What would Woody say?

Woody Allen’s new film “Scoop” (the 42nd movie he has directed) will close out the Traverse City Film Festival this week. With all of the celebrities and directors coming to town, one wonders if the illustrious director/actor/screenwriter will make an appearance at the Film Festival?
“I don’t think so,” said Allen via a phone interview. “I am in London working on my next project.”
His current film “Scoop” is a tragicomedy that has Allen working both sides of the camera, a first since his 2003 New York-based comedy “Anything Else.” Hugh Jackman and Scarlet Johansson co-star in “Scoop,” and Johansson also appeared in Allen’s 2005 film “Match Point.” Both films were shot in London, which has become somewhat of a second home for Allen, who for years was a fixture in New York, making several of his films in his hometown.
“English financiers are hands-off,” said Allen of the switch. “I think that is one of the problems today with American-made films; those that are financing them want to interject artistic influence. They want to hang around the set, be involved in everything. I prefer those that come by and drop off a bag of money -- then I don’t see them until I come by and drop off the film.”
In a “Vanity Fair” interview last December Allen stated that in “70 years of living I’ve gained no insight, no mellowing, I would make the same mistakes again.” Yet months later in several interviews Allen stated that “Scoop” might be “his last comedy,” stating that at his age he has “little time” left to make movies and maybe it was time to pull away from his “self-indulgent comedies” and make movies with a little more “meat and potatoes to them.”

CONTRADICTIONS
But Allen is a man of contradiction. He toys with the media as much as he does his audiences.
His current film project, which is rumored to star Colin Farrell, is being shot in London. So, is this film going to be the start of the “meat and potatoes” films for Allen?
“No, it’s a comedy,” said Allen.
But you said “Scoop” was going to be your last comedy.
“Well I sense longevity in my genes,” said Allen. “My mother lived to be 95 and my father lived to 100.”
Allen appears as a magician and eventually poses as Johansson’s father as they pursue a suspected murderer. She plays an American journalism student investigating a series of murders. So did Allen write a role for himself in the film?
“No,” said Allen. “After the script had been written I looked it over and said to myself that seems like a good part for me.”
Allen said he was familiar with the Traverse City Film Festival and that people in Cannes were “buzzing” about it. Was he surprised to learn that Jeff Daniels was going to receive the first-ever “Michigan Filmmaker Award” at the festival and does Allen take any credit for Daniels success?
“No and no,” said Allen. “Jeff is deserving of whatever accolades he receives. No, I can’t take credit for his success (Daniels starred in Allen’s 1985 film ‘The Purple Rose of Cairo’). I am not the type of skilled director that is able get a performance out of people who can’t act. With me you either know how to act or you find your way off the set pretty quickly.”
 
GOING BACK
Allen was born Allen Stewart Konigsberg on December 1, 1935 in Brooklyn, New York and despite standing on 5’ 5’’ he has been an imposing figure on the American film scene for the past 40 years. He started writing professionally at the age of 15, contributing one-liners for local gossip columns. Allen later became a stand-up comedian before being contracted to write the 1965 Oscar-nominated film “What’s New, Pussycat” that starred Peter O’Toole and Peter Sellers. Allen also appeared in the film.
Allen doesn’t think he will ever stop making films; he likens his need to that of mental patients (legend has it that he visits with a psychotherapist two to three times a week).
“I need to distract myself from the real world somehow,” said Allen. “They keep mental patients distracted with finger-painting and basket-weaving so that afterwards they are more relaxed. Filmmaking is my therapy.”
As for recent criticisms or for that matter any criticism of his works Allen pays little if any attention.
“For me filmmaking is fun. I don’t read what is written about my films. I don’t even watch my own films,” said Allen. “It really is about making the film for me. As for praise the only affirmation I need comes from myself.”
Why don’t you watch your own films?
“It’s like being a chef; you have tasted the meal while you are preparing it,” said Allen. “A great chef doesn’t sit down and eat his own meal, he moves on to the next one. Once I have completed a film and it is ready to be shown to the public I don’t watch it -- I move on to my next one.”
 
SECRET TO SUCCESS
So what does Allen attribute his 40-year success, that has included several Oscar nominations including four wins, in the industry to?
“Eighty percent of success in anything is just showing up,” said Allen. “I show up to work everyday; that’s my secret.”
So what is the biggest misconception about Woody Allen?
“That I am some sort of academic. I think it is these glasses,” said Allen. “People envision me as some guy sitting around reading intellectual works. I am a guy who gets up from his chair during commercials of Knicks games and grabs another beer from the refrigerator.”
Beer, you seem like a wine or martini drinker.
“See, it’s all in the glasses,” said Allen. “I use to drink wine. I am not much of a drinker, but I prefer beer.”
But you are a jazz guy (Allen has his own band, the Woody Allen and His Jazz Band, and is an accomplished jazz clarinetist) and jazz guys drink wine not beer. Okay, you may not be an intellectual but you are sophisticated.
“You have to quit looking at my glasses and comparing me to the over-exaggerated roles I play,” said Allen. “I am your typical middle-class New Yorker. I am a disciplined and a hard worker. I go out for lunch like everyone else, go to movies and prefer my quiet time in my home and I try to practice my clarinet often and I have an occasional beer.”
 
MUSIC SCENE
Speaking of jazz, do you and your band still play once a week?
“Yes and no,” said Allen. “When I am home we perform every Monday night at The Carlyle (a hotel in Manhattan). I am going to take the band on the road this fall.”
Earlier you hinted to “enjoying quiet time.” You seem to be a contradiction when it comes to the public spotlight. You are often spotted at Knicks games and at New York charitable parties but you have only attended the Academy Awards ceremony once despite several nominations and wins why?
“I don’t make films to receive awards,” said Allen. “But in 2002 when the Academy invited me to attend I saw it as a great opportunity to encourage my fellow filmmakers to make films in New York City. After 9-11 I was concerned that New York might get overlooked.”
So, any chance if you are not busy next summer that you might load the band up and come an perform at the Traverse City Film Festival? Maybe even participate in one of the directors’ panel discussion or even better yet debut your new film here?
“It really depends on whether or not somebody comes by with a bag of money,” said Allen. “Every morning I will check my front steps, if there isn’t a bag out there then I might be free.”
 
WHAT NEXT?
Somehow it seems unlikely that Allen won’t find funding for his future films. He jokes that he shoots his films in between Spielberg’s shooting schedule so that he might attract “big-figure” actors for his own films. “Some of these guys get 15 million dollars for a film, that’s usually my whole budget.”
Allen won’t comment on his plans for 2007, stating he currently has a film to finish and a concert tour to prepare for. But when prodded further if his next film would be a “meat and potatoes” project he simply chuckled.
“Probably not, I am sure it will be a comedy,” said Allen. “After all, isn’t that what you expect from my films? Wouldn’t you be disappointed to show up to a Bob Hope performance and the guy wasn’t funny -- instead he was serious.”
Sounds like another contradiction? You said that you only seek “affirmation from yourself.”
“Maybe I need to take these glasses off -- you media guys are taking me way to seriously,” said Allen. “Just go out to the movies and have fun and quit analyzing everything.”
 
For additional information on “Scoop” and the other films at the Traverse City Film Festival, visit www.traversecityfilmfest.com  or phone 231–929-1506.
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