How deep is Woody Allen's love for New York? On March 24, 2002, Woody Allen, who never attended the Oscars, appeared at the awards ceremony that was also called the Kodak Theatre at the time-even if "Annie Hall" (Annie Hall) won the Oscar for Best Picture in 1978 That night, he was also more willing to appear at Cafe Carlyle in Manhattan (yes, where sweet tea meets escort in "A Rainy Day in New York"), playing his beloved jazz clarinet. And on this night in the spring of 2002, Woody Allen put on a tuxedo and bow tie, and walked into the spotlight of Hollywood’s right and wrong in the glory of standing ovation to greet the audience, just to show the entire North American film after 9/11. The world once again ceremoniously launched New York, a movie city reborn after the catastrophe.
After that, Woody Allen’s film began a tour of world-famous cities, from London to Barcelona, from Paris to Rome, world-famous cities and landmarks, without exception, he used him as a background for literary and artistic men and women to talk about love and tell lies. plate. After the shooting location returned to the United States, his shots only went around in West Coast cities such as San Francisco and Los Angeles. And when his movie finally returned to his hometown of New York, which had been long gone, in 2017, what was about to wait for him was not full of glory, but a grand reckoning of gender issues.
The eve of rain
The #Me Too movement brought Woody Allen back to the forefront of public opinion: the publication plan of the memoir was blocked, "A Rainy Day in New York" (A Rainy Day in New York) was hidden in the snow by Amazon, and Amazon also announced the suspension and Woody. Allen has signed other collaborations, including Sweet Tea and many actors who have participated in Allen’s works have drawn a line with them, and even donated remuneration to show their innocence-as if the scandal of Woody Allen happened the day before yesterday. , Not more than twenty years ago.
The only actors who supported Woody Allen were Alec Baldwin (Alec Baldwin) and old friend Diane Keaton (Diane Keaton). What ultimately saved Woody Allen’s film career was the Europeans who admired him the most and were relatively rational about the purpose and methods of the #Me Too movement. They agreed to invest in the old man’s next film. In the midst of controversy, there was no star-studded premiere, and there was no overwhelming propaganda. "A Rainy Day in New York" was released in a low-key, rainy and silent night.
The worldwide success of "Midnight Paris" in 2011 brought Woody Allen back to the center of the movie stage once again. However, his subsequent creations have become tired day by day. Except for "Blue Jasmine" which gave Kate Blanchet the prize, most of the old man's works are lackluster in taste: no matter what he said. The successor, Jesse Eisenberg, is still those humble, off-line, and inaccurate little loves. His routine is still the same, but his spirituality is not there. Especially the mini-series "Six Dangers", the old man who was new to American dramas is completely unable to control the rhythm of this 25-minute episode of TV series; and "Ferris Wheel" has many highlights, but it can only be considered a barely pass...
Woody Allen’s movie has four faces. The first type: a nonsensical farce mixed with collage, nerves, and gag, freely roaming in different film genres and text experiments, mainly in its early films, and then peaked in "Zelig" (Zelig).
The second type: a satire with a humorous style, but a more sleek narrative, without any nonsensical elements. Most of these films are either exploring the relationship between husband and wife and love between men and women (often featuring New York intellectuals as the protagonists), or they are full of whimsical and weird settings in the setting-the former such as "Husband, Wife and Lovers" and "Manhattan" Murder, the latter such as "Bullets Fly Over Broadway" and "The Purple Rose of Cairo."
The third type: The same is based in New York, but the style is more melancholy and frustrated. Compared with the arbitrary recklessness of the early years, Woody Allen at this stage is completely intellectual, although there is no lack of humor, but But it’s a laugh with tears-the creation of this stage is the most famous, and the creation time is more concentrated. It started from "Anne Hall" in 1977, and went through "Manhattan" and "Sisters of Hannah" in 1988. "Another Woman" in 2009 ends.
Fourth: After 2000, Woody Allen’s creation was a bit gloomy, and even a feature film full of noir atmosphere such as "The End of the Game" appeared. He neither laughed nor scolded nor shook the New Yorker's. Clever, behind his neurotic talk and talk show personality, he began to reveal a more pessimistic and sophisticated heart.
After "Midnight Paris", Woody Allen's film is more like a re-enactment and review of previous films: "Love in Rome" (2012) is a funny version of "Midnight Paris"; "Blue Jasmine" (2013 ) Is a New York princess from San Francisco; "Magic Moonlight" (2014) is like a combination of "Bullets Across Broadway" and "The Purple Rose of Cairo"; "The Unreasonable Man" (2015) is a "End of the Match" style Film noir... At that time, the old man who was over 70 began to pay tribute to himself constantly. He wandered through the four narrative types that he was very familiar with, and came at his fingertips, but at the same time he began to repeat himself.
However, returning to the familiar city of New York, Woody Allen's feeling came back. Undoubtedly, he is a filmmaker who belongs to this city.
City roaming for literary youth
James Joyce's "Ulysses" published in 1922 imitated the structural design of "Odyssey". He arranged an 18-hour tour of the city of Dublin for the protagonist. Since Joyce, the Odyssey roaming in a modern city with worrisome air quality and terrible traffic conditions has been endowed with a poetic flavor that is not inferior to the countryside, landscape, and countryside. Far from the "Love Is" trilogy, and near by Woody Allen's series of sketches with city landmarks as the background, men and women walk through the streets and alleys with strong local characteristics in the magical moments of twilight and dusk, constantly encountering, constantly Sad, although people come and go, they have to face the endless loneliness in a boring life.
"A Rainy Day in New York" is no exception. A couple who are still on campus, the boy (played by Sweet Tea) is sullen and literary, pretending to be withdrawn, and the girl (played by Fan Ning) is silly and sweet, full of yearning for the bright and bright star world. Because the girls wanted to interview well-known directors, they made an appointment to go to New York on the weekend... As a result, the girls originally planned to interview for an hour was extended indefinitely, while the boys somehow met the sister of the ex-girlfriend and kissed them because of the opportunity of filming. The couple who came to New York can only wander aimlessly in New York...
The city roaming of "A Rainy Day in New York" bears the stigma of a typical Woody Allen sketch, small clever, shaky baggage, boys who refuse to welcome the opposite sex, girls pushed away by the incident, and a strong personality and aura The compelling supporting actress makes the male protagonist confused. "Looking for a lonely protagonist" has always been the motif of city roaming: The heroine in "Midnight Paris" can't bear the boring fiancée. He shuttles between the present and the past dreams of Paris, looking for nostalgic, romantic, and artistic "Go to Lijiang" The Latin Quarter of Paris. In "Rainy Day in New York", Sweet Tea wanders the streets of New York in embarrassment but gracefully, cynically doing three contradictory things at the same time-resisting, pleasing and escaping. He visited his wife’s brother with a silver bell, avoided the invitation of his mother’s reception, and encountered a mature and sexy escort while drinking and relieving boredom, but he and his ex-girlfriend and sister Tyrell (played by Chan Tyrell) were interspersed in between. Two encounters...
While roaming New York, he has been looking for people and things that are familiar to him, but everyone makes him so embarrassed: his girlfriend disappears all the way, his classmates are vulgar, his brother not only can't listen to his troubles, but even complains to him. His mother let him participate in the high-end party of the upper class like a desperate serial call, and finally caught up with the young woman in the bar, and found that the other party was only interested in business... His consciousness is winding and flowing in this city of desire, and the literary youth who is still in rebellious adolescence seems to be incompatible with everyone in this city. Every planet visited by the "little prince" just makes him more lonely; In Tyrell, he felt the double challenge of sincerity, understanding, intelligence and emotion. Kissing during acting was a fake act, but afterwards, his affinity became a real act-Tiancha put down his self-esteem of innocence, no Regarding the ideal girlfriend in the eyes of parents again, this "purposeless" city roaming finally found a trace of "purpose".
Woody Allen's mockery of intellectuals and literary youth is always warm. It is also tearing the veil of hypocrisy of intellectuals. Compared with sharp European authors and self-contained cynic commercial films, Woody Allen will always tear up a fig leaf full of sympathy and better than nothing. In the end, it was not Tyrael, who was smart and ice-snow, that made Sweet Tea find the value and meaning in the city roaming. My mother took off her mask from a woman in the Upper East Side of New York. Behind the mask was the misery, vanity and luck of a girl from the cornfield.
It is cruel to be torn off the veil by others, but it is sympathetic to take off the mask by yourself. Woody Allen is never the sharpest knife in criticizing intellectuals and upper-class society. On the contrary, he always watched jokingly, then danced with him in the toilet, and finally exclaimed a touch of empathy. Sigh. Self-reflection may be the most valuable quality of intellectuals, but it is also the most useless quality. But it is this quality that allowed the rebellious literary and artistic teenagers to let go of their adolescent self-esteem and self-pity, and reach the other side at the end of their roaming in the city.
After the rain, Tiancha no longer hesitated. Just like the last writer of "Midnight Paris" found the female store clerk, Tiancha also really kissed Xinhuan in the drizzle in New York in the afternoon. The 85-year-old Woody Allen no longer acted arbitrarily as he did in his early years. He put away the edge and ridicule, and also walked out of the gloom and gloom, nonsensical, ironic, sorrow and black. .
It was raining all over New York, raindrops wet the steps in front of the Metropolitan Museum, muddy every dirty path in Haarlem, flowing through the outdoor shop signs of every facade in Little Italy and Hell's Kitchen, and finally landed in Central Park. Under the Delacorte Clock (Delacorte Clock), it floated down to all the roaming men and women who were in a similar way.
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