Word: allenated
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Dates: during 1970-1979
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Last week, just before the film's premiere, Allen sat on a comfortably worn couch with his back to the view. He had caught the flu and was huddling over a bowl of chicken soup ("the mythological panacea," as he called it). Between his upset stomach and the details of Manhattan's opening, Allen's normal routine had been disrupted. When he is not shooting a film, Allen usually gets up at 7, writes all day, and then goes out for a late dinner at Elaine's with a few pals (Actor Michael Murphy, Saturday Night Live Staff Producer Jean...
...Equally unsatisfactory was the typeface in a full-page Sunday New York Times ad for the film: a new mock-up awaited his inspection. The most annoying problem was the Motion Picture Association's decision to slap Manhattan with an R rating because of a few four-letter words. Allen was not pleased: "People say that the industry has a ratings board to keep the Government from invoking censorshipoesn't work, I have no trouble slamming...
Such trivial bothers aside, Woody Allen seems content these days. Or at least as content as he can be. Rather uncharacteristically, he even seems tentatively pleased with his own work. "I wanted to make a film that was more serious than Annie Hall, a serious picture that had laughs in it," he says. "I felt decent about Manhattan at the time I did it; it does go farther than Annie Hall. But 1 think now I could do better. Of course, if my film makes one more person feel miserable, I'll feel I've done...
...Allen has his own misery, which is sincere and lifelong. It cannot be dissipated by the success of his movies. A shy workaholic who avoids the show-biz whirl and is never "on" in private, he not only talks about death in his films but spends a great deal of time thinking about it. "My real obsessions are religious," he says. "They have to do with the meaning of life and with the futility of obtaining immortality through art. In Manhattan, the characters create problems for themselves to escape. In real life, everyone gives himself a distraction-whether...
...adds, laughing: "I could not conceive of leaving New York and becoming monastic, like in Walden. I'd rather die than live in the country-in a small house or even in a nice house." (His friend Dick Cavett says, "Woody is at two with nature.") Even now, Allen does not live up to his means. His home is attractive, but not opulent, containing more books and records than anything else. His wardrobe of plaid shirts, jeans and beat-up jackets is the same he wears in his movies. "Mariel Hemingway just saw Annie Hall again and called...