Posted on 09/07/2013 9:07:11 PM PDT by qwertyz
You nailed it. He goes to brink, but never over. He senses that conversion would kill his stories. So neither he nor his characters ever convert. It takes a whole other level of artistic genius (e.g., Evelyn Waugh Brideshead Revisited) to see how eucatastrophe works in a story. Too bad that early on he got attached to Bergmann and European nihilism rather than Catholic story tellers.
The following article has some information about Woody Allen and Mia Farrow's adopted daughter Dylan.
http://www.vanityfair.com/magazine/archive/1992/11/farrow199211
Allen sets up a morality play where Blanchett's character blindly goes along with her husband's criminal activity because it serves her ego to do so.
When she can no longer stand his philandering-- because her friends are 'shaming' her-- she confronts him. And when she sees that she's about to lose everything, she goes all-in on destroying him (and herself) by calling the FBI.
Blanchett's character cries (quite literally) through the entire movie. It's depressing and maddening, because she doesn't learn anything; she lies to a possible suitor because he's going to 'save' her. Instead, he finds her out, and dumps her. She refuses to accept her responsibility.
And the subplot of the sister and her boyfriend is equally littered with people doing bad things to each other.
This was a movie about bad people doing bad things, and while there may be moral lessons here, they're muddled and dirty and ambiguous.
I kept waiting for this movie to get better, or interesting, or find redemption-- anything-- and when it ended I was annoyed and disappointed.
I understand that it may have appealed to you, but I found it harrowing and unpleasant, at best.
Thanks qwertyz.
I’ve wanted to see this since reading that Andrew “Dice” Clay is in it.
“Why do people always think they were married? They never lived together.”
I think because of the old standby ‘when it walks like a duck, talks like a duck, it’s a duck’. The relationship was just as if they were married to the outside world, so they assumed it was such.
I wonder, though there were two separate dwellings how much Woody stayed over at Mia’s. Ever see her place in Conneticut? Fabulous.
re: “I kept waiting for this movie to get better, or interesting, or find redemption— anything— and when it ended I was annoyed and disappointed. I understand that it may have appealed to you, but I found it harrowing and unpleasant, at best.”
I understand exactly what you mean. Woody does this all the time. He accurately presents the meaninglessness of living amorally, but he never brings in repentance or redemption with God or anyone else because, first, he doesn’t believe in God, and second, since there is no God, no matter how one lives - its futile and meaningless.
I thought “Crimes and Misdemeanors” was a very fascinating story, but here again, very disturbing.
He once again presents the “dark” sinfulness of man - and, what’s more, how man has the capacity to justify his crimes no matter how horrible or morally repugnant they are.
Most disturbing to me was he begins the story with a seemingly very “moral” person, a husband and grandfather who loves his family, who would never in his worst nightmares think of hurting another human being.
Yet, as the story proceeds, this “moral” person winds up committing a terrible crime to protect himself. At first he is horribly racked with guilt for a time, even contemplates suicide. But after a while, since his crime is never discovered, he just goes on with his life and forgets his guilt, and begins to enjoy life again.
The main character essentially has convinced himself it was all worth it in the end and for the best. He is at peace with himself and with God (he believes). He resumes his “moral” life. What’s so disturbing is that this is not just simple hypocrisy, he REALLY believes he’s done the right thing. In other words, evil is far more insidious than we can imagine - but, there appears to be no justice or guilt, no judgement. Allen just leaves the viewer there - no answers. I think that is what Woody really believes.
Ever since that film, though brilliant in its portrayal, all his moral dramas leave me so frustrated I just don’t watch them anymore. I’ll watch his comedies, but not his dramas. I feel that at this point in Woody’s life, if he hasn’t seen the TRUTH, he’s simply REFUSING to do so. He has plenty of light to see the truth, but chooses the darkness over and over. So, I really don’t see the point of his morality stories any more. It’s like he’s trying to convince himself and his viewers that life is totally meaningless, by never quite believes it himself - otherwise, why keep presenting the same dilemma over and over? I don’t need to see that.
One of my favorite “little” movies Woody Allen made was “Murder in Manhattan” I have seen it a dozen times. Just a good cast and very entertaining.
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