Woody Allen still writes his movie scripts on yellow paper on an ancient $40 portable Olympia typewriter, and edits by taking scissors and a stapler to paragraphs. He explains this technique in eager detail in this documentary, and in a microcosm it perfectly represents his unchanging adherence to a set of curious rules about his life and work.
“Writing is a great life,” he says. “You wake up in the morning and you write in your room.” His unalloyed joy at the simplicity of this activity explains a great deal; he still sees himself essentially as a writer, originally of jokes for the New York newspapers, then as a stand-up comedian, and only later as the director and screenwriter of 42 films, roughly one a year.
Allen appears to have almost equal affection for all his movies, whereas most cinemagoers cite Hannah and Her Sisters, Annie Hall or Manhattan as the finest examples of his art. He also refuses to attend the Oscars, even when he wins. Allen remains an extremely famous cottage industry in a blockbuster world: “I like small-scale films so I can have complete control,” he adds, scarred by the mangling of his script for his commercially successful first film, What’s New Pussycat? He also wastes no time — if a shot is good enough, he doesn’t have the patience for another take.
All this is revealed in the most detailed portrait of the 76-year-old Allen yet, made by Robert B. Weide, perhaps better known as the director of Curb Your Enthusiasm. Weide knew Allen from the business, and pursued him over 25 years to take part in a documentary. Eventually, Allen agreed and Weide filmed him for a year and a half, at home, in his office, in Brooklyn where he grew up, on the set of You Will Meet a Tall Dark Stranger, and on the red carpet in Cannes.
For Allen fans, this is a nostalgic tour of his days of glory, those moments of raw wit and philosophical depth that some of his later films, like Match Point, lack. There is also some screamingly funny footage from his early comedies such as Everything You Always Wanted to Know about Sex ... and Bananas.
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Weide’s documentary takes a traditional trajectory, from childhood as Allen Stewart Konigsberg in Brooklyn and onwards. “Somewhere around five or so I turned grumpier or sour as I became aware of my own mortality,” Allen says, and it is his self-deprecating humour, along with a casually professional competence that comes across in this film. The story ends in the present day, with Allen’s latest and most successful film at the box office, Midnight in Paris. Owen Wilson, the movie’s star, puts the success down to “the title?” in a wry comment.
Weide secures interviews with many of Allen’s collaborators, from Diane Keaton to Mariel Hemingway and Penélope Cruz. Martin Scorsese weighs in, as do John Cusack and Sean Penn. Almost no one turns down an offer to work with Woody. Conspicuous by her absence is his former partner Mia Farrow, who first appeared in A Midsummer Night’s Sex Comedy and Zelig, and disappeared around the time of Husbands and Wives in 1992, after she discovered Allen’s affair with her adopted daughter Soon-Yi Previn, now Allen’s wife.
The scandal is dealt with, and the film moves on, with Allen emerging increasingly clearly from his own myth. There is a sense of his deep understanding of women, as characters, and his selfish protection of his own needs — perhaps the key to longevity on screen and in life.
Or, as he notes: “My relationship with death remains the same: I am strongly against it.”
Robert B. Weide, TBC (120min)