In light of tomorrow night’s Mockingbird Hour on Woody Allen (the first of many), here’s the classic conversion scene from Hannah And Her Sisters:
And a considerably more downbeat, yet equally powerful take on the same theme, from Stardust Memories:
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1 comment
Clifford Swartz says:
Oct 9, 2008
Hey Dave —
What do you make of the orb and the orgasmatron in Sleeper? My take is that Woody Allen makes fun of these things as artificial but his own quest for self-gratification in everything from sex to being thought of as funny and clever is not really far off of those — maybe more “real” but pretty much the same in principle.
The focus on self is the real reason Woody Allen is afraid of death. It’s not enough for him as a humanist to feel like he’s “made a difference” or “left the earth better than he found it” or some such. He can’t stand the idea of the world existing without him. So that’s why I find him funny — the neurotic narcissicism is laughing at the aspects of those things in my own life! Seeing my sin projected and amplified in his films is simultaneously funny and depressing…
Cliff
ps: thanks for the Ashley Null shout out!