Woody Allen



""My brain: it's my second favorite organ.""

""To be happy is to love, to be happy, then, is to suffer, but suffering makes one unhappy, therefore, to be unhappy one must love, or love to suffer, or suffer from too much happiness — I hope you're getting this down.""

Woody Allen is a director, actor, screenwriter, comedian, playwright, musician, story writer, essayist, and patron saint of Your Mileage May Vary.

His real name is Allen Stewart Konigsberg. He is of Ashkenazi Jewish descent -- which is obvious from Konigsberg, but less so from his official stage name.

He was born in 1935 in New York City, where most of his movies are set. He even named one of his great films Manhattan.

His childhood wasn't particularly happy, and so he began writing dark-tinged humor -- and was already selling the occasional joke by his mid-teens.

At seventeen, he entered NYU and the City College, but was quickly expelled. He started to write scripts to shows like The Tonight Show, appeared in Candid Camera segments like when he had temp secretaries dictating a love letter, and doing Stand Up Comedy exaggerating his own traits. He's never stopped, though the medium, and eventually the Author Avatar, has varied. Among other traits, his character is nearly always a Sickly Neurotic Geek, and full of Jewish Complaining.

He started directing movies in 1965. Since then, he has directed 41 movies that range from Screwball Comedy to Drama. He was nominated for an Academy Award twenty-one times, including a record fourteen nominations for Best Screenplay. He has won four Academy Awards -- three for Best Screenplay (Annie Hall; Hannah and Her Sisters and Midnight in Paris) and one for Best Director (Annie Hall). His Annie Hall famously beat Star Wars for the Best Picture Oscar. Allen himself is not really interested in awards; he showed up at the Oscars ceremony only once in 2002, when he encouraged producers to continue filming their movies in New York after 9/11.

Most of his comedies have a certain amount of drama, varying with his mood over time. Most of his dramas have a certain amount of comedy, but the comedy is more diluted in them.

The soundtracks of his movies tend to be jazz music and old (as in 1920s-1930s) standards, no matter when or where the film is set. He did write a musical once, Everyone Says I Love You, but the songs are all lifted directly from that era.

He's undergone psychoanalysis for 30 YEARS. Exactly what good it's doing, no one knows, but his experience with psychiatrists has made its way into numerous works.

He's also notorious for being a heavy womanizer. He has been involved with Diane Keaton, Louise Lasser, Harlene Rosen, Stacey Nelka, Mia Farrow -- and Soon-Yi Previn, Mia's adopted daughter (and thus Woody's former quasi-step daughter). Naturally, almost every single plotline of his scripts is about sex, adultery and relationships, among other interesting things.

He also plays the clarinet and has written humorous essays and short stories. (There's one about Count Dracula who finds what looks like a perfect lunch -- only to find out he woke up during a solar eclipse. And the apartment is Danish modern with no shades.)

While his work in the 70s and 80s are all almost universally loved by fans his films of the 90s and (especially) the 00s are divisive amongst critics and audiences with Match Point, Vicky Cristina Barcelona and (most recently) Midnight in Paris receiving high praise while other pictures- namely Curse of the Jade Scorpion and Hollywood Ending- being not well thought of by most. It should be noted, however, that even the most critically derided films of his filmography still tend to have a few fans here and there.

A somewhat abridged list of movies is presented here:

 * What's New Pussycat (1965) - Woody Allen's first movie (although it was directed by Clive Donner). Peter O'Toole tries to be faithful to his fiancee, but he's a Chick Magnet. Peter Sellers is his psychoanalyst, who is stalking one of his patient's stalkers in a motel in France. Allen plays O'Toole's friend who has a crush on the fiancee. The film originally going to star Warren Beatty, but when Woody was hired to rewrite it, he kept building up a bit part for himself and shrinking Beatty's role so blatantly that the star quit.
 * Whats Up Tiger Lily? (1966) - A secret agent is sent to Sim Sim Salabim to find a lost egg salad recipe. Gag Dubbed from a Japanese movie.
 * Casino Royale 1967 - Not written or directed by Woody Allen, but he plays Jimmy Bond, James Bond's "disappointing" nephew, who is the head of SMERSH and plans to kill all men over 4' 6" tall, so that he gets all the girls.
 * Take the Money And Run (1969) - A Mockumentary focusing on an incompetent, petty thief. Co-written by Woody Allen. His debut as a full-fledged director.
 * Men of Crisis: The Harvey Wallinger Story (1971) - A short Mockumentary satirizing Richard Nixon's politics. Made for PBS, but they were afraid of losing their government support, so it was never aired.
 * Bananas (1971) - To impress a girl, Woody Allen learns to be a revolutionary in a Banana Republic. Hilarity Ensues.
 * Play It Again Sam (1972) - A neurotic Woody Allen tries to date other women following the advice of Humphrey Bogart's ghost.
 * Everything You Always Wanted To Know About Sex (But Were Afraid to Ask) (1972) - A series of sketches providing parodic answers to such questions as "What are sex perverts?" and "What is sodomy?"
 * Sleeper (1973) - A health-food store owner is cryonically frozen (without his consent) for 200 years only to find that the 22nd century America is a police state ruled by a nose. Yes, a nose.
 * Love and Death (1975) - An Affectionate Parody of Dostoyevsky's and Tolstoy's romances. Also the start of Allen's Tom Hanks Syndrome.
 * The Front (1976) - This Martin Ritt-directed comedy-drama stars Allen as a bookie who lends his name to television screenplays written by his blacklisted friend during the anti-Communist Witch Hunt of the '50s.
 * Annie Hall (1977) - Woody Allen's most famous movie -- and, perhaps, along with Manhattan, his best (though Allen himself doesn't think much of either of them). It focuses on the difficult relationship between a comedian and the ditzy Annie Hall.  Winner of four Academy Awards: Best Picture (for which it beat Star Wars), Best Director (Allen), and Best Screenplay (Allen), Best Actress (Diane Keaton). (Allen was also nominated for Best Actor.)
 * Interiors (1978) - Three sisters find their lives spinning out of control after their parents' divorce. Woody Allen's first Tear Jerker.
 * Manhattan (1979) - Woody Allen in an intricate Love Dodecahedron with a seventeen-year-old girl, Diane Keaton and Meryl Streep. Probably his second most beloved movie, after Annie Hall. Allen considered the film such an abject disaster that he told the studio he'd make another for free if they didn't release it.
 * Stardust Memories (1980) - While attending a retrospect of his work, a filmmaker (guess who) recalls his life and his loves: the inspirations for his films. Also the one that gave critics and fans the phrases "the early, funny ones" and "the later, serious ones".
 * A Midsummer Nights Sex Comedy (1982) - At the dawn of the 20th century, a philosopher, a womanizing doctor and their fiancées spend a weekend in the house of a Mad Scientist and his wife. Everyone ends up sneaking off behind everyone else's backs.
 * Zelig (1983) - A Mockumentary: In The Great Depression, a man named Leonard Zelig involuntarily assumes the traits of the people surrounding him. He uses this ability to blend in with famous historical people and events and bed women.
 * Broadway Danny Rose (1984) - A talent agent attempts to reconcile a lounge singer with his mistress, Tina Vitale. However, he's mistakenly identified as Tina's lover by a jealous gangster.
 * The Purple Rose of Cairo (1985) - A character in the movie The Purple Rose of Cairo falls from the screen into the real world during the film's exhibition.
 * Hannah and Her Sisters (1986) - One of Woody Allen's best-known movies. Between two Thanksgivings, a Love Dodecahedron makes three sisters switch their husbands. Oscar winners: Dianne Weist, Michael Caine
 * Radio Days (1987) - A Narrator tells the story of his youth and the influence of radio in it.
 * September (1987) - Yet another Love Dodecahedron, and a tragic story relating mother-daughter relationship, influenced by Ingmar Bergman. Inspired by stage play TV broadcasts. Allen filmed the whole movie, then threw out the whole cast, and started again with a new cast.
 * Another Woman (1988) - A philosophy teacher observes the everyday of another woman and decides to change everything bad in her own life.
 * Oedipus Wrecks (1989) - A short film (part of New York Stories) about a lawyer who makes his Large Ham Jewish Mother disappear in an illusionist act.
 * Crimes And Misdemeanors (1989) - A ophthalmologist hires a hitman to kill his mistress, and a movie director is hired to make a documentary about his brother-in-law whom he despises.
 * Alice (1990) - A seemingly happy housewife realizes that she's a Stepford Smiler. She visits an herbalist that gives her three kinds of herbs which provide her with super-powers so she can straighten up her life.
 * Shadows And Fog (1991) - An homeage to German Expressionism, a vigilante mob tries to catch a Serial Killer in the midst of a circus.
 * Husbands and Wives (1992) - When their best friends announce that they're separating, a professor and his wife discover the faults in their marriage.
 * Manhattan Murder Mystery (1993) - A nosy housewife drags her reluctant husband into an amateur investigation of their neighbour's death.
 * Bullets Over Broadway (1994) - A Wide Eyed Idealist playwright has to cast a talentless woman into the leading role of his Broadway play, because she's the girlfriend of a violent mobster.
 * Don't Drink the Water (1994) - An American family is trapped in a US embassy behind the Iron Curtain while the ambassador's incompetent son is in charge. Based on his 1966 play, this TV adaptation was directed by Allen, who was dissatisfied with the earlier 1969 film adaptation.
 * Mighty Aphrodite (1995) - An Affectionate Parody of Greek tragedies set in New York. Hilarity Ensues. Oscar winner: Mira Sorvino
 * Everyone Says I Love You (1996) - A Musical about a New York girl who manipulates the relationships of everyone around her.
 * Deconstructing Harry (1997) - The Deconstructive Parody of a Deconstruction.
 * Celebrity (1998) - After his divorce, a man blows every chance he has to be famous, while his ex-wife reaches stardom without doing much. Stars Kenneth Branagh doing a Woody Allen impression.
 * Antz (1998) - An ant saves his colony from drowning at the hands of his General. A Shout Out to Metropolis. (As with The Front, Allen didn't write it or direct it, but he starred in it, and his character seems to have been tailored specifically for him.)
 * Sweet And Lowdown (1999) - A Mockumentary about a fictional Jerkass jazz guitarist.
 * Small Time Crooks (2000) - A man tries to rob a bank by digging a tunnel from an old restaurant he bought. His wife covers up the scheme by selling cookies from the restaurant. The robbery is a miserable failure, but the cookies are a big success.
 * The Curse of the Jade Scorpion (2001) - A insurance investigator is hypnotized to steal jewels. His most expensive movie in terms of budget and also his biggest flop.
 * Hollywood Ending (2002) - A movie director suffers hysterical blindness while filming the movie that will restart his career.
 * Anything Else (2003) - Woody Allen serves as oracle to the love life of a young man. Notable in that it can easily be seen as a remake of Annie Hall.
 * Melinda And Melinda (2004) - A group of screenwriters write two stories with the same premise to discover if life is tragic or comic.
 * Match Point (2005) - A former professional tennis player is torn between his rich, high society wife and his lower class, sexually adventurous mistress. When his mistress gets pregnant and threatens to tell his wife, he resorts to drastic measures to keep his infidelity a secret. Set in and around London, rather than in New York.
 * Scoop (2006) - A journalist, an illusionist and a ghost work together to uncover an aristocrat as a Serial Killer. Allen's second film in a row featuring Scarlett Johansson in London.
 * Cassandra's Dream (2007) - Woody Allen's return to Darker and Edgier works. An uncle convinces his two nephews to help him to get rid of an ex-partner who is testifying against him in court. Set in and around London, rather than New York.
 * Vicky Cristina Barcelona (2008) - Two American women spend their summer in Barcelona, switching their mentalities about love as the story progresses. Oscar winner: Penelope Cruz.
 * Whatever Works (2009) - Woody Allen returns to New York. Larry David becomes a Lemony Narrator (Breaking the Fourth Wall several times) of his own life. He helps a ditzy young Southern Belle (Evan Rachel Wood) who ran away from her home. Eventually they marry. Then, her parents appear, looking for her.
 * You Will Meet A Tall Dark Stranger (2010) - Allen returns to London. The plot involves different members of a family after the father divorces the mother. Cast includes Naomi Watts, Anthony Hopkins and Antonio Banderas.
 * Midnight in Paris (2011) - Set in Paris, the film stars Rachel McAdams, Owen Wilson, Adrien Brody and Carla Bruni (the wife of French president Nicolas Sarkozy).
 * To Rome With Love - Allen's next film, scheduled for a 2012 release. Set in Rome, it stars Jesse Eisenberg, Ellen Page, Alec Baldwin, Penelope Cruz and Allen himself, in his first acting role since Scoop.

Tropes common to his work include:
"Sandy Bates: But shouldn't I stop making movies and do something that counts, like-like helping blind people or becoming a missionary or something?
 * Big Applesauce: One of his trademarks as nearly all Woody Allen films made in the 20th century take place in New York.
 * Averted lately with every film (other than Whatever Works) since Melinda and Melinda being shot in Europe.
 * Brooklyn Rage: Averted. He may be from Brooklyn but rage is about the last thing You could imagine him expressing.
 * Bittersweet Ending: A number of his films end this way including
 * Cerebus Syndrome: Sort of, while he continued to make mostly comedies while dabbling in drama here and there, there was a point in time that fans wanted him to make more films like his "older, funnier" films.
 * Creator Backlash: Allen hates most of his films and finds audiences' attachment to Annie Hall and Manhattan irrational and perplexing.
 * He has however said that he does have a fondness for Zelig, Stardust Memories, Match Point and The Purple Rose of Cairo.
 * Also famously agreed with the backlash against Curse of the Jade Scorpion.
 * Darker and Edgier: Crimes And Misdemeanors, Match Point and most of his other dramas tend to embody pretty bleak worldviews.
 * Deconstructing Harry is an example of one of his comedies that's a bit edgier than his other work being one of the only Allen films were the characters curse with any frequency.
 * A Date With Rosie Palms: All of his comedies have a masturbation joke. Always pro-masturbation, always delivered by Allen's character.
 * Deadpan Snarker
 * Did Not Get the Girl:  all play this trope pretty straight.
 * Directed By Cast Member
 * Downer Ending:
 * Game Show Appearance: During the late 1960s Allen appeared on many Game Shows, most notably as a Guest Panielist on many episodes of What's My Line, and trying his best to get a bassett hound to "sing" on Ive Got a Secret.
 * His film All You Wanted To Know About Sex (But Was Afraid To Ask) featured a parody called What's My Perversion?.
 * Good Adultery, Bad Adultery
 * The Gump: Zelig is the former trope namer.
 * Kavorka Man
 * Lemony Narrator
 * Letterbox: Allen famously insisted on Manhattan being presented this way on television and home video in the '80s, making him one of the first directors to do so.
 * Money, Dear Boy: Averted hard. Most of his films have really small budgets and his salary is relatively small. Also averted by big name stars that take pay cuts solely to work with him (allegedly the set fee for famous actors in his movies is five-thousand dollars per day of filming).
 * Nervous Wreck: His standard character.
 * Old Shame: Granted he dislikes many of his own films but he's particularly ashamed of Curse of the Jade Scorpion having singled it out as one of his worst films.
 * Recycled in Space: Stardust Memories is Fellini's 8 1/2 but with Allen in place of Fellini and somewhat funnier.
 * Deconstructing Harry is Wild Strawberries as a comedy.
 * Match Point is Crimes And Misdemeanors with all the comedy taken out of it.
 * Scenery Porn: Manhattan and Midnight in Paris both start with montages showing off the cities they take place in.
 * Shout Out: Woody LOVES the films of Ingmar Bergman.
 * Only written by Allen, but Play It Again Sam ends up being one long reference to Casablanca.
 * Small Name, Big Ego: Many of his characters.
 * Tom Hanks Syndrome: Leveled at Woody Allen by fans and critics. Lampshaded in Stardust Memories.

Martian: Let me tell you, you're not the missionary type. You'd never last. And incidentally, you're also not Superman; you're a comedian. You want to do mankind a real service? Tell funnier jokes."