W. Allen against the current paradigm

Lewian wrote: Sometimes it looks like there's far more complaints about Cancel Culture than actual cancelling.

Well, especially in the US there's been plenty of attemnts. The fact that those who want to cancel an artist doesn't always succeed, isn't proof it's hasn't happened - which it most certainly has - in regards to Woody Allen.

Ok, so his movies from the last couple of decades that I've seen, are not on par with his classics. But that seemingly happens to at least 90% of directors/artists. I mean Francis Ford Coppola's iconic works are still considered timeless classics. I believe that if there was no controversy or rumours attached to Allen's name, he would have been considered a greater artist. He would have been talked about more. I think he would have been considered a living legend and handed out prices merely for being alive (so to speak). Instead, "in Hollywood" he is quietly overlooked. Well, that's my impression (regardless of what I think about the rumours and accusations)

-I'll admit I too change my perception of an artist if they've done something "problematic" (it depends on the "problem" of course). I just can't help it. But my ideal is to seperate the art from the artist. It doesn't seem like the internet share that ideal.

-Hannah and Her Sisters is my favorite no doubt, and I think among his overlooked/underreated: Bullets Over Broadway is kind of genius.

Saperlipopette! wrote: I think he would have been considered a living legend and handed out prices merely for being alive (so to speak). Instead, "in Hollywood" he is quietly overlooked. Well, that's my impression (regardless of what I think about the rumours and accusations)

I could be wrong (my perception could be skewed), but Woody was never part of the Hollywood crowd. He always stayed in NYC and never needed LA to meddle in his art.

Not that LA would be giving PC lessons to NYC crowds anyways.

Regarding WA's "cancellation," of course, it's not with official notice, but rather a perception. Several actors who worked with him have said they wouldn't do it again, or were unaware of what "happened," but they were...not those of his firm core from the classic period, but later.

Most of the directors of the past with great works under their belt do not maintain that level of talent in a homogeneous way throughout their lives, perhaps an exception is Kubrick, beyond personal tastes, then Allen is no exception, it seems almost impossible to make works of art throughout your life, however for me there are many notable ones, or moments Beyond the fact that even the greats repeat obsessions and discourses, from Scorsese to Almodóvar, Wenders, and Fellini. I think Allen has slowly and subtly introduced variations on his stereotypes, perhaps too subtle. He has become increasingly dark and pessimistic about the human condition, and he expresses this through comedy and his usual gimmicks. But he remains an author with something to say, not always "more of the same," in my opinion.

In Melinda & Melinda (1994) he tells the same story and with the same characters (although different actors) from both perspectives, the dramatic and the comic, making it clear how one can choose to live the same things that happen to him from different approaches. In Magic in the Moonlight (2014), behind the sophisticated and funny facade, a famous, sarcastic and cynical magician is led to believe something completely different from his lifelong convictions, and in that field he even takes the spectators along with him! In Midnight in Paris there are also new elements in his discourse, how human beings yearn for and idealize what they do not have, in Irrational Man (2015) shielded in a pseudo-police story, philosophical questions are hidden that question nature itself. Already in Sweet and Lowdown (1999), Sean Penn plays an excellent jazz guitarist who leaves much to be desired as a person ... but when he plays he elevates himself and transcends his nature, reaching the hearts of more virtuous people.

Of course, Scorsese has Raging Bull and Taxi Driver, just as Woody Allen has Annie Hall, Manhattan, Hannah and Her Sisters, and Crimes and Misdemeanors, and even if some later films have merits that aura of classicism, at least for those who lived through those films at a certain point in their lives... there's no comparison. It always was that way and will continue to be. But evidently, the artist is stronger, his work than his life, at least for certain people from several generations who grew up with all those influences that made us who we are. No one can impose anything on us, least of all a cancellation resulting from a certain reigning paradigm with an expiration date. I also thought about the Polanski case because there are some similarities, and I think the same as Allen: The work is stronger.