Funny Feelings: Taking Love to the Cinema with Woody Allen
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FUNNY FEELINGS: TAKING LOVE TO THE CINEMA WITH WOODY ALLEN by Zorianna Ulana Zurba Combined Bachelor of Arts Wilfrid Laurier University, Waterloo, Ontario, 2004 Masters of Arts Brock University, St. Catherines, Ontario, 2008 Certificate University of Toronto, Toronto, Ontario, 2009 A dissertation presented to Ryerson University and York University in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in the Program of Communication and Culture. Toronto, Ontario, Canada, 2015 ©Zorianna Zurba 2015 Author’s Declaration I hereby declare that I am the sole author of this dissertation. This is a true copy of the dissertation, including any required final revisions, as accepted by my examiners. I authorize Ryerson University and York University to lend this dissertation to other institutions or individuals for the purpose of scholarly research I further authorize Ryerson University and York University to reproduce this dissertation by photocopying or by other means, in total or in part, at the request of other institutions or individuals for the purpose of scholarly research. I understand that my dissertation may be made electronically available to the public. ii Funny Feelings: Taking Love to the Cinema with Woody Allen Zorianna Zurba, 2015 Doctor of Philosophy in Communication and Culture Ryerson University and York University Abstract This dissertation utilizes the films of Woody Allen in order to position the cinema as a site where realizing and practicing an embodied experience of love is possible. This dissertation challenges pessimistic readings of Woody Allen’s film that render love difficult, if not impossible. By challenging assumptions about love, this dissertation opens a dialogue not only about the representation of love, but the understanding of love. Rather than a Platonic love of unity, this dissertation combines the phenomenological work of Luce Irigaray and Jean-Luc Marion to describe a love of letting be. A love of letting be focuses on the lived experience of love as a phenomenology. In a love of letting be it is the intent of both lovers to regard each other as an unknowable whole, whom they must support and whose mystery they must protect. The transformations of four characters from Allen’s cinema, Allan Felix of Play it Again, Sam, Alvy Singer of Annie Hall, Cecilia of The Purple Rose of Cairo, and Mickey Sachs of Hannah and her Sisters serve as illustrations of how coming to a love of letting be is possible. The four characters, the nervous romantics, come to understand a love of letting be through their experience in the cinema. Their experience in the cinema comes to enlighten their understanding and living of love as a love of letting be. iii Acknowledgements First and foremost, I would like to thank my supervisor, Dr. John Caruana for his kindness and encouragement. Many thanks to my committee members, Dr. Jonathan Rollins and Dr. Izabella Pruska- Oldenhof, for their close reading and attention to detail. I am especially indebted to Dr. Steven Shaviro for his insightful comments. And there is never quite enough acknowledgment of Jo Ann Mackie, whose calm strength reinforced the fortitude needed for ‘the final push.’ “Writing sessions” with Catherine Jenkins and Natalya Androsova added kindness and laughter, as did working with Susan Lai whose weekly meeting maintained a solid pace. Thanks to Jessica Marion Barr, who has been a co-worker, comp comrade, and true friend. Thanks to Christian Martius for hanging out on Roncie and offering soundtracks. Many thanks to my long term German “pass partner,” Jens Koblitz, for reminding why we do what we do. Special thanks to Marina Hess for always listening so warmly, offering the sunniest encouragement, and being willing to meet up for treats. For making each day a little lighter, for making ‘safe snacks’ to take to the library, for the tireless and seemingly endless care, for listening my queries, for always being willing to get tacos before the movie, and for holding my hand through the scary parts, a special thanks to Marco Avolio. And, to Nikola, whose tiny presence reminded me of the magic and the mystery of everyday life. I hope that one day the movies will fascinate you, as they do me. iv Dedication For my favourite film companion, Marco, and our little cinephile, Nikola. v Table of Contents Author’s Declaration ii Abstract iii Acknowledgements iv Dedication v Chapter 1: Introduction 1 Romance with the Cinema 1 Film-Philosophy 5 Romantic Film-Philosophy 6 Romantic Phenomenological Film-Philosophy 7 Philosophical Interest in Woody Allen 10 Optimism, Pessimism, and the Space Between 11 It’s a Joke? It’s a Joke! 14 Structure of Chapters 16 Chapter 2: Looking for Love in Allen’s Cinema 19 Making Love 19 The Horrible and the Miserable 21 The Sweet 23 The Sweet Unknown. 24 The Sweet City. 25 The Repeat 27 The Beat 29 The Cheat 30 The Cheat and The Best Friend. 31 The Cheat and The Sister. 33 The Heat 35 The Cold Feet 37 What is This Thing Called Love? 39 Loving Otherwise 45 Chapter 3: Going to the Cinema with Woody Allen 47 A Reality Check: You were Always Outta Step with the World 47 A Double-Movement of Cinematic Thinking 51 Practicing Film-Phenomenology 51 A Relation Between Two 53 Four Exemplary Cinephiles 59 Allan: I Couldn’t get a Girl into a Chair 59 Alvy: You’re a Very Good Tennis Player 64 Cecilia: You’ll Like This one, it’s Romantic 70 Mickey: I had a Great Time. It was Like the Nuremberg Trials 72 Chapter 4: Looking for Love in the Cinema with Woody Allen 76 vi Radiant Nervousness 76 The Space of the Nervous Romance/Romantic Comedy 83 Cultural Space of Transformation 86 Art and Creativity 86 Allan: Nothing a Little Bourbon and Soda Couldn’t Fix 88 Alvy: The Film Enters as a Condition of the art Form Itself 93 Cecilia: He’s not Real, but you Can’t Have Everything 97 Mickey: Do you Realize What a Loose Thread We’re all Hanging by? 99 Anxiety or Homosexual Panic? 100 The Experience in the Cinema 102 Chapter 5: Opening to Love in the Cinema with Woody Allen 107 The Love of the Cinephile 107 From I Loaf You to I L-L-L to You 109 Allan: She’s a Real Tomato 118 Alvy: Will it Change my Wife? 120 Cecilia: He’s not Real, but you Can’t Have Everything 124 Mickey: It’s Lucky I ran into you 127 Another Possibility 130 Chapter 6: Conclusion 133 Contribution 135 Review of Chapters 135 Implications 137 Suggestions for Future Research 137 Final Note 138 References 139 vii Chapter 1: Introduction "We must open our eyes in front of the screen, we must analyze the feelings that transport us, reason it out to discover the cause of that sublimation ourselves" Louis Aragon, ([1918]1988, p. 166) Romance with the Cinema Arriving early to a Thursday night screening at the Revue, I find my place in the middle section, middle of the aisle. Sitting in the velvety chair, I unbundle myself. Scarf, jacket, and pants still wet from my walk over. Having volunteered for this theatre, I know that they need the sales from the concession stand. So, I allow myself some concession. My fingers gleam with butter as they rifle through the purple and orange cardboard box of popcorn. Behind me, an awkward date is commencing. He self-identifies as a cinephile, and begins to tell her facts about the film's release, and why people think it is important. She offers him a few muffled sounds to suggest that she is listening. Having only recently understood going to the movie theatre as a solo pleasure, eavesdropping on this conversation affirms my position. In my solitude with my fellow cinephiles, I immersed myself in the situations before me. I did not realize at the time, but this visit inaugurated what became my own search for love in and through the cinema. Thankful for the student discount that enabled me to afford more screenings, one summer I spent two to five nights of the week in the dark of the Cinematheque, then located at the AGO's Jackman Hall. There I developed a method of scribbling notes in the dark. Since my eyes did not move from the screen, I had to trust that my hand was doing something legible. When a friend would join me, they would be confused by urgency to arrive half an hour early (to secure a seat, of course), and found my note taking bizarre. One bold friend even took my notebook from me after we had finished 1 watching Nagisa Oshima's Merry Christmas Mr. Lawrence (1983). He found thick descriptions of the mise-en-scène, and a few remarks about my bodily sensations. I explained that I was trying to document my continued love of the cinema in situ. Cinephilia is a love like any other, sometimes characterized by mastery, by imposition and obligation, but in the best instances it involves care, carefully watching and acutely listening. I am forever, and eternally trying to understand my continued fascination with the moving image. My experience in the cinema, and, most importantly, my experience of the cinema illuminated to me an embodied thinking about love. This work is the attempt at expressing what the cinema enabled me to apprehend. It is toward this end, toward expressing the quiet, exuberant, vibrant love that the cinema facilitates that I endeavor. While my focus is on the cinema, the efforts undertaken here are not intended to exclude other media or modalities that facilitate a reconsideration of our approach to the other and to love.