Confessions of Desire: the Films of Woody Allen

CONFESSIONS OF DESIRE: THE FILMS OF WOODY ALLEN Peter W Evans QUE EN MARY ANO WESTFIELD COLLEGE, UNIVERSITY OF LONOON Woody Allen's films are comedies of analysis. including Jack Benny, Lcnny Bruce. Groucho Repeatedly commeming on the vcry issues they Marx. Mon Sahl, Milton Berle and others-, raise, thesc tilms avoid dramatising their thcme many of whom began their eareers al Jcwish directly, preferring instead to focus on the pro patronised hostels in the Catskills. The jokes ccsses of meditation. The aura of self-conscious about anti-semitism. amusing but also distrcs ness is created through a numbcr of de vices: bre sing, are inspired by continuing anxiety about thc aks of frame (as Allen constantly appeals directly place of thc Jcw in contcrnporary American 10 the viewer, especial! y in Annie Hall); referen society. Thesc referenccs are oftcn madc to crea ces to film stars and other celebrities; a mixture te contrasts between the Anglo-Saxon and Jcwish of forms. As virtually all the films are comedies. worlds. thc former oflen identificd with coldncss comedy ilsclf bccomes a target for analysis. and detachmenl, the laner, for all its neuroses, with warmlh and family unity. The corc of Allen's humour is distrcss. This tits very well with Freud's notion of hurnour in Jokes The best examplc of this is pcrhaps Radio Days, and their Relation to Unconscious as a 'means of where dcspitc the absurd antics. for instancc. of obtaining pleasure in spile of the distrcssing parcms who quarrcl over thc size of occans, cou affects that intcrferc with lhe com1c. sins who listen in on party-line conversations, or Additionally, though, much of Allcn's humour aums who live ersatz livcs through radio serial alongside significan! indebtedness to Bob or rnusic shows. an atmosphere of mutual sup Hopc- is rooted in Jcwishness. Allen. of course, port, protectiveness and humour surrounds thc belongs lO a long line of Jewish comedians - family. Even so, the Jewishncss of Annie Hall, Pérez. Guerra, Javier, M. Teresa Caneda Cabrera, Marta Dahlgren, Teresa Fernández-Colmelro and Eduardo J. Varela Bravo eds. ( 1996). Proceedings of the X/Xth lntemationi!l Conference of AEOEAN. Vigo: Universldade de Vigo. 67 l'rocccdlngs of che XIX eh lnccrn.ufondl Confcrcncc of AEDF.AN------------------------- Radio Days and other films is not aimed exclusi with significant trends in modcrn an: the novels ve! y al Jcwish audiences. Rathcr. his audience is of Philip Roth (lo which thc humour and mliTati a huge minority of largely college-cducated film ve situations of Allen's films are much indcbtcd). goers who can casi! y identify themselves with the or Saul Bcllow (lo whose schlemiel charaeters many refercnees lO adull education courses, the early Allen's tilms are also clcarly indebted); PhDs. The New Yorker, Marshall Macluhan and thc autobiographical writing of feminists like the other landmarks of middlc-class culture. Katc Millet; and thc dramatiscd psychopathology Above all. though. Allen's thcme is sexual desi of filrn-makers like Fassbinder. are all instanccs rc. of a dcsirc to problcmatise the relationship bet ween writcr and texts. Oflen the jokes and their wider implications dra matise a simultaneous affirrnation and denial of But as Allen's comcdy. as 1 have already argucd, desirc. Allcn questions the differcnce bctween is a comcdy of analysis, this intense preoccupa romantic !ove all(l sexual desirc. The Allen cha tion with the sclf. what Christopher Lasch called racter knows that !ove and dcsire are potentially thc ·culture of narcissisrn,' itsclf comes undcr fulfilling, but he also knows that commitmcnt mcrcilcss scrutiny. On thc one hand !ove givcs can bring its own compromises and dcceptions. rnc;lning lo lifc. but on the othcr rclationships The joke al the end of Annie Hall encompasses cannot real! y bcar thc strain of the cxistential sig this contradiction vcry well: a man knows his niticancc placcd upon it. So thc ncrvousncss that brother is crazy to think he is a chicken. but all surrounds lovc in /\llen's tilms is appropriately the same he will nol havc him certified ami sec cxprcsscd through thc satirical discoursc of the tioned because thc family necds the eggs. Sexual therapist. desire is a madness . an impossible search, follo wing Laean. for a lost object that can never be Bcyond the sclf. womcn are what Allcn mo l rediseovered and only ever replaccd by substitu often subjects to scrutiny. They are importan! in tes. his tilms as both objects and subjects of dcsire. Though lhere are severa! gcsturcs towards homo In early lilms this quest for !ove is undcrtaken by sexuality. Allen·s intcrcst rcmains tirmly hetero the sch/emiel ( Yiddish for 'jerk.' a word he often sexual. Occasionally making jokes thm srnack uses), more a victim than a hero of desire. In the more of fashionable auitudinising than of genui later films in which he appcars as his own alter nely polymorphous pervcrsity -c.g. '1 don'tlikc ego. he actively pursues his own identity or ful to expose my body in front of males of my gen filmemthrough !ove, more <111 agentthan a victim der'-- thc films do nevenhelcss sometimcs vccr of its implacable laws. Although A !len constantly away from eommitmcnt to heterosexual gratifi denies that there is any autobiographical signifi cation, a regression that most intcrestingly pcr cance in these lilms -cspeeially those in which haps surfaces in the obscssive jokes about mas he appears--. the undeniably 'confessional' turbation. In some ways thcsc rcfercnccs renect a nature of these narratives (in which Allen is fre post-Kinsey acknowlcdgcrnent of normal practi quently panncred by his real-life panners, Diane ccs unacknowlcdged by thc moral majority. Yct, Keaton, Mia Farrow) means that the sincerity or bcside suggesting a pathetic inadequacy, mastur authenticity of the characters' preoccupations are bation oflcn scems in Allen's meditation on thc stressed. Even in his most reccnt film. Migh1y topic like welcome release from the dcmands and Aphrodite, the key narrative about a liule boy's prcssures of rclationships. an arca whcrc thc adoption by two working parents rccalls the rcla practitioncr can --as in art-- cxercisc control: tionship bctwcen Allen and Mia Farrow and thcir You can't control lifc. lt docsn't wind up pcr many adopted ehildrcn. Funhermorc. on-screen fcctly... only art you can control. Art and mastur A !len looks and talks much like otT-screen A !len: bation. Two arcas on which l'm an absolutc elothes. remarks about l lollywood. analysis and expcn' (Stardust Memories). The identilication so on blur the boundaries bctween fact and lic betwecn art and control and lifc and chaos is tion. This eonfessional approach is in keeping dcveloped most brilliantly in Amlie Hall, where 68 f'rocccdlngs of rhc X/Xrh lnrcrndrtondl Confctcncc of AEDEAN Alvy Singer/AIIen writes a play based on his is often rooted in unconscious motivations no rclationship with Annic!Diane Keaton. hu! hcre therapy can rcach . the outcome is differcnt. its happy cnding. as dis tinct from the unhappy one in the outer frame. signifying the desire 10 control over the uncon Sclcct bibliogr aphy on Woody Allcn trollable. Babington. Brucc and Peter William Evans. These films are all made against the background Affairs 10 Rememher; The 1/o//ywood Comcdy of the rise of feminism. mediating contemporary of 1he Sexes (Manchester, 1989). deconstmction of the 'normal.' 'healthy' desirc of thc heterosexual male, and thc prcviously Bcnayoun. Roben. Woody Al/en; Beyond Words unchallcnged hegemony of heteroscxuality. (London. 1986). Allen's female characters are modern. and somc tirnes they even prefcr same-sex relationships Brodc, Doublas. Woody Al/en; His Films all(/ (Manhauan). yct the feeling persists. as wc hcar Career (London. 1986). the old songs. likc «Seems like Old 'limes». or see 1\ lvy Singer buying --cven though in jest McCann, Graham. The Films oj Woody Al/en. traditional lingcrie for Annie's birthday. that for the many Alvy Singcrs inside or outsidc the con Yacowar, Maurice. Loser Take Al/: The Comic fcssionalnarratives of Allen's lilms sexual desire Arl of Woody Al/en (New York. 1979). 69 .

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