This is a scene from Woody Allen's To Rome With Love, which opens in select theaters this weekend after a very limited release two weeks ago. It shows Woody Allen really Woody Allening it up on a plane. This is the first time Allen has acted in one of his films since 2006's Scoop. Though, it's hard to call this acting because you know this must be exactly what Woody is like on a plane.
It’s no secret that sometimes comedy is taken a bit too seriously. Comedy obsessives love not just the jokes, but the mechanics and emotions of the comedy world. There are a raft of comedy documentaries exploring comedy and comedians, but do they really have anything significant to add to the discussion? This series looks at comedy documentaries and whether they’re interesting, insightful, and possibly even…funny?
Comedian is only one of the many jobs of Woody Allen, so it makes sense that a film about him is only partly about comedy. Woody Allen: A Documentary is an honest, thorough look at the life and career of one of the funniest [...]
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.
Official Comedy is a new comedy YouTube channel that is part of YouTube's new programming iniative. It offers a mix of old clips – like this one of the Coz or the below clip of Woody Allen telling his famous ex-wife joke – and new comedy related programming like Jokes Through the Ages, which features comedians like Julie Klausner, Ilana Glazer, Dave Hill, and Max Silvestri. Below, watch them explain the history of "That's what she said." "This is funny." That's what you said.
OK, here’s the cast in alphabetical order: Alec Baldwin, Cate Blanchett, Louis C.K., Bobby Cannavale, Andrew Dice Clay, Michael Emerson, Sally Hawkins and Peter Sarsgaard. It seems normal until you get to The Diceman and Benjamin Linus. No word on what the film is about but it is set in San Francisco so… obviously… umm… Maybe, the film is about Alec Baldwin (the Woody Allen surrogate) playing a former comedian, who now is a television executive, who visits San Francisco with his actress wife (played by Cate Blanchett as a Diane Keaton type) to visit his son (Sarsgaard) who is about to marry a woman (Hawkins) but is [...]
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 film Fading 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 [...]
Hypochondria and self-deprecation color Woody Allen's praise of fame, which is perfect. Of course, Woody needs to get doctors on the weekend; he always thinks he's sick. Of course, Woody thinks that he is awful at the clarinet and that no one would actually want to see him play. Now if he just broke the fourth wall and talked directly to the camera, he could seamlessly fit into 60% of his movies.
Vulture has an interview with current Louie editor/Woody Allen's former editor Susan 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.)
