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January042007

David Rakoff on the Woody Allen Retrospective

Filed under: Looked Into   Tagged: , ,

I've been going to as many of the Woody Allen movies at Film Forum as I can, which isn't nearly enough; David Rakoff has been seeing all of them, from the looks of his posts at Nextbook (thanks, MUG!). These are tender reviews, thoughtful and personal, as Allen fans' relationships to the movies tend to be. Here's a sample, from the entry for Wild Man Blues:
But it is when he is playing that I am overwhelmed by a rush of what can accurately be described as love for Woody Allen. To see the effort and concentration of his playing, the pulsing of his jaw and temples as if there were umbrella staves pushing up from under his skin, or the attentive humility with which he sits and listens to banjo player Eddie Davis play "Rock of Ages." As he himself says, there is no cerebral element to it, it's sheer feeling and the reverence he displays is so real and so touching.
Really good stuff, throughout, and well worth reading.
2 comments

Comments

Broken link in posting to Nextbook:

[correct link]

Rick CJanuary 05, 2007

Just checked it and I think it's OK—thanks! I'm editing your comment so it's inside the lines; neurotic, eh?

EmilyJanuary 05, 2007

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