"You can be excessively realistic in film. On the other hand, in film
you can allow yourself to give free rein to the imaginary. In film, you
can actually have the best of both worlds." Woody Allen (b. 1935) is one
of America's most idiosyncratic filmmakers, with an unparalleled output
of nearly one film every year for over three decades. His movies are
filled with rapid-fire one-liners, neurotic characters, anguished
relationships, and old-time jazz music. Allen's vision of New
York-whether in comedies or dramas-has shaped our perception of the city
more than any other modern filmmaker. "On the screen," John Lahr wrote
in the New Yorker in 1996, "Allen is a loser who makes much of his
inadequacy; off-screen, he has created over the years the most
wide-ranging oeuvre in American entertainment." Woody Allen: Interviews
collects over twenty-five years of interviews with the director of
Manhattan, Hannah and Her Sisters, Crimes and Misdemeanors, Bullets Over
Broadway, and Annie Hall, for which he won an Oscar. The book's
interviews reveal a serious director, often at odds with his onscreen
persona as a lovable, slap-stick loser. Allen talks frankly about his
rigorous work habits; his biggest artistic influences; the attention he
devotes to acting, screenwriting, and directing; and how New York fuels
his filmmaking. Along with discussing film techniques and styles, Allen
opens up about his love of jazz, his Jewish heritage, and the scandal
that arose when he left his longtime partner Mia Farrow for her adopted
daughter. Including four interviews from European sources, three of
which are now available in English for the first time, Woody Allen:
Interviews is a treasure trove of conversations with one of America's
most distinctive filmmakers. Robert E. Kapsis is professor of sociology
at Queens College and is the author of Hitchcock: The Making of a
Reputation. His work has appeared in the Village Voice, Variety, Journal
of Popular Film and Video, and Cineaste and at the Museum of Modern Art.
Kathie Coblentz is special collections cataloger at the New York Public
Library. Kapsis and Coblentz coedited Clint Eastwood: Interviews
(University Press of Mississippi).
