchi to the stage to rave reviews. The NY Times is reporting that, despite the cat calls and proclamations of genius, Allen's own appraisal is that he brought the "low-life element" to his operatic debut.

Perhaps it's humble, self-deprecating humor or maybe he really did think it stunk. Your call. But when one refuses to take a bow, as Allen did during the one-act's run, it's either modesty or shame. Life is funny that way.

Woody Does PR for NYC

New York magazine has published a recent interview with Woody Allen. Allen delivers good, matter-of-fact answers to a set of bland questions. If any of our international readers have footage of Allen discussing 9-11 on European television, we'd love to see it.

NY: Were you in the city on September 11?

WA: Yes, I remember exactly where. Someone in my house—I lived on 92nd Street then—said, “A plane just crashed into the World Trade Center,” and then we turned on a television set and then another one crashed, and we saw that. Two days later I was scheduled to go to Europe. A lot of people canceled going to Europe, there was a lot of fear. I wasn’t afraid, not because I’m anything but a major coward, but I was flying privately. I didn’t think that I could be hijacked. And because I went and I was a New Yorker, I became the spokesman for New York City and September 11. And I was on all the Sunday-morning news shows in France and England and Italy. I was suddenly on their versions of Face the Nation. And they were asking me, is this going to be the end of all humor? (They have a way of putting these things in European countries.) Is this the end of New York? And I said no, not at all. Not for a minute. I feel I was completely right. If you drop a person in New York City now and you drop them before September 11 and they didn’t know, they wouldn’t know the difference. I felt New York would metabolize it, and it would go on. New York would be the same vibrant city. And it is.

A Meaningless Little Flicker

Newsweek's Jennie Yabroff interviewed Woody Allen earlier this fall. The results are the same as the lions share of previous interviews, although Yabroff has done her homework. This always makes the interview better. Too bad NW didn't give her more space.

Allen comes off the same as ever.

"Your perception of time changes as you get older, because you see how brief everything is," he says. "You see how meaningless … I don't want to depress you, but it's a meaningless little flicker."

NW ran another Allen-related item in July, an interview with Patricia Clarkson.

Does he give a lot of direction?

He's completely hands off, and that's the beauty of Woody Allen. I think he's the least precious director I've ever worked with.

Upcoming Projects

In a previous post we linked to a rumor that Jennifer Aniston was being considered for Allen's next picture, a romantic comedy. Chris Knight of the Montreal Gazette reports that "his [Allen] next film will be shot in New York, after which he has a three-picture deal in Spain." Time will tell. It's uncertain whether or not Knight is aware that Allen has already completed Whatever Works, which was shot in NYC.

In the meantime, it seems that Allen's operatic sojourn in LA has come to a close as he, Rebecca Hall and Javier Bardem are supporting VCB in San Sebastian.

I cribbed the photo from the good folks at Beautiful Faces.

Interview Magazine, Woody Allen

Douglas McGrath, who co-wrote Bullets Over Broadway, has contributed a fairly good conversation with Woody Allen to Interview. It veers into tiresome retread at points, but on the whole it's worthwhile.

DM: I guess what I’m asking, though, is if there is one of your films that tells us the most about your philosophy of life? If someone couldn’t meet you and wanted to know what Woody is really like or what gives us the most sense of his worldview—his fears, his optimisms, his anxieties, his hopes—is there one film that kind of best sums that up?
WA: Well, to date—if it’s just that—I would probably say Anything Else [2003].
DM: Really?
WA: Yeah. You’d get it in a more abstract way in Purple Rose, because clearly I do believe that reality is dreadful and that you are forced to choose it in the end or go crazy, but that it kills you. So that film does sum up a great feeling that I have about life—I mean a large feeling that I have about it. But in terms of just me personally as a kind of wretched little complaining vantz, I think you would see that in Anything Else. There’s a lot of me in there.
DM: Very interesting. You’re full of surprises.
WA: Well, it is me. I’m not saying that Anything Else is my best film, though I didn’t think it was a bad film at all—I think that one is better than many films of mine that were more successful. I won’t say that it’s never the case, but very often there’s no correlation between the quality of one’s work artistically and its commercial success. Everybody knows that.

Curious about Anything Else. In GSF's opinion it's Allen's best film this decade, and one sure to receive higher marks in retrospective. If you're looking for a little fun, try watching Annie Hall and Anything Else back to back. Why is this fun? You'll see. We hope to write more about Anything Else in the coming weeks.

It's Lonely at the Top: Woody Allen Writes Spoof Diary

The International Herald Tribune, global arm of the New York Times, is running a farcical piece by Woody Allen about the filming of Vicky Cristina Barcelona.

APRIL 2

Offered role to Scarlett Johansson. Said before she could accept, script must be approved by her agent, then by her mother, with whom she's close. Following that it must be approved by her agent's mother. In middle of negotiation she changed agents - then changed mothers. She's gifted but can be a handful.

The rest of the diary is funny too, and worth the time of your morning coffee.

On another Vicky Cristina Barcelona note, last month Allen was interviewed by Scott Foundas of the Village Voice and had this to say. As most readers know, the film opened to great reviews, not that that, if you read the interview, means anything. But if said reviews do mean something to you, GSF recommends Julissa Trevino's concise and thoughtful response to the film.

Jennifer Aniston Rumored for Next Allen Project

This may be nothing, but recent gossip speculates that Aniston is being considered for the next Woody Allen film, an in-draft romantic comedy.