PUSH PLAY IF YOU WANT TO LISTEN TO THE SOUNDTRACK
"A hypocrite is a guy who writes a book on atheism and preys it sells."
-Woody Allen
A COMEDY genius, who writes faster than he can think. Ever heard that voice in your head that tells y ou what to do, what to say or what to eat? Woody Allen is THAT VOICE. The voice of unreason, of frustration A NEUROTIC voice who screams with sarcasm. Giving us 5 decades full of comedy, drama, great conflict, plot twists and asking ourselves the questions no one has the courage to ask. With his sad face, black glasses and 100% of confusion he asks "What is it like to be a human? to have a mind? to have memories? to have relatives? what is the meaning of everything? why do i still feel i got screwd? to ask GOD what is going on??
Heywood "Woody" Allen (born in Brooklyn New York, Allan Stewart Konigsberg, December 1, 1935) is an American actor, comedian, filmmaker, and playwright, whose career spans more than six decades.
That is in essence what Woody Allen writes , talks and jokes about. Being ALIVE, married, being divorced, going to buy something, going to the doctor, having a date, being single, being depressed, having writers block, having all and nothing at the same time. In one word he is a "STORYTELLER".
The STAGE
Usually it is NEW YORK, his home town, where he likes to buy bread, listen to jazz and play his clarinette. An eternal lover of his old type writer who he says for certain will live longer than him. Being from a jewish conservative family, his mom describe him as an "IMPACIENT CHILD". As a boy growing up in Brooklyn, he spent most of his time alone in his room practicing magic tricks or his clarinet.
He was always running and jumpling. Everyone wanted him to be a normal, functioning, good citizen. But he had this inner voice that he couldnt stop, he was writing jokes and telling jokes so fast, he began to send them to a newspaper. Soon enough he became a regular on different columns before begining his stand up show. He hated doing that. He didn´t like the spotlight. He even threw up several times before going on stage. He always was troubled but had many things to share with the world if the world was willing to hear HIM.
Is a fan of Alfredo Zitarrosa, one of the best Uruguayan musicians. After dropping out from New York University, where he studied communication and film, he attended City College of New York.
The style to PLAYWRIGHT
“I’m a compulsive worker, What I really like to do best is whatever I’m not doing at the moment.”
-Woody AllenHis style of comedy is :
- heavy use of dialogue
- traditional jazz soundtrack
- a spring-autumn romance
Allens movies are so complex, so much more than just a film and so many of them, it is impossibe to talk about just one, he has done one movie each
year for the past 50 years!
No one is so relevant and so funny as him. You may like him or not, but doing something for 50 years and being as good as him is very very hard. All his films are BIG ensemble casts. BIG NAMES. BIG STARS. He even makes jokes about that . He is not afraid to play himself but he can make 10 different actors make 10 different WOODY ALLENS.A lot of his movies feature at least one character who is a writer. This is often Woody himself.
Nearly all of his films start and end with white-on-black credits, set in the Windsor typeface, set to jazz music, without any scrolling.
"i was the worlds worst student
i hated school with a PASSION !!,
it was a curse ."
-Woody Allen
ALLEN SATURATION
Saturate them about yourself and they will love you. Someone told that to Allen. He acted in Television, fighted a Kangaroo and sang with a dog. He appeared with Johnny Carson and became an awesome improviser.
In 1963..They offered Allen 20 thousand dollars to write the script for "What´s new pussycat" he hated what they did with his script. He didn´t even went to see it in the theatre, he was very angry.
"I won´t do another movie if i am not the director , if i don´t have the control"
Woody Allen (1963)
THERAPY is (not) for everyone
His variety of neuroses include: arachnophobia (spiders), entomophobia (insects), heliophobia (sunshine), cynophobia (dogs), altophobia (heights), demophobia (crowds), carcinophobia (cancer), thanatophobia (death), misophobia (germs). He admits to being terrified of hotel bathrooms.
Allen has described himself as being a
"militant Freudian atheist"
What's New Pussycat? (1965) (actor only)
What's Up, Tiger Lily? (1966)
Casino Royale (1967) (actor only)
Take the Money and Run (1969)
Bananas (1971)
Play It Again, Sam (1972)
Everything You Always Wanted to Know About Sex* (*But Were Afraid to Ask) (1972)
Sleeper (1973)
Love and Death (1975)
The Front (1976) (actor only)
Annie Hall (1977)
Interiors (1978)
Manhattan (1979)
Stardust Memories (1980)
A Midsummer Night's Sex Comedy (1982)
Zelig (1983)
Broadway Danny Rose (1984)
The Purple Rose of Cairo (1985)
Meetin' WA (1986) (himself)
Hannah and Her Sisters (1986)
Radio Days (1987)
September (1987)
King Lear (1987) (actor only – uncredited cameo)
Another Woman (1988)
New York Stories (1989)
Crimes and Misdemeanors (1989)
Alice (1990)Scenes from a Mall (1991) (actor only)
Shadows and Fog (1991)
Husbands and Wives (1992)
Manhattan Murder Mystery (1993)
Bullets Over Broadway (1994)
Don't Drink the Water (1994)
Mighty Aphrodite (1995)
Everyone Says I Love You (1996)
Deconstructing Harry (1997)
Wild Man Blues (1997)
The Impostors (1998) (actor only – uncredited role)
Antz (1998) (voice)
Celebrity (1998)
Sweet and Lowdown (1999)
Company Man (2000) (actor only – uncredited role)
Small Time Crooks (2000)
Picking Up the Pieces (2000) (actor only)
The Curse of the Jade Scorpion (2001)
Stanley Kubrick: A Life in Pictures (2001)(documentary) (himself)
Hollywood Ending (2002)
Anything Else (2003)
Melinda and Melinda (2005)
Match Point (2005)
Scoop (2006)
Cassandra's Dream (2007)
Vicky Cristina Barcelona (2008)
Whatever Works (2009)
You Will Meet a Tall Dark Stranger (2010)
Midnight in Paris (2011)
Paris Manhattan (2012) (actor only)
To Rome with Love (2012)
Fading Gigolo (2013) (actor only)
Blue Jasmine (2013)
Magic in the Moonlight (2014)
Irrational Man (2015)
Café Society (2016)
" Writing TRAGIC theatre and TRAGIC film
confronts reality head on "
-Woody Allen
His TOPTEN favorite FILMS are :
The 400 Blows (François Truffaut, 1959)
8½ (Federico Fellini, 1963)
Amarcord (Federico Fellini, 1972)
The Bicycle Thieves (Vittorio de Sica, 1948)
Citizen Kane (Orson Welles, 1941)
The Discreet Charm of the Bourgeoisie (Luis Buñuel, 1972)
Grand Illusion (Jean Renoir, 1937)
Paths of Glory (Stanley Kubrick, 1957)
Rashomon (Akira Kurosawa, 1950)
The Seventh Seal (Ingmar Bergman, 1957)
Manages his one-film-per-year schedule by setting strict budgets. Actors--famous or otherwise--receive the same salary.
Writes his scripts on a typewriter. He does not own a personal computer, and has his Email account managed by assistants.
Many big-name actors are so eager to work with him that they usually work for a fraction of their usual salaries. He would offer the part to actors he admires by sending them a letter and asking politely if they are interested in being in one of his movies.
Plays his clarinet at a Jazz club where the house rule is that he cannot be addressed by any member of the audience. If someone does speak to him, they are automatically ejected from the club.
As a homage to Gordon Willis, his long-time friend and cinematographer, he includes a scene where you hear the actors talking outside the shot.
Allen works with people who are best for the story and, if it goes wrong in the finished film, he blames his writing, not the cast. His casting is instinctive and decisive and his casting calls are famously, terrifyingly brief. He maintains that actors have nothing to say to him, just as he has nothing to say to them.
He won’t make notes for scripts: he’ll write the script instead.
He has the finished script delivered by hand, always topped with a handwritten note, and has the messenger wait until it is read. Nobody is allowed to read a script overnight, save for rare exceptions: this stops annoying media leaks about the film’s plot and details.
When it’s time to shoot, Allen says he likes to “Get out of the actors’ way and shut up”. He shoots quickly and without many retakes. Allen doesn’t find digital cheaper or faster for filming, but it is faster to edit. Many actors remember his sole instruction being to play the scene faster. He always worries that the film might be boring, especially if it’s a comedy.
After their release, Allen never watches any of his films. When asked, he says: “Yeah, well I hate them all.” He claims he doesn’t care about what people think and that he doesn’t worry about box office.
Despite accusations that he makes the same film over and over, Allen is interested in trying something new. He works on the quantity theory: among the failures there will be hits.
“I just finished reading this wonderful biography of Bob Hope, by Richard Zoglin. For me it’s a feast. Full of funny lines, quotes you can hear Hope saying them. I would love to make a Bob Hope movie, even an homage to Hope called Hope Springs Eternal, but I fear no one would see it. I’m always defending him to people.”
-Woody Allen
"All i have in life is my imagination "
-Woody Allen
