The big revelations from the new Woody Allen book:
-Several experts have dismissed Dylan's story about having been abused. One of the Farrow children suggests that Dylan was coached by Mia in her story; this man recalls similar incidents in his own dealings with Mia. He suggests that Mia was unhinged, and that she established a climate of terror in her home. Regarding Soon Yi: Woody says, "I would run away with her again. It has been worth the attacks." (When actors such as Kate Winslet and Kristen Stewart say, "I work with him because of course I don't know whether he is guilty of molestation," I wonder why they don't say, "I work with him because there's a good deal of evidence to suggest he is *not* guilty of molestation"--? And I wonder if Lena Dunham has read "Start to Finish.")
-Woody has multiple ideas going at once. He wrote "Magic in the Moonlight" and "Irrational Man" basically at the same time; he would toddle along with one for a few weeks, then put it down when he grew bored. And: repeat. He says the dialogue isn't terribly important; what's important is to have a notion in your head, and then to work it out in a plausible way. This makes me think of Sondheim, who describes each of his great shows as "a notion"--for example, "A single man considers the lives of his married friends on the eve of his birthday." "An extramarital affair unravels in a decaying Ziegfeld-era theater." Stephen King says plot isn't important; the thing is to get an idea for an uncomfortable situation. "A man has an opportunity to stop JFK's assassination." "A woman and her estranged daughter are thrown together and required to solve a murder mystery." (The artists I tend to admire most are artists who have a fixed, steady, un-glamorous relationship with their work. Artists who go the distance--who go on and on for decades. Woody Allen, Janet Malcolm, Stephen King, Sondheim, Alice Munro, Matisse and Picasso, Noah Baumbach, Anne Tyler. This is part of Taylor Swift's appeal--the work ethic--though I recognize that she is still young.)
-"Irrational Man" could have happened in Boston or NYC, and saved everyone a good deal of grief, but Woody was intent on Rhode Island (wildly unsatisfactory in many ways). Woody adored Emma Stone, but he still hesitated to give her the role in "Irrational Man"; others were considered. Parker Posey couldn't deliver a line in an off-handed way--"I have this crackpot theory..."--so she worried she would lose her job on Day One. Woody does occasionally fire actors, though it's rare. When he courted George C. Scott, he had someone send a letter that said, "Basically, you have no creative control on a Woody Allen set, and you must defer to Woody all the time." And Scott wrote back: "OK, fuck you!" And that was the end of the consultation. Woody feels disappointment--inevitably, with every movie--because, in his head, it's George C. Scott reading the voice-over narrations, and of course that's not the reality. He did say Jonathan Rhys Meyers doing the voice-over in "Match Point" was pretty much the dictionary definition of perfection. Filming overseas seemed to spur on a renaissance for Woody in the aughties; it gave us "Vicky Cristina Barcelona," "Match Point," "Midnight in Paris." (Woody is obsessed--like any sane person--with Venice, and as far as I know he hasn't done much work there yet. A Woody movie in Venice--before the city sinks into the water, or Woody dies, or both. That would be a great gift.)
-Studio executives sometimes come close to fainting when they wrestle with Woody's bleak endings. Consider "The Purple Rose of Cairo," when she doesn't get the guy. A CEO called Woody and said, calmly, "Is this really the final draft?" Woody says the CEO was equable when he heard the bad news, "but I'm sure he wanted to stick a pitchfork in his eye."
-"Wonder Wheel" promises--for us--both Kate Winslet and CGI recreations of Coney Island in another era. Count me in!
-If you don't have a hot shower with good water pressure, Woody will leave your hotel. Writing in bed is also a top-priority requirement. Woody has borrowed extensively from Orson Welles and from Bergman, and he reports that Bergman was just an ordinary person. When the two met, Bergman worried a good deal about his most recent profits. That's all it was. Woody does not consider himself a great artist; he feels his work is mainly a way of coping with anxiety. If he can tinker with an idea, he can pull himself out of the squalid present--at least for a while. He has a very difficult time with weekends--"Ugh! Saturday!" He wishes he could simply film seven days a week. Certain ideas gestate for decades before they're ready to pop out in the form of a script. There's a suggestion that "Irrational Man"--with its evil judge, who becomes a victim of murder--may have grown out of Woody's woes in court post-Mia Farrow. A murder is a fun thing to stage. Elevator shafts, gradual accretions of poison in Ingrid Bergman's milk, the garroting that involves a back seat in a car--Woody enjoys the build-up, and then does not care to show the aftermath, the puddle of blood. He says a great idea for a movie would be: "I find a wallet, carry it back to its address, and, in that house, I discover a dead body." (Why doesn't he film this idea?) Woody Allen calls "Notorious" "a movie without philosophical weight--but it's a splendid movie nonetheless." He doesn't care very much about auteurs; you can be mediocre as an auteur, you can be fabulous as a non-auteur. Among the mediocre auteurs: Mel Brooks.
-More soon!
-P.S. Aha- yes- he uses Venice in "Everyone Says I Love You."
-Several experts have dismissed Dylan's story about having been abused. One of the Farrow children suggests that Dylan was coached by Mia in her story; this man recalls similar incidents in his own dealings with Mia. He suggests that Mia was unhinged, and that she established a climate of terror in her home. Regarding Soon Yi: Woody says, "I would run away with her again. It has been worth the attacks." (When actors such as Kate Winslet and Kristen Stewart say, "I work with him because of course I don't know whether he is guilty of molestation," I wonder why they don't say, "I work with him because there's a good deal of evidence to suggest he is *not* guilty of molestation"--? And I wonder if Lena Dunham has read "Start to Finish.")
-Woody has multiple ideas going at once. He wrote "Magic in the Moonlight" and "Irrational Man" basically at the same time; he would toddle along with one for a few weeks, then put it down when he grew bored. And: repeat. He says the dialogue isn't terribly important; what's important is to have a notion in your head, and then to work it out in a plausible way. This makes me think of Sondheim, who describes each of his great shows as "a notion"--for example, "A single man considers the lives of his married friends on the eve of his birthday." "An extramarital affair unravels in a decaying Ziegfeld-era theater." Stephen King says plot isn't important; the thing is to get an idea for an uncomfortable situation. "A man has an opportunity to stop JFK's assassination." "A woman and her estranged daughter are thrown together and required to solve a murder mystery." (The artists I tend to admire most are artists who have a fixed, steady, un-glamorous relationship with their work. Artists who go the distance--who go on and on for decades. Woody Allen, Janet Malcolm, Stephen King, Sondheim, Alice Munro, Matisse and Picasso, Noah Baumbach, Anne Tyler. This is part of Taylor Swift's appeal--the work ethic--though I recognize that she is still young.)
-"Irrational Man" could have happened in Boston or NYC, and saved everyone a good deal of grief, but Woody was intent on Rhode Island (wildly unsatisfactory in many ways). Woody adored Emma Stone, but he still hesitated to give her the role in "Irrational Man"; others were considered. Parker Posey couldn't deliver a line in an off-handed way--"I have this crackpot theory..."--so she worried she would lose her job on Day One. Woody does occasionally fire actors, though it's rare. When he courted George C. Scott, he had someone send a letter that said, "Basically, you have no creative control on a Woody Allen set, and you must defer to Woody all the time." And Scott wrote back: "OK, fuck you!" And that was the end of the consultation. Woody feels disappointment--inevitably, with every movie--because, in his head, it's George C. Scott reading the voice-over narrations, and of course that's not the reality. He did say Jonathan Rhys Meyers doing the voice-over in "Match Point" was pretty much the dictionary definition of perfection. Filming overseas seemed to spur on a renaissance for Woody in the aughties; it gave us "Vicky Cristina Barcelona," "Match Point," "Midnight in Paris." (Woody is obsessed--like any sane person--with Venice, and as far as I know he hasn't done much work there yet. A Woody movie in Venice--before the city sinks into the water, or Woody dies, or both. That would be a great gift.)
-Studio executives sometimes come close to fainting when they wrestle with Woody's bleak endings. Consider "The Purple Rose of Cairo," when she doesn't get the guy. A CEO called Woody and said, calmly, "Is this really the final draft?" Woody says the CEO was equable when he heard the bad news, "but I'm sure he wanted to stick a pitchfork in his eye."
-"Wonder Wheel" promises--for us--both Kate Winslet and CGI recreations of Coney Island in another era. Count me in!
-If you don't have a hot shower with good water pressure, Woody will leave your hotel. Writing in bed is also a top-priority requirement. Woody has borrowed extensively from Orson Welles and from Bergman, and he reports that Bergman was just an ordinary person. When the two met, Bergman worried a good deal about his most recent profits. That's all it was. Woody does not consider himself a great artist; he feels his work is mainly a way of coping with anxiety. If he can tinker with an idea, he can pull himself out of the squalid present--at least for a while. He has a very difficult time with weekends--"Ugh! Saturday!" He wishes he could simply film seven days a week. Certain ideas gestate for decades before they're ready to pop out in the form of a script. There's a suggestion that "Irrational Man"--with its evil judge, who becomes a victim of murder--may have grown out of Woody's woes in court post-Mia Farrow. A murder is a fun thing to stage. Elevator shafts, gradual accretions of poison in Ingrid Bergman's milk, the garroting that involves a back seat in a car--Woody enjoys the build-up, and then does not care to show the aftermath, the puddle of blood. He says a great idea for a movie would be: "I find a wallet, carry it back to its address, and, in that house, I discover a dead body." (Why doesn't he film this idea?) Woody Allen calls "Notorious" "a movie without philosophical weight--but it's a splendid movie nonetheless." He doesn't care very much about auteurs; you can be mediocre as an auteur, you can be fabulous as a non-auteur. Among the mediocre auteurs: Mel Brooks.
-More soon!
-P.S. Aha- yes- he uses Venice in "Everyone Says I Love You."
Comments
Post a Comment