For years I did not know why people did not like Woody Allen movies. I’ve heard everything from the idea that he does not have any Black people in his movies to the fact that his movies are one continuous dialog between characters. I often felt that Woody Allen was a misunderstood artist, sort of like Ralph Lauren, or Micheal Jackson; someone at the height of their craft who was a clear influence on everyone that came after them.
The comedy of Larry David and Jerry Seinfeld, and shows like Curb Your Enthusiasm and Seinfeld, obvious derive their roots from Woody Allen’s movies. Perhaps people do not get the humor, perhaps people are quick to forget that he paid his dues as a comic, perhaps people do not like to be reminded of what life is like on the other side; after all he represents that Jewish, uppity pseudo-intellectual presence that I grew up thinking typified life for people in New York in the seventies and eighties. But somewhere along the line Woody Allen switched gears, and you were either with him or against him.
He took his most loyal fans with him to Europe (figuratively) and left those apologists that loved his New York movies behind. He reminded us that it was not just about pseudo-intellectualism and narcissism in America, but in life in general. I stopped watching his movies so much, and I moved on. The last movie of his I watched was Match Point, which was darker and had a strong dramatic, almost disturbing presence to it. It was a great film, but it didn’t seem to translate the same message his earlier work did.
It could be that I was watching his movies for all of the wrong reasons. It could be that I was using his movies to escape my own existence, that was entirely different than the one he showed us on film. It isn’t that there aren’t similar movies that give us a similar look at the other side of life for wealthy African-Americans, it is that Woody Allen seems to have done it first and created his brand around such racial and cultural nepotism that you would have think that he invented the concept. But as with all artists, when you take a deeper look into their influences you realize who they borrowed from, what they’ve tweaked, and how they reintroduced old, forgotten concepts to the American public.
I think that it is great that he reinvented himself through Europe. He expanded his brand enough to remain interesting but not too much to alienate his core audience. But at the same time I think that the average American does not relate to his movies because they are a reminder of what America’s aspirations were intellectually for those that the had the leisure to pursue intellectualism as a way of articulating their financial and cultural means many years ago. He also gives you a look into the darker reaches of the American psyche, and shows people our inner conflicts with God and self. This isn’t what people necessarily want to hear, and not the mirror that they care to look at themselves through. But it is a looking glass that has served him well for over 30 years …