Auteur theory, the theory that considers directors as “authors” in which their personalities and preferences enormously influence their films. In the readings about this theory, one director was commonly mentioned as a prime example of this theory: Alfred Hitchcock, a great American director with a large number of works spanning over three decades. He has been called by the French critic François Truffaut, who contributed greatly to the theory, as a true American example of classic auteurist. However, many other American directors can be, to a varying degrees, considered auteurs in the virtue of their works. Among them is Woody Allen. Although he doesn’t display as much visual repetitions as Hitchcock, Woody does have a strong and noticeable presence in his films. Many critics celebrated his films for their experimental aspects and comedic style. His themes are evident in all his films. It is not hard to distinguish his films a few minutes into them. Among many of his films, Annie Hall, Manhattan and Midnight in Paris are great example to be used for further analysis to show the auteur tendencies of Woody Allen.
After his early successes, producers learned that Woody Allen works best when he has space and freedom. This didn’t always translate into commercially successful works but Woody Allen is very cautious of his films’ budgets. He reasons that if he makes movies cheaply and he can guarantee some return to investment then he can make more films (source: Woody Allen: A Documentary (2012)). Thus, Woody’s lack of big financial resources in the beginning of his career encouraged him to utilize his creativity.
The collection of works by Woody Allen is enormous. He has directed over 50 films, written 73 scripts and appeared as an actor in 45 film. As an actor in his early films, he developed a persona of a neurotic New Yorker that he reverted to in all of his on-screen appearances. He appears as an insecure, intellectual and nebbish Jewish man. He also tends to play a character of a writer, comedian or an artist in many of his films. This persona is reflected in many of his films but most notably Take the Money and Run, Annie Hall, Sleeper, Manhattan, Broadway Danny Rose, and Crimes and Misdemeanors among others. This persona reflect Woody Allen himself since he was a stand-up comedian at some point and he is obviously a writer, writing most of the screenplays for his movies. Visually, he tends to have a very similar look across most of his films, discernable by his thick black glasses, and long, wiry hair (at least early on his career). Judaism is yet another aspect of his persona. He, especially in his early films, assert his Jewishness by referring to Jewish culture and by his character appearing as an overtly paranoid outsider. For example, in the scene from Annie Hall when his character is dining with Annie’s family he suddenly transforms into an orthodox Jewish rabbi, complete with a beard ringlets, and black hat, representing the way he believes the parents see him. By the end of the scene he looks at the camera while pointing to Annie’s grandma and says “the old lady at the end of the table is a classic Jew hater.”
As far as Mise-en-scene, Woody has a particular liking to film in big cities, mostly New York City. He tends to portray these cities in a romantic way with wide shots of the city’s landscape. In Annie Hall, many scenes’ backgrounds tend to have iconic views of New York, notably, Brooklyn Bridge and Central Park. The most romantic representation of a city appears in Manhattan, however, as the name might implies. Many have considered this film a romantic tribute to the city that never sleeps. Allen wanted to show New York as a black and white city to evoke a romantic and nostalgic feel. This tendency reflects his love for his hometown. In an interview with the New York Magazine he mentioned that “for some reason I’ve always had an irrational love for New York.” Later in his career, he expanded his affection to other big cities such as in San Francisco (Blue Jasmine), Rome (To Rome with Love), Paris (Midnight in Paris), and Barcelona (Vicky Cristina Barcelona), London (Match point) among others. In the beginning of Midnight in Paris, Woody shows about three minutes of shots of Paris touristy places in romantic and nostalgic way.
References to high and intellectual cultures tend to surface in many of Woody’s films. Names such as Freud, Hemingway, Shakespeare, Mozart, and Nietzsche are heard across many of his films. In a scene from Annie Hall, his character, Alvy, interrupts the conversation of a Columbia professor of media studies while waiting in line of a movie theatre and disagree with him on his opinions on Marshall McLuhan (Canadian philosopher and public intellectual). And in an original take he pulls the real McLuhan out from a film poster behind him and ask him to correct the professor opinion which he responded “You know nothing of my work”. Many of his characters tend to be writers or artists. In Midnight in Paris, the character of Gil is a Hollywood writer who is working on a novel. In Manhattan, Isaac character is writer of TV shows. The character of Holly is an aspiring writer and an actress. Also, in this film Woody Allen takes us on a brief tour of New York City’s architecture. Further, Woody has a tendency of referencing to classic films, particularly the works of the Swedish director Ingmar Bergman as in Annie Hall movie theatre line scene. Ingmar Bergman has a huge influence on Woody’s films especially the dark exploration of in human nature. Hit most striking examples of the influence are Match Point, Interiors and Crimes and Misdemeanors.
Another recurrent themes of Woody Allen is the subject of relationship. In many of his films, he dealt with the complications of relationship in deep fashion. His conclusions about relationships usually less than positive but he consistently points out that love is nonetheless crucial and necessary and we all are ought to pursue it. In Annie Hall, the character Alvy is dealing with a failing relationship and the film continues the journey of him trying to fix it. While in Manhattan, the film takes the theme of relationship even deeper to topics such as age difference in relationship and cheating. In Midnight in Paris, the character Gil is forced to confront his relationship with his fiancée that holds different views on life. The film highlights the struggle of Gil, a passionate and idealistic, and his fiancée, a materialistic and rich, and to accept the differences that have in the way they want to live their life. Woody’s personal life has long troubled history with this subject. He suffered from multiple failed marriages. That explains the genuine feel of his movies when dealing with such subject.
Another common theme in Woody’s works is the lives of artists or rather troubled artist. He often shows writers, directors, actors and entertainers struggle with their artistic career. Their struggle is not necessarily materialistic since they are usually portrayed as successful. For example, in Annie Hall, the character Annie wants to be a singer, and she struggled until she eventually becomes successful. And Gil in Midnight in Paris, struggling with being a Hollywood scripts writer and wants to be a novelist. This theme is another example of how Woody Allen personal life reflect on his films. He himself is artist and struggled with funding and other issues which he likes to bring to the public through his films. For example, in Annie Hall, he makes a play that deliberately reenact his character story within the film but with a happier ending (which reflect his views on fantasy as a way of creating meaning in life).
Jazz music has significance in Woody Allen movies. Many of his movies, especially his earlier works, feature this genre of music. In Annie Hall, Annie Hall shown performing in a jazz club twice singing “It had to be you” and “Seems like old times.” In Manhattan he featured jazz music from the New York composer George Gershwin (Rhapsody In Blue.). Also notable is his collaboration with the composer and pianist Dick Hyman from his film Stardust Memories through Melinda and Melinda he contributed to the many music arrangements and piano pieces in his fims. Further, he features some classical music across much of his work which sometimes reflected budget constraints of some of his films (copyrights-free music). On a personal level, Woody Allen himself is big fan of jazz music. He plays clarinet professionally and participated in public performances in the “New Orleans Jazz Band.”
Perhaps one of the most recurring themes of Woody Allen films are his philosophical view. His views on life are rather grim. He possess some nihilistic views. He consistently reference topics such as God and religion in his films. The theme of a meaningless life is often the resolution to Woody’s films. Annie hall, in the words of Zachary Wigon from the NERVE, “perfectly blended Allen’s absurd humor with his dark take on human nature, by providing the insight that our most irrational needs are often our most strongly felt ones” His character is usually atheistic or agnostic. The best example of this tendency is in his film Hannah and Her Sister. After his character (Mickey) finds out that he doesn’t have a brain tumor, he rejoices and decides to go into a journey of discovering God, which ends with him in an existential crisis and he eventually coming to terms with the meaninglessness of life. As his character Mickey puts it “Jeez, I should stop ruining my life searching for answers I’m never gonna get, and just enjoy it while it lasts.” In Midnight in Paris, the character Gill response to a question about what time of the day Paris is the most beautiful which Gill responds saying “No, you can’t, you couldn’t pick one…. Because you look around and every street, every boulevard, is its own special art form and when you think that in the cold, violent, meaningless universe that Paris exists….”
Happy endings is not a character of Woody’s films. Things almost always don’t work out in the end, opposite to the way mainstream Hollywood film tend to end. However, his films tend to have a satisfying conclusion that reflect his dark views on life. In Annie Hall, the ending is not cliché, the relationship the film is based on doesn’t last but yet he ends the film with a quote sums up his Alvy take away, “You know, they’re [relationship] totally irrational and crazy and absurd and … but, uh, I guess we keep goin’ through it because, uh, most of us need the eggs.”
His film “Hollywood Ending” is a clear example of his views on films’ ending. In it, he plays a director who at the end fails to make his $60 million film a commercial success in America. A success in France, he ends the film by saying “Thank God the French exist” (as a contrast to happy ending obsession of Hollowed.
Woody Allen experimented with different genres but stayed close to Comedy and Drama. Since he started as a stand-up comedian and jokes writer, most of his early work were comedies. For example, What’s New Pussycat, Take the Money and Run, Bananas, Sleeper etc. However, after his successful early films, he started to shift to more serious and dramatic work starting with Interiors. In response, he received negative reactions from the critics who used to his comedic past works. Then he made Manhattan which was a big success and since he started to go back and forth between comedies and serious works (some of his later serious works are Hannah and Her Sisters, Crimes and Misdemeanors, and Husbands and Wives). Along with comedy and drama, he experimented with genres such as fictional documentary films (Zelig and Take the Money and Run), Romance (Annie Hall, Manhattan, The Purple Rose of Cairo and Vicky Cristina Barcelona). Among those genres Woody frequently worked with, Fantasy is the most personal and frequent. His dark views on life that, according to him, stemmed from his childhood, made him attracted to the idea of creating an escape of the meaninglessness of life in films. His prime example of fantasy is “The Purple Rose of Cairo”, which is a tribute to the magic of film during the Great Depression. Another great example is the recent film “Midnight in Paris,” a film that transport its character back to the nostalgic past of literate Paris. Some of his films were in black and white, for example Manhattan and Zelig. In Zelig, he uses many classic film technique to give the impression of historic based story. He implemented many old footages into the film.
In many of his female characters role he tend to show them often as naïve and coming from small town background. He has been accused of reflecting sexism in his films. They tend to be shallow and either not intellectual or pseudo-intellectuals. For example in Blue Jasmine, the character Jasmine appears to be foolish and suffer from psychological problems. While in Vicky Cristina Barcelona, the character Maria, suffers from mental break downs and consistently trying to kill herself while Cristina, is lost and confused that which makes her character very weak.
Another notable mark in Woody’s films is the way he starts and ends his films (the credits). Almost all his films, the credit in the start and the end tend to be white text on black background and Windsor typeface usually with Jazz music in the background and no scrolling (Source).
Annie Hall has all the familiar Woody’s recurrent themes but moreover, he excels on the visual aspects of this film. Annie hall has interesting experimental aspects that are not obvious. Woody Allen uses a postmodernist approach to make the viewer aware of the cinematic aspect of the film rather than immerse them in the narrative. The film starts off with opening narration of Woody which in a way distantly resembles Hitchcock approach. In the scene of a movie theatre waiting line, he also looks at the camera and comment on his small argument with the man behind him. This technique appears in many of his early films. Further in one of the scenes, woody’s character stops people in the street asking them about their views on happy relationship and talking to himself. Another notable cinematic technique is the use of split screen when he showed himself in a counselor office while Annie with another talking about their issues and complaints in their relationship in a different perspective. Last but not least, he employed the technique of mental subtitles in the scene when he was having a conversation with Annie. The subtitles reflected what both are truly saying. Some of these visual cues also appeared on his other works such as Purple Rose of Cairo, Zelig, and Deconstructing Harry among other.
Another of Woody’s mark across the majority of his films is casting the same actress many times. In of his interviews, he mentioned that when he discovers a talent he likes to write specific roles for them in his next films. Mia Farrow appears in 13 films most notably Crimes and Misdemeanors and Broadway Danny Rose. While Diane Keaton appears in nine of his films including Annie Hall and Manhattan. And Louise Lasser in five films, and more recently Scarlett Johansson in 3 films. And currently, he released a film with Emma Stone and another is in work.
Recently, Woody Allen has been accused by not casting people of colors in his films. This tendency is very striking. Although a lot of his films take a place in such a diverse place as New York yet diversity is lacking. When he asked about this issue, he responded that “not unless I write a story that requires it. You don’t hire people based on race. You hire people based on who is correct for the part. The implication is that I’m deliberately not hiring black actors, which is stupid. I cast only what’s right for the part. Race, friendship means nothing to me except who is right for the part.”
The auteur theory should be applied with caution since many films are collective works. In Woody Allen’s case, he continued to be a very influential and authoritative figure in his films though. The fact that he directed, wrote the scripts and acted in many of his films, allowed his vision to be more dominant than the rest of the crew. His influence exceeded writing and directing to themes and settings as the analysis show. When it comes to the actors and actresses, however, he granted them freedom to be themselves. In an interview with Ellen Page (starred in Woody’s To Rome with Love) she said “He actually gives you so much freedom with the material. He wants you to put it in your own words.” In his film Blue Jasmine, the lead actress, Cate Blanchett, exceled in her role as a New York socialite, scoring her an Oscar for best actress. Thus, we can say that sometimes Woody’s film crew deserves to take some credit for the successes of his works.
As the analysis shows, Woody Allen is a true auteur. The recurrent themes in his films from the early ones to the most recent are strongly evident. His philosophy in life is always obvious in on way of another in his film. For decades, Woody Allen stayed true to his style and topics. Annie Hall, Manhattan and Midnight in Paris are few examples among many of his recurrent tendencies. If François Truffaut would be alive now then Woody Allen would shows up on his auteurs list. Andrew Sarris, the man who brought auteur theory to America, called his film Manhattan the only great American film of the entire decade.
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