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Scoop [DVD]
 

Scoop [DVD]

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Scoop [DVD]
In 2005, famed New York City filmmaker Woody Allen made MATCH POINT, a murder mystery set in London, starring Scarlett Johansson. Allen remains in London for the follow-up, the murder mystery SCOOP, again with Johansson, but this time he jumps in front of the camera as well. Woody plays Sid "Splendini" Waterman, a pathetic magician who somehow conjures up the ghost of Joe Strombel (Ian McShane), a recently deceased ace reporter who has been given a great scoop from beyond the grave. Strombel's spirit links onto young journalism student Sondra Pransky (Johansson), demanding that she get the story--and get it right. Pretending to be father and daughter, Sid and Sondra get into the good graces of Peter Lyman (Hugh Jackman), a wealthy British lord who just might be the Tarot Card Killer, a madman who has been terrifying London by brutally murdering prostitutes. Against her better judgment, Pransky starts falling for the charming playboy even as she gathers more and more evidence that points to him as the probable killer. Jackman and Johansson have an intoxicating on-screen romantic chemistry that is a terrific counterpoint to the manic energy she shares with Allen. While MATCH POINT was an homage to Alfred Hitchcock's STRANGERS ON A TRAIN, the comedy-thriller SCOOP pays tribute to the master director's FRENZY and NOTORIOUS. Allen also manages to get one of his favorite characters--Death (Peter Mastin) into the film. The score includes works by Tchaikovsky, Strauss, and Grieg as well as swinging numbers by Xavier Cugat and Lester Lanin.

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Don't Drink the Water [DVD]
 

Don't Drink the Water [DVD]

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Don't Drink the Water [DVD]
The Hollanders, a family of Americans on vacation in Eastern Europe during the 1960s, get into trouble after Walter (director Allen) takes a photo of a sunset near a sensitive military area. The family is forced to hide out in the American embassy, unfortunately in the hands of the ambassador's incompetent son. A remake of Allen's 1960s play, made for television.

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Sleeper
 

Sleeper

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Sleeper
The sci-fi satire SLEEPER is often hailed as the best of Woody Allen's early comedies, which relied mostly on slapstick and quick verbal asides, but still had more than their share of comic intelligence. SLEEPER tells the tale of Miles Monroe (Allen), who is accidentally cryogenically frozen following a minor operation. Released 200 years later, in 2173, Miles blunders his way through a bizarre future, featuring plenty of props and situations for Allen to mine for laughs. Eventually he meets vapid, hedonistic "poet" Luna Schlosser (Diane Keaton), with whom he eventually joins a rebel group opposed to the oppressive government. As in his earlier BANANAS and LOVE AND DEATH, Allen's character stumbles into a revolutionary plot, revealing the anti-authoritarianism that will appear again and again in his films. Loosely based on H.G. Wells' novel WHEN THE SLEEPER WAKES, the film features a strong parodic bent, particularly of the type of science fiction that was being written and filmed when it was made in 1973. Oppressive, faceless governments and the technological dominance over human life (altering even the most fundamental natural actions, such as sex) are the main tropes Allen skewers, as well as playing off the futuristic production design of films like A CLOCKWORK ORANGE and THX-1138. However, SLEEPER was still considered a strong work of science fiction, winning both the prestigious Hugo and Nebula Awards, which are given to the finest works in the genre.

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New York Stories [DVD]
 

New York Stories [DVD]

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New York Stories [DVD]
NEW YORK STORIES comprises three short films set in New York, directed by Martin Scorsese, Francis Ford Coppola, and Woody Allen. Scorsese directs "Life Lessons," in which painter Nick Nolte plays an abstract painter trying to save his relationship with Rosanna Arquette. Francis Ford Coppola directs "Life Without Zoe," which stars Heather McComb as a young schoolgirl who lives alone at the Sherry-Netherland Hotel while her parents (Talia Shire and Giancarlo Giannini) globetrot around the world. Precocious Zoe is lovingly watched over by her butler, Hector (Don Novello), until her parents return home one day with a surprising announcement. Sofia Coppola co-wrote the script with her father. The final segment is "Oedipus Wrecks," a classic Woody Allen piece about a Jewish nebbish who is a bit of a momma's boy.

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A Midsummer Night's Sex Comedy [DVD]
 

A Midsummer Night's Sex Comedy [DVD]

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A Midsummer Night's Sex Comedy [DVD]
Woody Allen's delightful farce deals with the misadventures of three couples who spend the weekend together in the country. They all seem to end up in love with the wrong person.

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Zelig [DVD]
 

Zelig [DVD]

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Zelig [DVD]
Perhaps the most unique film of his career, Woody Allen's ZELIG not only stands as a technical triumph for a director not often associated with the technological aspect of filmmaking, but also utilizes a documentary aesthetic that Allen has not often used before or since. One of the first major mockumentaries produced (it was released a year before THIS IS SPINAL TAP), ZELIG combines voice-over, footage both historical and faux-historical, and staged interviews with famous intellectuals to tell the story of Leonard Zelig (Allen), the "Chameleon Man" of the 1920s and '30s who has since been largely forgotten. Zelig creates a media sensation when he is discovered, for he seems to have the unique ability to transform himself to fit in with whomever he finds himself--when encountering Greeks, he becomes Greek; surrounded by fat men, he becomes heftier. But his condition leaves him open to exploitation, and the only person who believes in him is ambitious psychologist Eudora Fletcher (Mia Farrow). Technologically the film is a marvel, especially when the production history is taken into account. Allen wanted the film to appear genuinely from the period, and the footage shot was reportedly captured on equipment used during the 1920s. Even more astonishing is the manner in which Allen and other cast members were smoothly integrated into old photographs and film footage, some with distinguished historical figures, years before the advent of seamless digital techniques and over a decade before a similar strategy was used in FORREST GUMP. The setting and the aim for verisimilitude allow Allen to explore one of the most serious themes of his career: the assimilation of Jews and other immigrant groups into American culture, although the subject is still tempered by his intelligent verbal wit (for example, the voiceover explains: "As a boy, Leonard Zelig is frequently bullied by anti-Semites. His parents, who never take his part and blame him for everything, side with the anti-Semites"). Allen sees this desire for assimilation as a necessary part of cultural inclusion, but recognizes its dangers, as being a "Chameleon Man" seems only one step away from outright fascism.

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Manhattan Murder Mystery
 

Manhattan Murder Mystery

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Manhattan Murder Mystery
Woody Allen and Diane Keaton join forces again in this charming riff on such murder mystery classics as REAR WINDOW, DOUBLE INDEMNITY, and THE LADY FROM SHANGHAI. Allen and Keaton play Larry and Carol Lipton, a New York couple reevaluating their life together after their only son goes off to college. Carol thinks they have fallen into a boring life, but when one of their neighbors suddenly dies, Carol starts wondering if foul play was involved. Thrust further into the mystery by their friends Ted (Alan Alda) and Marcia (Anjelica Huston), the Liptons soon find themselves in the middle of murder and mayhem, with their relationship--as well as their lives--hanging in the balance. Seeing Allen and Keaton interact onscreen again, after a hiatus of several years, is a joy. The film moves at a fast pace, with Allen's trademark fabulous shots of New York landmarks. But the ending, which marvelously mimics the famous ending from Orson Welles's THE LADY FROM SHANGHAI, is a tour de force that should not be missed.

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Love and Death [DVD]
 

Love and Death [DVD]

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Love and Death [DVD]
The bridge between Woody Allen's early slapstick satires and his later romantic comedies and dramas, LOVE AND DEATH is also a broad parody of his numerous influences. The film tells the tale of Boris Grushenko (the filmmaker himself), a cowardly Russian who miraculously survives the Napoleonic Wars only to discover that his heroism does nothing to advance his romantic prospects with his philosophical cousin Sonia (Diane Keaton). Her convoluted reasoning dictates that the pair of them must attempt to assassinate the French dictator, a proposal Boris agrees to in the hopes that he will finally win Sonia's love through the act. The contrast between Sonia's analytical mind and Boris's lustful one provides Allen with numerous opportunities to joke about gender differences, but it is the multiple parodies of both literature and film that drive LOVE AND DEATH's comedic narrative. The most obvious target in the film is Russian literature: many jokes are built around the blend of fatalistic philosophy, historical narratives, and complex familial and character relationships that characterize novels by such authors as Fyodor Dostoevsky and Leo Tolstoy (the most obvious source for the film being his WAR AND PEACE). However, the filmmakers that have influenced Allen are also parodied; themes and even shots are taken directly from the work of Ingmar Bergman and Sergei Eisenstein. The musical score is assembled from compositions by Prokofiev, who wrote the scores for Eisenstein's later sound films, which were also heavily affected by Russian literature and history. Finally, the quick-witted, under-the-radar verbal hijinks in the film (like in other Allen films) bear the mark of the Marx Brothers, perhaps the most famous Jewish comedians aside from Allen himself. Although LOVE AND DEATH is not among the most well-known of Allen's comedies, there are few films that lay bare the influences of a master filmmaker as readily as this.

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