‘Grumpy Old Man B!ues’, more like. What a miserable old git Woody Allen is. That’s the takeaway from Barbara Kopple’s 1997 documentary on the legendary but controversial film director.
Holding forth on his favourite subjects: New York; himself, jazz, himself, Paris, himself, travel, himself, and, mostly, himself, the camera follows him, alongside his very young partner Soon-Yi Previn (we all know the backstory there, let’s leave it at that) and his sister Letty Aronson, as they travel across Europe to venues where Allen is playing clarinet with his ragtime band.
As he gripes about everything – from travelling in a private jet (poor love) to gondolas, to how the hotel staff will handle his laundry- it soon becomes apparent this is not another neurotic character of his, but actually his real personality. He’s an absolute classic malcontent.
His band are good, Allen less so (there’s not always much power in his playing, although one solo in a more up-tempo tune stands out) but it’s still interesting seeing this film with all that happened in the fallout of his relationship with Previn- who seems level headed enough, and even quite bossy. However, in one cringe-inducing scene, he leads her around as though she were a puppy on a leash. You want to scream, ” Walk together, FFS! You’re supposed to be a couple”…
Still, the moans keep a-comin’. “Theoretically “, he quips at one pont, ahead of a show, “we should be having fun, we should have a good time”. But there’s the sense from all of his kvetching, that Allen wouldn’t know a good time if it bit him in the ass. When there’s a visit to his parents at the end, though, it all makes sense…
Hit The North 