favorite movie #38: what's new pussycat?

Favorite movies that have had an impact on me - #38 - What's New Pussycat? (1965) - Originally intended as a vehicle for Warren Beatty, What's New Pussycat? is a rollicking, comedic sex farce. Nothing is sacred, but everything and everyone is funny. Written (mostly) by Woody Allen, the silly script also featured contributions from Beatty's replacement Peter O'Toole (never lovelier), a wonderfully be-wigged Peter Sellers, and director Clive Donner. O'Toole plays an unabashed womanizer who is trying to stay faithful to his fiancée (Romy Schneider). This proves an increasingly difficult proposition as a bevy of beauties (Paula Prentiss, Ursula Andress, Capucine) meet and immediately fall in love with him. Complicating matters is his girl crazy psychiatrist (Peter Sellers), who is being stalked by his Wagnerian wife. Michael's fiancée tries to make him jealous by flirting with his neurotic friend (Woody Allen). Everything comes to a head when all the parties decide to go away for le weekend to the French countryside. Tom Jones sings the wonderful title song.

favorite movie #27: midnight in paris

Favorite movies that have had an impact on me - #27 - Midnight in Paris (2011) - As a writer and artist it's hard not to feel that Midnight in Paris was made for me. Owen Wilson is frustrated in work and in love, and the beauty of Paris is luring him to follow his true dream - to ditch his Hollywood screenwriting career and move to Paris to finish his novel, a la his idols F. Scott Fitzgerald and Ernest Hemingway. One evening, strolling and soaking in the city's beauty, a vintage Peugeot rolls up and whisks him away to the Paris of his dreams - the 1920s. He meets not only Fitzgerald (Tom Hiddleston) and Hemingway (Corey Stoll), but Pablo Picasso, Gertrude Stein (Kathy Bates), and a beautiful artist's muse named Adriana (Marion Cotillard). Gil has many adventures in the past, and who wouldn't want to meet their heroes? There are plenty of wonderful art in-jokes, including Gil suggesting to Luis Bunuel the plot of his classic film The Exterminating Angel. Midnight in Paris is a wonderful tribute to the city, art, love, and realizing that one can honor the past while living in the present.

la-di-da: best movies ever — annie hall

Annie Hall is Woody Allen's masterwork. Released in April, 1977, it won numerous awards, including four Oscars: Best Picture, Best Director (Woody Allen), Best Actress in a Leading Role (Diane Keaton), and Best Original Screenplay (Woody Allen, Marshall Brickman). A love letter of sorts to former girlfriend Diane Keaton, Allen also includes some of his famous New York schtick as well as, for the first time in his films, digging a little deeper. Watching it recently I was struck by how effortless and funny it still is.

Woody Allen and Diane Keaton in Annie Hall

Allen plays comedian Alvy Singer, who has just turned 40 and can't quite understand why none of his relationships with women have ever worked out. Addressing the audience either directly or via voice-over, he traces the course of his most recent romance, with a woman named Annie Hall. The two meet through friends and are immediately attracted to one another, but the course of true love isn't exactly smooth for this pair. It's full of neuroses and watching "important" movies at New York City revival houses and lots and lots of humor. On their first date, Alvy has an idea on how to break the ice:

Alvy, "Hey listen, gimme a kiss."
Annie, "Really?"
Alvy, "Yeah, why not, because we're just gonna go home later, right, and then there's gonna be all that tension, we've never kissed before and I'll never know when to make the right move or anything. So we'll kiss now and get it over with, and then we'll go eat. We'll digest our food better."

As much as Annie Hall centers around the mismatched lovers, it also includes some classic Allen themes that will recur in his subsequent films, such as his obsession with sex, his fear of death, his love of New York, and his love of cabaret music (Keaton sings "It Had to be You" and "Seems Like Old Times." There is also slapstick, most notably featuring some recalcitrant lobsters. And Christopher Walken does a brief and very funny turn as Annie's creepy brother Duane. Here are some of my favorite, and its most classic, moments:

Annie and Alvy, standing in a line waiting to see The Sorrow and the Pity, discussing their sex life while trying to avoid the pontificating man behind them. Alvy finally gets so frustrated listening to the man blah-blahing to his date about Federico Fellini and Marshall McLuhan that he steps out of the story and drags in McLuhan himself to set the bore straight:

Diane Keaton's fashion sense. Keaton has always favored men's apparel, but her quirky way of combining men's ties, vests, hats, and jackets with feminine elements like scarves and granny dresses is all her own. She reportedly worked on the look with the film costume designer Ruth Morley, but seeing her through the years with her turtlenecks and gloves and tuxedo jackets have confirmed that the "Annie Hall Look" was totally Keaton. 

The lady makes that vest and tie look good

Woody's love for New York and ... lesser estimation of California. "I don't want to move to a city where the only cultural advantage is being able to make a right turn on a red light." When Alvy and Annie go visit Los Angeles he can barely contain his distaste. 

Annie, "It's so clean out here." 

Alvy, "That's because they don't throw their garbage away, they turn it into television shows."

As funny as Allen is, and as sharp and as observant as the humor can be, what really makes Annie Hall is Diane Keaton. She is a fully rounded person in the film. Not just the girlfriend. Or a pretty face. Or the butt of jokes. She is witty and zany and beautiful. How many female characters, of beauty, humor, and depth are there in movies these days? Annie Hall appreciates her, teases her, caricatures her. It helped to create her persona as an actress, and maybe even, a little bit, as a person. Our experiences mold us, and Keaton's time with Allen and this cinematic Valentine definitely shaped her and her career. It's wonderful performance, still funny after all these years.

woody and mia and the murky morality of art vs. life

Sunday's Golden Globes tribute to Woody Allen opened up, once again, a firestorm of criticism. Not of Woody the artist, the filmmaker, but Woody the man. The guy who had a relationship with his longtime girlfriend's adopted daughter. It's still a messy, unpleasant situation for a lot of people. Is it possible to look at Woody's films and career without always dredging up the Mia/Woody/Soon Yi debacle?

If it's possible to step away for a moment from the stone-throwing, and debating whether he was a perv or not (Rowan and Mia and Dylan say absolutely "Yes," a New York court judged "No" at the time), another difficult question kept coming to my mind. What is my responsibility, as a viewer, in a case like this? Do I need to keep an artists's morality in mind as I consider their work?

Woody and Mia and the kids

I guess I used to think the answer to that question was emphatically "Yes." I lived in New York in 1992 when the scandal was at its peak, and I have to admit that I steered clear of Woody's films for quite a while afterward. But looking at his catalog, the films that he worked on and released in subsequent years after the scandal were far from his best (Mighty Aphrodite, Bullets Over Broadway, Manhattan Murder Mystery). I eventually started checking out his films again, first, tentatively, on cable, and then later, in the theater. Most of these didn't leave much of an impact. There were a few exceptions — Deconstructing Harry, Everyone Says I Love You, and the brilliant Match Point, which Woody set in London. Did he have to leave the U.S., like another scorned Hollywood director, Roman Polanski, to get his artistic groove back?

When I look at a Picasso painting or watch City Lights do I try to gauge their creator's morality against my own? Picasso was far from a feminist's dream, and Charlie Chaplin was well-known for his predilection for (very) young ladies. Should I care or even consider what the artist was up to in his off time, or just concentrate on the work? After due consideration, I tend to lean more towards the latter. That doesn't mean that I excuse or endorse bad or illegal behavior.

Woody and Mia had an unconventional relationship, maintaining separate houses and (sort of) raising her kids together. It's really no one's business except theirs what went on between them during their relationship. It is entirely Mia's business to protect her family both then and now from someone she deems a negative influence, even a predator. But does that mean that Hollywood should never honor his work? I don't think so. I have no problem with Ronan Farrow tweeting his disapproval, as well as Mia tweeting that it was time to turn the channel. They feel strongly, personally, about the man. As in the case of Roman Polanski, I think the wronged party should have their say and the rest of us take a step back. But if you, as a member of the audience, loathe the man, then simply turn the channel.

Diane Keaton accepts the Cecil B. DeMille Lifetime Achievement Award for Woody Allen

Possibly what set people off the most was not that Woody was being given an award, but Diane Keaton's loopy acceptance speech on his behalf. Woody has always shunned such gatherings and accolades. A public display of the accolade (the Cecil B. DeMille lifetime achievement award) was probably his worst nightmare. He was never going to show up. But to have Keaton up on stage free styling on his great love of women and women's roles — probably not the best idea. Folks who were maybe just a tad uncomfortable with the tribute were more than likely completely turned off by the end, especially when she started singing a Girl Scout song.

I tend to have a less black and white view of the world, the older I get. Would I let Woody babysit my daughter? Hell no. Did I find the Woody/Soon Yi romance creepy and beyond inappropriate? Most definitely. But if he puts out a movie that sounds interesting to me, will I go see it? Yes, I probably will. Woody Allen has made some great movies over the years. Everyone loves his "funny," early films, but my favorites are the ones he made in the '80s. Yes, the ones with Mia. Broadway Danny Rose, The Purple Rose of Cairo, Hannah and Her Sisters, Crimes and Misdemeanors. I love films by Polanski, too. The Ghost Writer, Frantic, Rosemary's Baby. And I'll let Samantha Geimer decide whether Polanski has paid adequately for his crime. I still like songs by Michael Jackson. "Black Or White," "Man in the Mirror," "Don't Stop 'Til You Get Enough," "Off The Wall." Life has so many grey areas, but does art?

notes from a scandal

I was living in New York in 1992 when the Woody Allen/Mia Farrow scandal hit. Allegations of sexual abuse were hurled at Woody from Mia's West Side camp across Central Park and the reverberations played out across the endless 72 and larger-point headlines of the New York Post and  Daily News. And also at the movies.

Woody and Mia in one of their best collaborations, Broadway Danny Rose

Woody, Mia and Soon-Yi

New York had been Woody's town for ages. He glorified it in so many of his films, from Annie Hall to Manhattan to the great films he had been making with Farrow — Hannah and her Sisters, Broadway Danny Rose, Radio Days, and Husbands and Wives, which eerily echoed the implosion of the couple's relationship. Pre-scandal, whenever a new Woody Allen movie would come out the lines to see it would snake around the block. But that changed in 1992, and despite his recent success with Midnight in Paris, both the public and the press's relationships with Allen have never really completely recovered.

Today, Allen denies there ever even was any scandal:

Q. ... Do you think America is ready to forgive you for your past scandals?
A: "What was the scandal? I fell in love with this girl, married her. We have been married for almost 15 years now.
There was no scandal, but people refer to it all the time as a scandal and I kind of like that in way because when I go I would like to say I had one real juicy scandal in my life."
— Reuters Canada

In the latest issue of Vanity Fair Mia Farrow and her children look back on that time with very different eyes. Although now all adults, each child seems to bear the scars of Allen's presence and then disappearance in their lives. Not to mention the alleged memories of child abuse that still haunt Mia and Woody's adopted daughter Dylan (now renamed Malone).

Amusingly, what is generating the most headlines from the article is a seemingly casual quote from Mia regarding Ronan (originally named Satchel), her biological son with Woody:

When asked point-blank if her biological son with Woody Allen, Ronan Farrow, may actually be the son of Frank Sinatra, Farrow answers, “Possibly.” No DNA tests have been done. When Orth asks Nancy Sinatra Jr. about Ronan’s being treated as if he were a member of her family, Sinatra answers in an e-mail, “He is a big part of us, and we are blessed to have him in our lives.”

Ronan, who is an extremely accomplished young man, may or not be the son of Woody Allen, but he certainly has a sense of humor, as he exhibited in a tweet regarding his parentage:

Listen, we're all *possibly* Frank Sinatra's son.
— Ronan Farrow (@RonanFarrow) October 2, 2013

And last year he tweeted exactly how he felt about dear old dad Woody marrying his sister Soon-Yi:

woody allen and actors

I have to admit that I stopped keeping up with Woody Allen's films on a regular basis in the mid- '90s. Deconstructing Harry was probably the last one I saw in a movie theater until the recent Midnight in Paris. I have seen a few of his more recent output — Match Point is a definite highlight, a modern morality play similar in theme to his earlier, very dark Crimes and Misdemeanors. Allen seems to be drawn to filming moral dilemmas (as well as repeating himself) as evidenced by two of his British-set films that I caught up with recently — Scoop and Cassandra's Dream. Both films use murder to move along their plots, but Allen isn't worried about the body count — he wants the audience to know how he and his characters feel about the inevitability of death.

Woody Allen, Scarlett Johansson and Hugh Jackman in Scoop

Scoop tries to work as an old-school Allen comedy. It features his most recent muse, Scarlett Johansson, as Sondra, a student reporter who starts getting tips from a deceased crack reporter, Joe Strombel (Ian McShane), after volunteering in two-bit magician Sid's (Woody Allen) on-stage show. Strombel, even after death, is wild to break the story of the Tarot Card Killer, and he urges Sondra to follow his leads, which implicate handsome aristocrat Peter Lyman (Hugh Jackman). Sondra and Sid both start to see Strombel and team up to investigate Lyman. But Lyman soon charms the pants off of Sondra and she is falling fast. Is she falling in love with a serial killer? Does she even care? Scoop doesn't really work. Johannsen and Jackman have absolutely no chemistry. It's pretty unbelievable that he would be charmed, even moderately interested, in this gawkey, dopey girl. Allen is mildly amusing, and McShane is criminally underused. There is something too serious, too stilted to the pacing. The film and the comedy never take off. Maybe Allen couldn't shake off the mood of his previous film, Match Point.

Peter Lyman (Hugh Jackman), "I just can't get the vision of you in your swimsuit out of my head."
Sondra Pransky (Scarlett Johansson), "Oh I'm glad you liked it! It was marked down!"

Sid Waterman (Woody Allen), "The man is a liar and a murderer, and I say that with all due respect."

Colin Farrell and Ewan McGregor in Cassandra's Dream

Allen made the much more interesting Cassandra's Dream right after Scoop, and returned to a more serious-toned investigation of murder. Ewan McGregor and Colin Farrell play two brothers, Ian and Terry, who are faced with a dilemma. Terry (Farrell) owes a lot of money and is being threatened with harm unless he can come up with it. Enter their Uncle Howard (Tom Wilkinson), who will be happy to lend them the money and solve all their problems, if they can just do him one little favor — eliminate a pesky business rival. The brothers' different reactions to whether or not to do the crime and the resulting aftershock make up the rest of the movie. Both McGregor and Farrell are great — they seem to switch back and forth between who is the "good" brother and who is the "bad" one, leaving themselves and the audience hopelessly muddled in a gray area. The story itself isn't much; it's how the characters react to the choices (or lack of choices) they face.

Ian and Terry's Father (John Benfield), "Like the poet said: 'The only ship certain to come in has black sails.'"

Ian (Ewan McGregor), "He was right about one thing. Once you cross the line, there's no going back."

Supporting players in Cassandra's Dream include a lot of familiar, talented faces: John Benfield, Hayley Atwell, Sally Hawkins, and Jim Carter. Blink and you might miss some of them. Allen definitely likes the ensemble theater approach.

Watching these two films made me think about Woody Allen and actors. He likes to populate his films with the most talented and current actors around, but they frequently operate as position holders in his filmic chess games. Maybe he has never really been overly interested in them. The exceptions come when the actor has such a strong personality or film identity that they are able to transcend or avoid Allen-itis. Some examples of successful avoiders and victims of Allen-itis:

Midnight in Paris — Owen Wilson and Marion Cotillard are appealing people and we connect to their acting personas. Rachel McAdams fares not as well, playing a classic Allen demanding girlfriend, her character and dialogue is caught in the Allen-itis loop.

Marion Cotillard and Owen Wilson in Midnight in Paris

Celebrity — A complete mess. Watching (and listening to) Kenneth Branagh try to sound like Woody Allen is a painful experience.

Everyone Says I Love You — although almost all of the actors suffer from Allen-itis in this film, although it somehow manages to be less obnoxious because of the music (numbers performed by Edward Norton and Goldie Hawn especially) and light tone. Tim Roth's brilliant portrayal of an ex-con who temporarily sweeps Drew Barrymore off her feet transcends Allen-itis and the rest of the movie.

Husbands and Wives — one of Woody's best, thanks to Judy Davis, who is able to brilliantly channel Allen's need for a neurotic character into her own special, specific rhythms. Davis has worked with Woody many times (To Rome with Love, Celebrity, Deconstructing Harry, Husbands and Wives, Alice).

His movies with Mia Farrow — The Purple Rose of Cairo, Broadway Danny Rose, Hannah and Her Sisters, etc. Farrow is such a wonderful, human actress that even when he had her try to approximate his patter she was able to transcend Allen-itis, especially charmingly in The Purple Rose of Cairo.

His movies with Diane Keaton — Annie Hall, Sleeper, Manhattan, etc. Keaton has such a distinct personality that it is likely that she helped shape Allen's oeuvre in the '70s more than vice-versa. In fact maybe Allen-itis is really and truly Keaton-itis ...

"I never work with actors, I just hire them. It's the truth. You know, I hire terrific people. Who have I worked with over the years: Meryl Streep, Diane Keaton, Judy Davis, Helen Hunt, Tracey Ullman, Goldie Hawn, Michael Caine, Kenneth Branagh. I mean I've worked with these wonderful people who were great before I knew them. They come in, they're great. They do their part great. I don't speak to them much. I have very little to say to them. And they go. And everybody thinks that I'm handling the actors. But I'm not. I'm saying, you know "Change the script. Do what you want. Wear want you want. Walk where you want". You know, and they're saying "Oh, thank you." — An interview with Woody Allen by Lucy Cooper 

"I never try to talk to them. There's no point. You have Anthony Hopkins. What am I going to say to him? I hire them to get out of their way. They've made great movie before me, they'll make great movies after me, and I just don't want to mess them up." — Directors Tell the Story: Master the Craft of Television and Film Directing By Bethany Rooney, Mary Lou Belli

“Woody doesn’t direct at all,” he told The Orange County Register. “Seriously, he says that all the time. He doesn’t know how to direct. He says he hires you to do your job, and then he fires you if you can’t. On Purple Rose of Cairo, he started with Michael Keaton, who worked for three weeks, and then he let him go. He couldn’t use any of it. Then Eric Roberts came in, and worked for 10 days, and then Woody let him go, too. A third actor came in, but I can’t remember who that was. And, finally, he got Jeff Daniels.”
“I had a different brother in Crimes and Misdemeanors for the first three days. Woody knows what he wants, but he doesn’t direct. He lets you completely on your own. He doesn’t want to talk about the movie. He’ll talk about the Knicks, about hockey, about anything. If the circus is in town, he’ll tell you how much he hates clowns. Anything to not talk about directing.” — Martin Landau on Working with Woody Allen and the Trouble with Writers: “They have all the characters speaking the same way” DailyActor

Maybe he doth protest too much? A Woody Allen movie is fun for the film buff, as one is sure to see some great and popular actors. Allen always works with top talent. He's an artist who knows what he wants. Like all artists, not every work is a masterpiece, but when he gets it right, he gets it very right, as evidenced by more recent films in his oeuvre, Midnight in Paris, Match Point and Cassandra's Dream. For a man who knocks out one film a year, it's pretty hard to argue with his method with actors.

Related articles

• Woody Allen Amuses Himself by Giving Untruthful Answers in Unaired 1971 TV Interview

groucho

Article first published as Book Review: Groucho Marx and Other Short Stories and Tall Tales: Selected Writings of Groucho Marx, edited by Robert S. Bader on Blogcritics.

My dad was a huge Marx Brothers fan, and I grew up watching their movies with him on television. Their crazy antics were (and still are) funny and surprising to watch: Harpo, silent and subversive with his top hat and raincoat that held all sorts of humorous props, including a horn he could honk at inappropriate moments; Chico, constantly chasing girls and cracking wise; Zeppo, always the affable straight man; and Groucho, with his painted-on mustache, glasses, and omnipresent cigar, saying outrageously funny or simply outrageous things, and circling the perimeter with his trademark hunched-over walk.

The Marx Brothers, L-R: Harpo, Groucho, Zeppo, and Chico

I bought my father an album one year, An Evening with Groucho, from a performance he did in 1972 at Carnegie Hall. He sang songs and told old jokes and stories about his family. Groucho had a distinctive personality, voice, and delivery, and while I was reading Groucho Marx and Other Short Stories and Tall Tales: Selected Writings of Groucho Marx I couldn't help but hear the funnyman's voice, much as I remembered him on that album.

We all know that Julius "Groucho" Marx made movies with his brothers and hosted the successful quiz show You Bet Your Life for many years, but many may not realize that he was also a prolific writer. It makes sense, as many comedians write their own material. Groucho and his brothers wrote many of their stage shows and movies, but they also had writing collaborators.

Editor Robert S. Bader points out in his introduction that because of the close relationship of Groucho with his writing partners, it was often difficult to determine the extent of some of their contributions. Groucho might have an idea and write something up, and then send it to friend and collaborator Arthur Sheekman for polishing. Whether you are put off by whether Groucho may have collaborated on any of the writings included in this book or not, they are undoubtedly in Groucho's familiar, comic voice.

Not only is the book full of funny anecdotes and Groucho's trademark humor, but there are lots of insights into his early days in theater, vaudeville, and movies, detailing how the Marx Brothers got their start in show business, with stories about their life on the stage (and on the road). Their mother got them started in show business and was also their manager, booking them in vaudeville venues and traveling across the country with them while their father stayed at home. From the chapter "Our Father and Us" :

"During our early years in the theater, when my mother was camping in the booking-managers' offices, informing anyone who would listen that her sons had got a lot of laughs in Aurora, or that they had taken four bows in Freeport, Frenchy was at home preparing a dinner."

He goes on to tell funny stories about his father Frenchy's fabulous foodstuffs and his not-so-fabulous attempts to start his own tailoring business.

Groucho Marx and Other Short Stories and Tall Tales: Selected Writings of Groucho Marx shows that Groucho was a sought-after and accomplished essayist, his pieces appearing in publications like The New Yorker, The Saturday Evening Post, Variety, and Hollywood Reporter.

There is also previously unpublished material in the book; letters and other ephemera, including family photographs. One of the more humorous, a letter he wrote to Woody Allen, with whom he struck up a friendship in the '60s:

"I've arrived at the age where I'm beginning to believe it's more fun to talk about sex than have it. When I say 'sex,' I assume you know what I'm referring to."

Groucho Marx and Other Short Stories and Tall Tales: Selected Writings of Groucho Marx is a book that is best enjoyed by reading an essay or two at at time, rather than trying to read it all at once, from cover to cover. Groucho was a funny man, and his self-deprecating humor was always observant. Readers may want to savor some of it before going along to his next joke, like this excerpt from "Bad Days Are Good Memories," a piece Groucho wrote for the Saturday Evening Post:

"For me, a happy experience does not necessarily mean a happy memory. On the contrary, I am sometimes jealous of my past."

Now who hasn't felt like that? Groucho Marx and Other Short Stories and Tall Tales: Selected Writings of Groucho Marx is a great look into one of America's funniest voices.

p.s. Some of my favorite Groucho quotes:

Go, and never darken my towels again.

I don't care to belong to a club that accepts people like me as members.

I have had a perfectly wonderful evening, but this wasn't it.

I never forget a face, but in your case I'll be glad to make an exception.

I worked my way up from nothing to a state of extreme poverty.

Marriage is a wonderful institution, but who wants to live in an institution?

Related articles

• Book Review: Groucho Marx and Other Short Stories and Tall Tales: Selected Writings of Groucho Marx, edited by Robert S. Bader (blogcritics.org)
• Dick Cavett: Groucho was my favorite guest (cbsnews.com)

owen wilson movie night

My 7-year old daughter suggested the other day that we should have an "Owen Wilson Movie Night." Yes, kids do pick up their parents' likes and prejudices, in case you were wondering. I have no problem with her idea, although I suspect that we would have different selections at the top of our lists.

Wilson is always Wilson in whatever he appears in, much like Bogie was Bogie. But the comparisons end there. What is nice about Wilson is his niceness. Onscreen he is the most easygoing of actors, whether in the lead part or one of many in a large ensemble. He may always be himself, but he can appear in a wide variety of movie genres, from kid's movie to thriller to tearjerker family flick to arthouse. I can't think of a movie I've seen him in where his appearance hasn't made me smile, whether I ended up liking the movie or not.

With Sara Foster in The Big Bounce

But a calm exterior may mask inner turmoil. Wilson is very convincing as a blocked writer in his most recent hit, Midnight in Paris. Wilson is a writer in real life as well as an actor. He co-wrote The Royal Tenenbaums (2001), Rushmore (1998), and both the Bottle Rocket feature (1996) and short (1994).

Like her mom, my daughter has sophisticated tastes — she went with me to see Midnight in Paris, and although a lot of the art, literary, and Woody Allen's Ugly American in-jokes went over her head, she still loved it, as she could connect to Wilson's character and his problems getting along with his not-so-nice girlfriend. Wilson managed to stay his easygoing, appealing self, not completely surrendering to Allen-clone neurotic behavior as has befallen so many other actors who have starred in the Woodman's movies.

Here are some worthy films to add to any Owen Wilson movie marathon. The kid would love to see:

As Coach Skip in Fantastic Mr. Fox

Fantastic Mr. Fox (2009) - His voice work as the Coach is unmistakable and this is just a charming, quirky little movie. 

The kid would definitely pick a Night At the Museum double-header to top her movie marathon, Night at the Museum: Battle of the Smithsonian (2009) and Night at the Museum (2006) - Both movies are silly, but also fun, and my daughter loves him as the miniature cowboy Jedediah ("No problemo, Gigantor.")

As Jedediah in Night at the Museum: Battle of the Smithsonian

My top picks include:

The Big Bounce (2004) - Most people have probably not even heard of this movie, based on a novel by Elmore Leonard, but I love it. Wilson plays a small-time con artist in Hawaii who gets pulled into a scheme and gets in way over his head. Soon Morgan Freeman, Gary Sinise, Sara Foster and just about everyone he meets is out to get him. "Have a little faith in people. Not God, cause he's just an imaginary friend for grown ups." 

Zoolander (2001) - This is on the kid's list too, but that's my fault. I love Hansel. "I wasn't like every other kid, you know, who dreams about being an astronaut, I was always more interested in what bark was made out of on a tree. Richard Gere's a real hero of mine. Sting. Sting would be another person who's a hero. The music he's created over the years, I don't really listen to it, but the fact that he's making it, I respect that. I care desperately about what I do. Do I know what product I'm selling? No. Do I know what I'm doing today? No. But I'm here, and I'm gonna give it my best shot." 

As Hansel in Zoolander

The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou (2004) - Somewhat incomprehensible at times, but in a good way. "You don't know me, you don't want to know me... I'm just a character in your stupid film." 

Wedding Crashers (2005) - It's lewd, crude, and pretty damn funny. 

Bottle Rocket (1996) - The first time I saw Wilson, and still a good movie. "How does an asshole like Bob get such a great kitchen?"

If none of those titles are available on-demand or Netflix, you could still try:

The Darjeeling Limited (2007) - Another interesting teaming with Wes Anderson. 

Starsky & Hutch (2004) - Dumb fun, but you have to love Stiller for being true to his friends. 

The Royal Tenenbaums (2001) - Not as good as it should be, but definitely worth a look.

Movies that he (almost) saves — I don't necessarily recommend these, but if you always wanted to check out one of these at least be assured that Wilson will brighten up an otherwise dud of a movie:

How Do You Know (2010) - He is the only likable character in this James Brooks mess of a romantic comedy. 

Marley & Me (2008) - Just awful, if you aren't prepared for the tearjerker ending. Wilson almost makes you believe he wants to be married to Jennifer Aniston, but he is very convincing about loving Marley the dog. 

With cute costar in Marley & Me 

Cars (2006) - I know it's a huge hit with a huge hit sequel. Maybe it's a little boy thing, but neither of us like this movie. It's OK, but the kid didn't even put it on her list. Wilson does a god job voicing it , as does Paul Newman and Bonnie Hunt. 

Meet the Parents (2000) - A really dumb movie, but Wilson, as always, provides a welcome cameo as Stiller's bride-to-be's former boyfriend. But you can't get me to watch Meet the Fockers or Little Fockers, Wilson or no Wilson.

So what are you waiting for? The Owen Wilson-athon begins now!

minuit à paris

Woody Allen's Midnight in Paris is just ...  so ... good. If you've never been to Paris, or studied art, or read about the Lost Generation or La Belle Époque, it will still be a joy to watch. But if you have ... how much more fun.

Hollywood screenwriter Gil (Owen Wilson) is on a sojourn in Paris with his fiancée, Inez (Rachel McAdams), as a sort of last gasp before they get married. It is immediately clear that Gil loves Paris and is hoping that this trip will convince Inez to move there with him, and enable him to finally give up screenwriting and concentrate on writing his novel. It is also clear from the first moment we see Inez, who couldn't be more bored as they stand on Giverny's Bridge aux Nymphéas, that she not only could care less that she is caught in a moment of beauty, in a living painting by Monet, but that she and Gil are beyond incompatible.

Adriana and Gil stroll through 1920s Paris after midnight

Allen begins Midnight in Paris with his signature jazz music and a montage of Paris, from morning until midnight. The audience can get its bearings, becoming tourists like Gil and Inez, as the camera shows multiple shots of the Eiffel Tower, Cathedral of Notre Dame, the Louvre and other landmarks. It is an opening reminiscent of how he started Manhattan, with beautiful black and white shots of New York. It's a short-form love letter to the City of Light, the rest of the film a long-form one. What's especially nice is that there are no subtitles in the movie. The viewer must use their high school or college or traveler's French or just be at sea as to what people around him are saying as Gil is at times.

Gil is a glass half-full type of guy, and although he feels unease while his pushy girlfriend dotes on a pedantic bore (Michael Sheen) and her parents obviously dislike and insult him, he still doesn't want to see that not only is she not right for him, but just not a nice person. He blames all his restlessness on himself and one evening gets tipsy enough to finally refuse to be dragged along with her to do something he doesn't want to do. He gets lost wandering the winding streets of Paris and as the the clocks chime midnight a classic sedan, much like Cinderella's pumpkin coach, pulls up and a bunch of partying folks whisk him away for a ride. He's too sloshed and lost to argue, and the next thing he knows they're not hel[ing him find his hotel but have taken him to a party with Cole Porter playing the piano and singing "Let's Do It, Let's Fall in Love," and Zelda Fitzgerald (Allison Pill) flirting with him and introducing him to her husband Scott (Tom Hiddleston).

At first in shock, Gil can't believe that his dreams of going back to Paris when he believes it was really exciting, the 1920s, could be coming true — until he meets one of his heroes, Ernest Hemingway (Corey Stoll). He soon finds himself talking books with one of his idols. Hemingway tells him he won't read his novel, but he'll show it to his friend Gertrude Stein (a perfectly cast Kathy Bates). Gil runs to get his manuscript, but finds the spell has worn off and returns to his hotel room. Luckily for him, the charm works again the next night and he is able to return, where he meets not only Stein, but Pablo Picasso and the beautiful and lost soul Adriana (Marion Cotillard), who is Picasso's current mistress.

Adrien Brody as Salvador Dalí, "Rhinoceros!"

Allen has a blast introducing Gil to one icon after another. One of the best and funniest cameos in the film is Adrian Brody as a pitch-perfect Salvador Dalí. But also on hand are Luis Buñuel, Man Ray, T.S. Eliot, Josephine Baker and many more wonderful surprises. Midnight in Paris taps into the desire that everyone feels as they read about a time past and wonder what it would be like to visit. What would your chosen place be? Paris in the '20s like Gil? Or the Florence during the late 1500s? New York in the '50s at the Cedar Tavern? Midnight in Paris asks what if you really could, and, even more, what if you chose to stay there? Gil tries to tell Inez what he is experiencing even take her along for the ride, but she won't listen.

Owen Wilson, always an appealing actor, gives his best performance yet as Gil. He is one of the few actors who has been able to perform a lead character in a Woody Allen film and not seem as if he was mimicking Woody Allen. There are some typical Allen throwaway jokes — complaints about pseudo-intellectuals and the high culture/low culture debate. Inez's Ugly American parents are probably the ugliest Allen or any film has ever depicted, but somehow it all stays funny. Barbed at times, but still funny.

Another one of the reasons so much of the film works is that there are still many buildings that still evoke a past era in a city as old and charming as Paris. It must have ben easy for allen, sitting in some 19th century beautiful old building to dream up some scenes from the city's past. The film, Allen's 41st, is the first he has filmed entirely in Paris, and also using the digital intermediate process. The theater where we saw the movie had digital projection and the film was crisp and beautiful to look at.

It is hard to leave the theater after Midnight in Paris and not start checking flight deals to France, or try to dig up the book Kiki's Paris from my art book collection. Bon travail, M. Woody. Merci.

The medium is not the message

Article first published as The Medium is not the Message on Blogcritics.



I believe that art is 80% intention, 20% posterity's reaction. It doesn't matter what your medium is — oil paint, photography, music, words on a page, dance, clay, film, or even a guest spot on General Hospital — if an artist sets out to make art, that will be the result. Now, whether it ends up being good or bad art is up for (endless) debate. That's the 80%. The opposite end of the spectrum, the 20% part, is how the cognoscenti and the rest of us perceive the work. Cavemen drawing on the walls in Lascaux over 17,000 years ago were most likely trying to entertain themselves, or maybe perform some sort of ritual, but the art world recognizes their efforts as the earliest forms of painting. The beautiful drawings are usually the first slide in art history 101 classes. In his case, the 20% posterity's view trumps intention, as the cavemen aren't around to argue the point.

I've been thinking recently about art films. The performing arts lend themselves more easily to earning cash and public acclaim (or disdain) and just plain awareness than what's happening in the art world. Many more people go to see a movie than go to an art gallery or a play or a concert. But while there is undoubtedly a level of artistry in a movie like Transfomers: Revenge of the Fallen, no one is likely to call it art. That wasn't the intention. The filmmakers' aim was to make beaucoup bucks and blow things up — a lot. But a surrealist film like Luis Buñuel's and Salvador Dalí's graphic-for-its-time Un Chien Andalou (The Andalusian Dog, 1929) or Jean Cocteau's avant-garde Le Sang d'un Poete (The Blood of A Poet, 1930) or Matthew Barney's Cremaster 2 were intended as art from the start. While they may have made some money at the theater (Un Chien Andalou, originally intended for a limited showing in Paris, was so popular with the public that it ended up playing for 8 months), the films were created with artistic, non-Hollywood intentions.

The auteur theory, in which "a director can use the commercial apparatus of film-making in the same way that a writer uses a pen or a painter uses paint and a paintbrush" hinges on talking about movies made with artistic intent. Some of the directors that fit the bill include François Truffaut, Jean-Luc Godard, Ingmar Bergman, Roman Polanski, Orson Welles, Woody Allen, Alfred Hitchcock. Is every one of these filmmaker's movies art? Not by a long shot. But the intent is there in many of their movies, and most would agree that Les Quatre Cents Coups (The 400 Blows, 1959), À bout de souffle (Breathless, 1960), Det Sjunde inseglet (The Seventh Seal, 1957), Knife in the Water (1962), Citizen Kane (1941), Manhattan (1979) and Vertigo (1958) qualify. Well, I may have to re-think Allen. He's definitely an auteur, but his attempts to make art don't usually hit the mark for me.

When photography first started to be shown as art in galleries there were many that protested that such a mechanical process could be considered art. Some even maybe a wee bit threatened. Pablo Picasso has been quoted as saying, "I have discovered photography. Now I can kill myself. I have nothing else to learn." But Picasso survived, and photography became another artistic medium, and cameras another tool, like paintbrushes. What is high art and what isn't has been one of the main debates of the 20th century and has dribbled into the 21st in regard to film.

By writing that "the medium is not the message" I am having a bit of punning fun with the famous quote nugget from Marshall McLuhan's Understanding Media: The Extensions of Man (1964). McLuhan talked about many aspects of media and culture, art among them, "Art at its most significant is a Distant Early Warning System that can always be relied on to tell the old culture what is beginning to happen to it."  McLuhan believed that the medium (television, advertising etc.) was the thing, not the content it transmitted. One of his famous examples was that the medium of television was powerful, regardless of whether it was showing children's cartoons or violent programs. I'm turning that idea on its head in relation to art and art-making by positing that the medium employed by the artist — whether film, or words, or painting, etc., is irrelevant. What is important is the end product, the art experience. The ideas and feelings taken away by the viewer. If a piece has something to say, and talks in the language of art, no matter what medium was employed, it's art.

Of course if I go on too much longer, I'm at risk of sounding like the "Man in Theatre Line" from Annie Hall. McLuhan also said, "Art is anything you can get away with." Sounds like a Woody Allen line. Allen brought the man, McLuhan, into this wonderful scene in Annie Hall, and just for the sheer brilliance of that bold stroke, gets put back on my art/auteur list.

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• The Medium Is McLuhan (3quarksdaily.com)