Woody Allen: A Biography - Softcover

Baxter, John

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0006387942 ISBN 13: 9780006387947

Publisher: HarperCollins Entertainment, 1999

Synopsis

The first major biography and critical study of the great American film director, actor, writer, wit and humorist to appear since the extraordinary events in his private life made headline news in 1993. Woody Allen is one of the most significant cultural figures of our time.

Woody Allen has long been an enigma, obscured by a façade no less carefully constructed than his films. Where does the real Woody Allen begin and the film character end? John Baxter shows how the reality gave way to the image of a nebbish: a whining (but lovable) loser, racked by insecurity, bullied by women and taking solace in psychoanalysis. He demonstrates that the ‘Woody’ of Allen’s films is as remote from the real man as was the ‘Little Tramp’ from Charlie Chaplin.

Woody Allen’s films are celebrated for their wit and their ironic characterisations of Manhattan types, together with their neuroses. The best of them rank among the finest of all screen comedies. Allen not only survived the scandal and furore that swept the world media when he abandoned his long-time partner Mia Farrow to live with her adopted daughter Soon-Yi, but flourished – his next two films, Bullets over Broadway and Mighty Aphrodite, both won Oscars.

About this title

Review:

If sex, politics and religion are the big issues that divide people, Woody Allen can't be far behind. He is loved by sophisticates and cab drivers alike--"he's bald, he's ugly, he can't get laid--he's just like us". He is equally loathed by many who see his neurotic ticks and self- absorption as too smothering of his talent. Since Eric Lax's authorised (ie: anodyne) biography came out in 1991, Allen's life has generated huge controversy due to his relationship with Soon- Yi, the adopted daughter of his ex-partner, Mia Farrow.

John Baxter here presents a balanced account of this fraught time, and thankfully does not allow it to overwhelm the rest of the book. He proves particularly strong on his analyses of the films, tracing the development from What's New, Pussycat? to the triumph of Manhattan, and onto the darkness of Deconstructing Harry. He considers the role of Ingmar Bergman and Frederico Fellini in informing his direction, and Bob Hope and Charlie Chaplin, among others, in moulding the screen persona; but from behind this "Woody" emerges a deeply contradictory man, rather unlovable and only passingly loving, who uses a megalomaniac paranoia to drive his creativity, but which denies him happiness, at least in a conventional sense. It is to John Baxter's credit that he refrains from indulging in excessive psychoanalysis, and the result is an intelligently melancholic biography of an anhedonistic auteur. --David Vincent

From the Back Cover:

Woody Allen has long been an enigma, obscured by a façade no less carefully constructed than his films. How fine is the autobiographical line between film character and the reality? How far has Allen retrospectively rewritten his life? To answer these questions, John Baxter examines the prolific artistic career of one of the few people to have successfully played all three roles of writer, director and star.

Allen's films are celebrated for their wit and their ironic characterisations of Manhattan types, together with their neuroses. The best of them – 'Annie Hall, Manhattan, Crimes and Misdemeanours, Bullets Over Broadway '- rank among the finest of all screen comedies. Even his well-publicised rift with his long-term partner Mia Farrow and his subsequent affair with (and marriage to) her adopted daughter Soon-Yi apparently failed to dent the calibre of his film-making or the loyalty of his audience.

John Baxter, whose previous books include acclaimed biographies of Ken Russell, Fellini, Buñuel, Steven Spielberg and Stanley Kubrick, shrewdly deconstructs Woody, revealing his attitudes to Jewishness, sexuality and mortality, his obsession, his cinematic and writing influences, his manipulation of celebrity and, above all, his role as court jester of the Manhattan intellectual élite.

“Baxter's 'Woody Allen' is the best yet.”
Sheridan Morley, 'Sunday Times'

“A splendidly written, exhaustive account . . . a major achievement.”
Baret Magarian, 'Observer'

“A bracing corrective to the usual po-faced, sycophantic studies of the cult of Woody.”
Sean Macaulay, 'Mail on Sunday'

“Elegantly written, often hilarious.”
Humphrey Carpenter, 'Sunday Times'

“Thorough, series, mercifully un-sycophantic.”
Anne Chisholm, 'Sunday Telegraph'

About this edition

• Publisher: HarperCollins Entertainment
• Publication date: 1999
• ISBN 10: 0006387942
• ISBN 13: 9780006387947
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 512