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Annie Hall
Background:
“I can bring stars, I've worked with terrific cameramen, but people still have a
better chance of making their $150m films because they're not interested in the
kind of profits I can bring if I'm profitable.” Woody Allen
Hollywood film director, screenwriter, actor and author Woody Allen is best
known for his bittersweet comic films containing elements of parody, slapstick,
and the absurd. He is also recognized as a concerned director for women, writing
strong and well-defined characters for them. Initially establishing a reputation
for himself as a popular stand-up comic in the 1960s, Allen made a wonderful
transition to acclaimed filmmaker and scripter in the late 1970s. In 1977, Allen
acquired worldwide appreciation for the critically-acclaimed Annie Hall, in
which he also cast himself as the lead, opposite Diane Keaton. The film was a
phenomenal success, netting four Oscars, including Best Original Screenplay and
Best Director for Allen. In addition to Oscars, Allen also picked up two BAFTA
Awards, a Directors Guild of America Award, two New York Film Critics Circle
Awards, a National Society of Film Critics Award and Los Angeles Film Critics
Association Award. Allen cemented his position as a successful filmmaker with
the release of Manhattan (1979), where he nabbed many awards like a BAFTA Award,
a National Society of Film Critics Award, a New York Film Critics Circle and a
Caesar award.
In the mid 1980s, Allen attracted public attention when he scripted and helmed
The Purple Rose of Cairo (1985, starring Mia Farow). Due to Allen’s bravura
effort, he was handed a Cesar Award, a Cannes Film Festival Fipresci Prize
Award, a New York Film Critics Circle Award, a Golden Globe Award, as well as a
BAFTA Award. Allen garnered even more recognition after mixing his love of both
disastrous and humorous elements, which resulted in the award-winning Hannah and
Her Sisters (1986). Allen’s outstanding work on the film won him a third Academy
Award in 1986, as well as two BAFTA Awards and a Los Angeles Film Critics
Association Award, a New York Film Critics Circle Award and a National Board of
Review Award. In addition to receiving phrase as a director and writer, Allen’s
bright acting netted an American Comedy Award.
Off screen, Allen was once listed as the 4th of Comedy Central’s “100 Greatest
Standups of All Time” and the 10th of Empire magazine’s “The Greatest Directors
Ever” in 2005. He was also named the 89th of Empire magazine’s “100 Sexiest
Stars in Film History” in 1995. As for his private life, Allen has been married
three times. He married first wife Harlene Rosen in 1956, but they divorced in
1962. Allen next tied the knot with actress Louise Lasser in 1964, but he
divorced his second wife after a five-year of marriage. He is now the husband of
Soon-Yi Previn, whom he wed in 1997. In addition to his three marriages, Allen
was romantically involved with actress Diane Keaton. The couple even lived
together for a few years. After their separation in 1980, Allen began his
long-term romance with actress Mia Farrow, with whom he shares a son named
Satchel O'Sullivan Farrow (born in 1987). However, the couple eventually split
up in 1992 after Allen confessed to a romantic involvement with Farrow’s adopted
daughter Soon-Yi Previn in the winter of 1991.
Red
Childhood and Family:
In Brooklyn, New York, Allan Stewart Konigsberg, who would be famous as Woody
Allen, was born on December 1, 1935. He grew up under the guidance of his Jewish
parents, Martin Konigsberg (waiter, jewelry engraver) and Netty Konigsberg
(bookkeeper). Allen also has one younger sister named Letty Aronson who is 8
years his junior.
Young Allen spent eight years studying at a Hebrew school before attending
Public School 99 and Midwood High School in Brooklyn, New York. While in Midwood,
Allen, who was named “Red” due to his hair, wooed his school peers with his
bizarre skills at magic tricks and cards. He also developed a knack for writing
and started selling one-liners to gossip columns at age 15. By age 16, he had
been hired to write for show stars like Sid Caesar.
After graduating high school, Allen enrolled in New York University. However,
after only one semester, he decided to quit because of poor grades. Next, Allen
went to City College of New York, but again dropped out before he could
graduate.
When he was 20, on March 15, 1956, Allen married Harlene Rosen, but they later
divorced in 1962. Two years after the separation, he began a new family with
Banana co-star Louise Lasser, whom he wed on February 2, 1964. Unfortunately,
Allen’s second marriage also ended in divorce in 1969. In 1997, Allen married
Mia’s Farrow adopted daughter, Soon-Yi Previn. Though Previn is about 35 years
younger than him, Allen reveals that the huge age gap doesn’t cause any conflict
in their marriage. He even enjoys the fatherly feelings he has towards his wife.
“Our marriage has a more paternal feeling to it. I love to do things to make her
happy. She loves to do things to make me happy.” Woody Allen on Soon-Yi Previn
With his long-term lover Mia Farrow, Allen shares a son named Satchel O'Sullivan
Farrow (born on December 19, 1987) and two adopted children, a son named Moses
Amadeus Farrow (Korean, born in 1979) and a daughter named Dylan O'Sullivan
Farrow (born 1985). Allen and wife Soon-Yi Previn also adopted two daughters,
Bechet (Bih-Shay) Dumaine Allen and Manzie Tio Allen.
Hannah and Her Sisters
Career:
A gifted comedian from an early age, Woody Allen began writing stand-up comedy
monologues while still in high school. His first taste in the entertainment
industry arrived in 1950 when he was recruited to write material for such TV
shows as “Your Show of Shows” (1950) and “The Colgate Comedy Hour” (1950), and
Allen continued to write for “Caesar’ Hour” (1954), “Stanley” (1956) and “The
Garry Moore Show” (1958). By 1960, Allen had begun his successful career as a
stand-up comedian, honing what would become his comic persona, an insecure and
doubt-ridden person who playfully exaggerates his own disappointments. He soon
became a popular comedian and appeared regularly in nightclubs and on
television. Also in 1960, Allen wrote for the popular Candid Camera television
show.
Allen began writing and directing plays and films, often also acting in the
latter. In 1965, working with director Clive Donner, he made his feature film
acting and writing debut with the ridiculous, but uneven, What's New, Pussycat?
Allen’s first play, “"Don't Drink the Water,” appeared on Broadway in the
following year, about the same time he debuted as a filmmaker with What's Up
Tiger Lily (1966). His next directed film, the James Bond spoof Casino Royale
(1967), in which he also acted in and co-wrote, catapulted Allen on one of the
most triumphant and unusual filmmaking careers.
Allen directed, scripted and starred in an absurd comedy about a bungling,
would-be criminal called Take the Money and Run (1969), followed by Bananas
(1971), Everything You Always Wanted to Know About Sex but Were Afraid to Ask
(1972), Sleeper (1973) and Love and Death (1975). His bright work on Sleeper
garnered Allen a National Board of Review Special Citation for Best Screenplay.
In 1972, Allen also starred opposite Diane Keaton in the big screen version of
his booming Broadway play, Play It Again, Sam. In 1976, he starred in, but did
not direct, The Front, a serious look at Hollywood blacklisting during the
1950s.
Back to the director’s chair in 1977, Allen experienced a breakthrough with the
release of the award-wining Annie Hall (also served as a star and co-writer), a
modern classic that marked a major turn to more sophisticated humor and
thoughtful drama. His spectacular effort handed him the prestigious Academy
Award, a BAFTA, a Directors Guild of America and a New York Film Critics Circle
for Best Director. Moreover, Allen’s brilliant collaboration with writer
Marshall Bricman nabbed several awards, including an Oscar, a BAFTA, a National
Society of Film Critics, a New York Film Critics Circle and a Los Angeles Film
Critics Association for Best Original Screenplay. The film also won two Oscars,
one for Best Actress (Diane Keaton) and Best Picture.
After directing and writing his first drama Interiors (1978, earned Oscar
nominations for Best Director and Best Screnplay), Allen scored another success
with his most profitable, and arguably his best film, the serious comedy
Manhattan (1979), where he took home many awards like a BAFTA for Best
Screenplay (shared with Marshall Brickman), a National Society of Film Critics
and a New York Film Critics Circle for Best Director, as well as a Caesar for
Best Foreign Film.
In the 1980s, most of Allen’s films, even comedies, showed solemn and
philosophical feelings. In the 1980 Stardust Memories, the lead character (which
was played by Allen himself) expresses hatred and contempt for his fans. Three
years later, Allen’s directorial effort won him praise and a Film Festival
Italian Critics Pasinetti Prize when he directed the 1983 Zelig. Though the
Broadway Danny Rose (1984) was mainly dismissed by critics as a minor outing,
Allen nabbed a BAFTA for Best Original Screen Play. Allan again drew accolades
with The Purple Rose of Cairo (1985), in which he cast Mia Farrow as the timid
wife of a rude husband. The film netted Allen a Caesar for Best Foreign Film, a
Cannes Film Festival Fipresci Prize for Non-Competing Film, a New York Film
Critics Circle and a Golden Globe for Best Screenplay, as well as a BAFTA for
Best Original Screenplay.
For much of the rest of the decade, Allen focused on dramatic material.
Combining his love of both tragic and comic elements, he began with Hannah and
Her Sisters (1986), which centered on a New York family relationship. The result
was amazing and the film won a 1986 Oscar, a BAFTA and a Los Angeles Film
Critics Association for Best Original Screenplay. As the film director, Allan
picked up a New York Film Critics Circle, a National Board of Review and a BAFTA
for Best Director. Allan’s fine acting (starred as Mickey Sachs), also handed
him an American Comedy for Funniest Actor in a Motion Picture.
After the new-age-themed Alice (1990) and the critically-reviled Shadows and Fog
(1992), Allen once more turned the heads of critics with one of Allen’s most
emotionally violent films, Husbands and Wives (1992). Allan netted a BAFTA for
Best Original Screenplay for his work on the film. The following years found
Allen rejoining Marshall Brickman and Diane Keaton for Manhattan Murder Mystery
(1993) and teaming up with writer Douglas McGrath for the period comedy Bullets
Over Broadway (1994), a film about a writer (John Cusack as Allen’s screen alter
ego) who reaches victory through relations with mobsters. Bullets Over Broadway
benefited from good performances, notably Dianne Wiest’s Academy Award-winning
turn as a past-her-prime stage diva. Deconstructing Harry (1997) was
critically-praised and Allen earned a nomination for Best Original Screenplay at
the Oscars, making him the most nominated screenwriter in Academy history. In
1998, he released Celebrity while also providing his voice for the characters of
the worker ant Z in the DreamWorks-produced animated film Antz (1998). At the
end of decade, Allen directed and scripted Sweet and Lowdown, which concentrated
on a 1930s jazz guitarist.
From the mid 1990s till the remainder of the decade, Allen was honored with
Lifetime Achievement Awards, which including the Venice Film Festival Golden
Lion (1995), Directors Guild of America D W Griffith (1996) and Las Vegas Film
Critics Society (1998). He was also honored with a BAFTA for Academy Fellowship
(1997) and a London Critics Circle Film for Special Achievement (1998).
The director’s movies from 2000-2004 include Small Time Crooks (2000), The Curse
of the Jade Scorpion (2001), Sounds From a Town I Love (2001, TV), Hollywood
Ending (2002), Anything Else (2003) and Melinda and Melinda (2004). Recently, he
wrote and directed Match Point (2005, starring Scarlett Johansson), and will
soon star in, direct and write the upcoming Scoop (2006).
Awards:
