Woody Allen has been one of America’s most dependable filmmakers for decades, failing to release at least one film a year only four times since 1970.
Off-screen Allen has evolved from a nerdy stand-up comic in the 1960s to an unlikely intellectual sex symbol in the 1970s, from one of the world’s most respected filmmakers in the 1980s to the subject of sleazy tabloid gossip in the 1990s. “Match Point,” opening today in Denver, has prompted some to refer to his “late-career renaissance.”
Allen’s career breaks down into three periods. Initially building on his work as a comedy writer and stand-up comedian, Allen established himself in film with broad comedies based in genre parody such as ‘Take the Money and Run,” “Bananas” (1971) and “Sleeper” (1973), which features a now iconic futuristic house in Genesee.
Though these films displayed his wit and writerly eye for parody, they were hit-or-miss affairs that moved from gag to gag without much integration.
That early period came to an end with his first masterpiece, “Annie Hall” (1977). While still scattershot and prone to favor laughs over characterization, it was a tremendous hit and won four Academy Awards.
“Manhattan” (1979) was Allen’s second masterpiece. It also showed new visual flair, with Allen and cinematographer Gordon Willis using rich black-and-white imagery to paint a hyper-romanticized New York.
The next decade produced “Zelig” (1983), “Broadway Danny Rose” (1984) and “The Purple Rose of Cairo” (1985), segueing into darker waters with ‘Hannah and Her Sisters” and “Crimes and Misdemeanors” (1989). The comedies had substantial plots and strong, dramatic characters, usually played by his new muse and off-screen lover, Mia Farrow. The dramas had vivid comic elements.
Allen kicked off the 1990s with two of his better films, the fantasy “Alice’ (1990) and the dark marital comedy “Husbands and Wives” (1992), but by the time the latter film debuted he was caught up in a tabloid frenzy like none he had ever known.
Farrow’s discovery of Allen’s affair with her adopted daughter, college student Soon-Yi Previn, triggered a spectacular breakup that included sensational allegations that Allen had abused the couple’s young children. Allen admitted the affair with Previn but strongly denied the charges of abuse.
In the wake of the scandal he produced “Manhattan Murder Mystery” (1993), “Bullets Over Broadway” (1994), “Mighty Aphrodite” (1995) and “Everyone Says I Love You.” His only darker work of this period was “Deconstructing Harry” (1997), a scathing portrayal of a hedonistic, self-deluded novelist.
In a sense Allen’s real achievement has been to live a European film career in America. Allen is famously revered in Europe, above all in France, and it’s no wonder: His strong authorial fingerprint, his tendency toward autobiography, his penchant for anti-social humor, and his absolute indifference to Hollywood trends are, one and all, quintessentially European.
Born in Brooklyn, living in Manhattan and centering most of his films in New York, Allen was a natural choice to embody the city when, in his first appearance there in decades, he appeared at the Academy Awards to introduce a salute to New York films in the wake of the Sept. 11 attacks. “Match Point” and the upcoming “Scoop” were both made in London, however, and Allen has been outspoken in praising the experience of working there.
If this American original winds up as a European filmmaker after all, perhaps it will represent nothing more than the end of an arc that took four decades to complete.