Getting Even

Amazon.com

After three decades of prodigious film work (and some unfortunate tabloid adventures as well), it's easy to forget that Woody Allen began his career as one heck of a great comedy writer. Getting Even, a collection of his late '60s magazine pieces, offers a look into Allen's bag of shtick, back when it was new. From the supposed memoirs of Hitler's barber: "Then, in January of 1945, a plot by several generals to shave Hitler's moustache in his sleep failed when von Stauffenberg, in the darkness of Hitler's bedroom, shaved off one of the Führer's eyebrows instead..."

Even though the idea of writing jokes about old Adolf--or addled rabbis, or Maatjes herring--isn't nearly as fresh as it used to be, Getting Even still delivers plenty of laughs. At his best, Woody can achieve a level of transcendent craziness that no other writer can match. If you're looking for a book to dip into at random, or a gift for someone who's seen Sleeper 13 times, Getting Even is a dead lock.

Book Description

The classic, with 316,000 copies sold to date.

Customer Reviews:

Getting Even = Hilarious.......2007-08-14

Getting Even, by Woody Allen, is the comedic genious at his ludicrous best. The reparte between the two chess playing opponents, via e-mail, is worth the price of the book alone. Very funny.

A 5 star delight.

Woody Allen. Chess By Mail. need i say more? also, mafia.......2006-08-20

accounting [of the office supplies] ~

these two ALONE are worth the price of admission, especially used in the z shops...

i can STILL laugh over the Gossage-Vardebedian papers [the chess by mail] 30+ years after i first bought this for a friend in the hospital [i wasn't thinking ~ he'd had a hernia operation... and couldn't get past the first line]

timelessly funny ~

Getting Even.......2006-01-04

If your a fan of Allen's work than you'll enjoy this book. Otherwise you may not like it. If you're not familiar with his work than I highly recommend his prose for their witty, bizzare, and humorus content.

In, "The Gossage-Vardebedian Papers," you'll find humor in the trials and tribulations of chess, via letter writing.

In, "Mr. Big," I question if the beautiful existentialist really killed God. Yeah, she probably did. (GOD that's too bad.)

awkward, funny, weird, smart, read...

Bad taste, boring stupidity with an occasional funny line.......2005-12-04

I had hoped upon rereading this work to cancel the original impression I had of many of these pieces when I read them some years ago in 'The New Yorker'. Unfortunately, my taste seems not to have changed and I found most of these pieces stupid, and in bad taste.
Allen can write the occasional very funny line but much of this is low- level predictable parody.

As funny as as dated as the early Woody Allen comedies.......2005-10-19

Getting Even is one of three early collections of Woody Allen's short humorous articles. The others are Without Feathers and Side Effects. Many of the pieces in Getting Even appeared in magazines, mostly The New Yorker, but also Playboy, and Evergreen Review. While others first appeared in this anthology. In total, there are 17 articles in the collection. Considering that they were written over 35 years ago, there are some references that do not come across well today. Yet as a group they are still quite funny.

The Metterling Lists is a piece of satirical literary criticism of The Collected Laundry Lists of Hans Metterling Vol. 1, a supposedly scholarly work of 437 pages that analyzes the first six laundry lists. Fortunately Mr. Allen only takes seven pages to mock this fictional piece of scholarship.

A Look At Organized Crime provides a very brief history of organized crime in America including the murder of Kid Lipsky by Albert (The Logical Positivist) Corillo who locked Lipsky in a closet and "sucked all the air out through a straw." It also provides a description of a Mafia initiation ceremony and ends with some tips on fighting mobsters.

The Schmeed Memoirs are represented as the recollections of Hitler's barber. Yet they can't be taken too seriously because he claims he didn't know Hitler was a Nazi and thought he worked for the phone company. There is a funny where Hitler fears that Chruchill will grow sideburns before he can. It is humorous to view World War II from the perspective of Hitler's hair.

My Philosophy consists of the Critique of Pure Dread, the Eschatological Dialectics As a Means of Coping with Shingles, and The Cosmos on Five Dollars a Day. It ends with two Parables and a short list of Aphorisms.

Yes, But Can The Steam Engine Do This? provides a humorous take on the scientific research saga with a history of the Earl of Sandwich's research into developing the sandwich. Starting with his birth in 1718, the tale is filled with bread experiments, research into cold cuts and cheeses, and years of failures followed by his final success and lasting fame.

Death Knocks is a short play in which an inexperienced angel of death, who comes to claim Nat Ackerman's soul, is lured into a losing game of gin rummy and returns empty-handed.

Spring Bulletin is Woody Allen's satirical take on college course descriptions. It includes a course called Introduction to God which is described as "Confrontation with the Creator of the universe through informal lectures and field trips."

The next piece, a guide to the interpretation of Hassidic tales, includes tales like the following and Mr. Allen's interpretations of them.
A man journeyed to Chelm to seek the advice of Rabbi Ben Kaddish.
"Rabbi " the man asked, "where can I find peace?"
The Hassid surveyed him and said, "Quick, look behind you!"
The man turned around, and Rabbi Ben Kaddish smashed him in the back of the head with a candlestick. "Is that peaceful enough for you?" he chuckled.
There are six other tales and their interpretations in this piece.

The Gossage-Varbedian Papers tells the sad story of a chess game played at a distance via letters. The correspondence starts out with a missive from Gossage stating that one of his letters must have gotten lost in the mail since his chess board is set up differently than Verbedian's. The insults and the confusion worsen as the letters go back and forth. A must for any chess fan.

Notes From The Overfed, Mr. Allen claims, was inspired by reading Dostoyevski and a Weight Watchers magazine on an airplane trip. In it an Atheist is converted when he decides that, if God is everywhere, He must be in food. Then consuming everything in sight, he achieves sanctity and obesity through compulsive eating.

A Twenties Memory mocks the name-dropping memoirs of the post-war lost generation. Filled with references to Gertrude Stein, Picasso, Earnest Hemingway, Alice B. Toklas, and many others, a non-entity tries to gain fame by the shared light of his famous contemporaries.

In Count Dracula the famous vampire wakes up early due to confusion caused by a solar eclipse, and visits the baker and his wife for what he thinks is an evening snack with disastrous consequences.

In A Little Louder, Please a true afficionato of the arts confesses his one failing - an inability to understand the gestures of mimes.

Conversations With Helmholtz consists of notes taken by the student of a famous elderly psychoanalyst of their conversations together. Senility has certainly gotten the better of the older man, but his reputation and fame keep the younger man from realizing this with humorous results.

Viva Vargas is subtitled Excepts From The Diary of A Revolutionary, and reveals much of the same humor that the author later used in the movie Bananas.

The Discovery And Use of The Fake Ink Blot provides a humorous social history of a device used in practical jokes.

The last story in the volume, Mr. Big, is my favorite. It is narrated by a Philip Marlowesque detective who is hired by a lovely woman claiming to be a Vassar student. She wants him to find a missing person, God. The mixture of Raymond Chandler's format with the existential search for the meaning of life is extremely funny even after the passage of many years.

All in all, if you like the early Woody Allen movies, you will love this book - even though some of the material is no longer as fresh.

Average customer rating:

Great Fun
brilliant
Belly-laughs a minute
The Ultimate in Intellectual Humour
Hysterical. The Woodman cometh.

Complete Prose of Woody Allen
Woody Allen
Manufacturer: Wings Books
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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ASIN: 0517072297
Release Date: 1992-03-29

Amazon.com

Born in 1935, Allen Stewart Konigsberg (better known as Woody Allen) is today one of the most influential figures in cinema. He has written and directed such memorable films as Annie Hall and Manhattan, and has acted in over 40 films. He is also the author of three books--Getting Even (1971), Without Feathers (1975), and Side Effects (1980). The Complete Prose of Woody Allen brings these memorable titles together for one bumper collection--a must-have for Allen addicts.

Getting Even is a collection of 17 of Allen's magazine pieces from the late 1960s discussing such bizarre topics as the invention of the sandwich, laundry lists, death, obesity, and, of course, rabbis.

Without Feathers delivers more of Allen's New Yorker-style humor. Worthy stand-outs include "If the Impressionists Had Been Dentists," a genius piece that puts oral surgery in a whole new, much more exciting, light.

Finally, Side Effects compiles Allen's best New Yorker essays from the late 1970s. Although not as outrageously funny as his previous books, this is still a classic piece of comedy. --Naomi Gesinger

Customer Reviews:

Great Fun.......2007-08-14

Three great books all in one fun filled volume of sheer funny. Including:

Getting Even is the comedic genious at his ludicrous best. The reparte between the two chess playing opponents, via e-mail, is worth the price of the book alone. Very funny.

Side Effects was released in 1980. It is a very funny collection of Allen's work, much of which first appeared in the New Yorker and other publication. The books is pretty even, and rather funny. The high point here is The Kugelmass Episode which features a professor named Sidney Kugelmass who is, via a magician, tranpsorted into the novel Madame Bovary.

Without Feathers is a witty humorous book with 15 or so short essays/stories on a variety of topics. The humor here is very funny and not dated at all. You most pay close attention as the one-liners fly off the pages. Simply hilarious stuff. Hard to believe this was released in 1975.

A 5 star book, well worth the price... enjoy!

Note: This collection is also available in paperback and titled The Insanity Defense: The Complete Prose

brilliant.......2006-11-06

Brilliant Woody. Not the best of this type, but still fasciniating. I heartily recommend.

Belly-laughs a minute.......2006-09-10

I read the three volumes this book is comprised of years ago and, to this day, I've been hard pressed to find other books,
on a line to line basis, funnier than Woody Allen's works. It's
too bad he hasn't written any more since these books. It is our
loss. If you like to laugh until your brains dribble out your
ears, read this book. Highly recommended.

The Ultimate in Intellectual Humour.......2004-08-28

This is genuinely hilarious and intelligent prose. My favourites are "Mr Big", "Viva Vargas!" and "Reminiscences, People and Places". Prepare to convulse. People will stare at you while you gasp for oxygen. Pure genius. The only mystery is why Allen isn't as well recognised for his writing as his movies. If you read this you will also wonder.

Allen sometimes seems to step over the line separating sharp satire from outright cynicism, especially in the later writing - but who cares? It's still a class apart. Highly recommendable.

Hysterical. The Woodman cometh........2001-06-13

Disillusioned by, "Interiors" or "Hannah And Her Sisters"? Think Woody is just not funny? Man, are you wrong. This book (which contains pretty much everything Woody wrote in book form) just kills you from the beginning & never stops. As goofball and irreverent as you'd expect from a comedic genius(Think, "Bananas" or "Take the Money and Run"- era Allen), don't be frightened off by the fact that Allen's later movies quit being side-splittingly funny. This book recaptures all the great, classic humor that made the Woodman famous to begin with!

Four Films: Annie Hall, Interiors, Manhattan, Stardust Memories

Average customer rating:

Do It For The Eggs
Truly pointless
Must have omnibus for Woody Allen fans and script writers.
Hilarious
Great read - Explores the human condition with insight.

Four Films: Annie Hall, Interiors, Manhattan, Stardust Memories
Woody Allen
Manufacturer: Random House
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 0394712293
Release Date: 1982-09-12

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Woody Allen's greatness as a director rests squarely on his stupendous talent as a writer. In the glory years from 1977 to 1980 he released his best--and best written--movies. Included in this volume are the scripts of Annie Hall, Allen's first mature film and the winner of the Best Picture Oscar; Interiors, his first serious work, a Bergmanesque treatment of a tortured family; Manhattan, his greatest and most characteristic movie, which concerns a writer's attempt to find true love in the comic wilderness of New York City; and Stardust Memories, his most satiric and personal piece, about the effects of fame on a film director who is standing at a crossroads in his life.

Book Description

This book contains the script to four of Woody Allen's movies: Annie Hall, Interiors, Manhattan and Stardust Memories.

Customer Reviews:

Do It For The Eggs.......2001-05-27

I bought this while studying screenwriting, assuming that owning ANNIE HALL and MANHATTAN would somehow deliver upon me some kind of ability, perhaps a bit of greatness via osmoseous (sp?).

I was wrong.

I also realized that MANHATTAN is based more on the visual than I had realized--the script, while great, isn't on the same level as ANNIE HALL; INTERIORS, which dissapointed me on the screen is a very good script; and--this just confirmed what I already knew--ANNIE HALL is a great great GREAT film.

Did I mention that ANNIE HALL is a great film?

Truly pointless.......2000-04-20

If you're a cineaste, it can be quite enlightening and entertaining to read the original shooting script that a favorite film was based on. In addition to the screenwriter's comments and directions, you usually get several scenes that were cut from the finished movie as well as occasional odd little changes in dialogue sprinkled throughout and an overall peek at some aspects of the creative process that a film goes through from inception to completion. Unfortunately, that's not the case with this book, since the four "screenplays" included are merely transcriptions from the finished films. VCRs were generally available when this book was first published in '82, so even back then this book was a pointless rip-off. Watch the films, skip the book.

Must have omnibus for Woody Allen fans and script writers........1999-05-23

This book contains "screenplays" of Woody Allen's most famous films including Manhattan and Annie Hall. It doesn't say screenplays on the cover, but that's what I figured it would be. Instead, what I got was a book that's not even script formatted. The publisher also adds his notes whenever he pleases to explain what's going on 'from the film' to the reader.

Hilarious.......1998-09-18

This great book includes the screenplays of two of Woody's best films, "Annie Hall" and "Manhattan." There's also "Stardust Memories" which is good, and "Interiors" which is, well...ok. Well worth the money.

Great read - Explores the human condition with insight........1998-04-24

This book cheered me along during a stay in hospital and so I will always remember it fondly.
To me, the scripts represent the best of Woody Allen as they are truthful and realistic. Humour is
sharp in the scripts (except for Interiors of course) as it exposes pretenses, hypocrisies & other human fallibilities. There is so much more
to this than clever lines. This should be a text for
aspiring scriptwriters. To any publishers reading
this, how about another compilation which has
"Husbands & Wives" and "Mighty Aphrodite" in it?!

Woody Allen and Philosophy: You Mean My Whole Fallacy Is Wrong?

Average customer rating:

Could have been a lot better.
In depth
Articles focus on Allen's philosophy and viewpoints

Woody Allen and Philosophy: You Mean My Whole Fallacy Is Wrong?

Manufacturer: Open Court
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 0812694538

Book Description

Comedian, writer, director, actor, musician, and deep thinker, Woody Allen is clearly trying to say something, but what? And why should anyone care? Fifteen philosophers representing different schools of thought answer these questions, focusing on different works and varied aspects of Allen's multifaceted output. These essays explore such topics as how Schopenhauer's theory of humor emerges in Annie Hall; why, for all his apparent pessimism, Allen gives a brighter alternative to the Bogartian nihilism of film noir; the importance of integrity for the Good Life, as found in Manhattan; and the fact that just because the universe is meaningless and life is pointless is no reason to commit suicide. Also here are droll, probing essays on why hedonism is a health hazard, and why, despite the fact that Earth may be swallowed by a black hole and crushed to the size of a peanut, the toilet continues to overflow.

Customer Reviews:

Could have been a lot better........2006-09-25

The first thing to know about this book is that it is but one in a series. "Woody Allen and Philosophy" is brought to you by the same folks who brought you "The Simpsons and Philosophy," "Seinfeld and Philosophy," and so on. I have not been impressed with this series. Generally, the pop culture topics chosen have no explicit philosophical inspiration. Philosophy must be read-in to otherwise superficial material. Some of these movies and sit-coms constitute good illustrative examples of philosophical topics (e.g. the tired observation that Seinfeld is a "deconstructive" comedy about nothing), but none of them was consciously embedded with philosophy.

Woody's work is different. The attempt to understand the intellectual references contained in Woody's early films is precisely what led me to study philosophy in the first place. They contain deeply philosophical themes and explicit philosophical references. Films like Annie Hall, Love and Death, and Bananas are absolutely packed with high-culture easter eggs waiting for a good interpreter. Sadly, the essays in this book miss pretty much all of them.

Of course, I admit I am the sort of snob who thinks that philosophy should not be the handmaiden to pop culture. I am embarrassed to see Schopenhauer wasted on Seinfeld.

The bottom line is that you will enjoy this book if you enjoy the series itself. Serious Woody Allen fans and philosophers alike will probably be disappointed.

In depth.......2006-02-24

Really heavy philosophical stuff. If you're an avid fan [like me] of Woody Allen and understand philosophy a little [like me] you will enjoy this book. I found out more than I thought I would ever know about Allen's films from reading this book. Thoroughly engrossing and fun to read.

Articles focus on Allen's philosophy and viewpoints .......2004-10-12

How often has the reader combed a casual survey of actor Woody Allen longing for insights into the witty sayings and cutting remarks Allen is notable for? Wonder no longer. In Woody Allen And Philosophy, Mark Conrad and Aeon Skoble edit a fine philosophical approach to Allen's sayings and life, presenting articles which survey his pragmatic optimism, his sex comedys and spoofs, and his artistic films alike. Articles focus on Allen's philosophy and viewpoints and provide plenty of personal insights in the process of analyzing his works.

Average customer rating:

A must-have for Woody's fans
An interesting perspective on Allen's major films
Deconstructing Woody

The Reluctant Film Art of Woody Allen
Peter J. Bailey
Manufacturer: University Press of Kentucky
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 081319041X

Book Description

For thirty years no American filmmaker has been as prolific—or as paradoxical—as Woody Allen. From Play it Again, Sam (1972) to Sweet and Lowdown (1999), Allen has produced an average of one film a year. Yet with each new film he reveals a progressively skeptical attitude toward art.

Merging criticism and biography, Peter Bailey uses Allen's ambivalent views of the artistic enterprise as the key to understanding his entire career. In an exhaustive, jargon-free reading, Bailey demonstrates how Allen's films constitute a debate he is conducting with himself about the capacities of art to improve the quality of life and about the resulting price exacted upon artists and those around them. Bailey identifies the underlying tension between reality and image in film after film, demonstrating how the resolution of this conflict in each movie is revisited, critiqued, and reconfigured in the next.

Customer Reviews:

A must-have for Woody's fans.......2004-01-24

I have read several books on Woody Allen and this is the most brilliant so far. Those who are tired of hearing about his squabble with Mia Farrow will be relieved to find that the author concentrates on his work and only mentions facts of Woody Allen's life that are relevant to his films. The book painstakingly analyzes the psychological and philosophical undercurrents in Woody's work, and especially delves into the issue as to whether art cand lend coherence to an otherwise contingent and random life. It'll help you see Woody's films from a broader standpoint but also set you brooding over your life as well.

An interesting perspective on Allen's major films.......2003-12-04

Peter Baily establishes his thesis that a primary thread running through many of Allen's major films is an examination of the tension between art and life and the struggle of the artist to disengage from the real world to unleash the creative juices. Citing examples from many of my favorite Allen films and following through on his major premise Baily delivers a fine book that challenged me to look at this films from a new perspective. I highly recommend this to fans of Woody Allen. I am cueing up my DVD copy of Hannah and her Sisters as soon as I log off.

Deconstructing Woody.......2001-06-07

If you've ever wanted to reach right into the movie screen, shake one of Woody Allen's characters by the shirt collar, and say, "Snap out of it, bub," here's a book for you. Peter J. Bailey's The Reluctant Film Art of Woody Allen offers a fascinating, crystalline analysis of one of the most vexing questions to dog three generations of Woody Allen characters: Is the fictional world of art--especially film art--more a help or a hindrance in our difficult lives?

Bailey, an English professor at St. Lawrence University in Canton, N.Y., demonstrated his gift for making sense of challenging contemporary literary art with Reading Stanley Elkin in the mid-'80s. In The Reluctant Film Art of Woody Allen, he takes on a more readily accessible subject but does not hold back any of the tremendous critical insight at his command. The result is a book both for serious film buffs--that is, buffs of serious film (a subjective distinction taken up in this book)--and for film scholars alike. I was impressed by Bailey's scholarly precision, yet after reading the first couple of chapters I wanted to dash out and rent Stardust Memories, Manhattan, and several other signature Woody Allen flicks. This book has actually made watching his movies a more intellectually stimulating experience without killing the comic moments so abundant in them.

A college English instructor myself, I appreciate the challenge of leading a critical investigation of something fun and entertaining without making that subject, well, less fun and entertaining. Bailey succeeds admirably with this book, mainly because he never puts Allen on a pedestal. The author is a fan, to be sure, as indicated by his generous praise for what Allen does well--and has done well at a pace of roughly one film a year since 1972. This book's thesis, however, delves more deeply into a particularly compelling set of questions at the core of most of Allen's films: What do they say about the role of art in our lives? Is it a redeeming social force or merely a pleasant diversion from life's suffering? Are Woody Allen's films art or merely pleasant, entertaining diversions?

Bailey combines his own convincing interpretations of Allen's film work with previously reported comments from Allen on these questions to show not only how equivocal Woody Allen movies are on the matter of art's benefits and costs, but how central a theme this equivocating is in those movies. To his great credit--and unlike many scholarly investigations of film and literary art--Bailey avoids overbearing suggestions that HIS interpretations are REALLY what Allen's films are all about. Rather, the author has found a thread running through Allen's work that he holds up to the light--a light that has lingered too long on the personality of Woody Allen and the attending tabloid drama. This more illuminating thread--the vexed relationship of art to life and the difficulty of reconciling the two, both in art and in life--is of such enormous importance in the broader conversation of American popular culture that the absence of details on Allen's personal travails reads as a virtue in Bailey's book.

While Woody Allen fans will definitely find The Reluctant Film Art of Woody Allen most enjoyable and accessible, any moviegoer who has ever contemplated what distinguishes the cinematic good and bad from the ugly will find this book thought-provoking, perhaps at times profound. Ultimately, this is not a portrait of a filmmaker so much as the study of an intriguing film mind at work--and a snapshot of a possible film legend as a work-in-progress.

Average customer rating:
Woody Allen: Interviews (Conversations With Filmmakers Series)

Manufacturer: University Press of Mississippi
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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Woody Allen on Woody Allen

Roman Polanski: Interviews (Conversations With Filmmakers Series)

Four Films: Annie Hall, Interiors, Manhattan, Stardust Memories

Street Smart: The New York Of Lumet, Allen, Scorsese, And Lee

Martin Scorsese: Interviews (Interviews With Filmmakers Series)

ASIN: 1578067936

Book Description

Woody Allen (b. 1935) is one of America's most idiosyncratic filmmakers, with an unparalleled output of nearly one film every year for over three decades. His movies are filled with rapid-fire one-liners, neurotic characters, anguished relationships, and old-time jazz music. Allen's vision of New York—whether in comedies or dramas—has shaped our perception of the city more than any other modern filmmaker.

Woody Allen: Interviews collects over twenty-five years of interviews with the Oscar-winning director of Annie Hall, Manhattan, Hannah and Her Sisters, Crimes and Misdemeanors, and Bullets Over Broadway. The book's interviews reveal a serious director often at odds with his onscreen persona as a lovable, slapstick loser. Allen talks frankly about his rigorous work habits, his biggest artistic influences, the attention he devotes to acting, screenwriting, and directing, and how New York fuels his filmmaking.

Along with discussing film techniques and styles, Allen opens up about his love of jazz, his Jewish heritage, and the scandal that arose when he left his longtime partner Mia Farrow for her adopted daughter. Including four interviews from European sources, three of which and now available in English for the first time, Woody Allen: Interviews is a treasure trove of conversations with one of America's most distinctive filmmakers.

Average customer rating:

Embarrassing. Shameless waste of time

A Great Filmmaker's View of Himself

More interview, less essay!

Woody Allen: A Life in Film
Richard Schickel
Manufacturer: Ivan R. Dee, Publisher
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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Woody Allen: A Biography

Woody Allen on Woody Allen

The Reluctant Film Art of Woody Allen

Love, Sex, Death, and the Meaning of Life: The Films of Woody Allen

Woody Allen and Philosophy: You Mean My Whole Fallacy Is Wrong?

ASIN: 1566635284

Book Description

This book reprints a four-hour conversation between Mr. Schickel and Mr. Allen and includes a long essay of introduction by Mr. Schickel, which places Woody Allen's entire career in critical perspective, as well as a complete filmography. Readers will find Mr. Allen's reflections on his major preoccupations--the battle of the sexes; the conflict between reality and fantasy in his major films; mortality, religion, and the role that chance plays in the unfolding of our lives. The book also offers insights into Mr. Allen's working methods as a writer and the growth of his skills as a director.

Customer Reviews:

Embarrassing. Shameless waste of time.......2004-10-01

I'm a huge Woody allen fan but this book is an embarrassing and shameless waste. Nothing new here is gleaned from Woody and his thougts on his films are much better presented in Woody Allen on Woody Allen: In Conversation With Stig Bjorkman. In an introduction seemingly ghost-written by Allen himself, Schickel uses at the end to defend the Soon-Yi situtation and even delves into the Mia Farrow charges, "I do not think anyone believes the hysterical (and preposterous) charges of child abuse Mia Farrow brought against him; certainly the courts did not." Did Schickel not read the court transcripts that Farrow attached to the end of her book where the Judge said he was unconvinced that something did not take place? It is as if he has made a deal with the devil just to land a prize interview, except he completely wastes his opportunity by asking almost nothing of interest or get anything new from Allen.

He lets Allen get away with saying his plots are fabrications and have little to do with his own life, ignoring the fact that many of the films parallel Allen's life almost exactly. In fact, in "Deconstructing Harry," there is a fight scene between Harry and his wife which uses almost the exact words that Farrow wrote occurred between her and Allen! Yet, all that is not spoken about. Schickel, who thinks he is an authority on Allen, questions him about Bob Hope, who Woody Allen is well-known to have admired, but seems ignorant of the fact that "Love and Death" is almost a loose reworking of Hope's Monsieur Beaucaire (1946) - some film authority!

There is nothing new of interest here at all. Read the "Woody Allen on Woody Allen" book instead- Schickel seems so excited to be talking to Woody, he even thinks something as awful as "Hollywood Ending" is acceptable. This book is less a book on Woody Allen and his films and more about how a film critic can lose integrity and a respect for his craft by cashing it in to talk to Woody Allen. It's sad.

A Great Filmmaker's View of Himself.......2003-11-01

Woody Allen makes films like no one else. Sure, the themes of Allen's films (New York, anguished intellectuals) aren't ones that are shared by most blockbusters, but his process of making films is different. Since he started making his own films over thirty years ago, he has put out about one every year, a record no other American director has come close to, and of course he writes them and acts in most of them. It is no metaphor that he has put his life into films, and in _Woody Allen: A Life In Film_ (Ivan R. Dee), the movie critic for _Time_ magazine, Richard Schickel, examines the life work along with Allen. The book is the complete text of a four-hour interview shown last year on the invaluable Turner Classic Movies channel; that version was edited to ninety minutes. It also has an essay of appreciation about Allen's work, which Schickel clearly values. He admits that he is biased, not because of friendship for Allen, but because of similarities between them, being roughly the same age and distrusting organized religion, corporate America, and aromatherapy. Allen "... speaks to me - and _for_ me sometimes - in a quite uncomplicated way." If you do not share his bias, he warns, you are reading the wrong book. If you do, you will find Schickel's essay, and especially Allen's own words about his work, a delight.

The film a year output has lead to many people thinking that along with all the other neuroses that Allen has depicted for himself, he is a workaholic. He denies it. He likes the work. "It keeps me sane to the degree that I'm sane. It helps me." But if he can't get the shot exactly right, and it is time for the Knicks game, he lets the shot go. He may love making the movies, but he is distinctly modest about them. "I think I'm going to write _Citizen Kane_ every time out of the box, and it's going to be great." And then he is humiliated by what he sees on the screen. "I have failed almost every time..." He reflects here on his ability to make jokes; even in high school, he could get out of class at one and go into New York to start writing jokes for clients to put in the newspapers. His films are not all just funny, of course. Even though there is humor in, say, the masterful _Crimes and Misdemeanors_, the sad lesson of the movie is that good intentions don't count; "... they do in your heart - but to society success is the bottom line." The earnest film-maker in the movie is a loser and the murderous doctor loses nothing. "I just wanted to illustrate in an entertaining way that there's no God, that we're alone in the universe..." No wonder people like his early funny ones.

Schickel has done a masterful job asking the right questions. He does not go much into Allen's personal life, but sticks to the work. Allen gets to explain his attitude toward actors, and it is clear why he can continue to get the best of them to work with him. He lets them improvise, and he lets them alone: "You get out of the way and let them do what has made them great." He is laudatory about Mia Farrow's participation in the films, and for all her subsequent acerbity towards him, he did provide her with an enormous body of work. Schickel rightly gets Allen to talk on the magic in his movies, like the character leaving the screen in _Purple Rose of Cairo_. Magic is the only thing that could save us, but it doesn't do so for Farrow's character because she, like all of us, has to choose the real world. There is a surprising segment on gangsters in Allen's films, who play roles more often than I had remembered. Allen says that with his father having been a pool hustler and his own having grown up on the streets of Brooklyn, he is closer to gangsters than intellectuals: "I mean, I was thrown out of college in my freshman year." There are insights in this small volume aplenty, and if you like Allen's films, you will learn much about him by hearing what he has to say about them.

More interview, less essay!.......2003-10-02

The prefatory essay is about 65 pages long, and the entire book, stopping short of the filmography and index, is about 174 pages. Because the book is so slim, I felt a bit cheated once I finally got to the interview. Maybe the publisher wanted an extended essay to make the book long enough to be marketable, but just beware -- interesting essay, fascinating interview (if you like Allen), but when you see how slim the book is, just realize less than 2/3rds of it is interview.

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Annie Hall (Faber Reel Classics)
Woody Allen , and Marshall Brickman
Manufacturer: Faber and Faber
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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Annie Hall

ASIN: 0571202144

Woody Allen on Woody Allen: In Conversation With Stig Bjorkman

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My Dinner With Woody
A good book...
Simply Amazing!!
Fans of the Director Will Enjoy
Frank and enlightening discussion

Woody Allen on Woody Allen: In Conversation With Stig Bjorkman
Woody Allen
Manufacturer: Grove Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 0802134254

Amazon.com

Fans of Woody Allen have long waited to hear him tell us in his own words about his life, his tastes, and his films, but until recently he has been reluctant to give lengthy interviews. This book is the conversation we've been waiting for, a dialogue with Stig Bjorkman in which Allen speaks openly about himself and his art. Bjorkman invites the writer/director to talk at length about his lesser-known movies as well as his famous ones. We also learn about Allen's filmmaking technique, his feelings about his stock company of actors, his influences, and why Stardust Memories and The Purple Rose of Cairo are his two personal favorites.

Book Description

Over the course of his long directing career, Woody Allen has portrayed contemporary American life with an unmistakable mixture of irony, neurotic obsession, and humor. Woody Allen on Woody Allen is a unique self-portrait of this uncompromising filmmaker that offers a revealing account of his life and work. In a series of rare, in-depth interviews, Allen brings us onto the sets and behind the scenes of all his films. Since its original publication, Woody Allen on Woody Allen has been the primary source of Allen's own thoughts on his work, childhood, favorite films, and inspirations. Now updated with one hundred pages of new material that brings us up to his Hollywood Ending, Woody Allen on Woody Allen is a required addition to any cinephile's library.

Customer Reviews:

My Dinner With Woody.......2006-08-21

Reading this book was like having dinner with Woody Allen while his films played on a wall behind us. I appreciated the European interviewer because it brought a fresh perspective to Allen's material. Getting Allen's insights into the characters in his films was worth the price, and, as you know, we all need the eggs.

A good book..........2003-11-25

Great. Read it. Don't read this if you're a fan. Buy this book now. Don't waste time. I know i've always wanted to have a conversation with woody allen...even if it is someone else giving it. He's great. I admire him and adore his films. If you're a fan, you'll love his little tidbits and personal things. Remember - the man - not just the films...

Simply Amazing!!.......2003-07-15

The only reason that I didn't give this book 5 stars in because it only goes up to Husbands & Wives. For anyone who loves Woody and wants to hear him speak in detail about his films, other films and his ideas, this book does not disapoint. I have many other books by or about filmmakers and this is certainly up there with the best. Woody talks about Bergman, Godard, Fellini, Truffaut, Hitchcock and many other filmmakers and films he likes. He discussed in depth each of his films from What's New Pussycat? to Husbands and Wives. This book is a must for fans of Woody Allen and for fans of film.

Fans of the Director Will Enjoy.......2003-02-28

Conversations between Woody Allen and journalist Stig Bjorkman about the Woodster’s films, from “Take the Money and Run” to “Manhattan Murder Mystery,” along with interviews about his childhood and early acting roles. While there are sometimes less details than one would like (don’t look for more than a paragraph or two about “What’s Up Tiger Lilly” and “Casino Royale.” “Sleeper” only gets a page), but it’s very nice to read Allen’s insights about some of his work years later. Hopefully soon there will be an updated guide. I’m curious about what he has to say about “Deconstructing Harry” and even “Curse of the Jade Scorpion.”

Frank and enlightening discussion.......2002-11-10

A very relaxed and interesting discussion regarding the development of Allen's style and indivisual films that is very entertaining. This is an excellent companion to his earlier films. Bjorkman asks excellent questions that keep the discussion flowing in a chronological sense yet allow for Woody Allen to address many interssting topics related to his work.
The focus here is really the body of work and not Allen's personal life. Like sitting with a bottle of wine and talking to two intelligent filmmakers about their craft.

The Films of Woody Allen: Critical Essays

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The Films of Woody Allen: Critical Essays
Charles L.P. Silet
Manufacturer: The Scarecrow Press, Inc.
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Eighteen Woody Allen Films Analyzed: Anguish, God and Existentialism

ASIN: 0810857375

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