Wednesday 20 June 2012

Woody Allen Season at Gloucester Guildhall


The Gloucester Guildhall Arts Centre's first director-themed film season is coming to an end this week with a showing of the classic Manhattan. Unfortunately, I'll have to miss that ( like I did the earlier Purple Rose Of Cairo ) but I did manage to see Sleeper and Annie Hall, two of my absolute favourite comedies. I dragged Sarah along with me ( she's not the world's greatest Woody fan ) and she definitely enjoyed Annie Hall... but didn't think much of Sleeper. And neither did most members of the Film Club - my mate Steve actually called it "terrible"...
Oh, well...

You can read my reviews of those two movies ( if you want to: it's not compulsory ) at the
Guildhall's website here ( for New York neuroses ) and here ( for future farce ) - and you can also check out an overview of Wes Anderson's career too, from friend of TGWS and fellow Film Club member, Tom Wiggins.
BTW These pieces reveal my secret identity, so keep it under your hats...

9 comments:

Richard said...

Nice job on the reviews! If you get the chance to see the full-length version of the Woody Allen documentary, I think you'd enjoy it. (I know an edited version appeared in UK cinemas, but the original should become available on DVD eventually.)

One trivia bit from the doc: Allen and Marshall Brickman sent the script for Sleeper to no less than Isaac Asimov, seeking his opinion on whether the film was acceptable as SF or if they had made some egregious error out of genre ignorance. Asimov deemed it worthy. I'm with Asimov on that; it actually works as a science fiction story for the most part, and that in itself may make it a slog for people who don't care for the genre. (Not liking Woody would be an even bigger impediment...)

I'll do my level best to forget your name.

Simon B said...

Thanks for the comment, Richard!

I'll have to see that Woody doc at some point - I championed it for inclusion in the Guildhall's film programme last month, to coincide with the Woody Allen season, but was outvoted :-(

That's an interesting anecdote about Woody and Dr. Asimov... I never knew that before. Woody should have got Asimov a cameo in Sleeper...

Richard said...

And looky here -- I just saw this today and thought you might like to see it as well:

http://twitpic.com/a1440p

Simon B said...

That's really cool, Richard! Thanks for sharing...

B Smith said...

Didn't like Sleeper? What's the matter with those people?

They'll sing a different tune when mankind finally learns the health benefits of steak, hot fudge and deep fat.

B Smith said...

Didn't like Sleeper? What's the matter with those people?

They'll sing a different tune when mankind finally learns the health benefits of steak, hot fudge and deep fat.

Simon B said...

Exactly! A quick session in the Orgasmatron should sort them out ;-)

Richard said...

Strangely enough, we now live in that future.

(Not so much with the hot fudge, though, because the sugar is bad for us. And we still haven't found a way of making cigars healthy.)

Simon B said...

I'm going to start living in the future tomorrow...

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