The King of Comedy

“The two biggest myths about me are that I'm an intellectual, because I wear these glasses, and that I'm an artist because my films lose money.”

That quote, to me, encompasses Woody Allen’s wit, world view and his films. For me, he is the distinction between being ‘smart’ and being ‘intellectual’. Intellectual is being Ingmar Bergman. Smart is being Woody Allen. The main difference, for me, is not in the substance, but in the form. Both make you think – but while the smart can still be enjoyed at a lower level, the intellectual cannot be experienced without the thought. In more concrete terms, you can laugh at Woody Allen when he says, “To you, I’m an atheist; to God, I’m the Loyal Opposition,” without thinking too much about the larger implications of this line. Ingmar Bergman’s Persona, on the other hand, could seem like a series of inexplicable images if you leave your mind behind. The difference, therefore, lies in whether the person putting the idea forward is being direct about it or is shy to admit that he has a ‘message’.

When the Film Club at Law School screened Annie Hall as a part of the satire series, I was asked if it was one at all. It seems, at the surface, like a romantic comedy that was more intelligent than the rest that fit into that category. But just like most of his films, this is a brilliantly constructed satire on love, relationships and everything ("I thought of that old joke, y'know, the, this... this guy goes to a psychiatrist and says, "Doc, uh, my brother's crazy; he thinks he's a chicken." And, uh, the doctor says, "Well, why don't you turn him in?" The guy says, "I would, but I need the eggs." Well, I guess that's pretty much now how I feel about relationships; y'know, they're totally irrational, and crazy, and absurd, and... but, uh, I guess we keep goin' through it because, uh, most of us... need the eggs," he says at the end.) with his usual digs at Hollywood, the studios, the television shows and the meetings - a theme that he visits time and again in his movies. In Crimes and Misdemeanors, for instance, he tells his niece, "Show business is, is dog-eat-dog. It's worse than dog-eat-dog. It's dog-doesn't-return-other-dog's-phone-calls."

Two of his early films - Bananas and Love and Death - two movies that are not as nuanced or polished as Crimes and Misdemeanors or Everyone Says I Love You, but make you laugh just as much. Bananas is one brash, crass comedy in bad taste for the most part, but its general smartness keeps the movie going. It is not rated as highly as some of his other comedies for this reason, but does have genres of comedy that he seems to have grown out of - especially slapstick humour and silent comedy-esque sequences. The ridiculous plot involving Allen, a products tester from the US, becoming the leader of the tiny Republic of San Marcos in Latin America does not have the typical big set-up comedy sequences, but is filled with little throwaway lines, like his dig at the Vatican:

Nancy: Have you ever been to Denmark?

Fielding Mellish: I've been, yes... to the Vatican.

Nancy: The Vatican? The Vatican is in Rome.

Fielding Mellish: Well, they were doing so well in Rome that they opened one in Denmark.

Two sequences in the movie are amongst the funniest he has ever done - one when he tries buying the Orgasm magazine at a shop, and the other when he defends himself in Court. The sad thing about this movie is that unless one is a die-hard Woody Allen fan like myself, I find that nobody has even heard of it. It might not be even close to the best movie you'll ever watch, but it'll keep you laughing continuously for 85 minutes, without resorting to Borat-like toilet humour!

Another classic Woody Allen that is much-ignored by the world is Love and Death. This is probably because it comes just before his most famous movie, Annie Hall. Love and Death, for me, is equally good. It is his spoof, to use a crass term, on Russian Literature - especially the writing of Tolstoy and Dosteovsky. He takes another dig at Dostoevsky in Match Point in the scene where the guy has Crime and Punishment in one hand and a Guide to Crime and Punishment in the other hand. Love and Death is filled with references to Ingmar Berman's The Seventh Seal, especially in the last scene, when the credits roll, and Allen is following Death dancing behind him. There is also one joke about Persona, in the scene just before the end when Keaton and the other woman talk of wheat. In fact, the movie's most excellent joke is that scene where Allen is talking of various kinds of wheat and Keaton, standing next to him talks of the purpose of existence and love - just like in Russian literature.

Love and Death is Allen's transformation film, from farcical spoofs to very intelligent satires, and while the world will miss his physical humour that he executed so superbly in Bananas, Sleeper and Everything you always wanted to know about sex but were afraid to ask, the world will also be glad that he evolved into the King of Comedy - the King of Smart, Intelligent Comedy.

Smartness that is shown in his unique narrative style - all those scenes in his movies where time and space just don't seem to matter - like the one in Annie Hall when he visits his old house, and sees the party going on there, the one in Everybody Says I Love You where he dances under the bridge with Goldie Hawn and the sequence in Match Point where the two ghosts come and talk to the pratagonist about him killing them.

Smartness that is also shown in his one-liners, his sudden comment of deep philospophical significance that he dismisses a second later with a joke, and his ability to tear ideas and people apart - like the comparison of a TV producer to Mussolini and then a donkey in Crimes and Misdemeanors or his use of his stereotypical son to poke fun at metal-heads and his movie directed blind becoming a great success in France in Hollywood Ending. He does make a lot of fun of France in life - he once said, "For some reason I'm more appreciated in France than I am back home. The subtitles must be incredibly good."

The one thing, though that makes me laugh all the time, more than any one-liner, more than any scene in any movie, is the expression on his face and his reactions to people and things. In Crimes and Misdemeanors, when he is behind the camera listening to the subject of his documentary, the TV Producer, tell the audience how comedy is 'tragedy plus time', he makes this face of ridicule and disgust. Rishabh Gupta, watching the movie with me just the other day went, "Show me his face. Just once more. Please!"

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Epilogue

The title of this post is borrowed from the title of Scorsese's movie starring Robert De Niro. Along with Woody Allen, Scorsese is my favourite director of all time. And along with Woody Allen again, and Jack Nicholson, Robert De Niro is my favourite actor of all time.