La-Dee-Dah
Impossibly, Woody Allen is 70 years old today. If you grew up Jewish in America during the 70s, Woody was the guy.
He started out in stand-up, moved into scriptwriting, and eventually got complete control over his films. Every time he issued a new one, it wasn't so much that you had to go see it. It was more like you were already going to see it.
He gave the country an idea of what Jews looked, talked, and thought like, for better or worse. A lot of people probably thought already that Jews were small, weak, bespectacled, intellectual and from New York, and Woody confirmed it all. These days, a lot of us feel pretty ambivalent about his persona; back in the day, we didn't care because he was funny.
And there was the delicious fact that Woody's humor was aimed at his own people; the rest of the world had to catch up with us for a change. Take that scene in Annie Hall where Alvy (Woody's character) and Annie, played by Diane Keaton, are ordering lunch in a delicatessen. Woody, to no one's surprise, orders a corned beef on rye with mustard. Annie orders a pastrami on white bread with mayonnaise, lettuce and tomato. You could tell, by watching who laughed in the theater, which people were Jewish. Or maybe just from New York.
These days, when (for example) the moron Tom Paulin asserts that the Jews have no rights in Israel because they're all invaders from Brooklyn, you have to wonder whether Woody's legacy is such a good thing.
And when you notice that Woody gets older and his leading ladies get younger, not to mention his affair with and later marriage to his ex-wife's adoptive daughter, you have to wonder whether someone else might not be a better most-famous-Jew-in-the-world.
Well, his movies since 1992's Crimes and Misdemeanors have ranged from mediocre to acceptable, but he's about to release Match Point. It's his first non-comedy in years, and he doesn't appear in it, so maybe he's realized that he's in a rut.
And anyway, speaking just for myself, I'm prepared to forgive Woody a good deal just for the closing lines of Love and Death way back in 1975:
Benshlomo says, It's never too late to grow up.
He started out in stand-up, moved into scriptwriting, and eventually got complete control over his films. Every time he issued a new one, it wasn't so much that you had to go see it. It was more like you were already going to see it.
He gave the country an idea of what Jews looked, talked, and thought like, for better or worse. A lot of people probably thought already that Jews were small, weak, bespectacled, intellectual and from New York, and Woody confirmed it all. These days, a lot of us feel pretty ambivalent about his persona; back in the day, we didn't care because he was funny.
And there was the delicious fact that Woody's humor was aimed at his own people; the rest of the world had to catch up with us for a change. Take that scene in Annie Hall where Alvy (Woody's character) and Annie, played by Diane Keaton, are ordering lunch in a delicatessen. Woody, to no one's surprise, orders a corned beef on rye with mustard. Annie orders a pastrami on white bread with mayonnaise, lettuce and tomato. You could tell, by watching who laughed in the theater, which people were Jewish. Or maybe just from New York.
These days, when (for example) the moron Tom Paulin asserts that the Jews have no rights in Israel because they're all invaders from Brooklyn, you have to wonder whether Woody's legacy is such a good thing.
And when you notice that Woody gets older and his leading ladies get younger, not to mention his affair with and later marriage to his ex-wife's adoptive daughter, you have to wonder whether someone else might not be a better most-famous-Jew-in-the-world.Well, his movies since 1992's Crimes and Misdemeanors have ranged from mediocre to acceptable, but he's about to release Match Point. It's his first non-comedy in years, and he doesn't appear in it, so maybe he's realized that he's in a rut.
And anyway, speaking just for myself, I'm prepared to forgive Woody a good deal just for the closing lines of Love and Death way back in 1975:
As to love, well, what can I say? I think, it's not the quantity of your sexual relations, it's the quality. On the other hand, if the quantity drops below once every eight months, I would definitely look into it.
Benshlomo says, It's never too late to grow up.
posted by benshlomo at 12:02 PM
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