Conversation with Woody Allen by Eric Lax is one of the most entertaining and one of the most insightful oral bio's I've read about any film director/writer. Woody Allen really opens up in this incredibly well written book not only about filmmaking but how a artist sees his own work and how he doesn't compromise. Woody knows his audience but not only that he knows what works for him, he's stuck to it for over 4 decades.
I found his honesty to be key in this book. It seemed like he spoke fearlessly and loose enough to be reminded of the kinds of characters he has portrayed in his own movies.
'If you divorce yourself from hearing about yourself and your work, which is not all that hard to do, then I'd advise you not to believe the compliments and the good things said about you. A good portion of them are insincere, a good portion are wrong-which leaves a very small portion to get excited over. Most hype about your work is show business flattery. Always remembr : Many of those honoring you at one of those black-tie events on T.V. won't return your phone calls a week after the dinner.'
-Woody Allen
I've seen a good amount of his movie. Annie Hall I thought was hilarious, but recently, Midnight in Paris I think is a brilliant, funny movie with so much heart and the opening is such splendid filmmaking! Cassandra's Dream, with Colin Farrell and Ewan McGregor, was shocking, twisty, just plain good writing as far as narration goes and the choices the characters made was so natural and real.
Eric Lax asked Woody Allen: 'How much can criticism help or hinder your work?'
Woody replied: '...the artist can't adjust his work according to criticism. ...I'm not going to change my style or my subject matter because someone criticizes it. I couldn't if I wanted to. ...The work exists independent of all the talk about it. If the thing is good, it remains good despite the pro or con about it. And if its not good, its drifts away no matter how popular it may seem at the moment. Of course, its nice to have that popular moment, no matter how fleeting, because by the time they realize the movie stinks, you have their money.'
'It [making movies] has to be fun when you're doing it because that's the only pleasure you get from it. When you're younger you think fame and the financial rewards are going to transform your life but then you find that they don't really do the trick...I don't have any DVD's of my films. I couldn't care less about them. I did them. Its like poking around half-eaten slices of pizza. It was last night's take out-fun last night, but I ate it.'
-Woody Allen
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