I Just Watched 10 Woody Allen Films

I watched a few woody Allen films that are going off Netflix and here’s what I learned.

There were quite a few Woody Allen movies that rolled off Netflix 1 January. Over my holiday hiatus I did my best to watch the ones that were recommended as well as some that I thought I should watch. I queued them up in Netflix and started watching. I happen to enjoy older cinema so I would be watching this kind of thing anyway but I really enjoyed this cinematic trip.

The Films:

• Stardust memories

A famous filmmaker spends a weekend at the Stardust Hotel trapped at an event celebrating his work. He answers questions and deals with his sordid and twisted love life.

• Manhattan

This film is about a nervous TV writer, his 17 year old girlfriend and the life of him and his friends in Manhattan in the late 70s.

• Interiors

When a Father divorces his high-strung OCD wife it tears his family apart and causes everyone to re-evaluate their roles and lives.

• Radio days

Told a series of short stories about Woody Allen’s childhood growing up in New Jersey around the radio and WWII.

• Into the Fog

A critical analysis of the police state, vigilante justice and one neurotic jew who tries, unsuccessfully to escape scrutiny.

Impressions

I’m surprised that people are so surprised about him sleeping with underage girls. He regularly discusses it with his camera. Incest and underage relationships make a regular feature in his films. I hadn’t, until this point, experienced his films beyond Manhattan and not at this stage of life and frankly, now it all makes sense. Sometimes life imitates art as horrible as that is for the people involved. At a certain stage of life, men feel the need to pluck of the juiciest fruit in the garden. It is sad to think of young women in this manner, but it is a fact of human sexuality. His analysis of it within his films is a lesson to the undercurrent of illicit sex that goes on in this country.

I really liked the films and it gives an excellent peek into the early acting careers of Meryl Streep and Diane Keaton. In a world before cellphones and even answering machines, it was refreshing to see that while the times have changed, the technology has advanced, the problems that plague us all in life and love remain the same. Men and women are walking around every day asking the important questions in these films, “Am I doing well?” “Should I change careers?” “Should I leave my partner for someone else?” I thought that was quite poignant. From romance to success, Woody Allen teaches us the harsh lesson that not everything is as it seems and success or a great love is not the solution to every problem. If anything, he reminds us that we need good people, we need a moderate amount of success but that most importantly, we need to worry less and enjoy more from life because life is a rich and beautiful place that is full of wonder that is waiting for us to embrace it fully.

I took away a few lessons from these films. Firstly, that there is a side of innocent America that I miss. Insomuch as the purity of that time, before our uniquely modern problems seemed to have set in. I’m not one to get sentimental about the days gone by. We frequently remember them as better than they actually were. However, I like his portrayal of that time. The cinematography was in my favorite style: 2-3 camera with no thrills. What was in front of the camera was what it was. Whether it was the comedy of “Into the Fog” or the stripped down nature of “Interiors.” There are many lessons about life, living, family, and the kind of country America is all within these particular Woody Allen films. He is truly one of the great filmmakers and I have never been so satisfied by a film or group of films. Watching these films was dramatic, pleasurable, entertaining, and educational.

My hat is off to Woody Allen.