Word: allen
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Dates: during 1970-1979
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...according to a more "profound" reading, as a film which shows "the cultural collapse that influences personal deficiency, striking the balance between the tenderness for the victims of these disasters and toughness about their contributions to the moral lassitude of the time" (Time). These and similar "readings" of Allen's ideological concept seem to me less pertinent when compared to the genuineness of the experience we undergo in watching Manhattan. This experience is, above all, cinematic in every aspect of the film's structure-an experience virtually non-existent in commercial Hollywood films engulfed by literary and theartical conventions...
HISTORICALLY this film is significant not merely in the context of Allen's own career, but also as one which marks a substantial advance in American film comedy (which, for a long time, has been epitomized by trivial burlesques such as those by Mel Brooks). In an even broader sense, Manhattan stands as a cinematic achievement which successfully integrates authentic environment with narratives structure. As a film about New York, it represents an artistic contribution to a distinguished group of films, from von Sternberg's 1928 The Docks of New York, to Scorsese's 1977 New York, New York...
...Woody Allen continues to nourish and expand the cinematic aspects of his work, thus proving that the comedy genre is in no way inferior to other acknowledged "artistic" and "intellectual" genres of the sound cinema, he will become not only the foremost American director, but will as well join that select circle of exceptional film actors/auteurs...
...WOODY Allen is one of the few popular filmmakers who remains true to his personal vision of life and art without forsaking the great tradition of the comedy genre. He knows how creatively to employ the new modes discovered by other directors involved in different genres. He flows with the current of contemporary cinematic trends, utilizing all the resources of modern technology. In contrast to Jacques Tati and Pierre Etaix who explore the present potential of silent comedy gags, Allen blazes the trail for a renaissance of sound film comedy. He is rapidly approaching the point when...
Despite the deadness of Arkin's performance, The In-Laws remains a funny movie throughout. This is not intellectual humor-it smacks more of Mel Brooks than Woody Allen, but has little of the former's vulgarity or the latter's self-indulgence. The best jokes center on Falk's character, and the audience remains uncertain about his qualifications-whether he's really a CIA agent or just a loon who thinks he's one-until the movie...