10 Landmark Woody Allen films

Yesterday, on the first day of a new year, one of the most important figures in American cinema history celebrated his 79th birthday. Woody Allen built up his reputation initially as a stand up comic and writer, but soon enough his quasi neurotic personality and his intellectual come honest absurdist sense of humour begged he should leave a mark in the field of cinematic art. And it did not take long for him to leave said mark, with a distinctive style, themes and structures that make him one of the most recognisable of arthouse helmers. 
 
Beloved by fellow directors, critics, artists and comics even in the occasional instances where his prolific filmmography gave into mediocrity that was usually readily forgiven, he is also one of the only people to ever turn down Oscars and still consistently be asked to show up - which is something he did only on one occasion where he was asked to speak about New York City in a memorable speech in the months after the 9/11 tragedy - and occasionally despised and targeted by glossy magazines and sensasionalist social media campaigns that are a result of a tumoltuous private life (and Mia Farrow's understandable anguish at the way things turned out for her).
 
This year also marks the 50th anniversary of What's New Pussycat, the film which he wrote the story for and which marked his on screen debut. So, it feels fitting to revisit his career by taking a look at his filmmography and picking ten landmark films as we await for more news on his new film that despite still being untitled - at least according to imdb.com - is currently in post-production, stars among others Emma Stone and Joaquin Phoenix and should be released some time later this year.

 

TAKE THE MONEY AND RUN (1969)

Before Woody Allen the filmmaker, there was Woody Allen the comic, topping the world of standup, quickly becoming a star through television appearances and with successful runs on Broadway with plays such as Don't Drink the Water and Play it Again Sam. His popularity was so big that cinema soon came calling, and at first he contented himself with filling the role of the writer and actor, but the end result of What's New Pussycat disappointed him so that he would direct the vast maority of his screenplays afterwards. Officially, What's Up Tiger Lily? is credited as his directorial debut, yet due to the very nature of the film being an already shot Japanese spy movie reworked and re-dubbed, it was really the mockumentary Take the Money and Run in 1969 that required him to make cinema in the more traditional sense. Here, he also stars in his popular neurotic persona as an inept bank robber whose life the film chronicles. A creative slapstick with plenty of laugh out loud moments and somewhat of a more unpolished look that makes it all the more endearing and edgy.

PLAY IT AGAIN, SAM (1972)

One of Allen's most popular Broadway productions had been 1969's Play It Again, Sam, which is the story of a man struggling to date again after his girlfriend's sudden departure and estrangement. This film is very important to pinpoint for a number of reasons. One of these is certainly that Play it Again, Sam sets itself aside from the other works by Allen up to that point, that were more slapstick driven. The pace is slowed down and more mature sides to human vulnerabilities and honest musings on relationships are developed - themes that would go on to prominently influence his future works. On top of that, this might also be the first time that he portrayed a character which came close to being a true representation of his private self - and the clue can be found in the name of the character. But it's also interesting to point out that the film is directed by Herbert Ross, reason being partially because Allen did not think himself ready or skilled enough to balance the heavier and more intimately dramatic tones with the comedy and do the narrative justice.

SLEEPER (1973)

The first part of Allen's filmmography was very much marked by a more slapstick driven style. All of the titles are worth mentioning. The biting political satire Bananas (1971) in which he leads a revolution in a small Latin American totalitarian state and Love and Death (1976) being a period comedy built around the story of Tolstoj's War and Peace. Yet, it is arguably Sleeper (1973), in which he plays a clueless man who wakes up in a strange world two hundred years later that was the most delightful of these works. Here, with a rapid succession of remarkably inventive gags, Allen shows no restraint in channelling the spirits of the greats of the genre from Chaplin to Keaton by way of Jacques Tati (who had actually made similar wonderful work called Play Time a number of years earlier) and more straight faced genre instant classics such as a visual style clearly influenced by Kubrick's 1968 masterpiece 2001: A Space Odyssey.

ANNIE HALL (1977)

It's hard to find enough words to praise Annie Hall, the shell shockingly honest comedy about relationships in which a melancholic Alvy Singer immediately starts by trying to examine why his love story with his titular girl failed. Simply put, this film is a masterpiece. Aside from it being universally insightful and as rewarding as a therapy session for both filmmaker and audience, this production also marked the first collaboration between Woody and celebrated cinematographer Gordon Willis, whom he often cited as being a "technical wizard" and who certainly more than anyone else helped him achieve that advancement on a technical level. Annie Hall won all the major Oscars that year, including one for one of his muses Diane Keaton - the two were very close and certainly romantically involved for a year around the time of the making of Bananas and Sleeper. Woody missed out on his award for best actor (not that it mattered, as he didn't even show up to accept his award for best director). Most importantly however, it marked the beginning of the new, more in depth and psychoanalytical infleunced and driven streak of works that elevated him to cinema Olympus and kickstarted an impressive run of universally acclaimed features.

MANHATTAN (1979)

It's hard to handpick selected works from this golden period in Allen's filmmography. Truly, it seemed the helmer could do no wrong, and after the success of Annie Hall, he could do pretty much whatever he wanted. Manhattan, however, seems like the obvious choice. Rightly regarded as one of his most mature works due to the attention given to character depth and fundamental sentiments, this film also looks stunning with Gordon Willis paying a nostalgic tribute to the urban titular setting through gorgeous black and white photography that flatters its natural cinematic beauty and with the accompainment of Gershwin's jazz romanticism in the soundtrack. Between Annie Hall and Manhattan, Allen had also daringly gone full dramatic and channelled the works of his favourite filmmaker with Interiors (1978) and then also sought to channel Federico Fellini in his version of 8 1/2 entitled Stardust Memories (1980) - the latter made around the time he started dating actress Mia Farrow.

THE PURPLE ROSE OF CAIRO (1985)

Zelig (1983), Broadway Danny Rose (1984), Hannah and Her Sisters (1986). It seemed Allen could virtually do no wrong. It is worth mentioning that of this amazing streak of now celebrated classics, Allen himself has often quoted The Purple Rose of Cairo (1985) as being his favourite because it was one of the ones where the end result came closest to whatever he had envisioned while writing the screenplay. In this film, there is more flirtation with surrealism as we see a character from a film step into the real world out of the cinematic parallel universe to meet the girl in the audience he has fallen in love with. Because there is no time wasted in the technicalities of explaining such phenomena (much like Midnight in Paris years later), the contrast between real life and escapism - particularly the kind offered by cinema - all the more compelling and melancholic, not least of all due to the deep and meaningful backdrop of the setting of New Jersey during the hardships of the Great Depression. This narrative element also shows off a type of confidence on the part of Allen, and it seems as if by bringing this story on the big screen, he too were translating a daydream of his - the daydream of an avid cinephile.

HANNAH AND HER SISTERS (1986)

Despite the fact that their legacy ended with pure bitterness, it is hard not to pay tribute to the collaboration between Woody Allen and his muse and former spouse Mia Farrow. Together, they simply made movie magic which began in A Midsummer Night's Sex Comedy (1982) and continued right through to Husbands and Wives released in 1992, which was also the year the couple separated. Of this period, Farrow seemed to fulfill the need for Allen to interpret his more feminine side even as he became more interested in a more serious type of filmmaking. Of this period of more open female sensibility, we must no doubt not fail to mention Hannah and Her Sisters (1986), a film in which the intricate intertwining of relationships gravitates around the world of three sisters and their extended family. Aside from the optimist feel and great penmanship of the dialogue, the film also openly refers in structure to Allen's hero Bergman's Fanny and Alexander (1982) and Visconti's Rocco and His Brothers (1960), as the title implies.

CRIMES AND MISDEMEANORS (1989)

The films of Woody Allen had always, even up to this point, been identifiable with a Jewish brand of filmmaking much in the same way Scorsese's Catholicism always plays a relatively important factor in the shaping of the characters and the markings of the cultural setting in which the stories take place. In Crime and Misdemeanors (1989), religion, intended as religious conscience and religious upbringing as well as and essential and inevitable part of shaping heritage can be highlighted as a central theme and driving force more so than in any other of his previous films. It is also arguable that this examination makes it a rather personal venture, a factor that is easily supported by a rather bitter vibe that runs throughout it even in its more humorous moments, and that draws inspiration from Dostoevsky's dilemmas about murder, envy, self destructiveness and morality. Allen clearly showed a strong bond to this particular film by deciding upon the production's original completion to recall cast and crew to re-shoot the film's first act.

DECONSTRUCTING HARRY (1997)

It is fascinating to consider that in a fifty year career, Woody Allen has virtually never taken a consistent break. This means, of course, that as a ratio some of his works are less remarkable than others, and indeed the late nineties and eartly oughties are mostly made of such works aside from the odd exception such as the remarkable and somewhat underrated Deconstructing Harry (1997). Why is this film so fascinating? Because, it's true that psychoanalysis has been a constantly vital factor in of Allen's cinema, and this could well be his most personal psychoanalytical session of all, as he blatantly attempts to examine his faults and his responsibilities and imperfections as an artist through the leading character of a writer who has alienated everyone around him by writing about them in his books and not paying enough attention to living in the moment. We can see hence, in a thematically Fellini fashion, how the parallel between himself and the character of the writer are so similar, because of the aforementioned obsessive prolific nature of his works and perhaps even because of his own honesty in exorcising some of his personal problem by metaphorically constantly referencing them in his own works.

MIDNIGHT IN PARIS (2011)

It's sad, very sad to think that because of the fall in popularity of box office intakings for Woody Allen films as well as the negative gossip that was particularly vicious for a while, one of the greatest exponents of the cinematic arts came dangerously close to being deemed "box office poison". As a result, films like Cassandra's Dream (2007) and Vicky Christina Barcelona (2008) made sure to hide his name in the vast majority of the posters - almost out of shame. In Whatever Works (2009), the tagline said "a new comedy" where it should have said "a new Woody Allen comedy". Thankfully, 2011 saw his artistic rebirth, as he blatantly allowed the magic city of Paris and its art inspire him. Midnight in Paris is an intellectual daydream, a delightfully intelligent comedy that much like The Purple Rose of Cairo flirts with the surreal but never comes close to feeling gimmicky. After the To Rome With Love misstep the following year came 2013's Blue Jasmine, where he penned one of the best female characters of recent times in the delusional and deeply heartbroken anti-heroine played by Cate Blanchett.