An auteur is a film director who is unmistakably identifiable. They incorporate unique themes, camera techniques, and lighting to forge their signature and personal style. Auteurs can be recognized by watching only a few scenes. They go beyond the role of director and into the realm of an artist. A director that has earned the status of auteur is Woody Allen. His obsession with infidelity, love, art, intelligent dialogue, complex relationships, narration, existentialism and almost theatrical camera takes make him stand out as an artist.
There are more scenes throughout the film where his character breaks away from the scene to get intimate with the audience. Talking directly into the camera or using narration is something that Allen does in his films to make a direct connection with the audience. In a scene where Alvy and Annie are in line at a movie theater, there is a pedantic character behind them that is muttering on and driving Alvy crazy. When he can’t take it anymore, he breaks from the scene to express his opinion and pulls a real life character (Marshall McLuhan) into the scene to make his point. After proving himself intellectually superior to the pedantic character, Alvy says, “If life were only like this.” This existential theme has become constant throughout Allen’s body of work.
Woody Allen’s films are soaked with complex characters like Alvy and Annie. They are multidimensional and represent either a political right or left way of thinking. Allen seems to portray people on the left, with a higher level of education, a pursuit for artistic endeavors, and knowledge of complex issues as superior to those who take refuge in the comfort of religion and settling for the nuclear family. Most of Allen’s films revolve around the relationships between couples and not families. He credits artists and creative characters the only one’s truly worthy of engaging in love, even if it is an act of infidelity. In Vicky Cristina Barcelona, two young travellers find themselves leaving America and spending the summer in Barcelona. Vicky (Rebecca Hall) is a character who doesn’t take risks and analyses everything. Cristina (Scarlet Johansson) is described by Vicky as impulsive and neurotic. The two meets an artist named Juan Antonio (Javier Barden) who is the catalyst for a twisted love affair. Vicky was engaged to be married to a man named Doug (Chris Messina), who is a business man concerned with the more material aspects of life. There is a constant theme with Doug about where they will buy a house and what will go in that house. When out and about in Barcelona, they are seen shopping and not taking in the artistic amenities that are in abundance in Barcelona. Juan Antonio exemplifies Woody Allen’s existentialism by making a proposition to Vicky and Cristina to take them to Oviedo for the weekend to eat, drink wine and make love. Vicky and Cristina have polar responses with Cristina accepting Juan’s invitation. By the end of the summer, Juan has managed to sleep with Vicky, Cristina and his mentally unstable ex-wife Maria Elena (Penélope Cruz) and because he is an artist, it is portrayed as an acceptable situation. The characters in Allen’s films that are artistic, creative or rise above being content with living the conventional American dream are the heroes of his films. But then, his movies are also unpredictable. There are often foreshadows of things to come, but the connection is made after the fact.
Artists, writers and musicians who followed their hearts, explored the human condition, and questioned social norms defined Paris in the 1920’s. In Woody Allen’s latest film, Midnight in Paris, the main character, Gil (Owen Wilson), is a Hollywood screenplay writer who wants to be a novelist. The opening of the movie is a collection of shots of the Paris that tourists love. The cobble stone streets, the old architecture that was too beautiful to become suffrage to the destruction of World War II. Si tu vois ma mère plays in the background, and although the scenes are modern, the audience gets a taste of a different time. Gil believes that his life would be better if he had lived to write while living among the likes of Pablo Picasso and Salvador Dali. In this film Allen plays with time travel, but doesn’t deviate from his staple obsession with love. Gil, like many of Allen’s characters, was engaged to Inez (Rachel McAdams). Through his venturing back and forth between Paris in the 1920’s and today, Gil falls in love with Adriana (Marion Cotillard). Even though the audience knows Gil is engaged, the enchantment seduces them to embrace the romance. Any hints of disapproval of Gil’s deviation from Inez are quickly dissolved when it is learned that Inez was having an affair with the pedantic character in the film, Paul (Michael Sheen). By the end of the film, Gil finds his modern day Adriana with Gabrielle (Léa Seydoux) who shares his love for Paris in the rain.
Woody Allen’s obsession with infidelity is almost exaggerated in You Will Meet a Tall Dark Stanger. Littered with accomplished actors, Allen’s tangled story of struggling artists, wealthy people in search of meaning and characters with a twist of eccentricity, exemplifies the drama of fading love and newfound lust. Every couple in You Will Meet a Tall Dark Stranger falls victim to some kind of uncertainty or infidelity at some point. There is Roy Channing (Josh Brolin), who is married to Sally (Naomi Watts). Roy is a medical school graduate, turned author, who lets his feelings for Sally dwindle, as a girl who has nothing but red clothes in her wardrobe captures his attention. Eventually Roy and Sally’s marriage dissolves and Dia (Freida Pinto), the girl in red, becomes his muse. Sally’s parents are also victims of Allen’s obsession as they are both enamored with the search for a human connection that will give their life some kind of meaning. Sally’s father, Alfie Shepridge (Anthony Hopkins), leaves his wife, Helena (Gemma Jones), only to wind up with a prostitute named Charmaine (Lucy Punch). By the end of their relationship, Charmaine is having an affair with at least one guy from the gym and ruins Alfie’s hope of having a son. The film, in Woody Allen fashion, is soaked in existentialism and ends without any real validation for their souls.
One of the most unique qualities that Woody Allen employs in his movies is the use of long takes. Scenes are written and shot in takes that can last up to 40 seconds in length. These kinds of shots require dedication and commitment from the actors and reflect more of a theatrical performance than a conventional shoot and cut technique. While long shots can sometimes lend boredom to an audience, Allen’s use of long takes creates a more realistic experience; there is a feeling like what is on the screen is actually happening. Another technique that Allen incorporates is the split screen. In Annie Hall, Woody Allen uses the split screen to illustrate contrast. When Alvy and Annie are in therapy, the audience gets a glimpse into both therapy sessions; Alvy’s consuming the majority of the screen. In Vicky Cristina Barcelona, the split screen is used while the narrator is explaining the contrast between Vicky and Cristina. Most of Woody Allen’s films are shot during the day, with natural light.
With credit to almost fifty films, Woody Allen has mastered the art of writing and directing films. Many critics are stuck on the notion that he has to live up to the genius and success of Annie Hall. Midnight in Paris attracted rave reviews and won the Oscar for best original screenplay last year. Allen’s absence from the Academy Awards would suggest that he’s not in it to win it, but satisfied with writing and directing for the love of writing and directing. When Annie Hall was up for Academy Awards, Allen declined to attend because it was on a Monday and he played jazz clarinet at a club on Monday nights. Like a diary, Allen’s films put the experiences of love and relationships under the microscope and explore the meaning of existence. There is a reoccurring theme of love, art and infidelity with existential ideas and questions woven in to give the audience a glimpse into the mind of Woody Allen. His contribution to the film community and cinematic culture is invaluable. With the release of another film this year, To Rome with Love, the world will get to enjoy, yet, another helping of this wonderful auteur.
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