Why we can't watch Woody Allen films anymore

Woody Allen's tone deaf response to the Harvey Weinstein scandal reminds us of his own allegations of sexual misconduct and abuse; allegations that have now coloured his filmography. Here are the jokes that just aren't funny anymore

Feature by John Bleasdale | 18 Oct 2017

It is increasingly difficult to watch Woody Allen films. Leave aside the dipping quality of such splurge as Scoop, or the hailed-to-the-skies ho-humness of a Blue Jasmine or a Midnight in Paris. No, this isn’t about how laughter-inducing Take the Money and Run gave way to the occasional breathing through the nose of Café Society. Let’s face it. It’s the child abuse.

The lingering whiff of scandal was re-belched this week by the 81-year-old director’s cloth-eared response to the Harvey Weinstein scandal, telling the BBC the case was: “Tragic for the poor women that were involved, sad for Harvey that [his] life is so messed up.” Allen also worried about an imminent witch-hunt: by which he presumably meant the persecution of poor men by nasty women, not to be confused with the execution of innocent women on charges of black magic. Just to be clear.

And we must also be clear Woody Allen has never been formally charged with child molestation. As much as his relationship with Soon-Yi Previn, the adopted daughter of his then partner Mia Farrow, might have disgusted some, it wasn’t illegal. But it is also true that the DA did think there was a case to answer and the legal custody battles for the children in no way exonerated Allen of wrongdoing. In fact, presiding Judge Elliott Wilk found Allen’s behaviour to his daughter to be “grossly inappropriate and that measures must be taken to protect her”.

Watch this 60 Minutes interview from 1992 at the height of the scandal and see how ineptly Allen defends himself from relatively softball questions, attacking Mia Farrow and claiming she was out for vengeance. When asked whether he was now living with Soo-yi (about the 13 minute mark), he replies: “She’s still at school.” He seems unable to stop repeating the word ‘school’ – obviously meaning university – for the next minute and a half. 

In 2015, the scandal was reopened when Allen’s daughter Dylan Farrow wrote an open letter to the New York Times reaffirming the allegations that her father abused her, championed by her brother Ronan Farrow (who was, incidentally, the author of the New Yorker piece which last week contributed to the exposure of Weinstein). She begins the letter: “What’s your favorite Woody Allen film?”

And this is the part of it that comes home to the film lover, because I still have a favourite; if not several. I’ve loved Woody Allen movies since forever. I listened to the double album of his stand-up; read his short stories in the collections Without Feathers, Side Effects and Get Even. I watched all his movies, the early funny ones – until I saw Stardust Memories and tried to like the later serious ones too. But his masterpieces were the rare moments when he blended the two: Manhattan, Husbands and Wives and the magnificent tale of guilt and moral vacuity, Crimes and Misdemeanours; a film so good he remade it two more times as Match Point and Cassandra’s Dream.

But now watching his films is no longer the innocent pleasure it once was. And neither is starring in them. Alec Baldwin and Cate Blanchett were called out over their participation in Blue Jasmine. Scarlett Johansson and Kristen Stewart both offered fairly lame rationalisations of their positions on the scandal. And even Kate Winslet – who has talked about not thanking Harvey Weinstein in her Oscar speech – is now appearing in the new Woody Allen film, Wonder Wheel. The idea that we can separate art from the artist and behaviour we despise calls for an almost impossible firewalling. This is even more difficult when the works themselves talk so much about sex and offer such a personal point of view.

Here are five films which are significantly challenged by Allen’s reputation.

Everything You Always Wanted to Know About Sex* (*But Were Afraid to Ask), 1972

In an early part of his career as a director and writer, Woody Allen seemed intent on the genre of the upmarket sex comedy. He’d already scripted the Peter O’Toole and Peter Sellers two-hander What’s New Pussycat?, but this adaptation of David Reuben’s hit pop sex book was essentially the Emoji Movie of its time, a cash in on a popular trend, recalling how, before garnering a reputation as an artist, Allen’s ambition would lead him to try anything, even box a kangaroo on live television.

The film is a messy patchwork of sketches with some definite highlights – Gene Wilder’s sheep-loving doctor is worth the price of admission alone – but a wacky post-Kinsey quiz show parody entitled What’s My Perversion? typically confuses kink with abuse. “Are you a rapist?” a contestant is asked. “Hardly,” he replies. The contestant it turns out is a flasher – that old stalwart of mucky postcard humour. This is Woody Allen at his most Benny Hill.

Love and Death, 1975

Woody Allen’s ‘early funny ones’ reached their apotheosis with Sleeper and this Russian literature mashup from 1975. With perhaps one of the highest one-liners per minute rate in his oeuvre, this is Allen mixing the zany with the literate. But when Diane Keaton goes to an old priest for advice, the prelate tells her the secret to happiness is “blonde twelve-year-old girls... preferably two.” Now this could just be a joke on perverted priests, but there’s a nasty suspicion that something monstrous is hiding in plain sight.

Manhattan, 1979

With convicted rapist Roman Polanski, it is easier to separate the man from the art. Polanski’s movies – with the possible exception of The Pianist – rarely allude to autobiography. But with Allen, real life intersects with his art throughout some of his richest films. Manhattan sees Allen play Isaac, a man in his forties falling in love with a 17-year-old (played by Mariel Hemingway).

Throughout the film, he is torn, scorning her for the most part and breaking up with her before realizing that she’s on his list of good things in the world – specifically her smile. Ultimately she will teach him to grow up. All of which is okay, but when you read Hemingway’s account of how Allen tried to parley the role into a real life relationship, you have to ask: Does the Gershwin and the black and white photography cover up the skuzz?

Husbands and Wives, 1992

Filmed during the breakdown of his relationship with Mia Farrow, the toxic discomfort is palpable in this dissection of modern relationships. Sydney Pollack's character has left his wife (Judy Davis) for a much younger woman, leading their friends (played by Woody and Mia) to start questioning the solidity of their own relationship. It is the apparently saintly Mia who actually turns out to be a passive aggressive manipulator portraying herself as wronged even as she goes after the man she wants, played by Liam Neeson.

Was this character a vindictive goodbye to his erstwhile partner? The closeness to real life is further emphasised by the handheld documentary style and the series of on-camera interviews with the characters.

Celebrity, 1998

Kenneth Branagh plays Woody Allen playing a sleazy would-be novelist ploughing through the world of superficial fame with an eye for sexual opportunism and a chance to push his screenplay. It now feels very much a willing participant in the Weinstein-Trump era. As if to prove the point, the worst part of the film now has to be a toe-curling cameo by the Donald himself, cheerfully boasting of tearing down a cathedral to build some ‘beautiful buildings’ back when we used to think he was a joke. Ah. The old days. 

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