Word: allene
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Dates: during 1970-1979
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...WOODY ALLEN is the comic laureate of our age. Nothing against George Carlin, he of the long hair, cute dirty words and drug jokes, but Woody stands head and glasses above anyone else in terms of the absolute number, quality, diversity and insightfulness of the comic ideas he has produced. Woody the loveable neurotic forces the audience to laugh at its own foibles and fuck-ups. Allen often reaches a peak of manic intensity amazing in such a small, redhaired nebbish of a man. So how does he do it? What makes Woody Allen funny...
...when Off the Wall Theatre in Central Square began to show Woody Allen: an American Comedy, local Allenologists began hoping the film would yield a few insights into Woody. But if you're looking for clues to Woody, write off this film. On the other hand, if you don't mind (or even welcome) a light, superficial portrait of Allen that amuses if not informs, go see it. Besides, the six short comic films that accompany the half-hour-long portrait of Allen are quite good, ranging from the couple-of-chuckles Betty Boop cartoon to the brilliant parodies...
After this solid lead-in of shorts, the Allen film is disappointing. Throughout the film producer/-director Allen Mantell consistently fails to probe hard enough, whether out of respect for Allen's privacy or out of deference to a comedian/social observer of Allen's stature. While Mantell does cover some of the relevant bases, he ignores key leads to the problem at hand. For instance, in the half-hour we hear nothing of Allen's fifteen years of psychoanalysis, although that process has probably provided Allen with a larger portion of his humor than any other single factor. Allen does...
...ideas, he doesn't try to put in a message or say something, he doesn't tailor his material to the audience because everyone has different tastes. So he simply gets up there, says what he thinks is funny, and everyone laughs. Well, don't buy it. Allen hates improvisations with a passion. He needs to be in control, and from the beginning of his career has demanded (and won) the right to write, direct, star in, and even handle the promotion for his films. Every seemingly random pause, gesture, intonation in his material is carefully practiced and structured...
...FILM THEN moves to Woody's ancestral home, Flatbush, Brooklyn, where he was born Arthur Allen Koenigsberg in an apartment building on Avenue K and East 15th Street. He grew up in the classic Jewish, middle-class ghetto, where the central dream is educating the children who will become well-off doctors, lawyers, engineers. As Woody put it later on, "My parents' dominant values were God and carpet." In all movies in which his parents appear, they are heavily parodied. In few interviews does he mention his parents or his childhood in any but the most joking tones, the most...