Eighteen Woody Allen Films Analyzed by Lee Sander H

Author:Lee, Sander H.
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: McFarland & Company, Inc., Publishers
Published: 2014-10-01T16:00:00+00:00

HOLLY: Mickey?

MICKEY: Yeah, what?

HOLLY: I’m pregnant!

In the end, once he accepts life for what it is (like the character in Holly’s play), he is ready to receive the love of a good woman and find his salvation. Even his infertility is cured.

The Jewish theologian Martin Buber has suggested that God only enters the lives of those who wish it. If one chooses to live one’s life without God, then no evidence of his existence will appear. But once one chooses to open oneself up to the possibility of God, by initiating a genuine dialogue with Him as Mickey did in the movie theater, Buber contends that a true “Ich-Dich” (“I-Thou”) relationship is possible. Using the pronoun dich (the intimate form of the second person singular, like toi in French), Buber contends that only by allowing oneself to be completely vulnerable before God can one construct an authentic and loving relationship with another person.

Prior to his revelation, Mickey was a self-obsessed man who had chosen to maintain an “I—It” relationship with the other people in his life, talking at them about his concerns as though they were inanimate listening posts. Rather than working to obtain a genuine discourse with others, he initially engages in what Buber calls “pseudo-listening.” For example, in his discussions with Gail and his father he doesn’t hear a word they say. However, in his final rejection of his suicidal pessimism, Mickey moves from the role of a mere disgruntled spectator and critic of life (characteristic of the “I—It” relationship) to that of a participant in the “I-Thou” relationship. The disclosure of his deepest feelings and hidden parts allows him to fully participate in his relationship with Holly, God’s gift to him as a direct result of his conversion.

For her part, Holly is Allen’s most positive female character to date, and the first to stand on her own in her relationship to an Allen persona. Unlike so many of the relationships he has shown us, in which the woman’s development of her own voice has signaled the end of romance, here the discovery of that voice is the mechanism that triggers it. The Allen persona has finally learned how to encourage and support a woman without dominating or suffocating her.

When Mickey asks Holly, rhetorically, how she could possibly top their story, she does just that, through her exercise of her uniquely feminine ability to become pregnant. For once, the woman has the last word, and the whole film can be seen as a celebration of love and family as a meaningful foundation for our moral and spiritual lives.

For the brief moment of this film, Allen is willing to concede that the search for meaning is a waste of time, and that true contentment comes only from an acceptance of the simple pleasures of family, love, and faith. The film begins and ends at a family Thanksgiving dinner, suggesting that we should give thanks for what we have and give up trying to uncover profound truths. The only character

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