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Bulletproof on Broadway
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The film was so painfully personal it would have been difficult to watch under any circumstances. But with Allen, Farrow and her brood of children on the nightly news as constant reminders of his indiscretion, audiences steered clear of Husband and Wives. Those who did come were forced to deal with their own conflicting emotions. It was impossible to react to Husbands and Wives strictly as a work of art.
“Laughter, remaining subconscious in its manifest realm (or as Freud put it, when it comes out of the mouth), often works best after something funny has happened. That is why the death of a friend almost never gets a chuckle but a funny hat does—"Woody, the Would-Be Critic.”
After the box office failure of Husband and Wives, there were those who thought Allen’s career would be over. At least since Annie Hall, Allen has been one of the few moviemakers in this country who maintains absolute control over his films—Steven Spielberg is the only other who comes readily to mind—and he has resolutely declared that if he cannot make films on his own terms, he’ll retire and write novels. But unlike Spielberg, who earned his level of control by making more money than any moviemaker in history, Allen’s carte blanche was the direct result of the high moral standing he had as America’s resident auteur—a position his idealized relationship with Farrow quietly reinforced.
He was too good for Hollywood, and Hollywood knew it. He didn’t even need to show up at the Oscars; he won three of them without missing his regular Monday night clarinet gig at Michael’s Pub.
But now that Allen was unable to serve as an aesthetic and moral spokesperson for the film industry, many speculated that his financing would dry up. That, the thinking went, was why he re-teamed with Diane Keaton for Manhattan Murder Mystery, a lightweight farce that had none of the bite of his best work. Was he trying to appease his fans with a return to the style of his “early, funny films?” Perhaps. But it wasn’t a hit either, and when TriStar announced that Allen would be leaving the studio to make independently financed films, there were those who thought Allen’s career might be over.
Not to worry: His friend Jean Doumanian, a former executive producer of “Saturday Night Live,” came through with European financing that would ensure Allen the non-negotiable absolute control over his work that he’s enjoyed since Annie Hall elevated him from mere comic genius to auteur nearly two decade ago. Will Bullets Over Broadway be a hit? Probably not. The good news is it probably doesn’t matter; the European financing seems set for years to come, and anyway, Allen’s films make back their money in Europe. And yes, Bullets Over Broadway is a lot of fun. For those of you who especially loved his “early, funny” movies, it may even be a welcome return to form.
“You’re not Superman, you’re a comedian. You want to do mankind a service? Tell funnier jokes.”—Alien to Sandy Bates in Stardust Memories.
At least on the surface, one would be hard-pressed to call Bullets Over Broadway autobiographical. Set in New York in the 1920s, it tells the story of David Shayne, a young playwright who is forced to cast a gangster’s moll in his new play in order to gain financing. Yet with his hesitant manner and worried New York accent, John Cusack, who plays Shayne, sounds like a young Woody Allen. Indeed, even within the construct of this deliberately lightweight film, there are parallels with Allen’s recent travails.
When Shayne, who’s been cheating on his girlfriend with the star of his play, visits his mentor, Sheldon Flender, in search of moral advice, Flender tells him: “An artist creates his own moral universe. You gotta do what you gotta do.” It’s a line that recalls Allen’s character’s self-justification in Husbands and Wives: “My heart does not know from logic.” Or, as the man himself told Time magazine when his affair with Soon-Yi became public knowledge: “The heart wants what it wants.”
Allen, as it happens, doesn’t play Flender—Rob Reiner does—but he could have. The irony would have been pretty thick, especially when it turns out that Flender himself is having an affair with the girlfriend Shayne’s been betraying. In a way, these ironies double our enjoyment of the film; we feel like we’re in on something. The same was not true about the more contextually blatant ironies of Husbands and Wives. There was an almost overwhelming feeling of discomfort in the theater when Husbands and Wives played, and audiences laughed nervously at all the inappropriate moments.
That was two years ago now, and in the interim Allen has made two new films. Granted, neither one was a great film, but that’s par for the course. Between Stardust Memories and Hannah and Her Sisters, there were A Midsummer Night’s Sex Comedy, Broadway Danny Rose, Zelig and The Purple Rose of Cairo. Likewise, between Hannah and Crimes and Misdemeanors, and between Crimes and Husbands and Wives, there were somewhat lesser films.
Allen has already started another film titled, like all his works in progress, Woody Allen’s Fall Project, after the season in which he starts filming. Will it be a great film? It’s impossible to say, but that the question even arises is testament to his genius. And even if it’s not a great film, it’ll be a welcome relief from whatever else is out there; year in and year out, that’s something his fans have come to count on. For Woody Allen is not only one of our best moviemakers, he’s also our most prolific one—a rare combination. Whatever his private faults, we’re lucky to have him.
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COMMENTS | POST A COMMENT 
- Comment by العاب on 5/31/11 at 7:51 pm
Thanks for providing such a العاب تلبيس بنات تلبيس مكياج حلوة وجديدة تحميل العاب تلبيس
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This story was published in the November 1994 MovieMaker Magazine. The headline was:
Bulletproof on Broadway/There were those who thought his career was over, but Woody Allen survives and proves again that even at his worst, he's one of the best.
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