That sounds harsher than I mean it, but Allen’s post-1980 success, when he has it, stems more from the fact that he’s the only filmmaker in America allowed to make comedies for people over 25. There are gems in the last thirty years—Zelig, Purple Rose of Cairo, Hannah and Her Sisters—but one senses that the neediness, the willigness to do anything to amuse an audience, is no longer present. Woody Allen is a comic genius who no longer really cares whether you laugh or not. I don’t know what that’s called, but I miss the other guy. A lot of people do.
Part of being a genius—more than anyone cares to admit—is knowing what you’re for. From 1960 to 1980, Woody Allen was perfectly in tune with his times, and his audience; in the thirty years since, his work comes with an ache. Perhaps it’s just age, his and our own. The good news is in those essays, and those movies, and that standup, Woody Allen is forever young.—Michael Gerber
Great summation of Woody Allen’s early career by WFMU’s Beware of the Blog
Joan Didion essay on Woody’s late Seventies classics
Standup:
Woody Allen standup: Private Life
Woody Allen standup: European Trip
Woody Allen standup: Vodka Ad
Woody Allen standup: The Moose
Woody Allen standup: Second Marriage
Woody Allen standup: Down South
Woody Allen standup: Oral contraception
Woody Allen standup: Unhappy Childhood
Woody Allen: The Great Renaldo
Woody Allen standup: Kidnapped
Woody Allen standup: My Marriage
Woody Allen standup: A Love Story
Woody Allen standup: NYU
Woody Allen standup: Pets
Woody Allen standup: My Grandfather
Woody Allen standup: The Army
Woody Allen standup: The Police
Woody Allen standup: Brooklyn
Woody Allen standup: Mechanical Objects
Woody Allen: Lost Generation
Woody Allen standup: The Science Fiction Film
Woody Allen standup: Vegas
Woody Allen standup: Bullet in My Breast Pocket
Woody Allen standup: Summing Up
Movies:
Woody Allen film: Take the Money and Run (1969) opening sequence
Woody Allen film: Sleeper (1973) opening sequence
Woody Allen film: Annie Hall (1977) opening sequence
Woody Allen film: Manhattan (1979) opening sequence
Woody Allen film: Stardust Memories (1980) excerpts
(many more links to come…)
