Read Anywhere and on Any Device!

Subscribe to Read | $0.00

Join today and start reading your favorite books for Free!

Create Free Account

Sweet and Lowdown: Woody Allen's Cinema of Regret

4/5 ( ratings)

Over a career that has spanned more than six decades, Woody Allen has explored the emotion of regret as a response to the existentialist dilemma of not being someone else. Tracing this recurrent theme from his stand-up comedy routines and apprentice work through classics like Annie Hall, Manhattan, The Purple Rose of Cairo, Hannah and Her Sisters, and Bullets Over Broadway as well as less esteemed accomplishments , this volume argues that it is ultimately the shallowness of his protagonists' regret--their lack of deeply felt, sustained remorse--that defines Allen's pervasive view of human experience. Drawing on insights from philosophy, theology, psychology, and literature, the book discusses nearly every Woody Allen film, with extended analyses of the relationship films , the murder tetralogy , the self-reflexive films , and the movies about nostalgia . The book concludes by considering Allen's most affirmative resolution of regret and speculating about the relevance of this through-line for understanding Allen's personal life and prospects as an octogenarian auteur.

Pages: 176

Format: Paperback

Publisher: Wallflower Press

Release: March 07, 2017

ISBN: 0231178557

ISBN 13: 9780231178556

Sweet and Lowdown: Woody Allen's Cinema of Regret

4/5 ( ratings)

Over a career that has spanned more than six decades, Woody Allen has explored the emotion of regret as a response to the existentialist dilemma of not being someone else. Tracing this recurrent theme from his stand-up comedy routines and apprentice work through classics like Annie Hall, Manhattan, The Purple Rose of Cairo, Hannah and Her Sisters, and Bullets Over Broadway as well as less esteemed accomplishments , this volume argues that it is ultimately the shallowness of his protagonists' regret--their lack of deeply felt, sustained remorse--that defines Allen's pervasive view of human experience. Drawing on insights from philosophy, theology, psychology, and literature, the book discusses nearly every Woody Allen film, with extended analyses of the relationship films , the murder tetralogy , the self-reflexive films , and the movies about nostalgia . The book concludes by considering Allen's most affirmative resolution of regret and speculating about the relevance of this through-line for understanding Allen's personal life and prospects as an octogenarian auteur.

Pages: 176

Format: Paperback

Publisher: Wallflower Press

Release: March 07, 2017

ISBN: 0231178557

ISBN 13: 9780231178556

More books from Lloyd Michaels

Terrence Malick

Ingmar Bergman's Persona (Cambridge Film Handbooks)

Ingmar Bergman's Persona

Rate this book!

Write a review?