Vulture has an interview with current Louie editor/Woody Allen's former editorSusan E. Morse. She discusses the similarities between the two brilliant comedians:
They’re very similar in the sense that they can write quickly, and if they see something isn’t working the way they envisioned it, they are both right there with a million alternative ways of expressing the same idea. There’s enormous flexibility there, and creativity, and that’s very helpful. Also, both are very open to discussion about things. I think that that’s not the way people on the outside view them, but when you’re working directly with them, they both really do want to hear what [...]
Writer William Zinsser turned a humble interview with Woody Allen into a role in the director's Jewish version of 8 1/2, also known as Stardust Memories, and lived to write about it. He tells the story in a long and beautiful essay about working with and writing about Woody. Here's a small excerpt:
Woody Allen's new comedy with Alec Baldwin, Jesse Eisenberg, and Ellen Page is now called To Rome With Love, and it's coming to theaters June 22. (It seems the powers that be decided Nero Fiddled would be a confusing title for international audiences. Go figure.)
Look out, Book of Mormon. Woody Allen's making a play for the Great White Way with a stage adaptation of Bullets Over Broadway, his 1994 crime comedy. Kinda surprising it took this long, considering that the movie has "Broadway" right in the name.
Unlike 2010, a year that didn’t give us a whole lot of great comedies, 2011 was a step in the right direction. Since it takes a movie two years to make it from script to theaters, the comedies of 2011 were the movies greenlit in the wake of The Hangover’s unbridled success in 2009. While The Hangover’s monstrous box office gross is directly responsible for the release of its sequel this year, it also caused an influx in raunchy, R-rated comedies, making it seem like these were the only types of comedies that came out in 2011. This recent wave of R-rated comedy began when Wedding Crashers and [...]
We’re only a week into summer movie season, and it’s already overloaded with superheroes. More excitement is coming too, as Hollywood rolls out what are expected to be its biggest hits this time ever year. There's no shortage of comedies this summer, as Batman and Spider-man will be duking it out at the box office with the likes of Adam Sandler, Will Ferrell, and, um, Wes Anderson.
What's in store for us comedy wise? The return of the Men in Black! A movie based on a pregnancy guidebook! A comedy based on a novel by Saddam Hussein! And a comedy that had to change its name because of the [...]
In the first new Louie promo, New York's funniest person, Louis C.K., offers a not so subtle nod to it's fourth funniest, Woody Allen (both rankings are according to Time Out). On this season, set to premiere June 28th, Louis is working with Woody's long time editor and you can tell by how much this promo is edited like Manhattan — regardless of the similar music and iconic black and white shots of the city, it's the editing that makes it a dead give away. In a way, Louis is the new mid-career Woody; both have red hair, both first became known as standups, both make funny [...]
So it turns out Woody Allen basically figured out the plot of Midnight in Paris in the late 1960s. That's how it seems when you listen to this footage of him doing standup from back in the day, anyhow. It's kind of amazing that a concept like this can stay in the back of someone's mind for 50 years before it becomes a movie. It's a good thing he never actually got punched by Ernest Hemingway, because the ensuing brain damage would surely render that impossible.
Annie Hall isn’t a Valentine’s Day movie, though I always watch it on Valentine’s Day. It’s not a romantic comedy, though in some ways it solidified the premises of the genre. It won Allen his only Oscar for Best Director, though it’s arguably not his best film (try to argue the point with a fan of Hannah and Her Sisters if you want to have a stroke). It’s one of the funniest movies ever made, even though it doesn’t exactly make one hopeful about the prospects of ever having a “healthy” relationship. And like so much of Allen’s work, if it’s a love song at all, it’s dedicated to [...]
Woody Allen's next comedy is called Nero Fiddled, and it takes place in Rome. The four vignettes comprising the film will star Woody Allen himself, IN THE FLESH, plus Alec Baldwin, Jesse Eisenberg, and Ellen Page (and Roberto Benigni, Penélope Cruz, Judy Davis, and Greta Gerwig). Okay, I realize this probably won't happen, but if Alec Baldwin played Nero, that would be incredible. Anyway, Sony Pictures Classic says there are "more laughs in this one than you can imagine" and calls it "the perfect summer comedy of 2012." Yeah, that's what you'd like us to think, ISN'T IT, SONY?
Woody Allen has done a pretty good job writing films, books, plays, and jokes but they're nothing compared to his letter. OK, those works are great but read some of these letters he writes Diane Keaton:
From 1969, around when they performed together in Play it Again, Sam:
Beet Head,
Humans are clean slates. There are no qualities indigenous to men or women. True, there is a different biology, but all defining choices in life affect both sexes & a woman, any woman is capable of defining herself with total FREEDOM. Therefore women are anything they choose to be & frequently have chosen & defined themselves greater than men. [...]
Here's the first trailer for Woody Allen's To Rome with Love, which is hitting theaters on June 22nd and features a pretty great ensemble cast. It doesn't look quite as magical/surreal as Midnight in Paris, although there does seem to be some weirdness happening to Roberto Benigni's character. Beyond his usual weirdness, that is.
Woody Allen and Sofia Vergara will star in John Turturro's new filmFading Gigolo, where thankfully they will not be each other's romantic interests, because ew. The plot sounds funny but also…complicated:
The film, which will also star Turturro, finds him and Allen playing "cash-strapped best friends who decide to go into the gigolo business together and subsequently attract the suspicion of the Hasidic Jewish community in which they live. Duo take on the pseudonyms Virgil and Bongo, with Allen pimping out Turturro's character until he falls for a Jewish widow, who has not yet been cast." Sharon Stone is also on board as "Allen's dermatologist who hires [...]
The Paley Center for Media, which has locations in both New York and LA, dedicates itself to the preservation of television and radio history. Inside their vast archives of more than 120,000 television shows, commercials, and radio programs, there are thousands of important and funny programs waiting to be rediscovered by comedy nerds like you and me. Each week, this column will highlight a new gem waiting for you at the Paley Library to quietly laugh at. (Seriously, it’s a library, so keep it down.)
1969 was a big year for Woody Allen. He had just written, directed and starred in the movie Take the Money and Run, he [...]
