Woody Allen on the 2004 Election

September 28, 2004 8:51 PM

Woody Allen on the 2004 Election
posted by alfredogarcia (27 comments total)

I think Europeans like him more than us lately. That was a depressing, yet true, read.
posted by amberglow at 8:57 PM on September 28, 2004

Reading that article was the most fun I've ever had without laughing.

(Finished watching Annie Hall 30 seconds before reading this post.)
posted by krunk at 9:07 PM on September 28, 2004

I've become a big Woody Allen fan, once I got him. And since you made the Annie Hall reference, I believe the scene where he repeats the lobster scene with a new girlfriend, only for the new girlfriend to chastize him and go "You're a grown man pick up the lobster", pretty much is the defining experience of life... no one else gets what you're doing.

But beyond that, my neo-Allenism was sparked by these early Allen interviews. I won't quote anything from it, but it makes me sad his credibility was ruined by the daughter thing -- and the fact he's had a string of just okay films.

I believe in a recent interview he admitted he could never do a great film and resigned himself into mediocrity, but a content mediocrity of doing what he likes. Isn't that wonderfully depressing?
posted by geoff. at 10:36 PM on September 28, 2004

sad, in written text it doesn't come across as funny...more proof we need text which captures waving one's hands drammatically and stammering at truly staggering insights.
posted by NGnerd at 10:38 PM on September 28, 2004

Allen: In Europe, the population has more esteem for artists.

Jeez. Once again "proving" that Europe is oh-so-more sophisticated than us po' Americans, since we prefer to have our "artists" do things like, you know, produce "art" rather than try to use their celebrity status as some sort of a club to whack the ignorant masses into a state of political consciousness.
posted by davidmsc at 10:58 PM on September 28, 2004

Actually we prefer our artists to work in dead-end temp jobs, or as wait staff, and live in squats in the bad section of town.
If we preferred they produce art, we'd, like, give them some support, or something.
posted by bashos_frog at 11:23 PM on September 28, 2004

I'm as anti-Bush as the next feller, but I dont think the Kerry campaign should be dancing in the streets because a past-his-prime hack with a perverted thing for young women happens to think Bush sucks.

Also, for davidmsc: Charlton Heston, Sonny Bono, Ronald Reagan
posted by owillis at 12:27 AM on September 29, 2004

I am shocked; shocked I say; at the number of typing errors in that document.
posted by nthdegx at 1:51 AM on September 29, 2004

"Jeez. Once again "proving" that Europe is oh-so-more sophisticated than us po' Americans.

Davidmsc, have you ever been anywhere beyond the Midwest? Just asking, you know?
posted by acrobat at 2:42 AM on September 29, 2004

...rather than try to use their celebrity status as some sort of a club to whack the ignorant masses into a state of political consciousness.

Judging by the latest polls, somebody needs to whack the ignorant masses with something, damn it.
posted by Optamystic at 3:11 AM on September 29, 2004

Well YOU try being funny when you're translated into and out of German!
posted by Pretty_Generic at 4:37 AM on September 29, 2004

Well, Bush just lost the incestuous pedophile vote.
posted by ColdChef at 4:38 AM on September 29, 2004

There were so many errors that I stopped reading it after two questions.

What kind of an idiot publication is that?
posted by pjdoland at 4:40 AM on September 29, 2004

It's some guy on the internet translating badly.
posted by Pretty_Generic at 4:59 AM on September 29, 2004

acrobat:have you ever been anywhere beyond the Midwest? Just asking, you know?

Up your nose with a rubber hose. I've lived in CA (north and south), WA (state), TX, OK, MT, FL, OH, as well as three years in the UK. And visited Germany, Holland, Belgium, and Wales.

Does that help you out at all? And pray tell - where have YOU lived, so that we can make assumptions of your worldview and political biases based on same?
posted by davidmsc at 5:05 AM on September 29, 2004

acrobat, have you ever been to shropshire?
posted by biffa at 5:22 AM on September 29, 2004

Allen: I don't find politics profound enough to deal with it as an artist.

Right on.
posted by swift at 5:25 AM on September 29, 2004

ColdChef wins.
posted by Optamystic at 5:32 AM on September 29, 2004

Once again "proving" that Europe is oh-so-more sophisticated than us po' Americans

But it's true Li'l Davie...
posted by i_cola at 7:07 AM on September 29, 2004

In a democracy everyone should be encouraged to discuss - publicly and privately - politics and policy. That includes cab drivers, lawyers, doctors, teachers, salesmen, housewives, factory workers, cashiers, c.e.o.'s AND actors.

Who'd want to be part of a society where only doctors talk about health care, only bankers talk about money, only travel agents talk about vacations, only strippers and prostitutes talk about sex, only priests talk about God and religion, etc.???
posted by chris0495 at 7:30 AM on September 29, 2004

Well, if that was the case, I wouldn't feel so bad about being boring at parties.
posted by chicobangs at 7:35 AM on September 29, 2004

I liked his earlier, funny presidential endorsements.
posted by octobersurprise at 7:52 AM on September 29, 2004

Yeah, I for one certainly don't want some celebrity telling me their political opinions. Instead, I intelligently turn to bloggers.
posted by xmutex at 8:47 AM on September 29, 2004

Thanks, alfredogarcia, I'm checking these off my "What Do Old Movie Directors Have To Say About The 2004 Election" list.

Anyone heard from Paul Mazursky or Michael Cimino yet?
posted by pardonyou? at 8:52 AM on September 29, 2004

Ack! I've been trumped by octobersuprise! I humbly bow.
posted by ColdChef at 9:13 AM on September 29, 2004

I think Europeans like him more than us lately.

Do you mean that Europeans like Woody Allen more than Americans do or that Europeans like Woody Allen more than they like other Americans?
posted by alumshubby at 9:42 AM on September 29, 2004

us po' Americans . . . we prefer to have our "artists" do things like, you know, produce "art" rather than try to use their celebrity status as some sort of a club . . .

Okay, I'll bite too. So tell us, davidmsc, where does the art happen in your America? Is it in little hermetically sealed cells where nothing from outside permeates the sacred artistic space within, and the art thus produced connects with its audience only on the special art receptors in the brain that process aesthetic information without recourse to politics or social reality or personal experience? Where does Picasso's Guernica fit into this notion of art's proper place? What about Dreams and Lies of Franco?

Was Hemingway's art disconnected from the politics of his day? What about Stanley Kubrick?

Actually, can you name any artists whose work is so divorced from the human condition that they might not have something insightful to say about the nature of war, of conflict, of human violence and hatred?
posted by gompa at 10:25 AM on September 29, 2004