Have You Seen This Man? Woody Allen anyone?

Or: Why don’t more young people watch Woody Allen?

I saw this topic on an IMDB.com discussion board and decided to weigh in here.

To a certain generation, you say “Woody Allen” and Annie Hall (1977), Manhattan (1979) or Hannah and Her Sisters (1986) springs to their collective minds. Dianne Keaton, ‘La-Di-Dah’ and, of course, Mia Farrow will also be mentioned. However, most of my generation seem to struggle to even recollect that he voiced ‘Zee’ in Antz, let alone anything else he might have done before or since. Allen’s films are original, often hysterically funny, and if not, dramatic observations of life. If you haven’t already guessed, I am a big fan of his and I believe he is a genius.

Alvy Singer, reincarnated

But why, when you mention Annie Hall (one of his most famous films) to anyone my own age, are you greeted with a blank stare and “I’ve never heard of it”? It’s commercially available in many shops, it won many Oscars and influenced so many films since – even Channel 4’s Green Wing paid homage to it in its 5^th episode - however, I doubt many of its younger fans got the joke. IMDB.com currently list Annie Hall as number 133 on their top 250 list. Can you now understand my frustration why more people haven’t discovered Woody Allen’s work through Annie Hall?

 

Maybe it’s the fact that he plays records rather than docks his iPod in Play It Again, Sam, or that he talks about Nixon in Annie Hall that put the younger generations off. However, Woody Allen’s stock character is broadly a neurotic New Yorker, unable to function anywhere else. Yes, he plays that character in a lot of his films, but he does it really well! This sort of character is, surely, funny to any age – his erratic attempts to stay cool during a date in Play It Again, Sam (1972) or his extreme hypochondria in Hannah and Her Sisters drew hysteric laughter from me, after all.

Yup, that's Zee from Antz

OK so maybe Annie Hall and Manhattan are too ‘of their era’ to be relevant today (a point which I disagree with), but let’s look at some of Allen’s newer films. I disliked Small Time Crooks (2000), but when Woody Allen simultaneously discovered London and Scarlett Johansson in Match Point (2005) and later, Scoop (2006), you’d really think his audience would widen. Scoop has wacky and outlandish plot, but ultimately is a hilarious depiction of two New Yorkers trying to fit in to the British upper class – surely just the kind of film that British people of any age would appreciate! Lastly, of course, Vicky Cristina Barcelona (2008) received international praise, yet many people I know have never even heard of it, let alone seen it.

So, in my opinion, there really is no excuse for people my own age not to have at least seen one Woody Allen film that isn’t Antz. So, get moving people, get over the fact that he married his step-daughter and start with Annie Hall. See where you go from there!