Watching Movies by Rick Lyman

Author:Rick Lyman
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781466872127
Publisher: Henry Holt and Co.

13

Woody Allen on Shane

He was one of the dream targets, of course. Who could contemplate a series like this and not wonder what it would be like to have Woody Allen take part? But I never really thought it would happen, listening to talk about how private he was, how controlling and how press-shy, particularly in the wake of his tabloid scandals of the 1990s. The clincher, I think, was that he had taken up with a new distributor for his films, DreamWorks, which was eager to get him out there again, front and center, promoting his work and perhaps doing a little image renovation. I also suspect, though can’t prove, that the studio had something to do with urging the director away from choosing a film by Ingmar Bergman or one of the more difficult, European directors he clearly loved. Whatever the case, I am beholden to whoever urged him to choose an American film, because I think his cogent appraisal of Shane is perhaps the single best piece of film dissection that the series produced. And as far as his reputation for being a control freak, well, you be the judge. All I know is that more than any other installment in the series, his resulted in the most questions from friends, readers, and other participants in the series: What was he like? All I can say is that I gave my best shot at an answer in the piece.

* * *

He came into his screening room walking that Woody Allen walk, slightly hunched, a little distracted, his vigorous fingers carving the air as he spoke. “I hope you don’t mind,” he said, “but I have prepared a statement.”

And he pulled from his pocket a folded sheet of canary-colored paper, the double-spaced letters overlaid with black-ink editing that spilled into the margins. Mr. Allen said he wanted to make completely clear why he had chosen George Stevens’s Shane as the film he wanted to watch.

“I’ll just read this into your tape recorder, if that’s okay, and then you can do whatever you want with it after that,” he said, settling himself in a plush chair in the back corner of the screening room. “Is it on? Can I start talking?”

He held up the canary sheet and began. “When I was invited to pick a film to view and discuss it with the New York Times, I wanted to select an American one,” Mr. Allen said. “This is unusual for me, because my affection for foreign movies seems to be much deeper. If I were, for example, to list my ten or even fifteen favorite movies—and I don’t say best movies, because these lists are always completely subjective—aside from Citizen Kane, all of the films would be foreign. A sampling might be Rashomon, The Bicycle Thief, Grand Illusion, Wild Strawberries, Seventh Seal, Throne of Blood, The 400 Blows, Los Olvidados, you get the idea.”

He cleared his throat, took a deep breath, and continued: “But I didn’t want to do

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.