My worst one was right on the money.

November 12, 2011 3:38 PM

Chapter One. He adored New York City. He idolized it all out of proportion - er, no, make that: he - he romanticized it all out of proportion. To him, no matter what the season was, this was still a town that existed in black and white and pulsated to the great tunes of George Gershwin ... New York was his town, and it always would be.
posted by Apropos of Something (20 comments total)

There are not many people from whom I'll forgive breathless NewYorkism, but Woody Allen is one. Maybe also Jim Carroll.
posted by escabeche at 3:53 PM on November 12, 2011 [2 favorites]

Previously.

Also, on 9/11, I fulfilled one of my life's goals and saw Manhattan on the big screen. Apparently, one the first anniversary of 9/11, BAM wanted to cheer everyone up and had a free screening. Unfortunately, I was 16 and had never seen a Woody Allen film, or really had a good idea of who he was outside of my cousin once quoting the "we can walk to the curb from here" line when my mom did a not-great job of parking. Anyway, on the 10th anniversary they did it again and I was there. It was pretty amazing.
posted by griphus at 3:55 PM on November 12, 2011 [1 favorite]

I knew I forgot something: here's (Internet acquaintence) Colin Marshall's essay on the film and the problem of being cultured in contemporary America.
posted by Apropos of Something at 3:59 PM on November 12, 2011 [1 favorite]

"Women find him devastating."
posted by zoinks at 4:16 PM on November 12, 2011

I never really understood how a person could fall in love with a city... until I saw Manhattan.
posted by sbutler at 4:34 PM on November 12, 2011 [1 favorite]

from the last link: [at the 92Y] Columbia professor Jeremy Dauber will discuss Allen’s impressive but often forgotten early career as a comedian.

once again, life and art fold into each other
posted by victors at 5:16 PM on November 12, 2011 [1 favorite]

I prefer his earlier, funnier films.
posted by philip-random at 5:29 PM on November 12, 2011 [2 favorites]

Depending on the day, this is my all-time favorite movie.
posted by Navelgazer at 5:31 PM on November 12, 2011

What? A post title like that and no "orgasm" tag?
posted by emhutchinson at 5:38 PM on November 12, 2011

And once more with relevant Youtube link ...

I prefer his earlier, funnier films
posted by philip-random at 6:04 PM on November 12, 2011 [1 favorite]

I've never been to New York but the picture I'm getting from How To Make It In America makes me want to be there so hard. Oh! and young again, of course.
posted by unliteral at 8:06 PM on November 12, 2011

That Colin Marshall essay is unfortunate in the way many things on the Internet are unfortunate. He begins as if he's got something profound to say but ends up wishing people aspired to high-brow pretensions and young, Asian wives. Which I think says more about Colin Marshall than Manhattan, Woody Allen, or 1979.
posted by dame at 10:14 PM on November 12, 2011

A very clever post on a very clever film. Woody has always seemed as obsessed with everything NYC as he is with his own self consciousness and self-examination. One could not exist without the other, not unlike Hemingway, Picasso, Satie and some others with Paris in the 20s. Though you can take the man out of New York (his last few films were done in Europe,) you still can't take New York out of the man. Though perhaps not as sharp -witted as in earlier times, Woody still remains one of our last living geniuses.
posted by Seekerofsplendor at 10:36 PM on November 12, 2011

@apropos

oh boy, that article

Adam Gopnik wrote a piece in the New Yorker observing that the revelation tarnished Woody’s reputation as a tastemaker. The difference between me and the public, I guess, is that learning about his choice of women was my first hint that he might be a tastemaker. (The man releases a movie a year and has an Asian wife from a generation and a half down; is it so outlandish to think he might be doing something right?)

hooo boy
posted by This, of course, alludes to you at 1:08 AM on November 13, 2011 [1 favorite]

(The man releases a movie a year and has an Asian wife from a generation and a half down; is it so outlandish to think he might be doing something right?)

A generation and a half down, and just across Washington Square Park.
posted by Sticherbeast at 5:59 AM on November 13, 2011

"Women find him devastating."
posted by zoinks at 7:16 PM on November 12

eponysterical ?
posted by victors at 6:59 AM on November 13, 2011

I love Woody Allen and I could (and have) watch(ed) this movie and Annie Hall over and over again. I am going to look for the Gopnik article now. I know a lot of people whose opinion of him changed as a result of the Soon-Yi story breaking, but he's still a genius (IMO) and has produced these amazing movies. Also, their marriage has lasted 20 years or so already? I'm past my early and late 20's so I am neither sweet nor easy and men I completely admire marrying women half (less than) half their age does make me nervous. However, Woody Allen as a filmmaker, and as a hilarious human being...I think he's unrivalled in many respects. Just watching those links makes me laugh and feel sad and want to watch the whole movie all over again. And again.
posted by bquarters at 9:25 AM on November 13, 2011

I actually partially live in New York because I so badly want to live in Woody Allen's New York.
posted by bquarters at 9:26 AM on November 13, 2011 [1 favorite]

in 1986, my roommate had Manhattan on VHS and, since I hadn't seen it, I was going to watch it but he implored me to wait and see it in a theatre. I took his advice and had to wait until I was living in Sydney, AU and hiked out Parramatta Road to an obscure rep cinema and then I understood what he meant.

I haven't made it to NYC yet, and I'm guessing when I do, I'll be expecting it to be in black and white with a swelling Gershwin score playing at all times.
posted by drinkmaildave at 10:08 AM on November 13, 2011

Even though "Manhattan" is a myth about a Manhattan that never really existed except in Woody Allen's imagination, I love that movie and would love to see it on the big screen again someday. Ah, the days of being young and ignorant and thinking that Woody was the best director who ever lived.
posted by blucevalo at 11:30 AM on November 13, 2011