The acclaimed film biographer and author of Young Orson and Funny
Man returns with the definitive look at the life and legacy of Woody
Allen.
The writer, director, and frequent star of more than fifty popular,
award-winning, and internationally successful pictures over seven
decades of filmmaking, Woody Allen is one of the most consequential
American cultural figures of our time. Yet this national icon has fallen
from grace nowadays. In this even-handed biography, Patrick McGilligan
explores the public rise and fall of this hilarious comedian with a
serious bent in his work, whose singularity and non-conformity has
proved an Achilles heel.
This is the most comprehensive portrait of the creative prodigy that is
Woody Allen. Drawing on exhaustive research, McGilligan brilliantly
reconstructs Allen's misbegotten Brooklyn boyhood and salad days as a
comedy writer for Sid Caesar and other television personalities, his
struggles to connect with audiences as a bright stand-up comedian, his
sidelines as a New Yorker writer and Broadway playwright, and his
first side-splitting movies as writer, director, and star, leading to
his Oscar-winning Annie Hall and golden years, in the 1970s and 80s,
of making some of his best films still beloved by fans*.* But it is also
a scrupulous account of the darker side of Allen, his three marriages,
famous liaisons and furtive flings, and especially his tumultuous
personal and professional relationship with actress Mia Farrow, his
affair with her daughter, Soon-Yi Previn, and the alleged abuse of his
adopted daughter Dylan. McGilligan presents the known facts, parsing
questions of guilt and innocence, and examines the case, with its
charges and countercharges that accrue to the present day.
McGilligan's compelling biography astutely links the ideas and themes of
Allen's career to his singular personality and character. He makes it
clear Allen is a writer's writer, and that beyond the smoke and
controversy, no American filmmaker has had a greater cultural impact;
none has been as creative, productive, or influential in his lifetime.
