Category Archives: Anhedonia

Day 191: Whatever Works

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81o4Izgs4mL._SL1500_Whatever Works doesn’t.

Not on any level.

Larry David (playing the anhedonic Woody Allen character this time around) is terrific casting – if you want a douche bag as a protagonist.

Here’s how the movie starts: A bunch of friends sitting around in New York talking. Boris is insulting them. Mercilessly.

After a few minutes, Boris starts talking to the audience, calling them (us) mouth breathers.

He gets up and walks away from his friends, still talking to the camera (“breaking the fourth wall”). He says:

Why would you want to hear my story? Do we know each other? Do we like each other? Let me tell you right off, ok… I’m not a likeable guy. Charm has never been a priority with me. And just so you know, this is not the feel-good movie of the year. So if you’re one of those idiots who needs to feel good, go get yourself a foot massage.

And there you have it. That sets the tone of the movie. He tells us from the get-go he’s not a likeable character. The movie proves that. Repeatedly.

He even warns us mouth breathers up front:

Boris: What the hell does it all mean any how? Nothing. Zero. Zilch. Nothing comes to anything.

Boris is right.

This isn’t the feel-good movie of the year.

And this movie, essentially, means Continue reading →

Day 160: Stardust Memories

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51E2F6Z0KDLIn Stardust Memories, Woody Allen gives us his version of Federico Fellini‘s 8-1/2, which it parodies.

A black-and-white film about – surprise! – death and the (mostly futile) meaning of life, Stardust Memories is the story of a director named Sandy Bates (Woody Allen) who decides he’s tired of being funny and – at the urging of his handlers/studio execs – attends a retrospective of his work that pushes him to confront far more serious aspects of life.

“I look around the world and all I see is human suffering,” Sandy tells his handlers.

Full of odd camera angles, shadows, surrealistic imagery, grotesque faces, sometimes in extreme close-up, and uproarious laughter in inappropriate places, Stardust Memories was directed by a middle-aged (45-year-old) Woody – and it shows. This is his most introspective, self-conscious, and anhedonic film to date. And forty-five is about the right age to think such thoughts. So why not?

Frankly, this movie is the cinematic equivalent of rock stars (like Robert Plant) who leave a wildly popular band and then seem to show nothing but disdain for what he accomplished, which is a massive slap in the face to the band’s fans.

In this movie, Woody seems to say to everyone – especially critics – that comedic filmmaking is bullshit and his fans are asshats for thinking they’re otherwise.

Somewhere along the way during Continue reading →

Day 156: Love and Death

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51S3BR0E4TLLove and Death (1975) is Woody Allen’s sixth outing as director.

This movie breaks from tradition in that it doesn’t open with Dixieland jazz playing over black-and-white credits. This time around it’s Mussorgsky’s The Great Gate at Kiev from Pictures at an Exhibition over black-and-white credits.

But not breaking from tradition are two of Woody’s favorite cinematic themes: love and death.

My favorite parts of the movie are:

  • Woody’s voiceover narration, which is witty and clever. As usual.
  • Woody as a child: “I recall my first mystical vision. I was walking through the woods thinking about Christ. If he was a carpenter I wondered what he’d charge for book shelves.” (Suddenly, the young lad encounters Death.)
  • The philosophical debates conducted in earnest seriousness despite the incongruity of the setting.
  • The opera scene with Woody flirting with Countess Alexandrovna, played by Olga Georges-Picot, a French actress who committed suicide on 19 June 1997. She was 57.

Death is a recurring topic in Woody Allen movies. So is a protagonist with Continue reading →