Woody Allen
Odd, perhaps, that I would write about a man I viscerally respond to as a little pervert, but there's more there. TCM played a documentary/interview with him the other night and it was haunting. Most of his movies are just silly, but a few were brilliant: Interiors, Annie Hall, Hannah and Her Sisters, and Crimes and Misdemeanors. Others were grotesque; Manhattan particularly hits me that way in light of his future indiscretions, as does Deconstructing Harry (shows what he thinks of women, which isn't much.)
However, my point is what he said in the interview. While professing atheism, he kept saying "salvation." Salvation from what, one must ask? If there is no God, there is no eternal moral standard, therefore no sin, therefore no need for salvation. I think he meant salvation from .... meaninglessness? being forgotten? especially as an artist? He said many things in the interview that showed that even though he rejected God, he couldn't reject the repercussions of God.
Crimes and Misdemeanors is his most thoughtful movie, and he explained it as the comparison of one fellow who works hard but never achieves any success and one very successful person who can commit a murder and not get caught and not feel any real guilt ultimately; obviously it's a take on Dostoevsky. But he doesn't finish the story. We see the killer six months out, but what about six years? So one would have to ask is he an honest filmmaker? No; provocative, but not honest.
Hannah and Her Sisters is another. We are supposed to feel resolution that he and Diane Wiest will have a child at the end, but why is the child important? Because it proves his manliness? Because he loves her? Because a child is how one achieves immortality? I am struck again that there is a concern for meaning even if only temporarily found.
Someone more ensconced in film than I would have to really write on them; I just observe a postmodern dilemma; reject the metanarrative but still live with it in the shadows.
However, my point is what he said in the interview. While professing atheism, he kept saying "salvation." Salvation from what, one must ask? If there is no God, there is no eternal moral standard, therefore no sin, therefore no need for salvation. I think he meant salvation from .... meaninglessness? being forgotten? especially as an artist? He said many things in the interview that showed that even though he rejected God, he couldn't reject the repercussions of God.
Crimes and Misdemeanors is his most thoughtful movie, and he explained it as the comparison of one fellow who works hard but never achieves any success and one very successful person who can commit a murder and not get caught and not feel any real guilt ultimately; obviously it's a take on Dostoevsky. But he doesn't finish the story. We see the killer six months out, but what about six years? So one would have to ask is he an honest filmmaker? No; provocative, but not honest.
Hannah and Her Sisters is another. We are supposed to feel resolution that he and Diane Wiest will have a child at the end, but why is the child important? Because it proves his manliness? Because he loves her? Because a child is how one achieves immortality? I am struck again that there is a concern for meaning even if only temporarily found.
Someone more ensconced in film than I would have to really write on them; I just observe a postmodern dilemma; reject the metanarrative but still live with it in the shadows.
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