The Women Of Woody Allen
He might be a bit creepy, but he sure knows how to write about ladies.
I came to Woody Allen relatively late in life. My first Allen experience was watching three-quarters of the 2006 film Scoop on a flight from Sydney to LA. I didn’t like it. I found the bumbling old Jewish guy annoying and couldn’t understand why someone as stunning as Scarlett Johansson was hanging out with him. Even more puzzling was why she was trying to imitate his stuttering speech patterns and broad New Yorker accent.
This below-par film was not a good introduction to his work, and for a long time I confidently declared that I hated Woody Allen. This opinion was further backed by some vague knowledge that he’d had an affair with Mia Farrow’s adopted daughter and that it involved naked pictures.
Then my new boyfriend sat me down and made me watch Annie Hall (1977). And then Manhattan (1979). And then Hannah And Her Sisters (1986), The Purple Rose Of Cairo (1985) and Bullets Over Broadway (1994). By the time Vicky Cristina Barcelona came out in 2008, I was hooked. Not by Woody Allen’s broad slapstick comedy (though I grew to love that too), but by his women.
Since Annie Hall, diverse female characters have been a mainstay of his 38 subsequent films. The women are more varied and nuanced than the male leads, which are often played by Allen himself, or incarnations of him performed by mid-level actors who stutter their way through familiar neurosis and metaphysical fears. He has said himself that the men in his films are usually inferior to the women. This, in an industry that necessitated the Bechdel test.
Allen is both fascinated and frightened by women. Apparently he is often too shy to speak more than a few words to actresses at castings, which might explain why he works to create characters that reflect this relationship: vulnerable and intimidating, sexy and unstable, confused and confusing.
To be clear, I am in no way suggesting that Allen is a feminist filmmaker — he often fetishises women through lingering shots and strategic camera angles, and many of his films would probably fail the aforementioned Bechdel test. But, at the very least, his female characters are rarely superficial or one-dimensional. This history of meaty roles has attracted some of the finest actresses in Hollywood and earned 11 Best Actress/Supporting Actress nominations with 5 wins, compared to 4 Best Actor/Supporting Actor nominations and one win (to Michael Caine in Hannah And Her Sisters, a movie primarily about a relationship between three women).
Budget also plays a part: Allen pays actors considerably less than they could earn on big studio projects, and as his long-standing casting director, Juliet Taylor, told The New York Times, some big name American male actors are just not willing to work for less than their price.
This week’s release of Allen’s latest movie, Blue Jasmine, reportedly sees another memorable female lead added to his canon, from Cate Blanchett, whose performance is already getting Oscar buzz. I figure it’s a good opportunity to look at the women and characters that came before her and helped shaped Allen and his work.
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Diane Keaton
Woody Allen films: Play It Again, Sam (1972), Sleeper (1973), Love And Death (1975), Annie Hall (1977), Interiors (1978), Manhattan (1979), Manhattan Murder Mystery (1993)
Before she was a member of any First Wives Club, getting drunk on Ellen, or cheering herself up by tweeting pictures of beautiful men and earning a permanent place in our hearts, Diane Keaton was Woody Allen’s muse, girlfriend and star. Her obscene amount of onscreen charisma was what first drew me to Allen’s film. I challenge anyone to watch her scene in Annie Hall and not fall for her from her very first “la di da, la di da, la la”.
Keaton was Allen’s muse of the 1970s, arguably his most fertile filmmaking period with two of his finest movies, Annie Hall and Manhattan, coming within the space of three years (with the unsettling Interiors between them). The former earned Keaton the Best Actress Oscar in 1977, and heralded a new era of skilfully crafted female characters.
In David Itzkoff’s recent piece for The New York Times, Allen said, “I started to appreciate her (Keaton) so much, personally and as an actress, that I started writing from the woman’s point of view.” They made eight films together and remained close friends after they dated — it was Keaton that Allen called on to replace Mia Farrow in Manhattan Murder Mystery after the public and messy breakdown of their relationship.
Annie Hall was the movie that made me realise what every modern romantic comedy is trying (and often failing) to do. The titular character is the kooky, naïve and neurotic love interest that movies like 500 Days Of Summer or Garden State attempt to replicate. Annie herself is often incorrectly cited as an early example of the Manic Pixie Dream Girl, but she is much more than that; she has her own dreams, goals and obstacles to overcome such as her crippling stage fright and anxiety. She is not just a catalyst, she is the character that undergoes a major transformation, whose arc is most fully resolved and realised. She outgrows Alvy and his tiresome fears of death/the unknown/Los Angeles.
The character was heavily based on Keaton, from her sing-song speech patterns to her insecurities and dreams of becoming a singer. She famously used clothes from her own wardrobe in the film, cementing her place as an indie fashion icon and grandmaster of man-style. Both the film and Keaton’s character feel modern and fresh, despite being over 35 years old. Basically, if you don’t like Diane Keaton, we can’t be friends.
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Mia Farrow
Woody Allen films: A Midsummer Night’s Sex Comedy (1982), Zelig (1983), Broadway Danny Rose (1984), The Purple Rose Of Cairo (1985), Hannah And Her Sisters (1986), Radio Days (1987), September (1987), Another Woman (1988), Crimes And Misdemeanors (1989), New York Stories (1989), Alice (1990), Shadows And Fog (1991), Husbands And Wives (1992)
Having only experienced Allen and Farrow’s films post-scandal and extremely messy custody battle, I find it hard to believe their on-screen relationships given how publicly Farrow has since sledged him.
Their unconventional relationship began in 1979 when they were introduced at dinner by Michael Caine, because you know, all famous people know all other famous people. They never married or lived together; they had separate apartments on either side of Central Park and would sit on their balconies and wave towels at each other as they spoke on the phone. During their time together, Farrow was raising a 15-strong brood to rival Brangelina’s, many of whom were adopted. Despite that, she somehow still found time to appear in 13 of his films in just 12 years.
With the notable exception of the tough gangster’s girl in Broadway Danny Rose, Farrow was a very different ingénue to Keaton. Where Keaton bubbled with nervous energy, the characters Farrow played (and presumably inspired) were more melancholic and introverted, especially the waifish Cecilia in The Purple Rose Of Cairo, whose fragility contrasts starkly with the pre-feminist Depression era of the film’s setting.
The relationship between the muses and the characters runs both ways. We map this fragility onto Farrow herself, and perhaps that’s why many find Allen’s subsequent behaviour so hard to overlook. Still, the Farrow period has a very distinct feeling, a testament to her influence over Allen.
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Scarlett Johansson
Woody Allen films: Match Point (2005), Scoop (2006), Vicky Cristina Barcelona (2008)
There are a series of Allen’s films from the early 2000s (see: The Curse Of The Jade Scorpion) that are downright uncomfortable to watch; Allen had simply become too old to be considered a viable romantic lead, and it’s awkward watching him paw at much younger, much more beautiful women. But then he took his crew to London and filmed Match Point, which proved a game changer in several ways.
For one, it was one of Allen’s first films shot outside New York — a fortuitous decision driven more by financial than creative needs — and started a string of Euro-centric movies. It was also his first and only quasi-thriller. Allen himself considers Match Point to be one of the top five films he’s made, and while I think it’s overrated by both creator and critics, it did introduce Allen’s modern muse, Scarlett Johansson, to the screen.
Through Johansson, Allen proved that he could capture pure sexuality without hiding behind jokes or awkwardness. One YouTube user calls her opening scene in the film “Sexiest Scene Ever”, so it must be true because there is some pretty sexy stuff on the internet. Johansson’s temptress is raw, powerful and dangerous — it’s the first time that the sex Allen obsesses over actually seems sexy.
Although their onscreen partnership lasted just three films (including Scoop, my unsexy, underwhelming introduction to Allen), it ended with a role in the even sexier Vicky Cristina Barcelona, which saw a star-turn from another regulation hottie/excellent actress.
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Penélope Cruz
Woody Allen films: Vicky Christina Barcelona (2008), To Rome With Love (2012)
Penélope Cruz does not seem like a natural fit for a Woody Allen film. But far from a token Spanish casting, Allen actually wrote the part in Vicky Cristina specifically for Cruz after seeing her in Pedro Almodóvar’s Volver (2006). It was a stroke of casting genius: Cruz’s free-flowing passion and rage, untempered by quips and asides as per Allen’s usual style, is both believable and scene-stealing. Cruz’s unstable artist is the character that has stayed with me, invoking palpable chemistry with both Javier Bardem and Scarlett Johansson in a very convincing argument on the merits of polyamorous relationships.
Cruz took home the Oscar for the role, becoming the first Spanish actress to win an Academy Award. There are many things to be said about the cultural implications of this award coming from a part written and directed by one of the whitest guys in Hollywood, but that’s for another article. There is no denying that Allen has a knack for picking the right actress for the right role.
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There are many more performances and characters I could call out, including master character actress Dianne Wiest, who won two Supporting Actress Academy Awards from Woody Allen films, as well as Charlotte Rampling, Judy Davis and (fellow Oscar winner) Mira Sorvino.
In Allen’s incredible output, there have been hits and misses; characters that have nobly struggled with universal truths of human existence and others that have been downright annoying (most of those characters are played by him). And yet through so many of his films, he managed to create real, complicated and diverse female characters who were brought to life by some of Hollywood’s greatest talents.
The jury is still out as to whether or not he’s an old perve, but he sure can make a great movie.
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Maddy Newman runs a fashion magazine for a major e-commerce company. Before that, she produced a talk-back radio program for over-65s. Consequently, she knows a lot about the internet, shoes and Andre Rieu.