Woody Allen: A Documentary

Two new friends in my life suggested I watch "Woody Allen: A Documentary," after I commented to them how much I love the work of the writer/director and how little of his work I have seen. After watching the 3-hour documentary (It hast two parts, both of which you can watch on Netflix.), I am fascinated with Woody Allen. To the point where I have decided that I want to watch all of his 40 movies in chronological order (or as close to chronological order as possible). This is something I have done with writers, but have never done with film. It started in high school with Gabriel García Marquez. What I do is a look up a list of all their works and start reading them one by one, in chronological order if possible. I say, if possible, because sometimes I wouldn't be able to find certain works. After "El Gabo,"I went on to do it with such writers as Ernest Hemingway, Enrique Laguerre (local puertorican writer), René Marquez (also puertorican), Jorge Luis Borges, Unamuno, Gabriel García Lorca(this last one was the toughest as he had a lot of minor works that you can't find almost anywhere), and many more... but you catch the drift.  The decision to watch all of Woody's movies comes after the realization that most of his common themes are ones that I constantly think and obsess about: he doesn't care what people think of him (perception), he constantly thinks about death and immortality(death), he can compartmentalize his life (the human condition), he has an opinion on everything, and has a lot to say (somebody told me this about myself recently and I didn't want to believe it, but I guess it's true I do have a lot to say), among many more. I thought of course this task of watching all of Woody's movies would be easy because I have Netflix, but somehow life manages to throw me a curveball and lo' and behold Netflix only has five of his movies!!! Five!!! Out of forty!!!! Of course I find this ridiculous and will complaint to Netflix stat. They don't even have the most recent ones, not the very very recent, but ones like "Match Point" or "Aphrodite" or "You Will Meet a Tall Dark Stranger." So, I think I will start with the five (five!!!) on Netflix and then go to Blockbuster or something. Expect a lot of Woody Allen coming your way for the next few months. Nothing excites me more than a cool short-term goal, and this will be a lot of fun! I'm very excited!!! 

To Rome with Love

Today I went to see "To Rome With Love" for the second time. I cannot even begin to tell you how excited I was to watch it the first time, and how I loved it the second time. It is definitely not "Midnight in Paris" which is my favorite of the latest, but it is good, funny, entertaining and beautiful. I know it is not the best of Woody Allen's European tour (which began with "Match Point" I think, continued with "You Will Meet a Tall Dark Stranger," "Vicky Cristina Barcelona" and next to last with "Midnight in Paris"), but I still love it. I do think it is the funniest of all. One of the things I love about Woody Allen is that a few years back he just decided he wanted to film in Europe, in various cities, and started in London. Supposedly, he got bored with filming in New York City. That is one of the advantages of being a well-known, proliferous and respected Director. That he can just one day decide to go film somewhere because he is bored of filming in his hometown.

TRWL is definitely very quirky funny. (Starting with an opera singer who sings from a shower in the middle of a stage to an omnipresent traffic policeman who narrates) Another Woody Allen quirk the term "Ozymandias melancholia." I won't tell you what it means, you have to watch the movie to find out, but don't you think it sound quirky? Woody Allen is also very funny. The audience laughed as soon as he was present on screen even without opening his mouth. And his lines are funny, and quirky. Probably because he writes his lines for himself. Quite another perk of being an actor/director/writer. When responding to another character saying "he sings for pleasure, not for money," he says "there's a great deal of pleasure in money. It's green and crispy and you can fondle it."

TRWL is also a love letter to Rome. It is a beautiful portrayal of the city. From a beautiful vista from Woody Allen's character's hotel room, to the Fontana di Trevi, the Spanish steps, a 360 degree shot of a piazza, the Coliseum and the Roman Forum. The views are breathtaking and make you want to go to Rome, now, immediately, get on a plane and don't think about it twice. (Thank you Woody for leaving out the strong smell of urine in certain public places and public transportation and the ugly graffiti and dilapidated buildings that can be found throughout all of Rome) Even though it is a beautiful portrayal of Rome it is also quite a sharp criticism of some aspects of Roman culture. It criticizes what the Europeans invented and Paris Hilton crossed over to the American soil the art of being famous for being famous. Everyone thinks this was created by Paris Hilton or the most recent Kardashians, but what no one knows is that the Italians had mastered that art way before the Americans. However, even though it criticizes these celeb-realities or reality celebrities in the Italian pop culture, it is a criticism that carries over to this side of the ocean. There is also some portrayal of Roman idiosyncrasies such as their inability to give accurate directions, just like puertoricans. A typical Roman (and puertorican) direction goes like this: "follow the road, take a left at the pharmacy, then a right, then a u-turn left, then over the bridge and next to the Church."

It's funny, quirky, beautiful and fun. Just like movies should be.


"La vida es corta y hay momentos escritos en las estrellas." -"Luca Salta" played by Antonio Albanese.

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