Your thoughts on Woody Allen

[AURex 1,994]

The new documentary "Allen vs Farrow" on HBO has dredged up once again the accusations about Allen's abusive behavior that have simmered for decades.

Nothing really has changed. There are accusations. There are supporters on both sides. It is ugly. It is unending.

Have the latest news and documentary changed your opinion?

But more, has any of this changed your response to Woody Allen movies?

I still love Sleeper. And as a philosophy major at Auburn, I still find Love and Death totally side-splitting! Annie Hall is a classic. I liked (and still do) Crimes & Misdemeanors as well as Hannah and Her Sisters.

I'm less comfortable with the movie often considered his best -- Manhattan. But I really enjoyed one of his more recent films, Midnight in Paris, despite that obnoxious dork Owen Wilson pretending to be Woody Allen.

Has your enjoyment of Woody Allen movies changed over the years? And has the controversy with Mia Farrow and their children changed your enjoyment of his movies?

 

 

[McLoofus 35,182]

On 3/16/2021 at 9:48 PM, AURex said:

Has your enjoyment of Woody Allen movies changed over the years? And has the controversy with Mia Farrow and their children changed your enjoyment of his movies?

Yes. And I hate it. I hate it when artists whose work I love have these issues that start these conversations. And I hate how often it happens. Truly great art is rare, so it's a huge loss when it can't be enjoyed. But once I get to the point that I suspect a certain percentage of the accusations are true, I can't really turn off that switch and separate artist from art. Or athlete from accomplishment, business owner from harmful politics, etc. Bill Cosby is, first and foremost, a rapist. Ray Rice is, first and foremost, a man who commits severe violence against women. Woody Allen is, first and foremost, a creep. (To me.)

On a positive note, this is one area when I don't judge others. I encourage others to continue to enjoy great art as they always have. The whole thing about true geniuses is that they occupy a space that no one else can. So it's not like you can just substitute something else for a Woody Allen movie. It's like Aziz Ansari said about Chick-Fil-A when all that stuff was going on. To paraphrase, "Nobody would care if those sandwiches weren't so freaking good."