Compulsive filmmaker Woody Allen has pretty much admitted
that his cinematic practice is such that each of his pictures is a swing at
something. And that he’s the last to know, in a sense, the extent to which he
“connects.” Which is not to say he has no opinions about his pictures—he does,
and they’re usually ones related to disappointment—but rather that he keeps up
the pace that he does—making one film a year, like clockwork, since 1983—out of
a genuinely aspirational impulse.
Critical opinion on the extent to which he connects varies
pretty wildly. I remember seeing Allen’s 2005 drama “Match Point” at the Cannes
Film Festival and thinking it a lot of silly rot. So did another critic friend,
and imagine our surprise as we filed out into the lobby of the screening area
to mix with dozens, if not hundreds, of critics who found the picture a
thrilling return to form, or an Allen renaissance even. But the follow-up to
that, 2006’s “Scoop,” was hardly anyone’s idea of primo Woody, and reception
was wobbly from that point on, although the past four years have been, most
would agree, pretty good artistic ones (although not so good with respect to
certain aspects of Allen’s personal life, one is obliged to …read more