Woody Allen on Woody Allen: In Conversation with Stig Björkman

Woody Allen, Stig Björkman

Grove Press, 2005 - Art - 405 pages

Over the course of his long directing career, Woody Allen has portrayed contemporary American life with an unmistakable mixture of irony, neurotic obsession, and humor. Woody Allen on Woody Allen is a unique self-portrait of this uncompromising filmmaker that offers a revealing account of his life and work. In a series of rare, in-depth interviews, Allen brings us onto the sets and behind the scenes of all his films. Since its original publication, Woody Allen on Woody Allen has been the primary source of Allen's own thoughts on his work, childhood, favorite films, and inspirations. Now updated with one hundred pages of new material that brings us up to his Hollywood Ending, Woody Allen on Woody Allen is a required addition to any cinephile's library.

Contents

• Woody Allen and Peter Sellers in Whats New Pussycat? II: 11
• Woody Allen and friend in Casino Royale: 14
• Take the Money and: 16
• Woody Allen as a bankrobber in Take the Money and Run: 17
• Gordon Willis at work on Stardust Memories: 21
• Woody Allen and Carlo Di Palma at work on Radio Days: 23
• Bob Hope in Monsieur Beaucaire: 27
• Woody Allen playing clarinet with Herb Hall: 38
• Bananas: 39
• Sylvester Stallone and Woody Allen in Bananas: 40
• Play It Again: 48
• Woody Allen in Play It Again Sam: 49
• ΙΟ Diane Keaton and Woody Allen in Play It Again Sam: 53
• Woody Allen and Lynn Redgrave in Everything You Always Wanted ΙΙ to Know About Sex: 60
• Gene Wilder in Everything You Always Wanted to Know About Sex: 63
• Sleeper: 67
• Woody Allen and Diane Keaton in Sleeper: 69
• Woody Allen in Love and Death: 73
• Annie Hall: 75
• Diane Keaton and Woody Allen in Annie Hall: 84
• Diane Keaton and Woody Allen with their analysts in Annie Hall: 89
• Interiors: 94
• Diane Keaton Kristin Griffith and Mary Beth Hurt in Interiors: 102
• Maureen Stapleton and E G Marshall in Interiors: 104
• ΙΟ: 107
• Mariel Hemingway and Woody Allen in Manhattan: 109
• Meryl Streep and Woody Allen in Manhattan III: 111
• Diane Keaton and Woody Allen in Manhattan 1145: 115
• Isaac Woody Allen records the things that make life worth living: 119
• Stardust Memories: 121
• Woody Allen in Stardust Memories: 125
• Charlotte Rampling in Stardust Memories: 129
• A Midsummer Nights Sex ComedyZelig: 131
• Woody Allen and Mia Farrow in A Midsummer Nights Sex Comedy: 134
• Mia Farrow and Woody Allen in Zelig: 138
• Broadway Danny Rose: 143
• Sandy Baron Will Jordan and Jack Rollins in Broadway Danny: 144
• Karen Ackers Jeff Daniels Mia Farrow John Wood and: 150
• Hannah and Her Sisters: 153
• Robert Joy and Dianne Wiest: 165
• September: 170
• Crimes and Misdemeanours: 185
• Another Woman: 188
• Woody Allen directing Gena Rowlands and Gene Hackman: 199
• 19: 201
• 20: 208
• A movie plot? Judah Martin Landau recounts his perfect: 221
• 22: 227
• Alec Baldwin and Mia Farrow in Alice: 233
• Shadows and: 234
• Husbands and Wives: 244
• Manhattan Murder Mystery: 255
• Interlude: 269
• Filmography: 370
• Chronology: 389
• Index: 397

About the author

Allen's favorite personality-the bemused neurotic, the perpetual worrywart, the born loser-dominates his plays, his movies, and his essays. A native New Yorker, Allen attended local schools and despised them, turning early to essay writing as a way to cope with his Since his apprenticeship, writing gags for comedians such as Sid Caesar and Garry Moore, the image he projects-of a "nebbish from Brooklyn"-has developed into a personal metaphor of life as a concentration camp from which no one escapes alive. Allen wants to be funny, but isn't afraid to be serious either-even at the same time. His film Annie Hall, co-written with Marshall Brickman and winner of four Academy Awards, was a subtle, dramatic development of the contemporary fears and insecurities of American life. In her review of Love and Death, Judith Christ wrote that Allen was more interested in the character rather than the cartoon, the situation rather than the set-up, and the underlying madness rather than the surface craziness. Later Allen films, such as Crimes and Misdemeanors or Husbands and Wives, take on a far more somber and philosophic tone, which has delighted some critics and appalled others. In Allen's essays and fiction reprinted from the New Yorker, Getting Even New Yorker, (1971), Without Feathers (1975), and Side Effects (1980), the situations and characters don't just speak to us, they are us.

Bibliographic information

• Title: Woody Allen on Woody Allen: In Conversation with Stig Björkman; An Evergreen book
• Authors: Woody Allen, Stig Björkman
• Contributor: Stig Björkman
• Edition: illustrated, revised
• Publisher: Grove Press, 2005
• ISBN: 0802142036, 9780802142030
• Length: 405 pages
• Subjects: Art / Subjects & Themes / Portraits; Biography & Autobiography / Artists, Architects, Photographers; Biography & Autobiography / Entertainment & Performing Arts; Language Arts & Disciplines / Journalism; Performing Arts / Film / Genres / General; Performing Arts / Individual Director