For five decades, no American filmmaker has been as prolific—or as paradoxical—as Woody Allen. From Play It Again, Sam (1972) to Midnight in Paris (2011) and Blue Jasmine (2013), Allen has produced an average of one film a year; yet in many of these movies Allen reveals a progressively skeptical attitude toward both the value of art and the cultural contributions of artists.
In this second edition Peter J. Bailey extends his classic study to consider Allen’s work during the twenty-first century. He illuminates how the director’s decision to leave New York to shoot in European cities such as London, Paris, Rome, and Barcelona has affected his craft. He also explores Allen’s shift toward younger actors and interprets the evolving critical reaction to his films—authoritatively demonstrating why the director’s lifelong project of moviemaking remains endlessly deserving of careful attention.
Table of Content
That’s Old Black Magic: Woody Allen’s Ambivalent Artistry
Strictly the Movies: Play It Again, Sam
Getting Serious: The Antimimetic Emblems of Annie Hall
Art and Idealization: I’ll Fake Manhattan
Strictly the Movies II: How Radio Days Generated Nights at the Movies
Life Stand Still Here: Interiors Dialogue
In the Stardust of a Song: Stardust Memories
Woody’s Mild Jewish Rose: Broadway Danny Rose
The Fine Art of Living Well: Hannah and Her Sisters
If You Want a Hollywood Ending: Crimes and Misdemeanors
Everyone Loves His/Her Illusions: The Purple Rose of Cairo and Shadows and Fog
Poetic License, Bullshit: Bullets Over Broadway
Let’s Just Live It: Woody Allen in the 1990s
Because it’s Real Difficult in Life: Husbands and Wives
Rear Condo: Manhattan Murder Mystery
The Voodoo That You Do So Well: Mighty Aphrodite
And What a Perfect Plot: Everyone Says I Love You and Zelig
‘How We Choose to Distort It’: Deconstructing Harry
From the Neck Up: Another Woman and Celebrity
Allen and His Audience: Sweet and Lowdown
Confrontation and Escape: Allen’s Twenty-First-Century Meditations on Tragedy and Comedy
The Magic of Luck: Scoop, Magic in the Moonlight, and Match Point
The Heart Wants What It Wants (2): Vicky Cristina Barcelona and You Will Meet a Tall Dark Stranger
‘People Reinvent Themselves, Don’t They?’: Midnight in Paris and Blue Jasmine
Epilogue
About the author
Peter J. Bailey, professor of English at St. Lawrence University in Canton, New York, is the author of Reading Stanley Elkin.More ebooks from the same author(s) / Editor
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