Erik Marshall

I have a confession to make. I really hate to admit this in public, but up until recently, I hadn’t seen a single Woody Allen film.  I don’t know why I have avoided him all this time. I guess I didn’t think he had anything to offer, or thought he was too silly or something. Well, in the last few weeks I have watched a dozen of his films, and I have found many of them fun and interesting. I like his style, the way he doesn’t mind shooting the back of someone’s head, or running with a messed-up line. He ecshews the perfection of mainstream Hollywood editing and achieves something more personal, more lifelike. I am also struck by the range within the films, from the Marx Bros/Monty Python/Three Stooges-inspired Love and Death to the musical Everyone Says I Love You to the heavy Bergmanesque Crimes and Misdemeanors. I am so saturated in Allen that when I see a non-Allen film I find it strange. While some of his work is quite silly, I am moved by what seems to be a perpetual working-through of his personal issues, a very public analogue, perhaps, to one of his favorite themes — psychoanalysis. Below the cut is a list of the films I have watched so far, in rough order of my preference. If you are wondering about the selection, it is based not on chronology nor recommendation, but on availablility at my local library.

So far I have seen:

husbands and wives
crimes and misdemeanors

annie hall

manhattan

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zelig
stardust memories
match point

love and death

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alice

mighty aphrodite
everyone says i love you

Melinda and Melinda

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These are listed roughly in the order in which I liked them. The breaks between the list are divisions of preference (the ones on top are my faves, the ones on bottom my least favorite). I liked them all.