Posted on 12/22/2004 1:52:03 PM PST by schaketo
PARIS - In Woody Allen's America, Bordeaux or Burgundy wine and other things French are always in vogue. But he admits his European sensibility makes his films less popular back home.
Even with trans-Atlantic ties at a low ebb, the French are still seen as standard-bearers of class, elegance and, well, romance among Americans, he said, and the U.S. filmgoing public knows it.
"If you were doing a scene of seduction, and the man gets the woman in a candlelit restaurant, he would never order a California wine - because then everyone would laugh," Allen told reporters in Paris. "It will not be a Portuguese wine, it will just always be French."
"There's a mystique that Americans have about French wine," he said. "Despite any political conflicts America has with France, most Americans have enormous affection for thing French."
France's vocal opposition to the U.S.-led war in Iraq chilled relations between Paris and Washington, but Allen stopped short of any comment on the soured ties.
The bespectacled filmmaker was in Paris to promote his new film "Melinda and Melinda," which explores both tragedy and comedy through two separate and parallel lives of a young woman - each played by Radha Mitchell - that are the subject of a dinner conversation.
The film gave Allen the chance to dabble in tragedy - admittedly not his strong point. It is to be released next month in France and in the United States in March.
Allen said he liked Michael Moore's anti-Bush film "Fahrenheit 9/11" - which won top prize at the Cannes Film Festival this year - but insisted filmmakers face limits in changing political attitudes.
"I don't think that it made any real difference in the outcome of the election," Allen said of Moore's film. "It's no question that I was disappointed in the outcome of this election."
But "I don't think people see movies and say, 'Well, I'm going to go out there and now I'm going to vote for somebody different,'" Allen said.
Allen's films are wildly popular in countries like France, and he acknowledged that these days his penchant for European culture doesn't win him much favor in America.
"It's not surprising to me that all over, my films have some kind of European sensibility," he said. It "doesn't help their popularity in the United States - but it's unconscious."
figures woody another hollywood ass
figures woody another hollywood ass
Wasn't there a story a short while ago that many Japanese living in Paris were depressed becuase that city didn't live up to its image with all the rude, smelly people and all the dog feces around?
Let Woody have France. I don't have any use for either one of them.
Just to be clear on the subject - no man should ever try to woe me with a French wine - or a French cheese or - well, you get the picture.
I'll take a good Claifornia, Aussie or Italian wine in a minute, no French wines. I'm getting the wine stewards in town trained too.
where do under aged Asian chicks fit into his likes? :-)
Don't forget Washington wines!! They are grown in the red area of the state too.
First, Jerry Lewis.
Now, Woody Allan.
What next???
(oh, the tragedy!)
First, Jerry Lewis.
Now, Woody Allan.
What next???
(oh, the tragedy!)
He's very wrong about California wine. He's living in the past. Nobody who knows anything about wine would laugh anymore at someone ordering something from Napa. . .many California wines are better than French wines now. . .
I just went tasting in Sonoma and the Silverado Trail in Napa a few weekends ago--the wine was incredible. . .
It's a crying shame that with all his money and fame Allen has never been able to buy a pair of heels that he could fit into.
9/19/03 Anything Else DW $3,212,310 (Cost: $18 Million + Marketing & Distribution)
5/3/02 Hollywood Ending DW $4,850,753 (Cost: ?)
8/24/01 The Curse of the Jade Scorpion DW $7,517,191 (Cost: $33 Million + M/D)
5/19/00 Small Time Crooks DW $17,266,359 (Cost: $25M + M/D)
12/3/99 Sweet and Lowdown SPC $4,197,015
11/20/98 Celebrity Mira. $5,078,660
12/12/97 Deconstructing Harry FL $10,686,841
12/6/96 Everyone Says I Love You Mira. $9,759,200
10/27/95 Mighty Aphrodite Mira. $6,468,498
10/21/94 Bullets Over Broadway Mira. $13,383,747
8/18/93 Manhattan Murder Mystery TriS $11,330,911
9/18/92 Husbands and Wives TriS $10,555,619
3/20/92 Shadows and Fog Orion $2,735,731
12/25/90 Alice Orion $7,331,647
10/13/89 Crimes and Misdemeanors Orion $18,254,702
3/3/89 New York Stories (Oedipus Wrecks) BV $10,763,469
10/14/88 Another Woman Orion $1,562,749
12/18/87 September Orion $486,434
1/30/87 Radio Days Orion $14,792,779
Hmmm... Every one of Woody's last 19 movies has bombed. Last non-bomb: Hannah and Her Sisters, which made $40 million, still far from a hit.
I don't think anyone in film production should take Allen's advice. He hasn't made a good movie since "Love and Death." (1975)
It took me a while to get that. That's really nasty.
"All Things French in Vogue for Woody Allen"
Especially when "All Things" involves a stepdaughter! (Are they still an item or is she too old for him now?)
"There's a mystique that Americans have about French wine," he said. "Despite any political conflicts America has with France, most Americans have enormous affection for thing French."
#1: I'm a teetotaler, so I sure as heck don't give a crap about French wine.
#2: I don't have one iota of affection for things French. I hope their consciences are stirred by all the thousands of fallen American soldiers lying in French cemeteries who died to preserve their freedom to trash our country while guzzling cognac along the Seine.
Don't lose any sleep, Woody.
Chilean wine is good too. Woody's so 20th century.
And what is wrong with Portuguese wines ?
I have acquired a taste for a kind of sparkling Portuguese wine called vinho verde.
Allen is a product of the 1950's when American intellectuals felt themselves stuck in the land of Howdy Doody and Pat Boone and gazed worshipfully at the Europe of Bergmann, Truffaut, Renoir, Sartre, etc.
I have to say I enjoyed "Bullets over Broadway".
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