Woody Allen: A Documentary - Part One

0:00:10 > 0:00:15If, like me, you love New York, then how could you not love Woody Allen?

0:00:15 > 0:00:17And if, like me, you happen to be Jewish,

0:00:17 > 0:00:21you love movies AND you love New York, then you're in for a treat.

0:00:21 > 0:00:26No-one quite represents a city like Woody represents New York.

0:00:26 > 0:00:30It plays a leading role in most of his films, alongside Woody himself,

0:00:30 > 0:00:34of course, with his dark-rimmed glasses and his trademark neuroses.

0:00:34 > 0:00:37It took the filmmaker Robert Weide

0:00:37 > 0:00:40over 20 years to persuade the director of Manhattan,

0:00:40 > 0:00:44Hannah and Her Sisters and Annie Hall to open up about everything,

0:00:44 > 0:00:47from growing up in Brooklyn, to his life as a stand-up comic,

0:00:47 > 0:00:51to his obsessive-compulsive career as a filmmaker

0:00:51 > 0:00:56who, still in his mid-70s, insists on making at least one film a year.

0:00:56 > 0:00:59And you know what? It's well worth waiting for.

0:00:59 > 0:01:01He's funny, frank and forthcoming.

0:01:01 > 0:01:04And tonight, in the first of two films,

0:01:04 > 0:01:06Imagine tells the compelling story

0:01:06 > 0:01:10of how Brooklyn-born Allan Konigsberg transformed himself

0:01:10 > 0:01:14from full-time nerd into movie legend.

0:01:14 > 0:01:17BRASS BAND PLAYS

0:01:51 > 0:01:55Writing is the great life.

0:01:55 > 0:01:56Cos you wake up in the morning,

0:01:56 > 0:01:58you write in your room.

0:02:04 > 0:02:05You know, in the room,

0:02:05 > 0:02:07everything is great, you know,

0:02:07 > 0:02:08cos you don't have to deliver.

0:02:08 > 0:02:10So you write it, and you imagine

0:02:10 > 0:02:13it's Citizen Kane or, you know,

0:02:13 > 0:02:15everything you write is great.

0:02:19 > 0:02:23But when you have to then take it out and do it,

0:02:23 > 0:02:27then reality sets in.

0:02:27 > 0:02:33Then all your schemes about making a masterpiece

0:02:33 > 0:02:37are reduced to

0:02:37 > 0:02:41"I'll prostitute myself any way I have to,

0:02:41 > 0:02:44"to survive this catastrophe".

0:02:44 > 0:02:46MUSIC: "Sing, Sing, Sing" by Benny Goodman

0:02:51 > 0:02:53I don't think there is anybody like Woody.

0:02:53 > 0:02:55I've never met anybody like Woody.

0:02:55 > 0:02:58You can't compare anybody to Woody Allen.

0:02:58 > 0:03:00His range is amazing.

0:03:00 > 0:03:04You have only to look at Bananas and Match Point.

0:03:04 > 0:03:07If you'd asked me what directors I wanted to work with,

0:03:07 > 0:03:10Woody Allen would've been at the top of my list.

0:03:10 > 0:03:13He is, without question,

0:03:13 > 0:03:15the best actor's director I've ever worked with.

0:03:15 > 0:03:17Not everybody has the staying power,

0:03:17 > 0:03:19not everybody has the tenacity,

0:03:19 > 0:03:22and not everybody has so much to say.

0:03:22 > 0:03:26The day that he finishes editing a film

0:03:26 > 0:03:28is the day he starts typing the script of the next.

0:03:28 > 0:03:30He never takes any time off.

0:03:30 > 0:03:33Fourteen screenplay nominations. Fourteen.

0:03:33 > 0:03:36Who the hell is good for 20 years?

0:03:36 > 0:03:38This guy has been good for 40 years.

0:03:38 > 0:03:39He's kind of peerless.

0:03:39 > 0:03:43It's not just that we're still interested in Woody Allen.

0:03:43 > 0:03:45He's still interested in telling stories.

0:03:45 > 0:03:47On the one hand, he'd be brilliant,

0:03:47 > 0:03:48and his insights were amazing,

0:03:48 > 0:03:50but on the other hand, he'd be an idiot.

0:03:50 > 0:03:53He's also not normal.

0:03:53 > 0:03:55You know, he's not of the normal stock.

0:03:55 > 0:03:57Neurosis, fears, phobias...

0:03:57 > 0:03:59A bit adolescent, to tell you the truth.

0:03:59 > 0:04:03He is a little bit of a hypochondriac.

0:04:03 > 0:04:04He's cripplingly shy.

0:04:04 > 0:04:06Oh, he's definitely a little nutty.

0:04:06 > 0:04:09He really wears his heart on his sleeve.

0:04:09 > 0:04:10He's a big hugger.

0:04:10 > 0:04:12LAUGHS

0:04:12 > 0:04:13No.

0:04:13 > 0:04:15I remember when Woody was the Antichrist.

0:04:15 > 0:04:17And by the way, the one thing that I didn't mention

0:04:17 > 0:04:20is that he's also very funny.

0:04:20 > 0:04:23So much of what's filtered out

0:04:23 > 0:04:28about me over the years has been completely mythological.

0:04:28 > 0:04:31I mean, completely, you know, exaggerated

0:04:31 > 0:04:34or downright untrue.

0:04:34 > 0:04:36Some of it's been true, of course.

0:04:43 > 0:04:46Would you enter, mystery challenger, and sign in, please?

0:04:46 > 0:04:49CHEERS AND APPLAUSE

0:04:51 > 0:04:55Speak of making a documentary about Woody Allen.

0:04:55 > 0:04:56Which Woody Allen?

0:04:56 > 0:04:58There are actually so many.

0:04:58 > 0:05:00You know, you have the stand-up comic,

0:05:00 > 0:05:02the author of casual pieces for the New Yorker

0:05:02 > 0:05:04in the tradition of SJ Perelman.

0:05:04 > 0:05:06Are you in the entertainment field?

0:05:06 > 0:05:07HIGH-PITCHED VOICE: Yes.

0:05:07 > 0:05:09You have the clarinettist.

0:05:09 > 0:05:11Are you a nightclub entertainer?

0:05:11 > 0:05:13Mm, yes.

0:05:13 > 0:05:16You have the playwright.

0:05:16 > 0:05:21Are you primarily known for your work in the films?

0:05:21 > 0:05:22No.

0:05:22 > 0:05:25He was many things before he became a filmmaker.

0:05:25 > 0:05:27Are you female?

0:05:27 > 0:05:28LAUGHTER

0:05:28 > 0:05:29No.

0:05:29 > 0:05:32I think film became inevitable because he could bring together

0:05:32 > 0:05:33all the things that he excelled at.

0:05:33 > 0:05:37To really contextualise Woody Allen

0:05:37 > 0:05:39in the history of American cinema,

0:05:39 > 0:05:41one does have to go back to Charlie Chaplin,

0:05:41 > 0:05:47the idea of an actor who becomes the writer,

0:05:47 > 0:05:51the director, the true auteur, who places himself

0:05:51 > 0:05:53at the centre of that cinematic universe

0:05:53 > 0:05:56consistently through a number of films,

0:05:56 > 0:06:00so that ultimately, the persona does enter the culture.

0:06:00 > 0:06:01I mean, the reality is,

0:06:01 > 0:06:04Woody Allen has managed to do that in our own time.

0:06:04 > 0:06:08I used to think that Woody was

0:06:08 > 0:06:09essentially a writerly sensibility.

0:06:09 > 0:06:12On the other hand, I've seen, you know,

0:06:12 > 0:06:14just a steady, steady growth

0:06:14 > 0:06:18in his skills as a filmmaker,

0:06:18 > 0:06:21complementing his skills as a writer.

0:06:21 > 0:06:26I think, you know, he's almost as good as we get.

0:06:26 > 0:06:31My parents were not pro Woody going into show business.

0:06:31 > 0:06:33CHUCKLES

0:06:33 > 0:06:37They wanted him to be a pharmacist.

0:06:37 > 0:06:42He was the wrong person born to those parents.

0:06:42 > 0:06:43That's all I can say.

0:06:43 > 0:06:46SWING MUSIC PLAYING

0:06:53 > 0:06:56ALLEN: My mother always used to say

0:06:56 > 0:07:01I was a very sweet, happy kid right from the start,

0:07:01 > 0:07:07and then somewhere around five or so,

0:07:07 > 0:07:10I turned grumpier or sour.

0:07:10 > 0:07:17I can only think, when I became aware of my mortality,

0:07:17 > 0:07:20I didn't like that idea.

0:07:20 > 0:07:23What do you mean, this ends?

0:07:23 > 0:07:24This, you know, this is -

0:07:24 > 0:07:26this doesn't go on like this?

0:07:26 > 0:07:28No, it ends.

0:07:28 > 0:07:33You know, you - you vanish for ever.

0:07:33 > 0:07:38Once I realised that, I thought, "Hey," you know, "deal me out.

0:07:38 > 0:07:41"I don't want to play in this game."

0:07:41 > 0:07:43And I never was the same after that.

0:07:43 > 0:07:44He's been depressed.

0:07:44 > 0:07:46All of a sudden, he can't do anything.

0:07:46 > 0:07:48Why are you depressed, Alvy?

0:07:48 > 0:07:50Tell Dr Flicker.

0:07:50 > 0:07:52It's something he read.

0:07:52 > 0:07:54Something you read, huh?

0:07:54 > 0:07:56The universe is expanding.

0:07:56 > 0:07:58The universe is expanding?

0:07:58 > 0:08:00Well, the universe is everything,

0:08:00 > 0:08:03and if it's expanding, someday it will break apart,

0:08:03 > 0:08:05and that will be the end of everything.

0:08:05 > 0:08:07What is that your business?!

0:08:07 > 0:08:09He's stopped doing his homework!

0:08:09 > 0:08:11What's the point?

0:08:11 > 0:08:14And that thought over the years

0:08:14 > 0:08:18took different forms as I later got older

0:08:18 > 0:08:22and always used my concentration camp example

0:08:22 > 0:08:27of people around me having fun, enjoying themselves.

0:08:27 > 0:08:30And I wanted to say, "But don't you realise

0:08:30 > 0:08:32"you're going to go up in a smokestack,

0:08:32 > 0:08:33"you know, in a short while?

0:08:33 > 0:08:35"So why are you so happy?

0:08:35 > 0:08:38"I mean, doesn't that thought sort of put a damper on things?"

0:08:38 > 0:08:40I'm not saying my grim appraisal is right.

0:08:40 > 0:08:42Of course, I think it is,

0:08:42 > 0:08:46but this is only my particular take on everything -

0:08:46 > 0:08:48that we all know the same truth,

0:08:48 > 0:08:52and our lives consist of how we choose to distort it.

0:08:56 > 0:08:58TRAIN CHUGS

0:08:58 > 0:09:03MUSIC: "Moonlight Serenade" by The Glenn Miller Orchestra

0:09:03 > 0:09:06When I grew up, Brooklyn was a great place to live.

0:09:06 > 0:09:08There was very little traffic.

0:09:08 > 0:09:12You could stay out all day long playing ball on the street.

0:09:12 > 0:09:17And you couldn't walk two blocks without coming to a movie house.

0:09:17 > 0:09:23A 15-minute trolley ride to Coney Island and the beach.

0:09:23 > 0:09:26Kids were safe. I'd leave the house at eight o'clock in the morning

0:09:26 > 0:09:28and come back at seven at night.

0:09:28 > 0:09:32And when I think back on all those wonderful stores,

0:09:32 > 0:09:34you know, bakery stores and delicatessens

0:09:34 > 0:09:35and Chinese restaurants

0:09:35 > 0:09:39and movie houses and candy stores...

0:09:39 > 0:09:41But if you could cut back

0:09:41 > 0:09:43to when I was a boy in the early '40s,

0:09:43 > 0:09:45you know, it was sensational.

0:09:47 > 0:09:49We always lived with relatives.

0:09:49 > 0:09:52I lived with cousins and aunts and uncles,

0:09:52 > 0:09:54and we almost never lived alone.

0:09:54 > 0:09:58You know, this was a carry-over from the Depression,

0:09:58 > 0:10:00when families were getting together.

0:10:00 > 0:10:03So it was always very lively,

0:10:03 > 0:10:06people doing things and yelling at each other,

0:10:06 > 0:10:08and activity.

0:10:08 > 0:10:11It was a madhouse all the time.

0:10:16 > 0:10:19Woody's original name, birth name,

0:10:19 > 0:10:22was Allan Stewart Konigsberg.

0:10:22 > 0:10:25Now, my parents always called him Allan.

0:10:25 > 0:10:27They never stopped calling him Allan.

0:10:27 > 0:10:30What was the most miserable thing about your childhood?

0:10:30 > 0:10:34Probably the fact that I was young.

0:10:34 > 0:10:36- LAUGHTER - Oh, really?

0:10:36 > 0:10:37Yeah.

0:10:37 > 0:10:39It was.

0:10:39 > 0:10:41If - if I could have been older at the time,

0:10:41 > 0:10:44I think I could've carried it off more.

0:10:44 > 0:10:46LAUGHTER

0:10:53 > 0:10:56My mother used to leave me with these maids all the time

0:10:56 > 0:10:58because she was working.

0:10:58 > 0:11:02And I remember one of them when I was a kid,

0:11:02 > 0:11:05and I was in my crib at the time,

0:11:05 > 0:11:11explaining to me that if she wanted to, she could kill me,

0:11:11 > 0:11:15that she could smother me, and she demonstrated it.

0:11:15 > 0:11:16She could wrap me in a blanket,

0:11:16 > 0:11:18completely cutting off all my air,

0:11:18 > 0:11:23and smother me and then just dump me in the garbage outside.

0:11:23 > 0:11:26It was just - but she did do it.

0:11:26 > 0:11:28I couldn't breathe for a few seconds,

0:11:28 > 0:11:30and then she let me out,

0:11:30 > 0:11:34and, you know, one wonders how close I came.

0:11:34 > 0:11:37So if that nanny were just like 10% crazier,

0:11:37 > 0:11:39that could have been...

0:11:39 > 0:11:40Sure. Sure.

0:11:40 > 0:11:44That would have been, you know, the world would be poorer

0:11:44 > 0:11:46a number of great one-liners.

0:11:50 > 0:11:53My grandfather, on his deathbed,

0:11:53 > 0:11:54sold me this watch.

0:11:54 > 0:11:56LAUGHTER

0:11:56 > 0:12:02His father was the sweetest man you could meet.

0:12:02 > 0:12:06He was just so sweet and he'd call us every day.

0:12:06 > 0:12:08He'd say, "It's going to rain.

0:12:08 > 0:12:10"Do you have enough canned goods in the house?"

0:12:10 > 0:12:13You know, we knew my father as Martin Konigsberg.

0:12:13 > 0:12:16But actually, when - one year

0:12:16 > 0:12:18when they had to get birth certificates,

0:12:18 > 0:12:20my father's name was actually Max.

0:12:20 > 0:12:22But we always knew him as Martin.

0:12:22 > 0:12:27He was born in 1900 and lived to 100 years old.

0:12:27 > 0:12:30My mother was Nettie Cherry.

0:12:30 > 0:12:32She was born in 1906.

0:12:32 > 0:12:35And she lived till 96.

0:12:35 > 0:12:39FOLK MUSIC PLAYING

0:12:39 > 0:12:42Our father's parents came to the United States

0:12:42 > 0:12:45from Russia by way of England.

0:12:45 > 0:12:48Our mother's family came from Austria.

0:12:48 > 0:12:52But our mother and father were born here.

0:12:52 > 0:12:54His father was quite wealthy

0:12:54 > 0:12:57and at one time owned the movie theatre in Brooklyn,

0:12:57 > 0:13:01Midwood Movie Theater, and then lost a lot of money.

0:13:01 > 0:13:05And he was, like, egg candling or something like that,

0:13:05 > 0:13:07and my mother was working for him.

0:13:07 > 0:13:11He thought that she was, you know, responsible

0:13:11 > 0:13:13and my father was not.

0:13:13 > 0:13:15Anyway, he introduced my father to my mother,

0:13:15 > 0:13:18and they got married.

0:13:18 > 0:13:21They never got along.

0:13:21 > 0:13:24There was a period of years when they never even spoke

0:13:24 > 0:13:27when I was growing up.

0:13:27 > 0:13:30It got better once they were much older.

0:13:30 > 0:13:34They were married for ever and ever and ever,

0:13:34 > 0:13:36but for my entire childhood that I remember,

0:13:36 > 0:13:39they argued or didn't speak.

0:13:39 > 0:13:43My little adorable father worked for the same firm for 14 years.

0:13:43 > 0:13:46They fired him. They replaced him with a gadget this big.

0:13:46 > 0:13:49Does everything that my father does,

0:13:49 > 0:13:50only it does it much better, you know.

0:13:50 > 0:13:52And the depressing thing is,

0:13:52 > 0:13:54my mother ran out and bought one.

0:13:54 > 0:13:58CHEERS AND APPLAUSE

0:14:01 > 0:14:03What did your father do for a living?

0:14:03 > 0:14:05That's a very good question.

0:14:05 > 0:14:08He did everything over the years...

0:14:08 > 0:14:09Jewellery engraving...

0:14:09 > 0:14:11He was a bookmaker for a while.

0:14:11 > 0:14:14A waiter at Sammy's Bowery Follies.

0:14:14 > 0:14:17Then he was - he ran a pool room.

0:14:17 > 0:14:19He was a taxi driver.

0:14:19 > 0:14:23He was a bartender. He was a waiter. He was a jeweller.

0:14:23 > 0:14:25You know, he was unskilled labour.

0:14:25 > 0:14:28You know, he did all kinds of things,

0:14:28 > 0:14:30small jobs over the years.

0:14:30 > 0:14:32What DO you do, Dad?

0:14:32 > 0:14:33It's none of your business.

0:14:33 > 0:14:35All my friends know what their dads do for a living.

0:14:35 > 0:14:36Don't you have any homework?

0:14:36 > 0:14:38Hey, can I have 15 cents for the new Masked Avenger ring?

0:14:38 > 0:14:40What am I, made of money?

0:14:40 > 0:14:42Pay more attention to your schoolwork

0:14:42 > 0:14:45- and less to the radio. - YOU always listen to the radio.

0:14:45 > 0:14:47It's different. Our lives are ruined already.

0:14:47 > 0:14:50You still have a chance to grow up and be somebody.

0:14:50 > 0:14:52You think I want you working at the job I do?

0:14:52 > 0:14:54I don't even know what your job is.

0:14:54 > 0:14:56My father was not the one saying, "You have to study, you have to go to school,

0:14:56 > 0:14:58"you have to do this, you have to do that."

0:14:58 > 0:15:00It was my mother. It was my mother who -

0:15:00 > 0:15:02who really had to push,

0:15:02 > 0:15:05you know, to get anything accomplished.

0:15:05 > 0:15:07You were a very bright child.

0:15:07 > 0:15:11You spoke young, you were - you were very young when you spoke.

0:15:11 > 0:15:13You were always running,

0:15:13 > 0:15:16whether it was the street or the house or your room.

0:15:16 > 0:15:17You never stayed put for five minutes.

0:15:17 > 0:15:21I didn't know how to handle that type of a child.

0:15:21 > 0:15:26You were too - too active and too much of a child for me.

0:15:26 > 0:15:27I wasn't that good to you,

0:15:27 > 0:15:29because I was very strict with you,

0:15:29 > 0:15:33which I regret, because I think if I hadn't been that strict,

0:15:33 > 0:15:38you might have been a more - not so impatient.

0:15:38 > 0:15:42You might have been, what should I say?

0:15:42 > 0:15:44Not "better" -

0:15:44 > 0:15:49you're a good person - but maybe softer, maybe warmer.

0:15:49 > 0:15:52And did you take up boxing really to escape from poverty

0:15:52 > 0:15:54or just because you enjoyed it?

0:15:54 > 0:15:56No, I took up boxing so I could deal with my mother.

0:15:56 > 0:15:58LAUGHTER

0:15:58 > 0:16:00Yes, there were a great many subjects

0:16:00 > 0:16:04we disagreed on, and frequently the only way to settle matters

0:16:04 > 0:16:06was to put on the gloves and get into the ring.

0:16:06 > 0:16:08And I used to knock her teeth out all the time.

0:16:08 > 0:16:10- Really?- Yeah, and she's an old woman, you know.

0:16:10 > 0:16:12- Yeah, so, that's why. - LAUGHTER

0:16:20 > 0:16:22I'll just grab my lid.

0:16:22 > 0:16:24Give me a little protection.

0:16:25 > 0:16:28CHUCKLES

0:16:29 > 0:16:32- Can I get out on this side? - Oh, no, wait up.

0:16:41 > 0:16:44This is the house that I was born in.

0:16:44 > 0:16:49And we were on the top floor.

0:16:49 > 0:16:52The landlord lived on the bottom floor.

0:16:52 > 0:16:54I remember as a little boy

0:16:54 > 0:16:59infuriating the landlord because -

0:16:59 > 0:17:01you see, the pot there

0:17:01 > 0:17:03used to have big red geraniums in them,

0:17:03 > 0:17:07and I just ripped them all out so I could hide my soldiers.

0:17:07 > 0:17:09I used to sit on this stoop all the time,

0:17:09 > 0:17:15and this was where - where we rooted against the Nazis,

0:17:15 > 0:17:17you know, and I had all my -

0:17:17 > 0:17:19you know, this is where I first went to school,

0:17:19 > 0:17:21to kindergarten and then from here.

0:17:21 > 0:17:25It doesn't look like much, but it wasn't.

0:17:25 > 0:17:27I'll take you around the corner

0:17:27 > 0:17:30and show you where the Midwood Theater,

0:17:30 > 0:17:32the movie house, was.

0:17:35 > 0:17:38Now, God, when you think of it, you know,

0:17:38 > 0:17:43the amount of movies that I saw right here,

0:17:43 > 0:17:45I mean, it was just astonishing.

0:17:45 > 0:17:48This was a very glamorous place at the time, you know,

0:17:48 > 0:17:52a very pretty theatre with plush carpets and sconces

0:17:52 > 0:17:55and beautiful glass fixtures,

0:17:55 > 0:17:59lines of middle-class people, you know, attractive girls

0:17:59 > 0:18:02and nice-looking young guys,

0:18:02 > 0:18:07and all going to see, you know, what now we consider

0:18:07 > 0:18:09our classic movie heritage.

0:18:09 > 0:18:11It was all - it was all here.

0:18:11 > 0:18:15Now, when you look at it, it's not as nice.

0:18:25 > 0:18:29I started on the clarinet at about 15.

0:18:29 > 0:18:32Actually, I started on the soprano saxophone,

0:18:32 > 0:18:36because I wanted to play like Sidney Bechet,

0:18:36 > 0:18:40and then I realised in the first two or three minutes

0:18:40 > 0:18:42that it wasn't going to happen.

0:18:42 > 0:18:45And then I started playing the clarinet.

0:18:45 > 0:18:48I like to play. It's just a hobby, you know.

0:18:48 > 0:18:49I always liked jazz.

0:18:49 > 0:18:52I liked to listen when I was younger.

0:18:52 > 0:18:53I still like to listen, of course.

0:18:53 > 0:18:58But the clarinet I mostly played by myself.

0:18:58 > 0:19:02I called up a jazz musician, quite a well-known jazz musician

0:19:02 > 0:19:04named Gene Sedrick, and asked him

0:19:04 > 0:19:06if he would give me some lessons,

0:19:06 > 0:19:08and he used to come to my house,

0:19:08 > 0:19:10and he would just sit in my living room with me

0:19:10 > 0:19:14and play something and say, "You do it now."

0:19:14 > 0:19:18And gradually, I learned how to play.

0:19:18 > 0:19:21You know, when we're on location doing a film,

0:19:21 > 0:19:24there are times he brings his instrument with him

0:19:24 > 0:19:28and practises in the car on a break.

0:19:28 > 0:19:30But he practises all the time.

0:19:30 > 0:19:33It's a pleasurable thing to play.

0:19:33 > 0:19:36If you play an instrument, it's fun to play it,

0:19:36 > 0:19:39and it's fun to play it with other people.

0:19:39 > 0:19:41And as it turns out,

0:19:41 > 0:19:45people come and listen to us.

0:19:45 > 0:19:46He loves going to the Carlyle

0:19:46 > 0:19:48every week and playing music there.

0:19:48 > 0:19:51He doesn't see it as, "Oh, I have to go, it's Monday night."

0:19:51 > 0:19:52He loves doing it.

0:19:52 > 0:19:57And he'll never do anything that he doesn't feel he can do well,

0:19:57 > 0:19:59and so the practice is necessary, and that's it.

0:19:59 > 0:20:03It's, you know, it's a foregone conclusion that he'll do it.

0:20:03 > 0:20:06He said to me that if he could do anything in the world,

0:20:06 > 0:20:08he would have loved to have been a clarinet player

0:20:08 > 0:20:10more than a filmmaker.

0:20:10 > 0:20:14PLAYING JAZZ

0:20:23 > 0:20:24His sensitivity to music

0:20:24 > 0:20:27is key to his success as a filmmaker,

0:20:27 > 0:20:30because very early on, right from the very first films,

0:20:30 > 0:20:34he's got a sense of rhythm, a sense of timing.

0:20:34 > 0:20:37Rhythm and timing are key to success in comedy.

0:20:37 > 0:20:40But because he has this other, sort of melodic sensitivity,

0:20:40 > 0:20:43I think it really makes it possible for him

0:20:43 > 0:20:45to not only do excellent comedy,

0:20:45 > 0:20:48but it makes it possible for him to be emotional as well.

0:20:52 > 0:20:57It's more direct expression of everything,

0:20:57 > 0:20:58don't you think, music?

0:20:58 > 0:21:02You know, he always would talk about Sidney Bechet,

0:21:02 > 0:21:07and he has that sweet, winsome sound.

0:21:07 > 0:21:10Woody has that sound.

0:21:10 > 0:21:13It's in his persona, his public persona,

0:21:13 > 0:21:16but it's also in him.

0:21:16 > 0:21:18It's just in him.

0:21:24 > 0:21:29CHEERS AND APPLAUSE

0:21:33 > 0:21:35ALLEN: Our last years of high school in Midwood,

0:21:35 > 0:21:37you know, all my friends were

0:21:37 > 0:21:39deciding what they were going to do with their lives.

0:21:39 > 0:21:41They were going to become doctors and lawyers.

0:21:41 > 0:21:46And someone suggested that I try writing gags.

0:21:46 > 0:21:50And I did try it after school.

0:21:50 > 0:21:52So he starts sending jokes in to the newspaper,

0:21:52 > 0:21:54and they started printing them.

0:21:57 > 0:21:59I was shocked.

0:21:59 > 0:22:01My name would suddenly appear in Walter Winchell's column

0:22:01 > 0:22:05and Earl Wilson, and there were many columnists at the time,

0:22:05 > 0:22:08Frank Farrell, Hy Gardner, Leonard Lyons.

0:22:08 > 0:22:12I did not want to appear in Broadway columns

0:22:12 > 0:22:16and in the newspapers with my own name,

0:22:16 > 0:22:18because I didn't want to go to school the next day

0:22:18 > 0:22:21and sit in my math class or my history class

0:22:21 > 0:22:23and have some guy or girl turn to me and say,

0:22:23 > 0:22:27"Hey, I saw your name in Walter Winchell's column."

0:22:27 > 0:22:29And, you know, I was shy.

0:22:29 > 0:22:32I wanted to keep my first name, Allan,

0:22:32 > 0:22:35and I just threw on the first thing that came to mind with it.

0:22:35 > 0:22:38"Woody Allen" kind of had a nice comedic ring to it,

0:22:38 > 0:22:40and it seemed that that would be

0:22:40 > 0:22:42a better guy to be signing gag lines than Allan Konigsberg.

0:22:42 > 0:22:44There was a press agent,

0:22:44 > 0:22:46a public relations man named David Alber.

0:22:46 > 0:22:48And his job was to come up with funny lines

0:22:48 > 0:22:51to put in the mouths of his clients.

0:22:51 > 0:22:54And he called up and said, "Who is this guy, Woody Allen,

0:22:54 > 0:22:57"whose name I read all the time in the columns?"

0:22:57 > 0:22:59And I think it was Earl Wilson

0:22:59 > 0:23:01at the Post at that time that said,

0:23:01 > 0:23:02"He's some kid in Brooklyn

0:23:02 > 0:23:05"who sends me these jokes after school."

0:23:05 > 0:23:08And he hired Woody to come in at 25 a week after school

0:23:08 > 0:23:09to write jokes.

0:23:09 > 0:23:13And I was doing about 50 jokes a day for a long time.

0:23:13 > 0:23:14It was not hard.

0:23:14 > 0:23:16Well, he thought he was in the heart of show business.

0:23:16 > 0:23:17And one of the people he was working with

0:23:17 > 0:23:20was a guy named Mike Merrick, who was in his early 20s.

0:23:20 > 0:23:23And Merrick had these round, black glasses.

0:23:23 > 0:23:26And I thought, "Hey, I would look good in those."

0:23:26 > 0:23:29So I bought these black-rimmed glasses

0:23:29 > 0:23:34and put them on and wore them, and never gave my glasses

0:23:34 > 0:23:36a second thought for the rest of my life.

0:23:36 > 0:23:41From there, I was asked in to write some jokes

0:23:41 > 0:23:44for the Arthur Godfrey programme,

0:23:44 > 0:23:47for Peter Lind Hayes and Mary Healy -

0:23:47 > 0:23:48they did a radio programme.

0:23:48 > 0:23:52And that eventually got to Herb Shriner,

0:23:52 > 0:23:56who was a wonderful comedian, and I wrote for him.

0:23:56 > 0:23:57And I never really stopped.

0:23:57 > 0:23:59I was never out of work.

0:23:59 > 0:24:01By the time he was 16 or 17,

0:24:01 > 0:24:03he was making more than his parents,

0:24:03 > 0:24:07and has been regularly employed every day of his life since.

0:24:07 > 0:24:10CLARINET PLAYING JAZZ

0:24:10 > 0:24:12This is where I work.

0:24:14 > 0:24:18My house is always full of clarinet reeds everyplace.

0:24:18 > 0:24:20I bought this when I was 16.

0:24:20 > 0:24:23It still works like a tank.

0:24:23 > 0:24:28And it's a German typewriter, and it's an Olympia portable.

0:24:28 > 0:24:30I've had it my whole life.

0:24:30 > 0:24:33It cost me 40, I think.

0:24:33 > 0:24:37The guy told me it would be around long after my death.

0:24:37 > 0:24:42And I've typed everything that I've ever written -

0:24:42 > 0:24:44every script, every New Yorker piece,

0:24:44 > 0:24:47everything I've ever done, on this typewriter.

0:24:47 > 0:24:49It used to have a metal piece on top, covering this,

0:24:49 > 0:24:53which I lost 30 years ago.

0:24:53 > 0:24:56One advantage, obviously, to a word processor is,

0:24:56 > 0:24:58you can electronically cut and paste.

0:24:58 > 0:24:59What do you do when you have to cut and paste?

0:24:59 > 0:25:04If I'm typing something, I have my scissors here,

0:25:04 > 0:25:07and I have a lot of these things,

0:25:07 > 0:25:09these little stapling machines.

0:25:09 > 0:25:13So if I'm typing something,

0:25:13 > 0:25:16I type the part that looks like this.

0:25:16 > 0:25:20You know, nobody can really type my stuff.

0:25:20 > 0:25:23It looks terrible on the page,

0:25:23 > 0:25:25so I have to type it, because I have arrows

0:25:25 > 0:25:28and all kinds of things. But when I come to a nice part,

0:25:28 > 0:25:31then I cut that part off

0:25:31 > 0:25:35and staple it onto something else with this.

0:25:35 > 0:25:37It's very primitive, I know.

0:25:37 > 0:25:41But it works very well for me, and I can type.

0:25:41 > 0:25:43You know, I mean, I can touch-type.

0:25:43 > 0:25:46So there's no problem.

0:25:48 > 0:25:50Woody dated a lot,

0:25:50 > 0:25:53but didn't really bring, that I recall,

0:25:53 > 0:25:58didn't really bring girls home until he was dating Harlene,

0:25:58 > 0:26:00whom he eventually married.

0:26:00 > 0:26:02And he was very young.

0:26:02 > 0:26:04He was, I think, about 17,

0:26:04 > 0:26:05and then 18 when he married her.

0:26:05 > 0:26:07It's funny - when you're really young,

0:26:07 > 0:26:12you know, you go out and you go to the movies and you go bowling

0:26:12 > 0:26:14and you go to the drive-ins,

0:26:14 > 0:26:18and then there's nowhere to go but to get married.

0:26:18 > 0:26:20You don't know what else to do. We've done everything.

0:26:20 > 0:26:21We've eaten at all the restaurants,

0:26:21 > 0:26:24and we've, you know, we've seen the movies

0:26:24 > 0:26:27and been to the theatre, the ball games,

0:26:27 > 0:26:30so what else is there to do?

0:26:30 > 0:26:33It's eight o'clock, let's get married.

0:26:33 > 0:26:36So we got, you know, we got married.

0:26:36 > 0:26:38And we were both kids.

0:26:38 > 0:26:41And it served a very good function for both of us.

0:26:41 > 0:26:44It got us out of our parents' homes.

0:26:44 > 0:26:46It got us up on our feet.

0:26:46 > 0:26:49And I suddenly found that I was 20 years old.

0:26:49 > 0:26:51I was married and had responsibilities,

0:26:51 > 0:26:54but we just, you know,

0:26:54 > 0:26:56were too young to have a lifetime together.

0:26:56 > 0:27:03I married a very immature woman, and it didn't work out.

0:27:03 > 0:27:05See if this is not immature to you.

0:27:05 > 0:27:09I would be home, in the bathroom, taking a bath,

0:27:09 > 0:27:13and my wife would walk right in whenever she felt like,

0:27:13 > 0:27:15and sink my boats.

0:27:15 > 0:27:19LAUGHTER

0:27:19 > 0:27:22In 1956, after writing for a number of comics,

0:27:22 > 0:27:25Woody gets an opportunity to go to Tamiment.

0:27:25 > 0:27:29It's a resort in the Poconos that specialises in theatre.

0:27:29 > 0:27:32People would flood up there Friday nights

0:27:32 > 0:27:34and stay for the weekends.

0:27:34 > 0:27:38And they had a staff of writers,

0:27:38 > 0:27:41dancers, directors, choreographers,

0:27:41 > 0:27:45who would put on an original live revue show

0:27:45 > 0:27:47every single week.

0:27:47 > 0:27:49I was advised to go there,

0:27:49 > 0:27:52because you really get experience

0:27:52 > 0:27:54writing for a live audience,

0:27:54 > 0:27:57how to write not just individual jokes but, you know,

0:27:57 > 0:28:01five-minute sketches, three-minute sketches, eight-minute sketches.

0:28:01 > 0:28:04So, I went and I did three summers there.

0:28:04 > 0:28:07The first summer, I wrote sketches.

0:28:07 > 0:28:09The second summer, I wrote sketches and directed them.

0:28:09 > 0:28:12And the third summer, I wrote sketches and directed them.

0:28:12 > 0:28:14You know, you couldn't sit in a room

0:28:14 > 0:28:18waiting for your muse to come and tickle you.

0:28:18 > 0:28:22Monday morning came, there was a dress rehearsal Thursday.

0:28:22 > 0:28:26You had to get that thing written.

0:28:26 > 0:28:29And it was gruelling, but you learned to write.

0:28:29 > 0:28:33And from there, I managed to go

0:28:33 > 0:28:36directly to The Sid Caesar Show.

0:28:36 > 0:28:40Sid was an acknowledged comic genius,

0:28:40 > 0:28:44and everybody wanted to write for him.

0:28:44 > 0:28:49And suddenly, I got hired, and I was just, you know,

0:28:49 > 0:28:5020, 21 years old.

0:28:50 > 0:28:54And I found myself writing with Mel Brooks

0:28:54 > 0:28:57and writing with Larry Gelbart and Mel Tolkin.

0:28:57 > 0:28:59Why don't you try to go upstairs

0:28:59 > 0:29:00and get some rest, huh?

0:29:00 > 0:29:02I said, "My God, I'm writing for Sid Caesar."

0:29:02 > 0:29:05And it was a great experience in my life.

0:29:05 > 0:29:08Best not to take any of the rooms upstairs,

0:29:08 > 0:29:11because they all have memories of Cecily.

0:29:11 > 0:29:13John, please, we have to talk about this.

0:29:13 > 0:29:15- You can't live in a mansion... - Don't sit in that chair!

0:29:15 > 0:29:17Cecily used to sit in that chair.

0:29:17 > 0:29:19It's like sitting on a memory.

0:29:19 > 0:29:20John, please, this is...

0:29:20 > 0:29:23Don't sit on that chair!

0:29:23 > 0:29:24She used to put her feet on that chair

0:29:24 > 0:29:26when she sat in that chair.

0:29:26 > 0:29:29She was a very long girl.

0:29:29 > 0:29:32JAZZ PLAYING

0:29:34 > 0:29:39At that time, Jack Rollins and Charles Joffe

0:29:39 > 0:29:40had a management business,

0:29:40 > 0:29:44and they were the Rolls-Royce of management.

0:29:44 > 0:29:46They were the ones that everybody wanted to go with.

0:29:46 > 0:29:51And Woody said, would Charlie and I

0:29:51 > 0:29:53be interested in him as a writer?

0:29:53 > 0:29:55And I explained to him

0:29:55 > 0:29:59that we had never handled writers as such.

0:29:59 > 0:30:02We handled actors and personalities.

0:30:02 > 0:30:06Well, we asked him to read something that he did.

0:30:06 > 0:30:10And Jack and I thought he was hilarious.

0:30:10 > 0:30:12He had never performed in his life.

0:30:12 > 0:30:17And both of us just jumped and said,

0:30:17 > 0:30:19"Don't let this guy out of the office."

0:30:19 > 0:30:22The writing was fine, but he wanted me to be a comic.

0:30:22 > 0:30:24He just felt I could be a comic.

0:30:24 > 0:30:28Woody never dreamed of being a comic.

0:30:28 > 0:30:30He was a writer.

0:30:30 > 0:30:33And it was not easy.

0:30:33 > 0:30:35And he said to me, and I remember this so clearly,

0:30:35 > 0:30:39he said, "Do me a favour, just trust me.

0:30:39 > 0:30:44"You just work and don't think about it,

0:30:44 > 0:30:46"and let me think about it.

0:30:46 > 0:30:48"Do what I tell you.

0:30:48 > 0:30:52"And let's look up in a year and see where you are."

0:30:52 > 0:30:55If you take my advice, I think you're going to become

0:30:55 > 0:30:57one of the great balloon-folding acts of all time,

0:30:57 > 0:30:59really, cos I don't see you

0:30:59 > 0:31:00just folding these balloons in joints.

0:31:00 > 0:31:02You know, you're going to - you listen to me,

0:31:02 > 0:31:03you're going to fold these balloons

0:31:03 > 0:31:05at universities and colleges.

0:31:05 > 0:31:06You're going to - you're going to make

0:31:06 > 0:31:09your snail and your elephant on Broadway.

0:31:09 > 0:31:11You know what I mean? But the thing to remember is

0:31:11 > 0:31:12before you go out on stage,

0:31:12 > 0:31:14you got to look in the mirror,

0:31:14 > 0:31:15you got to say your three S's -

0:31:15 > 0:31:18star, smile, strong.

0:31:18 > 0:31:21Star, smile, strong.

0:31:21 > 0:31:23When you looked at the popular comedians of the time,

0:31:23 > 0:31:26Mort Sahl was completely influential for Woody.

0:31:26 > 0:31:30He was just amazing.

0:31:30 > 0:31:33Everything about him was different,

0:31:33 > 0:31:39the way he dressed, the way he spoke, his vocabulary,

0:31:39 > 0:31:42and the references were all the things

0:31:42 > 0:31:45that everybody was truly interested in -

0:31:45 > 0:31:48artistic things and politics

0:31:48 > 0:31:51and the flourishing of psychotherapy at the time,

0:31:51 > 0:31:54and everything was so fresh and brilliant.

0:31:54 > 0:31:57Oh, Richard Nixon's trip to Russia.

0:31:57 > 0:31:59He's going to Russia, and he said

0:31:59 > 0:32:02he hopes he gets along with them, and so...

0:32:02 > 0:32:04Actually, you know, if he doesn't get along with them,

0:32:04 > 0:32:06he'll kind of be in trouble, because, you know, you can't -

0:32:06 > 0:32:07he can't call anybody a Communist

0:32:07 > 0:32:09and hurt their career over there, you know.

0:32:09 > 0:32:11LAUGHTER

0:32:11 > 0:32:14CHEERS AND APPLAUSE

0:32:14 > 0:32:16Sahl was the light that goes off with an idea for Woody.

0:32:16 > 0:32:18He'd say, "Oh, you know, gee.

0:32:18 > 0:32:20"This might be something that I can do.

0:32:20 > 0:32:23"I can't be Mort Sahl, but I can do what Mort Sahl does.

0:32:23 > 0:32:25"I can engage the audience in a different way than I've -

0:32:25 > 0:32:26"than I've seen it before."

0:32:26 > 0:32:29The first night I ever worked as a comic

0:32:29 > 0:32:31was at the Blue Angel.

0:32:31 > 0:32:35One day somebody said, "There's a kid appearing -

0:32:35 > 0:32:36"there's a lot of talk about him,

0:32:36 > 0:32:38"at the Blue Angel in New York" -

0:32:38 > 0:32:41it's one of the great chic old nightclubs of New York fame -

0:32:41 > 0:32:43"And why don't you go check him out?"

0:32:43 > 0:32:45I didn't know what to expect, and I went to the Blue Angel,

0:32:45 > 0:32:49and this somewhat gnomish man came out, and he began to talk.

0:32:49 > 0:32:54And I realised, as line after line after line went by,

0:32:54 > 0:32:55each of these is better

0:32:55 > 0:32:58than any line any comic in the business has.

0:32:58 > 0:33:03And the audience began to talk among themselves.

0:33:03 > 0:33:06That's how it was, and there was a comedian on stage.

0:33:06 > 0:33:07I wanted to kill them.

0:33:07 > 0:33:09He was so shy.

0:33:09 > 0:33:13He was so unused to being in front of an audience

0:33:13 > 0:33:16that he would tie the mic cord around his neck.

0:33:16 > 0:33:17He would frighten people.

0:33:17 > 0:33:20They thought he would choke himself.

0:33:20 > 0:33:22He was a non-performer.

0:33:22 > 0:33:25He could hardly talk to people,

0:33:25 > 0:33:27never mind perform for them.

0:33:27 > 0:33:30And some nights he was god-awful,

0:33:30 > 0:33:33but other nights he was absolutely brilliant.

0:33:33 > 0:33:35I must pause for one fast second

0:33:35 > 0:33:37and say a fast word about oral contraception.

0:33:37 > 0:33:40LAUGHTER

0:33:40 > 0:33:44I was involved in an extremely good example

0:33:44 > 0:33:47of oral contraception two weeks ago.

0:33:47 > 0:33:50I asked a girl to go to bed with me and she said, "No."

0:33:50 > 0:33:55LAUGHTER

0:34:00 > 0:34:04If you're a joke maker, it's hard not to make jokes.

0:34:04 > 0:34:06Do you know what I mean?

0:34:06 > 0:34:08Like, I'm always amazed when I see somebody

0:34:08 > 0:34:10that can draw a horse.

0:34:10 > 0:34:13I can't figure out how they can possibly do it,

0:34:13 > 0:34:15because, you know, they actually reproduce the horse

0:34:15 > 0:34:17with a pencil and paper, and it's terrific.

0:34:17 > 0:34:20Now, I can't draw a horse or anything else,

0:34:20 > 0:34:23but I can write jokes,

0:34:23 > 0:34:25and it's hard not to write them.

0:34:25 > 0:34:27I mean, if I walk down the street, it's almost -

0:34:27 > 0:34:29it's like my normal conversation.

0:34:29 > 0:34:32You know, it just comes out that way.

0:34:32 > 0:34:34Do you know what I mean?

0:34:34 > 0:34:37I played the Blue Angel and played some places,

0:34:37 > 0:34:40and then someone told me about this place

0:34:40 > 0:34:42called the Bitter End on Bleecker Street.

0:34:42 > 0:34:45I opened the Bitter End in 1961.

0:34:45 > 0:34:48It was located on Bleecker Street

0:34:48 > 0:34:50near West Broadway.

0:34:50 > 0:34:52The uptown clubs were completely different.

0:34:52 > 0:34:55In the Village, there was just coffee shop kinds of places,

0:34:55 > 0:34:58and the acts that were starting to happen were the folk acts.

0:34:58 > 0:35:00Peter, Paul and Mary, of course, broke it wide open.

0:35:00 > 0:35:03The Village in the '60s was the time

0:35:03 > 0:35:05when sort of everything was happening.

0:35:05 > 0:35:09It was a time when the Beats were very popular.

0:35:09 > 0:35:12The pill came along.

0:35:12 > 0:35:14The mixing of the races was starting there,

0:35:14 > 0:35:16and Kennedy was elected.

0:35:16 > 0:35:21And the Village was sparked like it hadn't been since the 1920s.

0:35:21 > 0:35:23And some nights they'd play my club

0:35:23 > 0:35:26and run down over to another club.

0:35:26 > 0:35:28There were four or five different ones.

0:35:28 > 0:35:32You didn't get paid, but you had a place to work.

0:35:32 > 0:35:36And I would go down there every night with Jack and do my act.

0:35:36 > 0:35:38Jack says, "Wait till you see him,"

0:35:38 > 0:35:43and he went on, and he didn't make it at all.

0:35:43 > 0:35:46Nobody understood. They didn't get it.

0:35:46 > 0:35:48And then Jack came over, and he said,

0:35:48 > 0:35:49"See? He's an industry!"

0:35:49 > 0:35:52That was the first three words Jack said

0:35:52 > 0:35:54when he came off the stage.

0:35:54 > 0:35:56"He's an industry."

0:35:56 > 0:35:58Pretty soon, it became apparent

0:35:58 > 0:36:01that he was a completely unique

0:36:01 > 0:36:06new face and a voice on the scene.

0:36:06 > 0:36:10For the first year of marriage, I had what you would call

0:36:10 > 0:36:12a bad basic attitude toward my wife.

0:36:12 > 0:36:15I tended to place my wife underneath a pedestal

0:36:15 > 0:36:17all the time.

0:36:17 > 0:36:20And we used to argue and fight,

0:36:20 > 0:36:22and we finally decided that we would either

0:36:22 > 0:36:25take a vacation in Bermuda or get a divorce,

0:36:25 > 0:36:26one of the two things.

0:36:26 > 0:36:28And we discussed it very maturely,

0:36:28 > 0:36:30and we decided finally on the divorce,

0:36:30 > 0:36:33cos we felt that we had a limited amount of money

0:36:33 > 0:36:37to spend on something, and that a vacation in Bermuda

0:36:37 > 0:36:39is over in two weeks, you know,

0:36:39 > 0:36:43but a divorce is something that you always have, you know, so...

0:36:43 > 0:36:45But it turns out, in New York State,

0:36:45 > 0:36:47they have a very funny law

0:36:47 > 0:36:49that says you can't get a divorce

0:36:49 > 0:36:52unless you can prove adultery.

0:36:52 > 0:36:54And that's very strange, because the Ten Commandments say,

0:36:54 > 0:36:57"Thou shalt not commit adultery."

0:36:57 > 0:37:00But New York State says you have to.

0:37:00 > 0:37:03LAUGHTER

0:37:03 > 0:37:06CHEERS AND APPLAUSE

0:37:08 > 0:37:10I said, "Is it hard for you?"

0:37:10 > 0:37:13He said he was suffering doing this act.

0:37:13 > 0:37:15He was not a performer, really.

0:37:15 > 0:37:18He vomited a few times, he said,

0:37:18 > 0:37:21without any trace of humour in delivering that line,

0:37:21 > 0:37:23that it really was hard.

0:37:23 > 0:37:28Charlie and I would have to literally

0:37:28 > 0:37:30shove him onto the stage

0:37:30 > 0:37:33to do his little act.

0:37:33 > 0:37:36I kept saying, "I'm not funny. I'm not a comic."

0:37:36 > 0:37:38You know, "I can't do this.

0:37:38 > 0:37:40"I hate it. I don't like the hours.

0:37:40 > 0:37:44"I'm shy, and, you know, I don't like standing in front of an audience."

0:37:44 > 0:37:45I mean, there was nothing about it I liked.

0:37:45 > 0:37:48I mean, I kept saying, "I want to quit. I want to quit."

0:37:48 > 0:37:51And Jack said, "Give it a little time, a little time."

0:37:51 > 0:37:56I think his common sense told him that if he breaks through

0:37:56 > 0:37:59on the level of the performer,

0:37:59 > 0:38:03it will be a useful thing for him.

0:38:03 > 0:38:07And then one night, he just bounded up on the stage,

0:38:07 > 0:38:09and it was Woody.

0:38:09 > 0:38:12He told the same jokes, and they worked.

0:38:12 > 0:38:15And the audience really liked it.

0:38:15 > 0:38:17The telephone company has this service

0:38:17 > 0:38:20for emotionally disturbed types called Dial-a-Prayer.

0:38:20 > 0:38:22LAUGHTER

0:38:22 > 0:38:24They have a number that you dial if you are an atheist,

0:38:24 > 0:38:27and you don't hear anything on the other end of the phone.

0:38:27 > 0:38:30LAUGHTER

0:38:33 > 0:38:35When Woody was there about four or six weeks,

0:38:35 > 0:38:39there was an article in the Times saying,

0:38:39 > 0:38:41"You gotta come down to the Bitter End.

0:38:41 > 0:38:44"You gotta see this new performer. He's great."

0:38:44 > 0:38:46And he raved about him.

0:38:46 > 0:38:48It was the first great review

0:38:48 > 0:38:50that Woody got from the New York Times.

0:38:50 > 0:38:52I was real excited about it.

0:38:52 > 0:38:54There were lines outside the block

0:38:54 > 0:38:56that went all the way down to McDougal Street.

0:38:56 > 0:38:59Newspapers started to become interested in me

0:38:59 > 0:39:02and send reporters down to do stories,

0:39:02 > 0:39:05and other nightclub owners would come and watch

0:39:05 > 0:39:08and book me for places,

0:39:08 > 0:39:11and television people would come down and book me on the TV shows.

0:39:11 > 0:39:13I was kidnapped once.

0:39:13 > 0:39:15Listen to this story.

0:39:15 > 0:39:18I was standing by my schoolyard,

0:39:18 > 0:39:22and a black sedan pulled up, and two guys got out,

0:39:22 > 0:39:24and they asked me if I wanted to go away with them

0:39:24 > 0:39:27to a land where everybody was fairies and elves and...

0:39:27 > 0:39:29I could have all the comic books I wanted

0:39:29 > 0:39:32and Tootsie Rolls and chocolate buttons

0:39:32 > 0:39:35and wax lips, you know, and...

0:39:35 > 0:39:38I said yes.

0:39:38 > 0:39:39I got into their car with them,

0:39:39 > 0:39:41you know, because - I figured, "What the heck?"

0:39:41 > 0:39:43You know, I was home that weekend from college anyhow.

0:39:43 > 0:39:46LAUGHTER

0:39:46 > 0:39:48CHEERS AND APPLAUSE

0:39:48 > 0:39:52He had a heavy television exposure,

0:39:52 > 0:39:56and that, of course, is what builds national figures.

0:39:56 > 0:39:59LAUGHTER

0:40:02 > 0:40:06In terms of those jobs, nothing was beneath me.

0:40:06 > 0:40:09I boxed a kangaroo.

0:40:11 > 0:40:15I sang Little Sir Echo with a talking dog.

0:40:15 > 0:40:19# Little Sir Echo, how do you do?

0:40:19 > 0:40:20# Hello

0:40:20 > 0:40:23WHINES # Hell-hello

0:40:23 > 0:40:25WHINES

0:40:25 > 0:40:27He sang in rehearsal.

0:40:27 > 0:40:29'This was part of Jack Rollins' game plan,

0:40:29 > 0:40:32'cos Jack's theory was'

0:40:32 > 0:40:35to saturate the country with me as much as he could,

0:40:35 > 0:40:37so I would be a household name.

0:40:37 > 0:40:41Once he was on a prime-time show starring Perry Como,

0:40:41 > 0:40:44and it was a big production number,

0:40:44 > 0:40:50and as the scene opened, "Woody" was spelled in 15-foot letters

0:40:50 > 0:40:52in the background, backlighted,

0:40:52 > 0:40:56and he came on in tails and twirling a cane and top hat.

0:40:56 > 0:40:58And I remember his saying,

0:40:58 > 0:41:01"I thought I would have a heart attack backstage

0:41:01 > 0:41:03"before going on."

0:41:03 > 0:41:06# Now here you certainly are

0:41:06 > 0:41:09# Yes, now when I dash along the boulevard... #

0:41:09 > 0:41:13'And I remember the columnist Jack O'Brian,

0:41:13 > 0:41:16'who was a huge, huge supporter of mine,'

0:41:16 > 0:41:20he said, "You know, we always use superlatives

0:41:20 > 0:41:21"when we write about Woody.

0:41:21 > 0:41:24"And I've got to say he is the worst singer

0:41:24 > 0:41:26"that I've ever heard in my life."

0:41:26 > 0:41:32And I'm sure I was, because - but it didn't matter.

0:41:32 > 0:41:37This was all part of what Jack wanted.

0:41:37 > 0:41:43He wanted me to seep into the pores of the multitude.

0:41:43 > 0:41:45And he did that for a few years

0:41:45 > 0:41:47and was making good success at it,

0:41:47 > 0:41:49and he became very popular on The Tonight Show.

0:41:49 > 0:41:50Johnny Carson loved him.

0:41:50 > 0:41:52He performed on there many times,

0:41:52 > 0:41:54was the guest host on a number of occasions,

0:41:54 > 0:41:58and then also began appearing with Dick Cavett on his show on ABC.

0:41:58 > 0:42:01And what's wonderful about those shows was

0:42:01 > 0:42:04you could see that the two of them knew and liked each other

0:42:04 > 0:42:06and really enjoyed playing off the other.

0:42:06 > 0:42:08I would always grin

0:42:08 > 0:42:10when I could look and see him in the wings

0:42:10 > 0:42:12about to come out, cos I knew we were going to have fun.

0:42:12 > 0:42:15And he did seem to enjoy doing the show.

0:42:15 > 0:42:19LAUGHTER AND APPLAUSE

0:42:25 > 0:42:26All right.

0:42:26 > 0:42:30Woody's improv skill deserves to be legendary.

0:42:30 > 0:42:34And on the air, I would throw something at Woody

0:42:34 > 0:42:37and dare him to give examples of something,

0:42:37 > 0:42:40and he would instantly go into something that ranked

0:42:40 > 0:42:43with the very best of Second City's vaunted improvisers.

0:42:43 > 0:42:47The British in India invented the game called poona.

0:42:47 > 0:42:49Ah, I've played it.

0:42:49 > 0:42:51Well, then good, because the question is,

0:42:51 > 0:42:54is the game still played? And if so, how?

0:42:54 > 0:42:58Um, it requires two consenting adults to play the game.

0:42:58 > 0:42:59LAUGHTER

0:42:59 > 0:43:03And one is the pooner, and one is the poonee.

0:43:03 > 0:43:06APPLAUSE

0:43:09 > 0:43:11I don't know if we need to go on with this or not.

0:43:11 > 0:43:13You spin a dial,

0:43:13 > 0:43:16and you can advance two squares if you like,

0:43:16 > 0:43:19and you have to yell out, "Poonee! Poonee!"

0:43:19 > 0:43:21And then they give you paper money,

0:43:21 > 0:43:23or "scrip", as it's called.

0:43:23 > 0:43:26And then you smear butter on the person you're playing with

0:43:26 > 0:43:29and recite the word "nutmeg" seven times.

0:43:29 > 0:43:31- CAVETT LAUGHS - That's uncanny.

0:43:31 > 0:43:36Yes. First one to reach the - the poonatorium is the winner.

0:43:36 > 0:43:38LAUGHTER

0:43:38 > 0:43:43It was just brilliant, and he could do that anywhere, any time.

0:43:43 > 0:43:46Who was the first movie star that you met?

0:43:46 > 0:43:47Can you remember?

0:43:47 > 0:43:49Uh, yes.

0:43:49 > 0:43:51I met Trigger,

0:43:51 > 0:43:55who was Roy Rogers' horse, at a party.

0:43:55 > 0:43:57Actually, I picked him up at a party,

0:43:57 > 0:43:59and we had an ongoing relationship

0:43:59 > 0:44:03for two years after that, which I'm very proud of.

0:44:03 > 0:44:05Did you ever meet Roy Rogers at that time?

0:44:05 > 0:44:07No, I had no interest in meeting Roy Rogers.

0:44:07 > 0:44:11But I loved living with his horse.

0:44:13 > 0:44:15But what about the smell?

0:44:15 > 0:44:17He didn't mind that so much.

0:44:19 > 0:44:20There was one time

0:44:20 > 0:44:22I had a show that was mostly Woody,

0:44:22 > 0:44:26and then the great Ruth Gordon came out, in her 70s.

0:44:26 > 0:44:30And as a surprise, Gina Lollobrigida appeared,

0:44:30 > 0:44:31looking glamorous.

0:44:31 > 0:44:34- Do you know Mr Allen? - He's very funny.

0:44:34 > 0:44:37Thank you. I was just figuring out... LAUGHTER

0:44:37 > 0:44:39I was just sitting here trying to figure which -

0:44:39 > 0:44:41how are we going to split 'em up, you know - who gets which one?

0:44:41 > 0:44:45CHEERS AND APPLAUSE

0:44:45 > 0:44:49How Woody got into the movies was, when he was playing

0:44:49 > 0:44:54the Blue Angel, we had a lot of stars come in to see him.

0:44:54 > 0:44:59Shirley Maclaine brought in a friend of hers,

0:44:59 > 0:45:00Charles K Feldman,

0:45:00 > 0:45:03who was one of the all-time

0:45:03 > 0:45:05Hollywood motion picture producers.

0:45:05 > 0:45:07So the great Charles K Feldman

0:45:07 > 0:45:10was very taken with Woody's work,

0:45:10 > 0:45:12you know, wisely.

0:45:12 > 0:45:15And the next thing I knew, Monday morning,

0:45:15 > 0:45:20they offered me 20,000 to write

0:45:20 > 0:45:24the script of "What's New Pussycat?"

0:45:24 > 0:45:27I wrote it and wrote a small part for myself in it.

0:45:27 > 0:45:32That was his first entrance into motion picture world.

0:45:34 > 0:45:36Yeah.

0:45:36 > 0:45:38- Absinthe. - Coffee.

0:45:38 > 0:45:40Mineral water.

0:45:40 > 0:45:42Did you find a job?

0:45:42 > 0:45:44Yeah, I got something at the striptease.

0:45:44 > 0:45:46I help the girls dress and undress.

0:45:46 > 0:45:47Nice job.

0:45:47 > 0:45:4820 francs a week.

0:45:48 > 0:45:50Not very much.

0:45:50 > 0:45:51It's all I can afford.

0:45:53 > 0:45:58They hired a very lovely director, Clive Donner,

0:45:58 > 0:46:01a very nice man and good director, to do it,

0:46:01 > 0:46:04but the studio would not leave him alone.

0:46:04 > 0:46:07They had their hand in every pie,

0:46:07 > 0:46:13and so they were taking my script and mangling it.

0:46:13 > 0:46:15There are places where Woody shines through,

0:46:15 > 0:46:18but his work, which had always been successful,

0:46:18 > 0:46:20was suddenly in the hands of someone else.

0:46:20 > 0:46:25He had no leverage whatsoever in what went on.

0:46:25 > 0:46:28And he found that the script that he had presented

0:46:28 > 0:46:32had turned into this antic farce that was just really

0:46:32 > 0:46:34the antithesis of Woody's comedy.

0:46:34 > 0:46:39I have often said that if I could've directed that,

0:46:39 > 0:46:41you know, it would've been

0:46:41 > 0:46:44a much, much, much funnier picture

0:46:44 > 0:46:46but made much less money.

0:46:46 > 0:46:49The film was so financially successful

0:46:49 > 0:46:51that I think it was the greatest,

0:46:51 > 0:46:53biggest-grossing comedy to that date.

0:46:53 > 0:46:55It was a boring picture, as I recall.

0:46:55 > 0:46:56I rather enjoyed it.

0:46:56 > 0:46:58Yes, but you're mistaken.

0:46:58 > 0:46:59Charlie Joffe kept saying,

0:46:59 > 0:47:01"You know, settle down, settle down.

0:47:01 > 0:47:02"You're acting in a movie,

0:47:02 > 0:47:03"you're getting your credit on this,

0:47:03 > 0:47:05"you're going to be able to go forward from this."

0:47:05 > 0:47:07I knew Woody was going to continue

0:47:07 > 0:47:10to make films after that experience.

0:47:10 > 0:47:13And I knew it was not going to be for Charles Feldman.

0:47:13 > 0:47:15I mean, I didn't even go see it.

0:47:15 > 0:47:18I just was so angry at the whole thing,

0:47:18 > 0:47:21vowed never to work in movies again

0:47:21 > 0:47:22unless I could be the director

0:47:22 > 0:47:24and have control, not just the director.

0:47:24 > 0:47:27And the great lesson that came out of that

0:47:27 > 0:47:29was the sense of, nobody was ever

0:47:29 > 0:47:30going to mess with his stuff again.

0:47:30 > 0:47:32The next thing I did was,

0:47:32 > 0:47:36I wrote a script with my school friend Mickey Rose

0:47:36 > 0:47:37for Take The Money And Run.

0:47:37 > 0:47:42The only way I wanted to get it on was me directing that.

0:47:42 > 0:47:45At that time, I knew nothing about producing,

0:47:45 > 0:47:49so I wanted to learn to do it so we could control it,

0:47:49 > 0:47:53keep the control as close to us as we could.

0:47:53 > 0:47:57And Jack was instrumental in making a deal for him

0:47:57 > 0:48:00after that, where he didn't spend a lot of money

0:48:00 > 0:48:02but he had control of the film.

0:48:02 > 0:48:05We sold 'em the idea that if you want Woody,

0:48:05 > 0:48:09you must understand how to work with him,

0:48:09 > 0:48:12which is, leave him alone.

0:48:12 > 0:48:15He's doing the movie and he's doing it his way,

0:48:15 > 0:48:18and nobody is going to ask questions,

0:48:18 > 0:48:20and nobody is going to interfere with him

0:48:20 > 0:48:23and get him tripped up in any way.

0:48:23 > 0:48:25He wants no contact with anybody.

0:48:25 > 0:48:29That's what we got in our contract.

0:48:31 > 0:48:34LAUGHING

0:48:34 > 0:48:39He was going the next day to direct his very first thing,

0:48:39 > 0:48:40and he was nervous about it.

0:48:40 > 0:48:43And I walk into the bedroom, and he's sitting on the bed,

0:48:43 > 0:48:46you know, with legs up, how you sit on the bed and read?

0:48:46 > 0:48:51And on the front of the book it says, "How To Direct."

0:48:51 > 0:48:54I didn't know the first thing about filmmaking or -

0:48:54 > 0:48:56not the first thing. I knew this, though,

0:48:56 > 0:48:59that it was going to be a pseudo-documentary in style.

0:48:59 > 0:49:03So I had a structure to hang on to right from the start.

0:49:03 > 0:49:05- NARRATOR:- Virgil steals to pay for cello lessons.

0:49:05 > 0:49:08And although he does not achieve greatness on the instrument,

0:49:08 > 0:49:11he is soon good enough to play in a local band.

0:49:23 > 0:49:24Take The Money And Run

0:49:24 > 0:49:27I saw when I was in the army.

0:49:27 > 0:49:28It was playing on the base.

0:49:28 > 0:49:32And, of course, I had just been through like the worst hell

0:49:32 > 0:49:33I'd ever been through in my life.

0:49:33 > 0:49:35Like six, I can't even -

0:49:35 > 0:49:37like, they were firing bullets over my head,

0:49:37 > 0:49:38I was crawling on the ground, I was in basic training.

0:49:38 > 0:49:41So, all of a sudden, we get this break

0:49:41 > 0:49:43that we can go to the movies.

0:49:43 > 0:49:46You know, after being in the army

0:49:46 > 0:49:47and going to see that movie,

0:49:47 > 0:49:50it was the most exhilarating,

0:49:50 > 0:49:52amazing experience to just be able

0:49:52 > 0:49:54to sit there and laugh like that

0:49:54 > 0:49:55after the hell that I'd been through.

0:49:55 > 0:49:58And I always thought that, "Oh, boy."

0:49:58 > 0:50:01And I thought, "Boy, I got a connection to this guy."

0:50:07 > 0:50:10What does this say?

0:50:10 > 0:50:12Ahem! Can't you read that?

0:50:12 > 0:50:16I can't read this. What's this? "Act natural"?

0:50:16 > 0:50:19No, it says,

0:50:19 > 0:50:21"Please put 50,000 into this bag and act natural."

0:50:21 > 0:50:25It does say "act natural."

0:50:25 > 0:50:28"I am pointing a gun at you."

0:50:28 > 0:50:30That looks like "gub."

0:50:30 > 0:50:32That doesn't look like "gun."

0:50:32 > 0:50:33No, it's "gun."

0:50:33 > 0:50:36No, that's "gub." That's a "b."

0:50:36 > 0:50:38No. See, that's an "n." It's g-u-n.

0:50:38 > 0:50:40It's "gun."

0:50:40 > 0:50:42George, would you

0:50:42 > 0:50:43step over here a moment, please?

0:50:43 > 0:50:47What does this say?

0:50:47 > 0:50:50"Please put 50,000

0:50:50 > 0:50:53"into this bag and abt natural."

0:50:53 > 0:50:55- What's "abt"? - It's "act."

0:50:55 > 0:50:58Does this - does this look like "gub" or "gun"?

0:50:58 > 0:51:00"Gun."

0:51:00 > 0:51:02- See? - But what's "abt" mean?

0:51:02 > 0:51:04It's "act," a-c-t. "Act natural."

0:51:04 > 0:51:07Please put 50,000 into this bag.

0:51:07 > 0:51:09Act natural.

0:51:09 > 0:51:10Oh, I see.

0:51:10 > 0:51:12- This is a hold-up? - Yes.

0:51:12 > 0:51:14May I see your gun?

0:51:14 > 0:51:16Oh.

0:51:18 > 0:51:20Well, you'll have to have this note

0:51:20 > 0:51:22initialled by one of our vice presidents

0:51:22 > 0:51:24before I can give you any money.

0:51:26 > 0:51:28Take The Money And Run was financed by Palomar Pictures,

0:51:28 > 0:51:31which was a division of the ABC television network.

0:51:31 > 0:51:34And when it was finished, the executives looked at it

0:51:34 > 0:51:36and didn't know what to make of the film.

0:51:36 > 0:51:38And Woody said that when he was screening

0:51:38 > 0:51:41Take The Money And Run for the executives,

0:51:41 > 0:51:44that after ten minutes of the first reel,

0:51:44 > 0:51:46one of the executives leaned to him

0:51:46 > 0:51:48and said, "Is the rest like this?"

0:51:48 > 0:51:51When we showed it to Palomar,

0:51:51 > 0:51:56they suggested bringing in Ralph Rosenblum to help me.

0:51:56 > 0:51:59Ralph was a wonderful editor.

0:51:59 > 0:52:00And he came in and saw it

0:52:00 > 0:52:04and looked at all the stuff I had taken out

0:52:04 > 0:52:07and said, "You gotta put all that stuff back.

0:52:07 > 0:52:10"All that stuff is funny. Why did you take it out?"

0:52:10 > 0:52:12And I said, "Well, you know."

0:52:12 > 0:52:14He said, "You can't go, you gotta give it a fighting chance.

0:52:14 > 0:52:17"Put it in, put a piece of music behind it.

0:52:17 > 0:52:20"Show it to an audience of people."

0:52:20 > 0:52:23So we did, and Ralph was right.

0:52:23 > 0:52:26And the picture played very well.

0:52:26 > 0:52:32And it opened and was very successful, right off the bat.

0:52:32 > 0:52:34And the film launched my career.

0:52:34 > 0:52:38So from my first movie on, Take The Money And Run,

0:52:38 > 0:52:41when I certainly had done nothing

0:52:41 > 0:52:44to earn complete control, nothing,

0:52:44 > 0:52:46I had complete control,

0:52:46 > 0:52:48and have never done a movie in my life

0:52:48 > 0:52:50where I didn't have complete control of it.

0:52:50 > 0:52:53When Woody set his sights on play writing,

0:52:53 > 0:52:56he enjoyed great success with his very first stage comedy,

0:52:56 > 0:52:58called Don't Drink The Water, on Broadway,

0:52:58 > 0:53:02starring Lou Jacobi, who later turned up in some of his films.

0:53:02 > 0:53:04It had a good run.

0:53:04 > 0:53:07And in it, playing the young romantic lead,

0:53:07 > 0:53:10was an actor named Tony Roberts whom Woody befriended

0:53:10 > 0:53:13and also cast in his next play,

0:53:13 > 0:53:16which was Play It Again, Sam, in which Woody starred.

0:53:16 > 0:53:19# You must remember this... #

0:53:19 > 0:53:21It was a little

0:53:21 > 0:53:25stage play that - that I wrote many years ago,

0:53:25 > 0:53:28mostly to give myself an opportunity

0:53:28 > 0:53:29to appear on stage.

0:53:29 > 0:53:31The fact that they asked me

0:53:31 > 0:53:33to play the movie a couple years later,

0:53:33 > 0:53:35that was fine and a nice opportunity for me.

0:53:35 > 0:53:38I was very fortunate that Herb Ross directed it

0:53:38 > 0:53:39and did a very good job on it.

0:53:39 > 0:53:41I'm 29!

0:53:41 > 0:53:44The height of my sexual potency was ten years ago.

0:53:44 > 0:53:45Oh, Allen,

0:53:45 > 0:53:47look at the bright side.

0:53:47 > 0:53:48You're free.

0:53:48 > 0:53:50You'll go out. There'll be girls.

0:53:50 > 0:53:53You'll go to parties and have affairs with married women,

0:53:53 > 0:53:56sexual relations with girls of every race, creed and colour.

0:53:58 > 0:54:00Oh, you get tired of that.

0:54:00 > 0:54:03Because we were acting together in the play,

0:54:03 > 0:54:07we bonded, and we got to be friends and became close.

0:54:07 > 0:54:11And of course, Keaton was a large part of that.

0:54:11 > 0:54:14# This is the dawning of the Age of Aquarius... #

0:54:14 > 0:54:16Diane had been in Hair

0:54:16 > 0:54:18right before we started rehearsals

0:54:18 > 0:54:20for Play It Again, Sam.

0:54:20 > 0:54:22And I was very impressed with that.

0:54:22 > 0:54:25I remember that Diane was the only one

0:54:25 > 0:54:28who wouldn't take off her clothes.

0:54:28 > 0:54:30CHUCKLES

0:54:30 > 0:54:32I was sent up for Play It Again, Sam

0:54:32 > 0:54:35and I auditioned, along with a lot of young New York actresses.

0:54:35 > 0:54:37And that's what I did, I read.

0:54:37 > 0:54:39And I got the part.

0:54:39 > 0:54:41At the time, they were concerned

0:54:41 > 0:54:45because I might be too tall for Woody.

0:54:45 > 0:54:48So I got up on stage and we did that back-to-back thing

0:54:48 > 0:54:50that kids do at birthday parties,

0:54:50 > 0:54:52and we were just about the same height.

0:54:52 > 0:54:55And we looked at a number of other women during the week,

0:54:55 > 0:54:59but Keaton was in a class by herself.

0:54:59 > 0:55:00What I remember about Woody

0:55:00 > 0:55:05was that he was short, and he was cute.

0:55:05 > 0:55:08And that's what I remembered about Woody on that day,

0:55:08 > 0:55:11was just that, "Oh, my God, he is..."

0:55:11 > 0:55:15I - you know, I just had a big crush, instantly.

0:55:15 > 0:55:19The three of us had a good time together.

0:55:19 > 0:55:22We got along very well. We had a lot of fun.

0:55:22 > 0:55:24One of the things that I always remember

0:55:24 > 0:55:26is that, you know, Woody seemed to have

0:55:26 > 0:55:27no discipline onstage.

0:55:27 > 0:55:31And he would sometimes do his impression of James Earl Jones

0:55:31 > 0:55:33while we were supposed to be doing it during a matinee,

0:55:33 > 0:55:36and I would crack up and destroy the scene.

0:55:36 > 0:55:38That was always a lot of fun,

0:55:38 > 0:55:40and we would hang out and eat dinner together,

0:55:40 > 0:55:41and that's how I really got to know him.

0:55:41 > 0:55:46My game plan was really to force Woody to like me.

0:55:46 > 0:55:49So I was always plotting and scheming about how he could grow

0:55:49 > 0:55:51to see me as an attractive woman.

0:55:51 > 0:55:53I was always directing my attentions

0:55:53 > 0:55:55to "How can I make him like me more?"

0:55:55 > 0:55:58Now, tell her she has the most irresistible eyes

0:55:58 > 0:56:00you've ever seen.

0:56:03 > 0:56:05You have the most eyes

0:56:05 > 0:56:07I've ever seen on any person.

0:56:07 > 0:56:09Allen, your hand is trembling.

0:56:09 > 0:56:11"That's because you're near."

0:56:11 > 0:56:13- Pardon me? - Tell her that.

0:56:15 > 0:56:17That's because you're near.

0:56:17 > 0:56:18LAUGHS

0:56:18 > 0:56:21Oh, you really know what to say, don't you?

0:56:21 > 0:56:24Now, tell her that you've met a lot of dames,

0:56:24 > 0:56:27but she is really something special.

0:56:27 > 0:56:29Oh, that she won't believe.

0:56:29 > 0:56:31Oh, no?

0:56:33 > 0:56:35I have met a lot of dames,

0:56:35 > 0:56:39but you are really something special.

0:56:39 > 0:56:42- Really? - She bought it.

0:56:42 > 0:56:47It was obvious that he was crazy about her, on all levels.

0:56:47 > 0:56:50You could see that happening, absolutely,

0:56:50 > 0:56:54especially when I stopped being asked to dinner.

0:56:54 > 0:56:57She was always beautiful and incredibly gifted.

0:56:57 > 0:57:01We went out together, and we lived together for a while.

0:57:01 > 0:57:04She's remained a very close friend of mine to this day.

0:57:04 > 0:57:05I worked it, you know.

0:57:05 > 0:57:08I really worked trying to get him to fall in love with me.

0:57:08 > 0:57:09He didn't quite fall in love with me,

0:57:09 > 0:57:11but I was around a lot.

0:57:11 > 0:57:13And we made a good team.

0:57:13 > 0:57:16We were a good team.

0:57:16 > 0:57:18David Picker was President,

0:57:18 > 0:57:21Arthur Krim, Chairman of the board of United Artists.

0:57:21 > 0:57:24And this man came and introduced himself.

0:57:24 > 0:57:26It was David Picker.

0:57:26 > 0:57:30And he said, "I want Woody to make pictures for my company."

0:57:30 > 0:57:33I said, "Great." He said, "What will it take?"

0:57:33 > 0:57:37I said, "Put 2 million in a paper bag,

0:57:37 > 0:57:42"give it to us and go away, and we'll bring you a picture."

0:57:42 > 0:57:44And I said, "And do that three times."

0:57:44 > 0:57:48And he said, "You got a deal."

0:57:48 > 0:57:50And it was that simple.

0:57:50 > 0:57:52Come back, back, back.

0:57:52 > 0:57:54More, more, more. Back, back.

0:57:54 > 0:57:56CRASH!

0:57:56 > 0:57:58I play a character who lives in New York

0:57:58 > 0:58:00who works as a tester of products.

0:58:00 > 0:58:04I test new products to see if they're safe for the public.

0:58:04 > 0:58:06We can show you how you turn it out.

0:58:06 > 0:58:08We can show you how you can save money...

0:58:08 > 0:58:10Oh, boy, I'd like to do that over.

0:58:10 > 0:58:12I go to a Latin American country,

0:58:12 > 0:58:14and through a circuitous series of events,

0:58:14 > 0:58:17I become the leader of that country during a revolution.

0:58:17 > 0:58:19EXPLOSION

0:58:19 > 0:58:20And come back to the United States,

0:58:20 > 0:58:24bearded and well tanned and ebullient,

0:58:24 > 0:58:26and I get into a lot of trouble

0:58:26 > 0:58:27with the American government as a result.

0:58:27 > 0:58:31I am Mr Hernandez, the official interpreter.

0:58:31 > 0:58:33Welcome to the United States.

0:58:33 > 0:58:35Welcome to United State.

0:58:35 > 0:58:36Thank you.

0:58:36 > 0:58:37Thank you.

0:58:37 > 0:58:39Did you have a good flight?

0:58:39 > 0:58:40Did you have a good flight?

0:58:40 > 0:58:41Yes, I did.

0:58:41 > 0:58:43Yes, I did.

0:58:43 > 0:58:45Woody's love interest in Bananas

0:58:45 > 0:58:47was his second ex-wife, Louise Lasser -

0:58:47 > 0:58:50a very funny woman.

0:58:50 > 0:58:53They were married on Groundhog's Day in 1966,

0:58:53 > 0:58:56but by the time they got to making the movie,

0:58:56 > 0:58:57they were still friends,

0:58:57 > 0:58:59but they had been divorced for some time.

0:58:59 > 0:59:05For me, Louise was something that stepped out of a fantasy.

0:59:05 > 0:59:06Hi.

0:59:06 > 0:59:09'She was a beautiful young girl, very gifted.

0:59:09 > 0:59:12'It was just overwhelming to me.'

0:59:12 > 0:59:14She was such a captivating figure.

0:59:14 > 0:59:16She was very funny. She had a nice laugh.

0:59:16 > 0:59:18She was pretty, sexy,

0:59:18 > 0:59:20and she, you know, was perfect.

0:59:20 > 0:59:23You know, I was just saying to someone the other day

0:59:23 > 0:59:25that the Scandinavians seem to have

0:59:25 > 0:59:27such an instinctive feel for the human condition.

0:59:27 > 0:59:29It's very wise, you know.

0:59:29 > 0:59:31That's, I think, pithy.

0:59:31 > 0:59:34Oh, well, it was pithy.

0:59:34 > 0:59:38It had great pith.

0:59:38 > 0:59:41Yeth. Pith.

0:59:41 > 0:59:42Pith.

0:59:42 > 0:59:45I remember I had periods of time where I couldn't sleep.

0:59:45 > 0:59:48And I would get, like, really bored.

0:59:48 > 0:59:51I would go crazy, and he would just sleep.

0:59:51 > 0:59:54And I would think, "I can't believe this.

0:59:54 > 1:00:00"Here, I'm with America's foremost humorist,

1:00:00 > 1:00:03"and I can't sleep, and I'm bored," like that.

1:00:03 > 1:00:06And I would just nudge him and go, you know,

1:00:06 > 1:00:09"Woody, Woody, wake up, I'm bored.

1:00:09 > 1:00:10"Say something funny."

1:00:10 > 1:00:13We never worked together while we were married,

1:00:13 > 1:00:17because we felt that it would ruin the marriage.

1:00:17 > 1:00:20LAUGHTER

1:00:20 > 1:00:23So, now that we've been divorced for a year,

1:00:23 > 1:00:26we felt that we could work together,

1:00:26 > 1:00:27and, of course, I got her much cheaper.

1:00:27 > 1:00:30MOANING I love you. I love you.

1:00:30 > 1:00:31Oh, say it in French.

1:00:31 > 1:00:34- Oh, please, say it in French. - I don't know French.

1:00:34 > 1:00:36Oh, please? Please?

1:00:36 > 1:00:38- What about Hebrew? - Oh.

1:00:38 > 1:00:42If I had to pick, personally, the funniest one,

1:00:42 > 1:00:44I would pick Bananas.

1:00:44 > 1:00:46CHEERS AND APPLAUSE

1:00:46 > 1:00:49Ready, aim, fire!

1:00:49 > 1:00:52GUNSHOT

1:00:52 > 1:00:53Oh, let's see.

1:00:53 > 1:00:5421. Who has 21?

1:01:00 > 1:01:03Ready, aim, fire!

1:01:03 > 1:01:06In December, I'm going to go into production with a film that I wrote

1:01:06 > 1:01:08based on Dr Reuben's book,

1:01:08 > 1:01:12Everything You Always Wanted To Know About Sex, But Were Afraid To Ask.

1:01:12 > 1:01:14I've written a script that can only be described

1:01:14 > 1:01:16as Rabelaisian and...

1:01:16 > 1:01:18What would be another word for it?

1:01:18 > 1:01:21Uh, trashy. LAUGHTER

1:01:21 > 1:01:23It's an exploration of the ins

1:01:23 > 1:01:25and outs, every little nook

1:01:25 > 1:01:29and cranny of our sexual motivations

1:01:29 > 1:01:32and interests, and graphically illustrated.

1:01:32 > 1:01:34It would be sexual relations

1:01:34 > 1:01:35if the Marx Brothers were doing them.

1:01:35 > 1:01:39Hey! We're going to make babies!

1:01:40 > 1:01:43INDISTINCT MURMURING

1:01:43 > 1:01:44Here we go again!

1:01:44 > 1:01:46I'm not going out there!

1:01:46 > 1:01:48I'm not going to get shot out of that thing.

1:01:48 > 1:01:49What if he's masturbating?

1:01:49 > 1:01:51I'm liable to wind up on the ceiling.

1:01:51 > 1:01:52No!

1:01:52 > 1:01:55But in retrospect, I don't think it was a very good idea,

1:01:55 > 1:01:57and would not do it again.

1:01:57 > 1:01:58If I had it to do over, would not do it again.

1:01:58 > 1:02:01Woody Allen was building a fan base at this time

1:02:01 > 1:02:03in the '70s, but he never became,

1:02:03 > 1:02:06you know, a huge box office attraction.

1:02:06 > 1:02:07But he was clever.

1:02:07 > 1:02:09He made his films economically,

1:02:09 > 1:02:12he didn't pay himself very much at all,

1:02:12 > 1:02:15if anything, and he adopted the philosophy

1:02:15 > 1:02:17that if he made the films economically

1:02:17 > 1:02:18and they made even one dollar,

1:02:18 > 1:02:21he'd be given the go-ahead to make another film.

1:02:21 > 1:02:23You know, he's not everyone's taste,

1:02:23 > 1:02:24and never was.

1:02:24 > 1:02:26It's one thing to be appreciated down in the Village

1:02:26 > 1:02:29at the Bitter End and another across the country.

1:02:29 > 1:02:30My working with him professionally

1:02:30 > 1:02:34in being a producer, it still amazes me lots of times

1:02:34 > 1:02:37when people recognise him or know his name,

1:02:37 > 1:02:40because to me he was always my brother.

1:02:40 > 1:02:42No, I think she looks good in the clothes.

1:02:42 > 1:02:43I think this is - this is really good.

1:02:43 > 1:02:45It looks nice.

1:02:45 > 1:02:47When I was born, Woody was eight years old.

1:02:47 > 1:02:50You know, he was a very devoted brother.

1:02:50 > 1:02:52Very - we were always very close,

1:02:52 > 1:02:53you know, and I idolised him.

1:02:53 > 1:02:56She was just a cute little baby girl.

1:02:56 > 1:02:58There was no sense of competition or anything.

1:02:58 > 1:03:00She became a very good friend of mine

1:03:00 > 1:03:05right away and I got along with her swimmingly.

1:03:05 > 1:03:07You were very good to Letty.

1:03:07 > 1:03:09You - when she went to school,

1:03:09 > 1:03:11you used to take her to kindergarten and bring her home.

1:03:11 > 1:03:13That was your baby sister, you adored her.

1:03:13 > 1:03:15He would do a magic act,

1:03:15 > 1:03:20and he put her in the audience as his shill.

1:03:20 > 1:03:21She was, like, three years old.

1:03:21 > 1:03:23So he would do something and she had to say,

1:03:23 > 1:03:26"Look at his right hand. Look at his right hand."

1:03:26 > 1:03:28Cos it would be the left, right? Like that.

1:03:28 > 1:03:30He felt that he wanted

1:03:30 > 1:03:33to expose her to good things

1:03:33 > 1:03:36and he would just take her all around.

1:03:36 > 1:03:39I always found that very touching.

1:03:39 > 1:03:40There's something about that.

1:03:40 > 1:03:43We were in the same - at PS99 -

1:03:43 > 1:03:44the same school a short time

1:03:44 > 1:03:46because he was eight years older than me.

1:03:46 > 1:03:49We'd sneak off and play hooky with any number of people.

1:03:49 > 1:03:53We used to go to the movies in Manhattan.

1:03:53 > 1:03:57That was one of my great joys in life.

1:03:57 > 1:03:59I was aware of some of his truancy.

1:03:59 > 1:04:03I knew because I had been warned by Woody

1:04:03 > 1:04:04that when Mrs Fletcher, the principal,

1:04:04 > 1:04:06came to the class and would say,

1:04:06 > 1:04:09"Letty Konigsberg, is your mother at home?"

1:04:09 > 1:04:12I would know to say, "No, I'm sorry, she's not at home."

1:04:16 > 1:04:20I don't have good things to say about school.

1:04:20 > 1:04:22You know, I was the world's worst student.

1:04:22 > 1:04:26I hated school with a passion, to this day.

1:04:26 > 1:04:29And when I think back on it, it was a curse.

1:04:29 > 1:04:33When I got older, the neighbourhood got tougher.

1:04:33 > 1:04:35A kid tried to run me over in here,

1:04:35 > 1:04:38and I was playing ball and he drove his car

1:04:38 > 1:04:41fast right in and tried to hit me with it.

1:04:41 > 1:04:43And that iron thing was not over there,

1:04:43 > 1:04:46and I was able to get into that little pocket.

1:04:46 > 1:04:49So he couldn't get me with the car,

1:04:49 > 1:04:51but he came real close.

1:04:51 > 1:04:53Woody had disdain for school.

1:04:53 > 1:04:56The teachers were not nice in those days.

1:04:56 > 1:04:57They were very anti-Semitic.

1:04:57 > 1:05:01They were almost all Gentiles, and he wasn't your best student.

1:05:01 > 1:05:05So, you know, he was not treated nicely

1:05:05 > 1:05:07and he had no regard for it, he didn't care.

1:05:07 > 1:05:10So from their point of view,

1:05:10 > 1:05:12he wasn't interested in what they were interested in.

1:05:12 > 1:05:16We used to write compositions in class,

1:05:16 > 1:05:18and I always wrote what I thought at the time

1:05:18 > 1:05:20were amusing ones.

1:05:20 > 1:05:22I was writing about this girl

1:05:22 > 1:05:26and I made one standard joke about her.

1:05:26 > 1:05:28You know, she had an hourglass figure

1:05:28 > 1:05:29and I wanted to play in the sand,

1:05:29 > 1:05:34and you can't believe the fuss that they made.

1:05:34 > 1:05:37Ugh! he kissed me! He kissed me! Yecch!

1:05:37 > 1:05:40That's the second time this month. Step up here.

1:05:40 > 1:05:42- What did I do? - Step up here!

1:05:42 > 1:05:45- What did I do? - You should be ashamed of yourself!

1:05:45 > 1:05:48Why? I was just expressing a healthy sexual curiosity.

1:05:48 > 1:05:51Six-year-old boys don't have girls on their minds.

1:05:51 > 1:05:54- I did.- For God's sakes, Alvy,

1:05:54 > 1:05:56even Freud speaks of a latency period.

1:05:56 > 1:05:58Well, I never had a latency period.

1:05:58 > 1:06:00I can't help it.

1:06:00 > 1:06:02This was the front of the school,

1:06:02 > 1:06:04Public School 99,

1:06:04 > 1:06:06Isaac Asimov School for Science and Literature.

1:06:06 > 1:06:08And it's ironic, cos years later,

1:06:08 > 1:06:11Asimov was a wonderful guy

1:06:11 > 1:06:15and Marshall Brickman and I sent him the script of Sleeper

1:06:15 > 1:06:17before we did the movie and said,

1:06:17 > 1:06:20"Is there anything in here that we should be alerted to

1:06:20 > 1:06:23"that doesn't strike you as real, or..."

1:06:23 > 1:06:24And he read it for us and said,

1:06:24 > 1:06:26"No, no, it's very good," and it was very helpful.

1:06:26 > 1:06:29Hello. I'm Rags. Woof. Woof.

1:06:29 > 1:06:30Is he housebroken, or will he be leaving

1:06:30 > 1:06:32little batteries all over the floor?

1:06:32 > 1:06:34By the way, Sleeper is

1:06:34 > 1:06:36the first reference I ever remember to cloning.

1:06:36 > 1:06:38Right. At that time - that's why I explained it

1:06:38 > 1:06:40in the movie, cos people didn't know

1:06:40 > 1:06:42what cloning was then. They had no idea.

1:06:42 > 1:06:44Now, it's, you know, everybody clones.

1:06:44 > 1:06:46LAUGHS

1:06:46 > 1:06:47One day, I - I was

1:06:47 > 1:06:49walking down the street and thought,

1:06:49 > 1:06:51"Gosh, it would be really funny to do a movie

1:06:51 > 1:06:54"where I get frozen and wake up in the future."

1:06:54 > 1:06:56I'm a clarinet player in 1973,

1:06:56 > 1:06:58I go into the hospital for a lousy operation,

1:06:58 > 1:07:01I wake up 200 years later and I'm Flash Gordon.

1:07:01 > 1:07:05My first thought was that it would be a three-hour film, a two-parter.

1:07:05 > 1:07:07The first half before the intermission

1:07:07 > 1:07:11was going to be this guy's life in New York, contemporary.

1:07:11 > 1:07:13And at the end of the hour, the hour and a half,

1:07:13 > 1:07:16I would fall into a vat of, you know,

1:07:16 > 1:07:18the cryogenic vat and get frozen.

1:07:18 > 1:07:20And then there was going to be an intermission

1:07:20 > 1:07:22where people go out and buy popcorn.

1:07:22 > 1:07:24And when they'd come in for the second half,

1:07:24 > 1:07:26we'd be totally in the future.

1:07:26 > 1:07:28We'd be 200 years in the future.

1:07:28 > 1:07:29And we very soon were disabused of that

1:07:29 > 1:07:31for a lot of reasons.

1:07:31 > 1:07:34It was such a massive undertaking

1:07:34 > 1:07:37that I said, you know, forget it.

1:07:37 > 1:07:39We'll just do the futuristic part of it.

1:07:42 > 1:07:44Can I help you?

1:07:44 > 1:07:46Would you change his head for me, please?

1:07:46 > 1:07:48Something a little more aesthetic.

1:07:48 > 1:07:49You got room in there for another head change?

1:07:49 > 1:07:51Yeah. Sure.

1:07:55 > 1:07:57Another ploy that -

1:07:57 > 1:07:59that interested me in that was I wanted to do

1:07:59 > 1:08:02something where I woke up in a society

1:08:02 > 1:08:04where nobody spoke and I would have had to

1:08:04 > 1:08:08have played the whole film as a fugitive, but silent.

1:08:08 > 1:08:11And it would've given me an excuse to make

1:08:11 > 1:08:13a silent comedy without actually going

1:08:13 > 1:08:15and doing a throwback.

1:08:15 > 1:08:18We wanted to do a movie without any dialogue.

1:08:18 > 1:08:22A very, very stupid idea.

1:08:22 > 1:08:25And then we realised that our strong suit

1:08:25 > 1:08:27was actually dialogue.

1:08:27 > 1:08:31What's it feel like to be dead for 200 years?

1:08:31 > 1:08:34It's like spending a weekend in Beverly Hills.

1:08:34 > 1:08:37Some of the idea of doing physical comedy

1:08:37 > 1:08:39did remain.

1:08:39 > 1:08:41There are three or four sequences that are -

1:08:41 > 1:08:45you know, there's one with the little helicopter backpack.

1:08:48 > 1:08:51Of course, there's that one sequence with the giant banana.

1:09:06 > 1:09:07Oh, my God.

1:09:07 > 1:09:10I beat a man insensible with a strawberry.

1:09:10 > 1:09:13Is he easy to break up?

1:09:13 > 1:09:16No. Not, not - but when he does, that's it.

1:09:16 > 1:09:17I mean, you know, once he starts laughing,

1:09:17 > 1:09:19then he just keeps laughing.

1:09:19 > 1:09:21OK. Let's go.

1:09:21 > 1:09:23All right, here we go.

1:09:23 > 1:09:25'Keaton makes me laugh probably

1:09:25 > 1:09:29'more than any other person, because she's so funny.'

1:09:29 > 1:09:31And action!

1:09:31 > 1:09:35When we were doing Sleeper they were reviving me

1:09:35 > 1:09:38by trying to recreate my home life.

1:09:38 > 1:09:40This was some psychological ploy.

1:09:40 > 1:09:43But Keaton, playing my mother,

1:09:43 > 1:09:47was just so funny to me that I couldn't -

1:09:47 > 1:09:49I couldn't act the scene with her.

1:09:49 > 1:09:51Nu, what are you standing there?

1:09:51 > 1:09:54Come in! Your food is getting cold!

1:09:54 > 1:09:56LAUGHING I can't...

1:09:57 > 1:10:00Miles, I cooked your favourite,

1:10:00 > 1:10:02a nice bowl of hot seltzer water.

1:10:04 > 1:10:06LAUGHS

1:10:10 > 1:10:12'I mean, I just couldn't do it.

1:10:12 > 1:10:14'I tried and I tried and I tried.'

1:10:14 > 1:10:16Sorry. LAUGHTER

1:10:16 > 1:10:18'I'd suddenly be looking at her

1:10:18 > 1:10:22'and she'd be looking up at me and I couldn't stop laughing.

1:10:22 > 1:10:26'I would just not be able to stop.'

1:10:26 > 1:10:28Nu, what are you standing there?

1:10:28 > 1:10:29Come in!

1:10:29 > 1:10:31All right, let's go on to something else.

1:10:31 > 1:10:33I obviously can't do this.

1:10:33 > 1:10:36'I recall, very early, being taken to a Disney film.

1:10:36 > 1:10:38'I think it was Snow White.'

1:10:38 > 1:10:40I remember bolting out of my seat

1:10:40 > 1:10:43to try and run up the aisle and touch the screen

1:10:43 > 1:10:46cos I was so fascinated with what it was.

1:10:46 > 1:10:48Because, you know, when I was a kid,

1:10:48 > 1:10:51we didn't - we had no idea

1:10:51 > 1:10:53what that process was.

1:10:53 > 1:10:56And so I would sit and a kid next to me in class would say,

1:10:56 > 1:11:00"I was at the movie theatre, you know, on Saturday,

1:11:00 > 1:11:04"and I finished my Raisinets and I made a spitball

1:11:04 > 1:11:07"out of my cardboard box, you know,

1:11:07 > 1:11:09"with a piece of my cardboard box,

1:11:09 > 1:11:11"and I threw the spitball up and hit the screen,

1:11:11 > 1:11:13"and when it hit the screen, it burst into flame."

1:11:13 > 1:11:16So I said, "No kidding, really?"

1:11:16 > 1:11:18And, you know, and I wanted to -

1:11:18 > 1:11:21I wanted to find out what was - what that process was.

1:11:25 > 1:11:29And there was a movie theatre here

1:11:29 > 1:11:33and I used the name of it in Purple Rose.

1:11:33 > 1:11:34It was called the Jewel.

1:11:34 > 1:11:38And the Jewel was one of the first movie houses

1:11:38 > 1:11:40in the neighbourhood to show foreign films.

1:11:40 > 1:11:42I saw my first Ingmar Bergman film there.

1:11:42 > 1:11:45And it was right around here -

1:11:45 > 1:11:47I think it was on the next block.

1:11:47 > 1:11:48Could this have been it?

1:11:48 > 1:11:50Maybe this was it.

1:11:50 > 1:11:52Maybe this was it.

1:11:55 > 1:11:57That would have been the Jewel.

1:11:57 > 1:12:01I lived in Brooklyn in this repressed era.

1:12:01 > 1:12:03There was a Bergman film playing in the neighbourhood

1:12:03 > 1:12:05with Harriet Andersson.

1:12:05 > 1:12:07It was Summer With Monika.

1:12:07 > 1:12:09And she was allegedly naked in the film.

1:12:09 > 1:12:11So I beat a quick path

1:12:11 > 1:12:14to the door and I went to see that film

1:12:14 > 1:12:17just so I could see a woman without her clothes on.

1:12:17 > 1:12:20And it was a fabulous movie apart from the nudity.

1:12:20 > 1:12:23Then a few years later,

1:12:23 > 1:12:25they showed The Seventh Seal

1:12:25 > 1:12:28and Wild Strawberries and The Magician.

1:12:39 > 1:12:41I thought that it's pointless for me

1:12:41 > 1:12:43to work any more because no-one will ever

1:12:43 > 1:12:46be able to do anything better than this.

1:12:46 > 1:12:50Bergman, you know, had just reached the limits

1:12:50 > 1:12:51of what you could do in film,

1:12:51 > 1:12:53and there was nowhere else to go.

1:12:53 > 1:12:54So I found myself

1:12:54 > 1:12:57in an odd position where I was

1:12:57 > 1:12:59influenced by Groucho Marx

1:12:59 > 1:13:02and Bob Hope and Ingmar Bergman.

1:13:02 > 1:13:05I mean, there was no rationality to it.

1:13:05 > 1:13:08And so you would get a film like Love And Death

1:13:08 > 1:13:10for example, which was a film that has

1:13:10 > 1:13:12a Bergman influence

1:13:12 > 1:13:15but is so clearly a comic film.

1:13:15 > 1:13:18Boris! Boris, what happened?

1:13:18 > 1:13:20I got screwed.

1:13:20 > 1:13:22- How? - I don't know.

1:13:22 > 1:13:23Some vision came and said that

1:13:23 > 1:13:25I was going to get pardoned, and they shot me.

1:13:25 > 1:13:28You were my one great love!

1:13:28 > 1:13:30Oh, thank you very much. I appreciate that.

1:13:30 > 1:13:32Now, if you'll excuse me, I'm dead.

1:13:32 > 1:13:34'And so I was kicking around my house

1:13:34 > 1:13:36'looking for something to do,'

1:13:36 > 1:13:37and I just happened to see

1:13:37 > 1:13:39a Russian history book on my shelf.

1:13:39 > 1:13:43I thought, "Gee, it would be funny to do a film

1:13:43 > 1:13:45"based on all that Russian literature

1:13:45 > 1:13:47"and all those Russian cliches."

1:13:47 > 1:13:49MAN WHISTLES

1:13:49 > 1:13:51You know, I've always had a great love

1:13:51 > 1:13:54of heavy literature and heavy themes in general.

1:13:59 > 1:14:01I'm interested and attracted to them

1:14:01 > 1:14:03and also find them very funny.

1:14:03 > 1:14:06Non-existence,

1:14:06 > 1:14:09black emptiness.

1:14:09 > 1:14:10What did you say?

1:14:10 > 1:14:13Oh, I was - I was just planning my future.

1:14:13 > 1:14:15And I thought it was an area where I could then

1:14:15 > 1:14:18get in a lot of subject matter that I like to talk about,

1:14:18 > 1:14:21philosophical themes and death and longing,

1:14:21 > 1:14:24and then I thought it'd be fun to do that and, you know,

1:14:24 > 1:14:26I thought I'd do a big cartoon film about it

1:14:26 > 1:14:30and try to make it as funny as I could make it at the time.

1:14:32 > 1:14:35Boy, this - this army cooking will get you every time.

1:14:35 > 1:14:38Oh, God is testing us.

1:14:39 > 1:14:40If he's going to test us,

1:14:40 > 1:14:42why doesn't he give us a written?

1:14:42 > 1:14:44Though I do feel that

1:14:44 > 1:14:46the first group of four or five films

1:14:46 > 1:14:49that I made were funny for the most part,

1:14:49 > 1:14:51that one could say

1:14:51 > 1:14:54that they were essentially trivial and be right.

1:14:54 > 1:14:57LAUGHS

1:14:57 > 1:14:58In Love And Death,

1:14:58 > 1:15:00you could see the influence of Bob Hope,

1:15:00 > 1:15:02because you see physical cowardice

1:15:02 > 1:15:04in the teeth of warfare.

1:15:04 > 1:15:06That's a strong suit of Bob Hope's, and Woody is all over that

1:15:06 > 1:15:07in Love And Death.

1:15:07 > 1:15:09If you so much as come near the Countess,

1:15:09 > 1:15:12I'll see that you never see the light of day again.

1:15:12 > 1:15:15If a man said that to me, I'd break his neck.

1:15:15 > 1:15:16I am a man.

1:15:16 > 1:15:20Well, I mean a much shorter man.

1:15:20 > 1:15:22CHUCKLES NERVOUSLY

1:15:22 > 1:15:26Bob Hope was a big influence on me.

1:15:26 > 1:15:28I can see it all over me in films.

1:15:28 > 1:15:32This man is Monsieur Beaucaire, a common barber.

1:15:32 > 1:15:34Are you going to accept that?

1:15:34 > 1:15:36Well, a man's entitled to an opinion.

1:15:36 > 1:15:37Slap him back.

1:15:40 > 1:15:41You're lucky I haven't got a sword.

1:15:41 > 1:15:43Hmm.

1:15:43 > 1:15:45You keep out of this.

1:15:45 > 1:15:47'I would get into his suit, so to speak.'

1:15:47 > 1:15:49But when I do him and he does him,

1:15:49 > 1:15:51there is the world of difference.

1:15:51 > 1:15:55'I do, you know, a clumsy version.'

1:15:55 > 1:15:57How do you like it?

1:15:57 > 1:15:58SIGHS It's all right.

1:15:58 > 1:16:01I'd prefer something sexy, but...

1:16:01 > 1:16:04Would you like some wine,

1:16:04 > 1:16:07something to put you in the mood?

1:16:07 > 1:16:11Oh, I've been in the mood since the late 1700s.

1:16:11 > 1:16:12It was a tough movie to make.

1:16:12 > 1:16:15I mean, it was cold and laborious

1:16:15 > 1:16:19and, you know, very hard work, I found,

1:16:19 > 1:16:22not easy, but fun to write.

1:16:22 > 1:16:24But if there is no God, well, then life has no meaning.

1:16:24 > 1:16:26Why go on living? Why not just commit suicide?

1:16:26 > 1:16:28Well, let's not get hysterical.

1:16:28 > 1:16:30I could be wrong.

1:16:30 > 1:16:31I'd hate to blow my brains out

1:16:31 > 1:16:33and then read in the papers they found something.

1:16:33 > 1:16:37It's really exciting to see the development

1:16:37 > 1:16:40of Woody Allen from writing stand-up,

1:16:40 > 1:16:42monologue, talk show,

1:16:42 > 1:16:45Bananas, Sleeper, to the filmmaker.

1:16:45 > 1:16:49I'm not sure I quickly perceived the importance of Annie Hall

1:16:49 > 1:16:51in terms of being a departure from

1:16:51 > 1:16:54stuff he'd done before, but I knew that we were

1:16:54 > 1:16:56on to something special seeing that film.

1:16:56 > 1:16:59Yeah, everybody did.

1:16:59 > 1:17:01I remember when Annie Hall came out,

1:17:01 > 1:17:04there was this kind of buzz in New York

1:17:04 > 1:17:06that was electrifying.

1:17:06 > 1:17:09I hadn't seen the movie, but it almost frightened me,

1:17:09 > 1:17:10the way my uncle told me,

1:17:10 > 1:17:13"Don't go see House Of Wax in 3D."

1:17:13 > 1:17:15You know, it was like, "What?"

1:17:15 > 1:17:17You know, it was like some kind of

1:17:17 > 1:17:19earth-changing event was taking place.

1:17:19 > 1:17:21Until Annie Hall,

1:17:21 > 1:17:26I had been interested only in making the audience laugh.

1:17:26 > 1:17:28And there were many people around me

1:17:28 > 1:17:30that said, "Why do you want to do

1:17:30 > 1:17:31"a picture like Annie Hall for?

1:17:31 > 1:17:34"You know, you can make audiences laugh

1:17:34 > 1:17:36"and be funny, and my friends and I,

1:17:36 > 1:17:39"we all much would rather see a Bananas

1:17:39 > 1:17:41"or Love And Death."

1:17:41 > 1:17:47And I felt, I'll sacrifice some of the laughs

1:17:47 > 1:17:49for a story

1:17:49 > 1:17:52about human beings, and they will

1:17:52 > 1:17:54get involved in the story

1:17:54 > 1:17:57in a way that they had not ever

1:17:57 > 1:17:59been involved before,

1:17:59 > 1:18:01and it would be richer

1:18:01 > 1:18:02and it would be a better experience for them

1:18:02 > 1:18:06and fun for me to try, and the worst that can happen

1:18:06 > 1:18:08'is I'll make a fool of myself.'

1:18:08 > 1:18:11Yeah, cos, you know, I'm obsessed with death, I think.

1:18:11 > 1:18:12It's a big subject with me, yeah.

1:18:12 > 1:18:14I have a very pessimistic view of life.

1:18:14 > 1:18:17You should know this about me if we're going to go out.

1:18:17 > 1:18:18You know, I just feel that life is divided up

1:18:18 > 1:18:20into the horrible and the miserable.

1:18:20 > 1:18:22Those are the two categories, you know?

1:18:22 > 1:18:23The horrible would be like, um,

1:18:23 > 1:18:25I don't know, terminal cases, you know,

1:18:25 > 1:18:27and blind people, cripples.

1:18:27 > 1:18:28I don't know how they get through life.

1:18:28 > 1:18:30It's amazing to me, you know,

1:18:30 > 1:18:31and the miserable is everyone else, that's -

1:18:31 > 1:18:34so when you go through life, you should be thankful

1:18:34 > 1:18:35that you're miserable, because that's -

1:18:35 > 1:18:37you're very lucky to be miserable.

1:18:37 > 1:18:40It was the first time that I'd read

1:18:40 > 1:18:41anything of Woody's that was so

1:18:41 > 1:18:43personally touching.

1:18:43 > 1:18:44It was a love story,

1:18:44 > 1:18:47and it was a shock to read it,

1:18:47 > 1:18:49and I just thought,

1:18:49 > 1:18:50"This is wonderful."

1:18:50 > 1:18:52And it was - it was an expression

1:18:52 > 1:18:56of such tremendous growth for Woody, that script.

1:18:56 > 1:18:58UA had always prided itself

1:18:58 > 1:19:00on being very director- and writer-friendly

1:19:00 > 1:19:02rather than star-friendly.

1:19:02 > 1:19:04Arthur Krim was Cosimo de' Medici.

1:19:04 > 1:19:08He had knighted Woody as a knight of the church,

1:19:08 > 1:19:11and Arthur Krim would sit down at a table,

1:19:11 > 1:19:14look you in the eye, decide how crazy you were.

1:19:14 > 1:19:18He would ask you how much money you needed to make the movie.

1:19:18 > 1:19:20You would tell him, he would give you

1:19:20 > 1:19:21a little bit less, because it -

1:19:21 > 1:19:24you know, it builds character.

1:19:24 > 1:19:26They watched the budgets very carefully

1:19:26 > 1:19:29and they were very supportive and they had an amazing run,

1:19:29 > 1:19:31you know, because of that.

1:19:31 > 1:19:34There might have been something that occurred to Woody

1:19:34 > 1:19:36while we were making that film,

1:19:36 > 1:19:38that, "Now I should start making films

1:19:38 > 1:19:41"a little more mature, that aren't just gags

1:19:41 > 1:19:43"and vignettes thrown together.

1:19:43 > 1:19:45"Let's start making them, you know,

1:19:45 > 1:19:47"a little more cohesive."

1:19:47 > 1:19:49And so I think there was

1:19:49 > 1:19:51a conscious effort to put some

1:19:51 > 1:19:55real filmmakers together to help achieve this.

1:19:55 > 1:19:57At that time,

1:19:57 > 1:20:01the most celebrated New York cameraman was Gordon Willis.

1:20:01 > 1:20:04And Gordy, who they used to call the Prince Of Darkness -

1:20:04 > 1:20:08always went for great darkness -

1:20:08 > 1:20:11he did The Godfather.

1:20:11 > 1:20:13Everyone had always talked about him

1:20:13 > 1:20:16as such a great cinematographer.

1:20:16 > 1:20:18Putting Gordon Willis and Woody together was like

1:20:18 > 1:20:21a very odd pairing because, you know, Woody was this sort of

1:20:21 > 1:20:24loosey-goosey comedian and Gordon was this

1:20:24 > 1:20:27very strict, disciplined photographer

1:20:27 > 1:20:29who had a controversial reputation

1:20:29 > 1:20:32for crankiness, and it just looked like,

1:20:32 > 1:20:34you know, "This will never work."

1:20:34 > 1:20:37I probably didn't have a good reputation

1:20:37 > 1:20:39as Mr Smile, you know, so he thought,

1:20:39 > 1:20:43"Gee, I'm getting involved with a monster here."

1:20:43 > 1:20:46We hit it off right away. We chatted

1:20:46 > 1:20:50and he was very smart and I liked him very much.

1:20:50 > 1:20:51You know, it was clear

1:20:51 > 1:20:56right away that I had a lot to learn from him

1:20:56 > 1:20:57and that he was

1:20:57 > 1:21:02a great cinematographer in every way.

1:21:02 > 1:21:05Woody did choose Gordon Willis to be the cinematographer,

1:21:05 > 1:21:08and for a comedy, that was unheard of.

1:21:08 > 1:21:10You didn't have the Prince Of Darkness

1:21:10 > 1:21:13be the cinematographer for a comedy.

1:21:13 > 1:21:14Nobody could believe it,

1:21:14 > 1:21:17and so it was a terrifying prospect,

1:21:17 > 1:21:22but Woody took it on, and he made a great choice.

1:21:22 > 1:21:24The first shot I ever did with

1:21:24 > 1:21:26Gordon Willis in my life, the first scene

1:21:26 > 1:21:28that we ever shot in Annie Hall,

1:21:28 > 1:21:30was the lobster scene.

1:21:30 > 1:21:31- Go for that one. There. - You know what,

1:21:31 > 1:21:32maybe we should just call the police,

1:21:32 > 1:21:34dial 911. It's the Lobster Squad.

1:21:34 > 1:21:37Come on, Alvy, they're only baby ones, for God's sakes.

1:21:37 > 1:21:39If they're only babies, then you pick them up.

1:21:39 > 1:21:41Oh, all right. All right. All right.

1:21:41 > 1:21:42Here. Here you go.

1:21:42 > 1:21:44Don't give it to me. Don't! Look! One -

1:21:44 > 1:21:46one crawled behind the refrigerator.

1:21:46 > 1:21:48It will turn up in our bed at night.

1:21:48 > 1:21:50Will you get out of here with that thing?

1:21:50 > 1:21:51Jesus!

1:21:51 > 1:21:54Talk to them. You speak shellfish.

1:21:54 > 1:21:57One of the nice things about working with Woody

1:21:57 > 1:21:59over the time that we worked together was it -

1:21:59 > 1:22:01more or less like working with your hands in your pockets.

1:22:01 > 1:22:03It's very easy, pleasant.

1:22:03 > 1:22:06Gordy was the one who said to me,

1:22:06 > 1:22:10"When we do the split screen with the shrink" -

1:22:10 > 1:22:12I'm with one shrink and she's with another one -

1:22:12 > 1:22:15he said, "Don't do a split screen.

1:22:15 > 1:22:18"Build it. Build a set with a - with a divider in the middle,

1:22:18 > 1:22:20"so you're both live.

1:22:20 > 1:22:24"It'll look like a split screen, but it won't be."

1:22:24 > 1:22:26That was a revelation for him at that point cos it meant

1:22:26 > 1:22:29both actors could do the scene, you know,

1:22:29 > 1:22:32without being interrupted with doing

1:22:32 > 1:22:34half a scene and then half a scene

1:22:34 > 1:22:36and putting it together optically.

1:22:36 > 1:22:38And that's what we did.

1:22:38 > 1:22:40How often do you sleep together?

1:22:40 > 1:22:41Do you have sex often?

1:22:41 > 1:22:43Hardly ever. Maybe three times a week.

1:22:43 > 1:22:46Constantly. I'd say three times a week.

1:22:46 > 1:22:49It was a somewhat precocious film, I think,

1:22:49 > 1:22:51because it was - as I recall,

1:22:51 > 1:22:54there was a rough cut that was well over two hours.

1:22:54 > 1:22:57I thought of it only as - really as a comedy,

1:22:57 > 1:22:59you know, and I thought when I was

1:22:59 > 1:23:01putting it together originally that it would be fun

1:23:01 > 1:23:04for people to see what went on in my mind.

1:23:04 > 1:23:06That was going to be the movie.

1:23:06 > 1:23:08You were going to see what goes on in his mind,

1:23:08 > 1:23:11going from bit to bit without much plot.

1:23:11 > 1:23:14It became apparent in the editing room

1:23:14 > 1:23:17that the picture was about something else.

1:23:17 > 1:23:20The relationship was so strong that nobody

1:23:20 > 1:23:22wanted to see what went on in my mind.

1:23:22 > 1:23:25They wanted to get back to this story of the two people.

1:23:25 > 1:23:27Hi. Hi.

1:23:27 > 1:23:29Oh, hi. Hi.

1:23:29 > 1:23:32SHE CHUCKLES

1:23:32 > 1:23:33Well,

1:23:33 > 1:23:36bye.

1:23:36 > 1:23:38CHUCKLES

1:23:38 > 1:23:40You play very well.

1:23:40 > 1:23:42Oh, yeah? So do you.

1:23:42 > 1:23:45Oh, God. What a dumb thing to say, right?

1:23:45 > 1:23:47I mean, you said, "You play well,"

1:23:47 > 1:23:50then right away, I have to say, "You play well."

1:23:50 > 1:23:53Oh. Oh, God, Annie.

1:23:53 > 1:23:54Well... Oh, well.

1:23:54 > 1:23:56CHUCKLES

1:23:56 > 1:23:59La-di-dah, la-di-dah, la-la. Yeah.

1:23:59 > 1:24:02Keaton was so compelling, you know,

1:24:02 > 1:24:04that when she wasn't on screen

1:24:04 > 1:24:07or the story wasn't about the relationship,

1:24:07 > 1:24:10even if she was on screen, you didn't care.

1:24:10 > 1:24:12The whole world fell in love with Diane Keaton,

1:24:12 > 1:24:14but Woody Allen fell

1:24:14 > 1:24:15in love with her first, and he made that contagious.

1:24:15 > 1:24:17Hey, listen. Listen.

1:24:17 > 1:24:19- What? - Give me a kiss.

1:24:19 > 1:24:20- Really? - Yeah. Why not? Because we're just

1:24:20 > 1:24:22going to go home later, right?

1:24:22 > 1:24:23And there's going to be all that tension,

1:24:23 > 1:24:25you know, we never kissed before

1:24:25 > 1:24:26and I'll never know when to make the right move

1:24:26 > 1:24:28or anything, so we'll kiss now,

1:24:28 > 1:24:29we'll get it over with, then we'll go eat, OK?

1:24:29 > 1:24:31- Oh. All right. - And we'll digest our food better.

1:24:31 > 1:24:33OK.

1:24:33 > 1:24:36OK? So now we can digest our food, OK? Yeah.

1:24:36 > 1:24:40He was just unfathomable, I think, mainly to my parents

1:24:40 > 1:24:42and particularly my grandmother.

1:24:42 > 1:24:45You're what Grammy Hall would call a real Jew.

1:24:45 > 1:24:47CLEARS THROAT

1:24:47 > 1:24:49Thank you.

1:24:49 > 1:24:50'There is a Grammy Hall.'

1:24:50 > 1:24:54That was - that's Keaton's grandmother, as a matter of fact,

1:24:54 > 1:24:58just an elderly lady who lives in California.

1:24:58 > 1:25:01She would call him this odd Jew,

1:25:01 > 1:25:03but she was a total racist, and so

1:25:03 > 1:25:06I wasn't really very proud of her

1:25:06 > 1:25:08with regard to that and her attitude about Woody,

1:25:08 > 1:25:10and, you know, she'd say things like,

1:25:10 > 1:25:11"Oh, yeah, he's just like a Jew."

1:25:11 > 1:25:14You know, I mean, that's - that's why he captured

1:25:14 > 1:25:16the essence of my family.

1:25:16 > 1:25:19Yeah, not - not very pretty.

1:25:19 > 1:25:21Annie Hall is the film where

1:25:21 > 1:25:27he makes the decision not to lead always with jokes,

1:25:27 > 1:25:30though it's packed, packed with great jokes.

1:25:30 > 1:25:33You're having an affair with your college professor,

1:25:33 > 1:25:35that jerk that teaches that incredible, crap course,

1:25:35 > 1:25:37Contemporary Crisis In Western Man.

1:25:37 > 1:25:39Existential Motifs In Russian Literature.

1:25:39 > 1:25:41You're really close.

1:25:41 > 1:25:42What's the difference? It's all mental masturbation.

1:25:42 > 1:25:45Now we're finally getting to a subject you know something about.

1:25:45 > 1:25:48Hey, don't knock masturbation. It's sex with someone I love.

1:25:48 > 1:25:49It's the first film

1:25:49 > 1:25:53where it's truly grounded in adult feeling.

1:25:53 > 1:25:54This is the one where he thinks,

1:25:54 > 1:25:57"I'm going to go with feeling first

1:25:57 > 1:25:59"and people first, and the jokes have to

1:25:59 > 1:26:01"come out of those people."

1:26:01 > 1:26:03And so, you know, it feels like a landmark change.

1:26:03 > 1:26:06Let's face it.

1:26:06 > 1:26:09You know, I don't think our relationship is working.

1:26:09 > 1:26:13I know. A relationship, I think, is like a shark.

1:26:13 > 1:26:16You know, it has to constantly move forward or it dies.

1:26:16 > 1:26:20And I think what we've got on our hands is a dead shark.

1:26:20 > 1:26:23The story he tells is the story of everybody who falls in love

1:26:23 > 1:26:28and then falls out of love and goes on,

1:26:28 > 1:26:30and that's what makes it so universal

1:26:30 > 1:26:33and so meaningful to so many people.

1:26:33 > 1:26:36The build-up was such that - that it felt like

1:26:36 > 1:26:40a bomb was about to go off in New York that was going to

1:26:40 > 1:26:44change the way comedies were made for ever,

1:26:44 > 1:26:48and I guess perhaps in a way it did.

1:26:48 > 1:26:51It was - it was that kind of movie.

1:26:51 > 1:26:54We speak of Annie Hall as a game changer.

1:26:54 > 1:26:56It may not have been a game changer for Woody Allen,

1:26:56 > 1:26:58because he seems to go where he wants to go,

1:26:58 > 1:27:00but it was a game changer for the industry.

1:27:00 > 1:27:03I think comedy itself began to be re-evaluated.

1:27:03 > 1:27:07Did we get a sense that this was some sort of cultural avalanche?

1:27:07 > 1:27:09No. No.

1:27:09 > 1:27:12There are subcultures that exist,

1:27:12 > 1:27:13and sometimes you hit onto

1:27:13 > 1:27:15one of them and you realise

1:27:15 > 1:27:17that there's something there that wasn't there,

1:27:17 > 1:27:18and I guess there was an audience

1:27:18 > 1:27:20ready for this movie.

1:27:21 > 1:27:23Hey, how much is this stuff, incidentally?

1:27:23 > 1:27:26That's about 2,000 an ounce.

1:27:26 > 1:27:29- God. - Really? And what is the kick of it?

1:27:29 > 1:27:30Which I never...

1:27:31 > 1:27:34SNEEZES

1:27:40 > 1:27:43I didn't go to the event because

1:27:43 > 1:27:44in the office pools,

1:27:44 > 1:27:47Star Wars was the hands-down winner.

1:27:47 > 1:27:50Woody said, "I'm not going to go out to the awards,

1:27:50 > 1:27:52"because I have the band.

1:27:52 > 1:27:54"I have our jazz band on Monday nights."

1:27:54 > 1:27:56And I thought, OK, that's a kind of genius.

1:27:56 > 1:27:59He's really making a very significant statement

1:27:59 > 1:28:00that's going to carry him a long way.

1:28:00 > 1:28:03I said, "But I don't have to make a statement. I want to go."

1:28:03 > 1:28:07Much to our surprise, we picked up four awards,

1:28:07 > 1:28:09which was Original Screenplay,

1:28:09 > 1:28:12Best Director for Woody, Best Film,

1:28:12 > 1:28:14and Best Actress for Diane.

1:28:14 > 1:28:16The next morning, I got up, you know,

1:28:16 > 1:28:18I got the New York Times delivered to my apartment,

1:28:18 > 1:28:21and I noticed on the front page on the bottom,

1:28:21 > 1:28:25it said that "Annie Hall wins four Academy Awards,"

1:28:25 > 1:28:27so I go, "Oh, that's great."

1:28:27 > 1:28:31Somebody at the Jack Rollins office heard

1:28:31 > 1:28:35Jack say to Woody, "Woody, are you adamant

1:28:35 > 1:28:37"about this idea that you don't want

1:28:37 > 1:28:41"'Academy Award-Winning Film,' you don't want that phrase

1:28:41 > 1:28:45"in the ads anywhere within a hundred miles of New York?"

1:28:45 > 1:28:47And he said, "That's right."

1:28:47 > 1:28:50And Jack said, "Could we make it 50, Woody?"

1:28:52 > 1:28:55I think what you get in awards is favouritism.

1:28:55 > 1:28:57I mean, people can say,

1:28:57 > 1:29:00"Oh, my favourite movie was Annie Hall,"

1:29:00 > 1:29:03but the implication is that it's the best movie,

1:29:03 > 1:29:05and I don't think that's possible.

1:29:05 > 1:29:07I don't think you can make that judgment.

1:29:07 > 1:29:11Except for track, track and field, you know,

1:29:11 > 1:29:13where one guy runs and you see that he wins,

1:29:13 > 1:29:15then it's OK.

1:29:15 > 1:29:16I won those when I was younger,

1:29:16 > 1:29:21and those were nice, cos I knew I deserved them.

1:29:21 > 1:29:25I would like to, for instance, in films,

1:29:25 > 1:29:28do more serious films. I'd like to

1:29:28 > 1:29:31not act in them but to write and direct

1:29:31 > 1:29:32more serious things.

1:29:32 > 1:29:35He had then the opportunity to explore that

1:29:35 > 1:29:38in himself as an artist, right? OK.

1:29:38 > 1:29:41He took it. Other people wouldn't.

1:29:41 > 1:29:42Other people would stay with what

1:29:42 > 1:29:44they feel is safer, in a sense.

1:29:44 > 1:29:46Not that anything's really safe,

1:29:46 > 1:29:48but, I mean, it's territory they feel that

1:29:48 > 1:29:50they can excel.

1:29:50 > 1:29:52But to push and go further,

1:29:52 > 1:29:55that's why he had to do Interiors, to get to that point.

1:29:55 > 1:29:59I feel I have been a dedicated husband,

1:29:59 > 1:30:03a responsible father, and I haven't regretted anything

1:30:03 > 1:30:07I've been called upon to do.

1:30:07 > 1:30:11Now, I feel I want to be by myself for a while.

1:30:13 > 1:30:16Consequently, I've decided to move out of the house,

1:30:16 > 1:30:19but I feel it's something I have to try.

1:30:19 > 1:30:21It's a separation,

1:30:21 > 1:30:24and I wanted to lay it on the table

1:30:24 > 1:30:27in front of everyone so that everything is open

1:30:27 > 1:30:29and as direct as possible.

1:30:29 > 1:30:32And he had a very good relationship with United Artists,

1:30:32 > 1:30:36which, by the way, was the home of independent films.

1:30:36 > 1:30:40I was, you know, indulged by them.

1:30:40 > 1:30:42They said, "Well, you know, you've earned the right

1:30:42 > 1:30:45"to make any film you want to make, so,

1:30:45 > 1:30:51"you know, if you want to make a very serious drama,

1:30:51 > 1:30:53"go ahead and make one."

1:30:53 > 1:30:54I talked with your doctor.

1:30:54 > 1:30:56He feels you can handle this.

1:30:56 > 1:30:58You talked to Dr Lobel about this behind my back?

1:30:58 > 1:31:00Not behind your back. Discreetly.

1:31:00 > 1:31:04You discussed this with Dr Lobel behind my back.

1:31:04 > 1:31:06It's so humiliating.

1:31:06 > 1:31:07Eve, it's your doctor and myself.

1:31:07 > 1:31:09Now, how private can one be?

1:31:09 > 1:31:11- SIGHS - And he assured you

1:31:11 > 1:31:13that I can handle it, is that right?

1:31:13 > 1:31:15Oh, how humiliating!

1:31:15 > 1:31:17You're not humiliated.

1:31:17 > 1:31:19Oh, I just want to die.

1:31:20 > 1:31:21Oh, stop that.

1:31:21 > 1:31:24- SIGHS - I just hate my life!

1:31:24 > 1:31:27GLASS SHATTERS

1:31:27 > 1:31:31INDISTINCT ARGUING

1:31:31 > 1:31:36'But his desire always had been and has been

1:31:36 > 1:31:39'to be taken very seriously.'

1:31:39 > 1:31:44And the dark side of him is a very important part of him,

1:31:44 > 1:31:46in his work and in him.

1:31:46 > 1:31:49And it's his -

1:31:49 > 1:31:51it's a great thing and it's a torture.

1:31:51 > 1:31:57I put a higher value on the tragic muse

1:31:57 > 1:31:58than the comic muse.

1:31:58 > 1:32:02I've always felt that tragic writing,

1:32:02 > 1:32:04tragic theatre,

1:32:04 > 1:32:09tragic film confronts reality head-on and doesn't

1:32:09 > 1:32:11satirise it, tease it, kid it, deflect it,

1:32:11 > 1:32:15opt out with some kind of a gag at the last minute.

1:32:15 > 1:32:17It's harder for me,

1:32:17 > 1:32:20I embarrass myself more readily,

1:32:20 > 1:32:25but I get more pleasure out of failing in a project

1:32:25 > 1:32:28that I am enthused over than in succeeding

1:32:28 > 1:32:31in a project that I know I can do well.

1:32:31 > 1:32:34After taking a lot of flak for Interiors

1:32:34 > 1:32:38being so heavy and dramatic,

1:32:38 > 1:32:40he responded, and some people

1:32:40 > 1:32:42would say rebounded, with his next film.

1:32:42 > 1:32:44Having done Annie Hall, which had a particular kind of look,

1:32:44 > 1:32:48we thought, "OK, now, how do we make Manhattan

1:32:48 > 1:32:52"be a little more distinctive visually?"

1:32:56 > 1:32:58The decision to shoot

1:32:58 > 1:33:00Manhattan in black and white really was

1:33:00 > 1:33:04Woody's idea, because I think both of us

1:33:04 > 1:33:06perceive Manhattan as like a black and white city.

1:33:06 > 1:33:09It's stone and concrete and blacktop.

1:33:09 > 1:33:11Woody Allen understood something about

1:33:11 > 1:33:13black and white that Hollywood had forgotten,

1:33:13 > 1:33:15which is that it adds glamour, and so one of

1:33:15 > 1:33:17the characteristics of Manhattan is that

1:33:17 > 1:33:19it creates a nostalgia for the present.

1:33:19 > 1:33:21He loves New York so much.

1:33:21 > 1:33:22I mean, it's his city.

1:33:22 > 1:33:25And in this film, which is

1:33:25 > 1:33:28just such a love letter to New York, it's -

1:33:28 > 1:33:32nothing's done so extraordinarily well

1:33:32 > 1:33:33that says New York.

1:33:33 > 1:33:35It's constantly alive.

1:33:35 > 1:33:39It's like a city that's continually evolving

1:33:39 > 1:33:41and extraordinarily creative.

1:33:41 > 1:33:46And the rhythm of the city feeds different sensibilities.

1:33:46 > 1:33:49I wanted to show New York

1:33:49 > 1:33:52in a very beautiful way, the way I see it.

1:33:52 > 1:33:54I never had any interest

1:33:54 > 1:33:59in showing it except through my rose-coloured glasses,

1:33:59 > 1:34:01my romanticised view of it.

1:34:01 > 1:34:03It's one of the reasons I love his work.

1:34:03 > 1:34:05But they are extremely foreign to me.

1:34:05 > 1:34:08It's another - not another world,

1:34:08 > 1:34:10another planet. The New York I know is really -

1:34:10 > 1:34:13you look at Mean Streets, that's my - where I grew up,

1:34:13 > 1:34:16and Taxi Driver is my state of mind.

1:34:16 > 1:34:19Manhattan is so beautiful, so you're seeing -

1:34:19 > 1:34:23each shot became, you know, it became a painting.

1:34:23 > 1:34:25Years from now, people will be able to

1:34:25 > 1:34:28look back at my films, and the only real value of them

1:34:28 > 1:34:31is going to be the background scenery.

1:34:31 > 1:34:36'New York was his town, and it always would be.'

1:34:44 > 1:34:46Manhattan we wanted to shoot

1:34:46 > 1:34:49widescreen just because it was not

1:34:49 > 1:34:52a war picture or a big-scope picture.

1:34:52 > 1:34:55It was an intimate love story.

1:34:55 > 1:34:56Just because of that,

1:34:56 > 1:35:00we thought it would be interesting.

1:35:00 > 1:35:02The Gershwin music in Manhattan

1:35:02 > 1:35:03is really a second part of the movie.

1:35:03 > 1:35:06You have the story going on of all these characters,

1:35:06 > 1:35:07and then this music was just able to

1:35:07 > 1:35:10inform the audience emotionally about what's happening.

1:35:10 > 1:35:13It really makes the music another character,

1:35:13 > 1:35:15another part of the ensemble.

1:35:15 > 1:35:18GERSHWIN MUSIC PLAYS

1:35:33 > 1:35:36There are things that are regarded as comedies

1:35:36 > 1:35:39that always bewilder me.

1:35:39 > 1:35:42Manhattan was a romance,

1:35:42 > 1:35:45and I guess it's thought of as a comedy

1:35:45 > 1:35:49because the general story, you know, was light.

1:35:49 > 1:35:51I mean, it was amusing.

1:35:51 > 1:35:52I was in love with a young girl

1:35:52 > 1:35:56and the guy was cheating on his wife, and it's more of

1:35:56 > 1:35:59a foreign film influence.

1:35:59 > 1:36:02In foreign comedies, you don't get those

1:36:02 > 1:36:05kind of "joke comedies" very often.

1:36:05 > 1:36:08'What you get more is regular dramatic stories

1:36:08 > 1:36:12'but with a little light touch to them here and there.'

1:36:12 > 1:36:14Well, I'm old-fashioned.

1:36:14 > 1:36:15I don't believe in extramarital relationships.

1:36:15 > 1:36:16I think people should mate for life,

1:36:16 > 1:36:19like pigeons or Catholics.

1:36:19 > 1:36:21There was certainly potential awkwardness

1:36:21 > 1:36:24in the casting of Woody opposite

1:36:24 > 1:36:26a teenage girl in Manhattan,

1:36:26 > 1:36:29but I think that was defused in a lot of ways

1:36:29 > 1:36:33by him finding this wonderful young actress, Mariel Hemingway,

1:36:33 > 1:36:38who was just 18 and who gave such a wonderful performance

1:36:38 > 1:36:40and brought such feeling to it

1:36:40 > 1:36:43that she even got an Oscar nomination.

1:36:43 > 1:36:44Woody made me feel

1:36:44 > 1:36:47as though I was part of the process.

1:36:47 > 1:36:50He knew that I was scared, he knew I was shy,

1:36:50 > 1:36:53he knew I was these things, so he spent time with me

1:36:53 > 1:36:55off the set, taking me to museums

1:36:55 > 1:36:57and making me aware of

1:36:57 > 1:37:00what I probably would've been aware of

1:37:00 > 1:37:02as that young girl living in Manhattan.

1:37:02 > 1:37:05Now, it doesn't always happen in a Woody Allen film.

1:37:05 > 1:37:07You know, he's like, you show up, you're the actor

1:37:07 > 1:37:08and he figures you know what to do

1:37:08 > 1:37:10and he leaves you alone, basically.

1:37:10 > 1:37:13So I think he knew unless he befriended me

1:37:13 > 1:37:17or we became close that I wouldn't understand,

1:37:17 > 1:37:18you know, I wouldn't get it.

1:37:18 > 1:37:21So when it came to that scene

1:37:21 > 1:37:22at the soda fountain

1:37:22 > 1:37:24and he's breaking up with me,

1:37:24 > 1:37:27there was this natural feeling

1:37:27 > 1:37:29of breaking apart a family.

1:37:29 > 1:37:31There was a breaking apart of something

1:37:31 > 1:37:33that had become very familiar to me,

1:37:33 > 1:37:36because I really cared about him as a friend.

1:37:36 > 1:37:37I remember looking him in the eye

1:37:37 > 1:37:39and listening to what he said,

1:37:39 > 1:37:41and listening very, very carefully.

1:37:41 > 1:37:44The truth is that I love somebody else.

1:37:47 > 1:37:49You do?

1:37:51 > 1:37:53Hey, come on, you - we - we -

1:37:53 > 1:37:55this was supposed to be a temporary fling.

1:37:55 > 1:37:58You know that.

1:37:58 > 1:38:00You met someone?

1:38:03 > 1:38:05Why should I feel guilty about this?

1:38:05 > 1:38:06This is ridiculous.

1:38:06 > 1:38:09I've always encouraged you to go out with guys

1:38:09 > 1:38:11more your own age, guys - kids from your class.

1:38:11 > 1:38:16Billy and Biff and Scooter, you know,

1:38:16 > 1:38:19little Tommy or Terry. I don't -

1:38:19 > 1:38:21Hey, come on, don't cry.

1:38:23 > 1:38:25Don't cry.

1:38:25 > 1:38:28Come on, don't - Tracy.

1:38:28 > 1:38:31Tracy, don't - come on, don't cry, Tracy.

1:38:31 > 1:38:34'So when I cried, it was real.'

1:38:34 > 1:38:35Just leave me alone.

1:38:35 > 1:38:39'Cos I thought about, "Oh, this too will end," you know.'

1:38:39 > 1:38:42"This family will be gone and I will miss you."

1:38:42 > 1:38:47TYPEWRITER KEYS CLACKING

1:38:47 > 1:38:50I don't know if the act of falling in love

1:38:50 > 1:38:54has ever been done with more power or more economy

1:38:54 > 1:38:56than in that moment by the 59th Street Bridge

1:38:56 > 1:38:59where Woody and Diane Keaton are sitting on the park bench

1:38:59 > 1:39:00watching the day come up.

1:39:00 > 1:39:02It was a pain in the neck to do

1:39:02 > 1:39:05because I like to live a regular schedule.

1:39:05 > 1:39:07I went to sleep at night and I had to wake up

1:39:07 > 1:39:10at three o'clock in the morning.

1:39:10 > 1:39:12Plus, we had to bring our own bench, you know,

1:39:12 > 1:39:14cos there's no bench there,

1:39:14 > 1:39:18and then we started shooting as the light came up.

1:39:20 > 1:39:22Isn't it beautiful out?

1:39:22 > 1:39:24Yeah, it's really -

1:39:24 > 1:39:26really so pretty when the light starts to come up.

1:39:26 > 1:39:28Oh, I know. I love it.

1:39:29 > 1:39:31SIGHS

1:39:31 > 1:39:33This is really a great city.

1:39:33 > 1:39:35I don't care what anybody says.

1:39:35 > 1:39:38It's just really a knockout, you know?

1:39:38 > 1:39:42Well, I think I'd better head back.

1:39:42 > 1:39:45'Well, I didn't know it would be iconic,

1:39:45 > 1:39:47'but we knew it would be pretty, but never thinking

1:39:47 > 1:39:49'that anything would come of it other than

1:39:49 > 1:39:52'it would be a nice scene in the picture.'

1:39:54 > 1:39:55Most people take it away

1:39:55 > 1:39:57because that's how they want to fall in love

1:39:57 > 1:39:59or they have fallen in love.

1:39:59 > 1:40:01It either plays to your memory or it plays to your hope.

1:40:01 > 1:40:04That's the sort of real twilight

1:40:04 > 1:40:05that's operating under that shot.

1:40:05 > 1:40:08And because you take it away with you,

1:40:08 > 1:40:10it becomes, in some ways,

1:40:10 > 1:40:12the most powerful shot in the film.

1:40:12 > 1:40:14All right, why is life worth living?

1:40:14 > 1:40:15That's a very good question.

1:40:15 > 1:40:17You know, the final scene when he's

1:40:17 > 1:40:20lying on the couch and remembering all the things

1:40:20 > 1:40:21that make him happy.

1:40:21 > 1:40:22Tracy's face.

1:40:22 > 1:40:24CHUCKLES

1:40:26 > 1:40:28And then stopping and running

1:40:28 > 1:40:30down the street to that music

1:40:30 > 1:40:32and then finally coming up to that door

1:40:32 > 1:40:34and seeing me about to leave.

1:40:34 > 1:40:37I mean, it doesn't get any better than that.

1:40:42 > 1:40:44And I'm not saying, like, "Oh, me!"

1:40:44 > 1:40:46That was a film moment where you just go,

1:40:46 > 1:40:49"Wow. How incredible is that?"

1:40:49 > 1:40:51And that's what's inside of him, you know.

1:40:51 > 1:40:55He's a romantic, he's a mush.

1:40:55 > 1:40:57What's beautiful about the final scene

1:40:57 > 1:40:59is that it's so vulnerable.

1:40:59 > 1:41:01I mean, he was so honest and pure in that scene,

1:41:01 > 1:41:05and I do believe that it shows how talented

1:41:05 > 1:41:06he can be as an actor.

1:41:06 > 1:41:08All the stuff goes away, you know,

1:41:08 > 1:41:12all the "I'm a comedic actor" or whatever is gone

1:41:12 > 1:41:14and he's just right there with you,

1:41:14 > 1:41:17and it was so - it was so sweet and it was so touching.

1:41:17 > 1:41:20SIGHS

1:41:21 > 1:41:24Do you still love me, or what?

1:41:25 > 1:41:28Do you love me?

1:41:28 > 1:41:31Well, yeah, that's why - yeah, of course.

1:41:31 > 1:41:33That's what this is all about, you know?

1:41:38 > 1:41:40I've got to make a plane.

1:41:40 > 1:41:43Come on, you - come on.

1:41:43 > 1:41:46You don't - you don't have to...go.

1:41:46 > 1:41:50Why couldn't you have brought this up last week?

1:41:52 > 1:41:54Tracy...

1:41:54 > 1:41:55Six months isn't so long.

1:41:57 > 1:42:01Not everybody gets corrupted.

1:42:01 > 1:42:04You have to have a little faith in people.

1:42:09 > 1:42:11'It's such a simple line,

1:42:11 > 1:42:13'"Have a little faith in people."

1:42:13 > 1:42:16'And it's such a beautiful thing that he knew.'

1:42:18 > 1:42:22That's a huge statement for him.

1:42:22 > 1:42:24I mean, he wrote the line, you know?

1:42:24 > 1:42:26I didn't make that up.

1:42:34 > 1:42:36Tell me about the critical

1:42:36 > 1:42:41and public reception to Manhattan, generally.

1:42:41 > 1:42:44You know, I don't remember what it was.

1:42:44 > 1:42:46Was it good? They liked it?

1:42:46 > 1:42:48Oh, well, we got some very good reviews.

1:42:48 > 1:42:49Everybody loved Manhattan.

1:42:49 > 1:42:51Just as Annie Hall had been a deepening

1:42:51 > 1:42:53of what he'd been doing, I think people thought,

1:42:53 > 1:42:56"Wow, Manhattan is an even deeper

1:42:56 > 1:42:58"deepening of what he'd been doing."

1:42:58 > 1:43:00This film was big.

1:43:00 > 1:43:04There was a groundswell that happened after Cannes

1:43:04 > 1:43:06that just went crazy.

1:43:06 > 1:43:08Everybody went crazy for this film.

1:43:08 > 1:43:10I remember its opening in New York. I mean, you just -

1:43:10 > 1:43:13there were lines around the block

1:43:13 > 1:43:16and the reviews were fantastic.

1:43:16 > 1:43:21When I was finished with it, I didn't like the film at all.

1:43:21 > 1:43:25And I saw it and...

1:43:25 > 1:43:30And I spoke to United Artists at that time

1:43:30 > 1:43:34and offered to make a film for them for nothing

1:43:34 > 1:43:37if they would not put it out.

1:43:37 > 1:43:40I just thought to myself, "At this point in my life,

1:43:40 > 1:43:43"if this is the best I can do,

1:43:43 > 1:43:46"they shouldn't give me money to make movies."

1:43:46 > 1:43:50Woody's notion for the film was so much more ambitious,

1:43:50 > 1:43:52I think, than what he got in the end,

1:43:52 > 1:43:53or was so different from it,

1:43:53 > 1:43:56that he was extraordinarily disappointed.

1:43:56 > 1:43:59And it's interesting how audiences have responded,

1:43:59 > 1:44:02cos they have no idea what his hope or dream was for this.

1:44:02 > 1:44:03They just took this and just completely

1:44:03 > 1:44:05latched onto it in a way that I think

1:44:05 > 1:44:07still mystifies him.

1:44:07 > 1:44:09After Manhattan, the audience was ready

1:44:09 > 1:44:11to follow Woody Allen anywhere.

1:44:11 > 1:44:13Anywhere except Stardust Memories.

1:44:13 > 1:44:14LAUGHS

1:44:14 > 1:44:16What do you want me to say?

1:44:16 > 1:44:17I don't want to make funny movies any more.

1:44:17 > 1:44:19They can't force me to.

1:44:19 > 1:44:20You know, I don't feel funny.

1:44:20 > 1:44:23I look around the world and all I see is human suffering.

1:44:23 > 1:44:26I was so disappointed in Stardust Memories,

1:44:26 > 1:44:27I saw it three times the week it opened, right?

1:44:27 > 1:44:29Cos I kept feeling it's my fault,

1:44:29 > 1:44:31because he was up to something interesting

1:44:31 > 1:44:33even if I couldn't quite buy in.

1:44:33 > 1:44:36I wanted to. I wanted to find a way past.

1:44:37 > 1:44:39And there was something in that film

1:44:39 > 1:44:40that is unique and original.

1:44:40 > 1:44:44That was my favourite film for a while.

1:44:44 > 1:44:46It was my least popular film,

1:44:46 > 1:44:51but it's certainly my own personal favourite.

1:44:51 > 1:44:53I would bet you that

1:44:53 > 1:44:54Woody's favourite movies were the ones

1:44:54 > 1:44:56where he felt he pulled off something stylistic,

1:44:56 > 1:44:58where he pulled off an ambitious magic trick.

1:44:58 > 1:45:01Stardust Memories, I think, is a big magic act.

1:45:01 > 1:45:04You know, quite apart from its influence by Fellini,

1:45:04 > 1:45:07it's essentially, he's just working his magic

1:45:07 > 1:45:09and in a sense making a statement about

1:45:09 > 1:45:10being a magician, so to speak.

1:45:10 > 1:45:12And because of that,

1:45:12 > 1:45:15the audience didn't feel that they could relate to it

1:45:15 > 1:45:19as personally as they did to the other films.

1:45:19 > 1:45:20You know, I wanted to try and make a film

1:45:20 > 1:45:22about a man who had

1:45:22 > 1:45:25presumably, to the outside eye, everything.

1:45:25 > 1:45:27He had money and he was famous,

1:45:27 > 1:45:30and yet, he had come to a point in life where

1:45:30 > 1:45:34he realised still that he was still going to wind up

1:45:34 > 1:45:37on the junk heap with everybody else

1:45:37 > 1:45:39and him coming to terms with that idea

1:45:39 > 1:45:43over the course of this weekend which really

1:45:43 > 1:45:45happens in his mind for the most part.

1:45:45 > 1:45:48A year or two before he made it, he had gone with Judith Crist,

1:45:48 > 1:45:51who was the film critic for New York Magazine at the time,

1:45:51 > 1:45:53to a weekend seminar that she did on film

1:45:53 > 1:45:56at an estate turned into a hotel up the Hudson

1:45:56 > 1:45:58about an hour from New York, and he came

1:45:58 > 1:45:59and he was the guest for the weekend there.

1:45:59 > 1:46:02And out of that came this whole notion

1:46:02 > 1:46:05that he did of the guy having the crack-up.

1:46:05 > 1:46:07We love your work. My wife has seen all your films.

1:46:07 > 1:46:10I especially like your early, funny ones.

1:46:10 > 1:46:16Many people saw that film as me attacking my fans

1:46:16 > 1:46:18and saying the people out there

1:46:18 > 1:46:22that are enjoying my films are clawing and pawing

1:46:22 > 1:46:27and silly-looking, but that had nothing to do

1:46:27 > 1:46:29with the film at all.

1:46:29 > 1:46:32The film is really about problems of

1:46:32 > 1:46:33an artistic sensibility

1:46:33 > 1:46:36and how you're in your mind or out of your mind.

1:46:36 > 1:46:39What were you trying to say in this picture?

1:46:39 > 1:46:40I was just trying to be funny.

1:46:40 > 1:46:43LAUGHTER

1:46:43 > 1:46:46Had you studied filmmaking in school?

1:46:46 > 1:46:48No, no, no. I didn't study anything in school. They studied me.

1:46:48 > 1:46:50LAUGHTER

1:46:50 > 1:46:52I kept a file of photographs

1:46:52 > 1:46:54of Woody Allen faces.

1:46:54 > 1:46:57There was something humorous about them that was distinctive.

1:46:57 > 1:47:00So I would have drawers of pictures that I saved

1:47:00 > 1:47:03specifically for Woody.

1:47:03 > 1:47:05We really, you know,

1:47:05 > 1:47:08looked for very eccentric,

1:47:08 > 1:47:11strange, humorous people.

1:47:11 > 1:47:14That was probably our most ambitious

1:47:14 > 1:47:16style piece to that date.

1:47:16 > 1:47:19It was a little more exotic and flamboyant

1:47:19 > 1:47:24because he was more impressed by directors whose style

1:47:24 > 1:47:26was more visually stimulating and interesting,

1:47:26 > 1:47:28you know, Bergman and Fellini.

1:47:28 > 1:47:30He has great admiration

1:47:30 > 1:47:35for a lot of foreign directors and a lot of foreign movies.

1:47:35 > 1:47:37He's never made a secret out of that.

1:47:37 > 1:47:39You get blamed for

1:47:39 > 1:47:43copying other material, or, you know,

1:47:43 > 1:47:46you're doing Bergman and you're doing Fellini

1:47:46 > 1:47:47and you're doing 8 1/2.

1:47:47 > 1:47:51But we never discussed anything at that level ever,

1:47:51 > 1:47:53anybody else's movies.

1:47:53 > 1:47:55There's no question of Fellini's influence on Woody.

1:47:55 > 1:47:58No question about it.

1:47:58 > 1:48:00Critics were overeducated cos

1:48:00 > 1:48:02they'd all seen 8 1/2 and they thought,

1:48:02 > 1:48:04"Oh, he's just remaking 8 1/2."

1:48:04 > 1:48:07I think audience members who didn't know anything

1:48:07 > 1:48:09about 8 1/2 were just sort of put off

1:48:09 > 1:48:11by the strange busyness of it.

1:48:11 > 1:48:13You know, the whole point of the movie

1:48:13 > 1:48:15is that nobody is saved.

1:48:15 > 1:48:16Sandy, this is an Easter film.

1:48:16 > 1:48:18We don't need a movie by an atheist.

1:48:18 > 1:48:19- One more, sir. - To you I'm an atheist.

1:48:19 > 1:48:21To God, I'm the loyal opposition.

1:48:21 > 1:48:22- LAUGHING - Jesus.

1:48:22 > 1:48:24I'm your biggest fan. I think you're terrific.

1:48:24 > 1:48:25Thank you.

1:48:25 > 1:48:27His public adores him.

1:48:27 > 1:48:28Yeah. Today they adore you

1:48:28 > 1:48:30and tomorrow it's one of these.

1:48:30 > 1:48:32'Stardust Memories is a completely made-up story,'

1:48:32 > 1:48:37and I was surprised that, you know,

1:48:37 > 1:48:41that people would think that that was me.

1:48:41 > 1:48:43The press hated it.

1:48:43 > 1:48:46He got terrible reviews for it.

1:48:46 > 1:48:50The truth is, Woody didn't read reviews.

1:48:52 > 1:48:56So he wasn't terribly affected by reviews.

1:48:56 > 1:48:57I read all of them.

1:48:57 > 1:48:59LAUGHS

1:48:59 > 1:49:01You guys got to tell me.

1:49:01 > 1:49:02Why is there so much human suffering?

1:49:02 > 1:49:05This is unanswerable.

1:49:05 > 1:49:07Is there a God?

1:49:07 > 1:49:09These are the wrong questions.

1:49:09 > 1:49:10Look, here's my point.

1:49:10 > 1:49:12If nothing lasts, why am I bothering

1:49:12 > 1:49:14to make films, or do anything, for that matter?

1:49:14 > 1:49:16We enjoy your films,

1:49:16 > 1:49:18particularly the early, funny ones.

1:49:18 > 1:49:21The public was very, very generous with me

1:49:21 > 1:49:24and the critics were very generous when I started.

1:49:24 > 1:49:26They overlooked all my mistakes,

1:49:26 > 1:49:28they only wrote the nice things,

1:49:28 > 1:49:31and now I think I'm at that stage where

1:49:31 > 1:49:35I must pay my dues and be held accountable

1:49:35 > 1:49:37for the many terrible things that I do.

1:49:37 > 1:49:40And I think that in future years,

1:49:40 > 1:49:44I have a chance to - to come back again.

1:49:44 > 1:49:46After Stardust Memories, I think many in his audience

1:49:46 > 1:49:50were saying, you know, has he played himself out? What can happen now?

1:49:50 > 1:49:51Is this the end of him?

1:49:51 > 1:49:54When arguably, his best work is yet to come.

1:50:05 > 1:50:07Subtitles by Red Bee Media Ltd