Allen movies: Part 1

I wanted to write about the movies of Woody Allen on my blog soon after I finished watching September. Then I got this urge to write after watching Zelig. Now that I watched Hannah and her sisters last night, I have to write about it!

After watching Annie Hall back in 2003, I never came across any of Woody Allen movies. When Aj told me that he has bought a DVD box set of Woody Allen, I wondered whether he had made so many movies! And when the DVDs arrived, I started watching them one by one and the first couple of movies were the typical Allen ones, with the characters that comes to your mind when you think of him. Sleepers, Shadows and fog and Love and Death.

Shadows and fog had a mega star cast (J. Malkowich, William H. Macy, Madonna!) and the character of John Cusack was memorable. Sleepers was a satire on society and there's very little I remember from Love and Death.

For me September was the real shocker. I never expected such a serious, emotional-high-voltage drama from Woody Allen. The movie was shot in just one location (studio, maybe) inside a big house where the story takes place. Later I read somewhere that Allen actually filmed the movie again, from beginning to end, changing the cast - and it didn't cost much to the production house!

Much has been written about Manhattan. You can find them here, here and here (I cant insert those hyperlinks!:)

Zelig revealed the real genius of Woody Allen to me. A mockumentary, this was an audacious attempt to film the funny story of a person who transformed into the person whom he met. He became a doctor when he spoke to a doctor. The movie had some original footages and in the beginning of the movie I thought it is a real documentary - with those footages of Scot Fitzgerald et al.

Everything you wanted to know about sex.. and Bananas were laugh out loud funny. Another woman was a dissection of emotions, much in the league of serious movies of Allen, with a superb performance by the lead actor (Gena Rowlands as Marion Post).

What struck me about Interiors was that throughout the sensitive drama there was no background score and the scene where a record is played, that was the most dramatic scene of the movie!
Radio days was beautiful and I wonder how he could make a movie out of that! It is just about growing up with radio, events related to the broadcasts and events about radio personalities!

Broadway Danny Rose proved that Allen can do serious roles too. He really made me sympathize with the character.
I remember this funny dialogue from the movie:
Tina is talking about her husband:
Tina: They shot him in the eyes.
Danny: Oh my God, he's blind?
Tina: He's dead...
Danny: Of course, the bullets would go right through...
:)

Alice had one of those catchy background scores. Someday I should dig up those IMDB archives to figure out the musicians and tracks Allen has featured in his movies.

Hannah and her Sisters, I should say, is the perfect and most fulfilling Woody Allen movie I have watched so far. It has Manhattan, Allen in his typical role, laugh out loud jokes, emotions, affairs, great background score, literary references, search for God, meaning of life, ace performances, Thanks giving dinner...
Manhattan is beautifully captured in the movie, that I am sure it wont look that beautiful in real! The river, city streets and even the architecture. Michael Caine gives a splendid performance (Guess he won an Oscar for supporting role - I'd like to see all the nominations and wins of all these movies on IMDB, someday).
Another surprise I got from the closing credits was that John Turturo had a small role in the movie. I scanned through the DVD and found that its a 1 minute role as a script writer for TV. The music is so beautiful in the movie, that if I come across the soundtrack in any music store, I'll just grab it!

I have a bunch of DVDs more to go, before I post part 2 of this and start watching those movies again!