Woody Allen :: essays papers

Woody AllenA plethora of people pee-pee written about Woody Allen, fanny Lahr saidand they either like him or dislike him. But no mavin has yet managed, Ithink, to interpret him. Woody Allen has been revered as one of thebrilliant artists of the twentieth century and at the same beat calleda pervert. His works have been called jokes but also masterpieces. Manycritics have tried to explain why Allen writes the things he writes butnot one has had success. The drive and brilliance of Allen has notbeen understood yet. Seeing his citationisations gives us ii opposing realises. Oneis the screwball comedian who is obsessed with death and call down while theother is the serious artist commenting on and criticizing our society.The latter view is more difficult to grasp but is nonetheless there.Through diametrical celluloid techniques Allen mocks our society and filmindustry without us even realizing. His just about widely used technique todo this is the film within a film. In movi es such as The Purple Rose ofCairo, Play It again Sam and Hannah and Her Sisters Allen uses thistechnique to show us his opinion on a particular subject, and also usesit as a driving force posterior his movies.The intimately notable use of filmwithin a film in Allen?s movies occurs in, The Purple Rose of Cairo.The time is The Depression and the dig a small town. Cecilia (MiaFarrow) is the central figure in the movie. She is married to an abusive gambler and heavy drinker. To cope and escape her problems,Cecilia constantly goes to a near movie theater called The Jewel.There she spends hours on end watch movies, sometimes the same onemore than three times. When she gets fired one daylight from her job, shegoes to The Jewel and watches a movie called The Purple Rose of Cairoat least five times (Blake 117). On her fifth time watching themovie, Tom Baxter (Jeff Daniels) jumps out from the movie and entersthe theater telling Cecilia that he has observe her faithful presence andis attracted to her. As they leave the theater together, the actors inthe movie aimlessly wonder around bewildered by what had justtranspired. deeply concerned is the real life actor of Tom Baxter, GilShephard because this misfortune could shipwreck his blossomingcareer(Kauffmann 37). To add to the trouble, other cities havereported that the Baxter character has stepped out of The Purple Roseof Cairo in various theaters and has disappeared. why would Woody Allencreate such a unrealistic movie critics called the most innovative