Celebrity and Authorial Integrity in the Films of Woody Men %Y
Total Page：16
File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb
CELEBRITY AND AUTHORIAL INTEGRITY IN THE FILMS OF WOODY ALLEN BY FAYE MCINTYRE A Thesis Submitted to the Facul@ of Graduate Studies in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY Department of English University of Manitoba Winnipeg, Manitoba (c) January, 200 1 National Library BibIiothèque nationale du Canada Acquisitions and Acquisitions et Bibliographic Services services bibliographiques 395 Wellington Street 395. rue Wellington Ottawa ON Ki A ON4 Ottawa ON KI A ON4 Canada Canada rour rïk vom rbw~ Our fi& Notre rtifBrence The author has granted a non- L'auteur a accordé une licence non exclusive licence allowing the exclusive permettant à la National Lïbrary of Canada to Bibliothèque nationale du Canada de reproduce, loan, distribute or seU reproduire, prêter, distribuer ou copies of this thesis in microform, vendre des copies de cette thèse sous paper or electronic formats. la forme de microfiche/film, de reproduction sur papier ou sur format électronique. The author retains ownership of the L'auteur conserve la propriété du copyright in this thesis. Neither the droit d'auteur qui protège cette thèse. thesis nor substantid extracts fÏom it Ni la thèse ni des extraits substantiels may be printed or othemise de celle-ci ne doivent être imprimés reproduced without the author's ou autrement reproduits sans son permission. autorisation. THE UNIVERSITY OF MANITOBA FACULTY OF GRADUATE STUDIES *f *f * COPYRIGHT PERMISSION PAGE Celebrity and Authorial Integrity in the Films of Woody Men %Y Faye McIntyre A Thesis/Practicum submitted to the Faculty of Graduate Studies of The University of Manitoba in partial fulNlment of the requirements of the degree of Doctor of Philosophy FAYE MCINTYRE O 2001 Permission has been granted to the Library of The University of Manitoba to Iend or seU copies of this thesis/practicum, to the National Library of Canada to microfilm this thesis/practicum and to lend or sell copies of the film, and to Dissertations Abstracts International to publish an abstract of this thesis/practicum. The author reserves other publication rights, and neither this thesis/practicum nor extensive extracts from it may be printed or otherwise reproduced without the author's wrïtten permission. My dissertation examines the nature of Woody Allen's authority, which 1regard not as a matter of his exercising his artistic control nor of his expressing a personal vision in his work, but as a consequence of an evolving contract between the author and his audience. To begin assessing this contract 1 compare Allen's self-presentation in his eariiest films to that of other cornic artists who have worked within the same genenc conventions of the "cornedian cornedies." Though the narratives of these fihm have the similar principle objective of displaying the cornic perforrner's personality, each of the cornedians in them cm be seen to exhibit a distinct awareness of the pleasures and obligations of visibility and, accordingly, of a unique sense of his contract with the viewer. I finà that Men, like Jeny Lewis, is willing to expose a weak and vuherable persona to the audience, though his manner of doing so, iike Bob Hope's, suggests an authorïtative style of seIf- consciousness cornmensurate with the prevailing cntena for aspirants to visible fame. Looking at films Allen made pnor to 198 1, in particular Annie HaII, Manhattan and Stardust Mernories, 1 continue to emphasize what Leo Braudy might caü Allen's "culturally approved authorship" and the importance of the spectator's agency in the formulation of the bonds of his authority. While 1 evoke Christopher Lasch's ideas on the narcissistic culture of the the as a context for these works, I counter his negative reading of the narcissistic artist's "performative" relation to his audience, which Lasch sees as evidence of the author's unwifingness to fuUy reveal himself in his address to his audience. Moving away from Lasch's sense of the artist's unchanging obligation to be sincere, 1 concentrate on Allen's adversarial stance, on his acute awareness of, and - - Il contention with, his audience, and on the interdependence between author and viewer which this stance ultimately irnplies. In my discussion of Zelig, Broadway Dannv Rose and Crimes and Misdemeanors, 1 attempt to show how Allen's self-presentation betrays the guilt and inauthenticity inherent in visible ceiebrity, which 1connect to the alienated self-consciousness Barthes clairns for the subject of photography. I explore the artist's contradictory desire to be a visible presence and also to escape the determining identification with his admired public image which remains a thrail to his audience. When Men invests in the portrait of himself as an innocent victim of the culture of celebrity in these films he faces a paradox in his self- presentation. That is, his moral authority, which rests on his seeming ability to transcend spiritual dienation, is inseparable from his renown as a celebrated perfomer. Finally 1 look at the films Allen made dunng and after the persona1 scanda1 of 1992 in - order to gauge Men's efforts to rebuild his relationship to his audience and to deconstruct the persona which no longer seems to be representative of his mediated identity. iii TABLE OF CONTENTS Abstract.. .................................... ,......................................................... i ... Table of Contents .............................................................................. ~ii Acknowledgements .............................................................................. iv Introduction.. ................................ ,....................................................... 1 Chapter One: Comic Impostures. ................................................................. 5 Chapter Two: The "Disobedient Dependence" of Comic Authonty: Amie Hall, Manhattan and Stardust Mernories ............................................................40 Chapter Three: Honourable Mention: Celebrity and Integrity in Zelig, Broadway Dannv Rose and Crimes and Misdemeanors ..... ,....................................................... 79 Chapter Four: The Disguises of Fiction: Husbands and Wives, Mighty Aphrodite and Deconstructing Hq........................................................................... -121 Conclusion ......................................................................................... 156 Notes.. .................................................................................... .16 1 Works Cited ...................................................................................... 200 Acknowledgments 1am grateful to many people who helped me during and after the writing of my dissertation. Fmt 1 would like to thank rny advisor, Dr. George Toles, not only for his guidance on this project, but for many inspiring conversations over the years. I would like to extend my thanks to the members of my cornmittee, Dr. Brenda Austin-Smith and Dr. Car1 Matheson for their helpful comments and questions at the defense, and to the extemal reader Dr. Maurice Yacowar, whose graciousness and good humour made the occasion an enjoyable one. 1 am especially indebted to my fiiend Dr. Judith Owens for her continued encouragement throughout the writing process and for allowing me the use of her office. Her generosity made it possible for me to finish the dissertation.. 1 also wish to hank Georgina Garrett for her extraordinary efforts to help me reformat the dissertation when it was time to do the final revisions. Kerry Morris, Chris Freeman and Gale McIntyre also contributed their time and computer expertise to the reformatting effort, and 1 most appreciative of their help. Finally, 1 wish to express my gratitude for their love and support to my parents, to my chiIdren, Aaron and Avery, and to Bruce Wade. Introduction: Celebrity and Authorial Integrity in the Films of Woody Men My study of Woody Allen's fiims emerges from contemporq criticai assumptions about creative authority and self-expression. Generally speaking, theory has moved away from the idea of the author articulating a personal vision in the work in order to accommodate a sense of the multitude of significant material forces intersecting in the text, and also, in the wake of psychoanalysis and semiotics, to acknowIedge the impossibility of coherency in either author or viewerhbject.' More recently, however, .Dudley Andrew and Timothy Comgan have argued for the spectator's continued dependency on the figure of the author; an idea which seems to me to be justified by the almost unanimous cntical references to Men's personality as a determining force in his films.2 Of prime interest to me in Conigan's work is the idea of how authorid integrity is cornpromised in the age of mediated personalities because the pleasure of recognizing an auteur in a work has become a cornmodifiable pleasure. Not only has the auteur's creative independence become questionable, then, but the spectator must be seen as playing a si,&ficant part in determining the nature and status of authority. Foiiowing up on these implications, 1 examine what 1 see as the changing aspects of Allen's "culturaliy approved authorshipm3(Braudy 543). 1 therefore emphasize the agency of the spectator in the construction of authority in Men's films, this shift in emphasis initidy suggested to me by Roland BarthesTqualified declaration of the author's "death."Speaking of the lingering desire to name the author as the source of our pleasure in being addressed by a text, Barthes