November 17, 2005. Copyright 2005, Graphic News. All rights reserved

Woody Allen -- auteur, auteur!
By Elisabeth Ribbans

LONDON, November 17, Graphic News:  Woody Allen, like his beloved Manhattan, gives great value for size. Into the slight, slightly shambling 5ft 7in frame of this native New Yorker is packed actor, Oscar-winning director and screenwriter, playwright, author, stand-up comedian and musician. Since his debut WhatŐs New, Pussycat? in 1965, Allen has made more than 40 films -- writing, directing and starring in the vast majority, which, as one critic pointed out, puts his creative activity on a par with that of Shakespeare. He is certainly the most frequently nominated writer in the Academy Award category of best original screenplay, with a total of 13 nominations.

Woody AllenŐs prolific canon of work includes elements ranging from the slapstick (Sleeper) to the slightly surreal (AllenŐs personal favourite, The Purple Rose of Cairo, 1985) to the highly serious (Interiors, 1978). But human relationships are the recurring theme -- and it is for his microscopic observation and tragic-comic handling of these that Allen is most admired. Annie Hall (1977), winner of four Academy Awards, including a best actress Oscar for Diane Keaton, his one-time partner and frequent leading lady, epitomises his skillful distilling of humour from the painful evaporation of romance. The result is more bittersweet: it is poignant and challenging and fearless in its approach to anxiety.

For many moviegoers, the line between AllenŐs on- and off-screen personas has become blurred to the point of vanishing. Allen cautions against any temptation to assume too much autobiography -- despite the uncomfortable parallels of the storyline in Husbands and Wives (1992) and his break-up with actress Mia Farrow, which they were filming together as their relationship floundered. Likewise the hallmark shy, neurotic, self-deprecating, fidgety men he creates and portrays are, he would insist, caricatures. Associates testify that the real Allen knows his mind and, like any true auteur, remains in complete control.

Nevertheless he did confess in a 2001 newspaper interview: ŇI make [movies] for personal therapy in the same way that a person in an institution is given baskets to weave because the therapy is good for you. I make them because if I don't work then I become depressed because I have time on my hands and I reflect and get into morbid introspection.Ó

Born Allen Stewart Konigsberg on December 1, 1935 in Brooklyn, to Martin Konigsberg and Nettea Cherrie, he began writing comedy scripts while still at high school -- drawing, as he has continued to do, on his middle-class Jewish background. He adopted his stage name at 17 when he enrolled in a film course at New York University, but he soon dropped out due to poor grades. It didnŐt matter: within a couple of years heŐd been hired to write for television comedians including Sid Caesar and Art Carney, and was forging a successful career as a stand-up on the nightclub circuit.

Film and stage scripts followed, with his first play, DonŐt Drink the Water, appearing on Broadway in 1966. During the 1970s his films -- including work such as Bananas (1971) and Everything You Always Wanted to Know About Sex but Were Afraid to Ask (1972) -- were characterized by off-beat gags and parody. But by 1975Ős Love and Death, an undercurrent of seriousness was starting to be detected.

He followed Annie Hall with the commercially unsuccessful Interiors, inspired by the director to whom he has always aspired, Ingmar Bergman. But he returned to top form in 1979 with Manhattan, starring Mariel Hemingway, Diane Keaton and a glorious Gershwin score. The 1980s produced a mixed bag -- too esoteric for some -- but included the highly rated The Purple Rose of Cairo, the triple-Oscar-winning Hannah and Her Sisters (1986) and Crimes and Misdemeanors (1989) -- all starring Mia Farrow.

The 1990s were tough. AllenŐs long relationship with Farrow ended in acrimony, with custody battles, unsubstantiated allegations of child abuse and the revelation that he was having an affair with FarrowŐs adopted daughter Soon-Yi Previn, whom he later married.

Allen has been married twice before -- in 1956 to Harlene Rosen, a student and in 1966 to his Bananas co-star Louise Lasser. He has one biological son, Satchel, subsequently renamed Seamus, from his relationship with Farrow and two adopted daughters, Bechet and Manzie, with Previn.

His latest film, Match Point (2005), starring Scarlett Johansson, is set in London -- one of only a handful of his films to be shot away from Manhattan. Every Monday night, when he is not filming, Allen plays clarinet with his New Orleans Jazz Band in the Carlyle Hotel, New York.
/ENDS