The movie Woody Allen was “disappointed” with
There’s a deep controversy that surrounds Woody Allen. After coming through as a writer in the 1950s, delving into stand-up comedy, he made for the big screen, writing himself into roles influenced by the emerging cinema scene of the European New Wave and New Hollywood.
However, Allen’s personal life soon overshadowed his impressive professional career. Several allegations of sexual misconduct and a marriage to his adopted daughter have cast a dark shadow over any critical respect and admiration the movie figure once held in plenitude. Still, one cannot take away the contributions Allen has made to the world of cinema.
Of all the films that Allen is known for, perhaps his most beloved is 1977’s Annie Hall. Allen stars as an uptight comedian, Alvy Singer, who tries to figure out why his relationship with Diane Keaton’s Anne Hall has ended. The film was very well received and won four Academy Awards, including ‘Best Picture’, ‘Best Director’ and ‘Best Actress’.
However, even though Annie Hall was an admitted success, Allen couldn’t help but find dissatisfaction with how it turned out. In an interview with CinemaBlend, Allen once stated, “When Annie Hall started out, that film was not supposed to be what I wound up with”.
According to the director, “The film was supposed to be what happens in a guy’s mind, and you were supposed to see a stream of consciousness that was mine, and I did the film, and it was completely incoherent. Nobody understood anything that went on.”
For Allen, there was meant to be a deeper level to Annie Hall, but the audiences only really seemed to focus on the relationship between his character and Diane Keaton’s, but that was not what Allen actually “cared about.” He said, “That was one small part of another big canvas that I had.”
There had to be a “reduction” of sorts to make the film about Allen and Keaton, which is why the director and actor found the end product such a disappointment. In fact, Allen felt that way about a number of his films, with him noting in the same interview, “I was quite disappointed in that movie, as I was with other films of mine that were very popular”.
He added: “Hannah and Her Sisters was a big disappointment because I had to compromise my original intention tremendously to survive with the film.” Ultimately, Allen admitted, “You see the film, and you draw your conclusion from it. To me, it’s always less than the masterpiece I had been certain I was destined to make.”
