Hollywood Reporter reports.
"I've worked with hundreds of actresses [and] not one of them has ever complained about me, not a single complaint. I've worked with, employed women in the top capacity, in every capacity, for years and we've always paid them exactly the equal of men,” he said in an interview with France24. “I've done everything that the #MeToo movement would love to achieve.”...
Allen said that the fallout from Farrow's allegations has not affected his work and he doesn't fear being blackballed by Hollywood. “I couldn't care less. I've never worked in Hollywood. I've always worked in New York, and it doesn't matter to me for a second. If tomorrow nobody would finance my films and nobody would finance my theater plays or nobody would publish my books, I'd still get up and write because that's what I do. So I will always work. What happens to it commercially is another matter.... I haven't thought of retiring. I don't have to make movies. If people didn't want to finance my movies I would be very happy working in the theater, or writing books, but I like to get up and write. I don't like to get up and do nothing.”
Here's what Johansson said the other day:
"How do I feel about Woody Allen?... I love Woody... I believe him, and I would work with him anytime.... I see Woody whenever I can, and I have had a lot of conversations with him about it. I have been very direct with him, and he's very direct with me. He maintains his innocence, and I believe him.... It's hard because it's a time where people are very fired up, and understandably. Things needed to be stirred up, and so people have a lot of passion and a lot of strong feelings and are angry, and rightfully so. It's an intense time."
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86 comments:
"I've worked with hundreds of actresses [and] not one of them has ever complained about me, not a single complaint. I've worked with, employed women in the top capacity, in every capacity, for years and we've always paid them exactly the equal of men,”
Yeah, Woody, nobody is too worried about all the women you didn't harass. OJ also didn't kill a lotta other blonde women.
The question is about the specific claims made by your daughter, Dylan. And possibly your crazy ex-wife, Mia. And investigated and evaluated by your son, crack #meToo journalist, Ronan.
For the record, I really did love Woody's movies in the 70s and 80s. But the little nebbish just got too creepy and weird when he married Mia's adopted daughter.
I've done everything that the #MeToo movement would love to achieve.
Woody Allen's kept conservatives off the Supreme Court?
Hemingway stories about Allen and whole circumstances of Manhattan Woody creepy. But 70s, right?
The question is about the specific claims made by your daughter, Dylan. And possibly your crazy ex-wife, Mia. And investigated and evaluated by your son, crack #meToo journalist, Ronan.
Wow. That's just about everyone involved ... except, of course, the woman in question, his wife.
ah scarlett my dear, that and endorsing red squaw, does not become you.
I want to know if Scarlett, the very important actress, is in agreement with Warren that a cop is a murderer when he is forced to shoot someone in self defense.
also - "hands up don't shoot" - where does Scarlett, the important actress, stand on that fake story?
Also - Scarlet, the importation actress, how does she feel about Warren using identification as a Native American to get a high paying job at Harvard. Is that fair?
I liked Woody's girlfriends, the early funny ones.
As a Certified Nebbish, Woody is the opposite of Toxic masculinity.
IMO, the uber-controlling Mia Farrow comes across as the second coming of Joan Crawford.
'...2. Crawford hated wire hangers, and reportedly once woke up her daughter in the middle of the night for using them. In a scene that’s become synonymous with the film, she is said to have dragged her daughter by the hair yelling, “No wire hangers, no wire hangers!” while beating her with one until her “ears rang.”'
https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/live-feed/mommie-dearest-shocking-joan-crawford-accusations-986654
It's hard to imagine Woody - little guy weirdo Woody - forcing a woman to do something she doesn't want to do. All she would have to do is get the fly swatter.
Mia has the most dirt on him. His leaving her for the adopted daughter was so weird. Most of us cannot comprehend. but I tend to agree - who cares at this point?
Woody is a master at his craft. But I'm bored with all of them and I don't pay to see any of it. NT or CA.
Hemingway stories about Allen and whole circumstances of Manhattan Woody creepy. But 70s, right?
Yeah, I read that (recent) article about Woody frolicking with a tall blonde 16 year old, Eva Braun, type model in the 70s. It served as the inspiration for Manhattan, which at the time, I thought was a great movie. But, digging into Woody's life, the little nebbish has some serious issues. Keep your daughters away!
Of course Woody isn't in the same league as Harvey Weinstein. Woody is so low on testosterone he married Louise Lassiter and then hooked up with flat chested "looks like a boy" Mia farrow. And when he was tired of her, went after slightly above average soon-yi, because she was in the same house as Mia.
Its not like Woody has been making the moves on Miss Universe for 40 years. The only exception is when he went after Ms. Hemingway during "Manhattan" - but it seems she batted his advances down easily.
Woody Allen's real problem is that he's 83 years old, and he's been making the same 3 types of movies for the last 40 years. Quit Writing Woody!
When Woody Allen first went public with Soon-Yi Previn, I had the same reaction most people did. But it's, what? 25 years later? And they're still together.
That's a real relationship.
Allen's responses to his family's attacks has been admirably low key and mature. It's done a lot to restore my respect for him.
I guess this late in his life, Woody Allen's memory is not so good about some of his earlier, not-too-kind references to the women in his orbit. For example, referring in his early stand-up routines to his first wife, Harlene Rosen, married to Allen when she was 16, as "Quasimodo" or "the dreaded Mrs Allen".
Isn't it kind of nonsense to expect creative professionals to be proper bourgeois "professionals" nowadays? There's a lot of romanticism implicit in the contemporary idea of what a creative artist is. It's not workmanlike J.S. Bach or Handel turning out a lifetime of masterpieces on commission, anymore. It's tortured genius Lord Byron fathering a bastard off his half-sister. Or nowadays, perverted ephebophiles like Polanski and maybe Woody Allen.
Woody Allen represents everything wrong with Pop culture today. The guy started making movies in the late 60's. That's 50 FUCKING YEARS AGO. These "don't trust anyone over 30" types got into powerful positions years ago, and they refuse to retire.
We should be talking about all the great directors in their 40s, 50s, and 60s. Woody Allen should be OLD NEWS. I was on another website, run by a Guy in his late 40s and they were talking about the Beatles. The Fucking Beatles! Its not that i have anything against Woody or the Beatles but its 2019 - not 1979.
Mia vs Woody, was like Hitler v. Stalin. You wanted both sides to lose.
Introducing Soon-Yi Previn -- As controversies tumbled around her, the daughter of Mia Farrow and wife of Woody Allen stayed silent for decades. No more. -- an article written by Daphne Merkin and published by New York magazine on September 16, 2018
A superb article based on interviews of Woody Allen and Soon-Yi Previn.
i always took soon-yi side it this thing. She was over 18, Mia was almost nothing to her, and she honestly loved Woody Allen. But that's what happens when you adopt 8 kids and treat them like trophies to your ego.
well take the money and run, bananas sleeper, that was his heyday, then he took himself too seriously, probably around the manhattan mark, funny neurotic, became morose neurotic,
Allen still has his other son, Moses, vouching for him that he was in the house the day Dylan said the incident occurred and no such thing happened, so make of that what you will. Even if this is just a payback ploy by Mia and the other two children, odds are it never gets that way if Woody doesn't get into that creepy affair with Soon Yi in the first place.
(The other irony here is that part of Ronan Farrow's determination to fight through NBC's attempt to spike his Harvey Weinstein story is that his passion may have been fueled in part because after the Soon Yi affair became known, Allen also had a questionable future in terms of getting his movies distributed, until he was bailed out by Harvey Weinsteain and Miramax. So the affair with Soon Yi may have been the spark that ended up leading to the #metoo movement 25 years later.
Outrage is entertainment for the outraged, and for sociologists.
Weinstein didn't do anything wrong exchanging roles for sex. #MeToo is wrong from the start. It's the deal women and men always make.
1967 talk show Woody Allen v. William F. Buckley"-- quite good.
A Weinstein Production in the title still means a good film follows, to the DVD viewers.
The film would have been as good with another lead actress, by the way.
The Fucking Beatles! Its not that i have anything against Woody or the Beatles but its 2019 - not 1979.
Interesting you should pair The Beatles and Woody Allen. If feel the same way about both: they're just okay. Not great - just okay. Don't get me wrong, they're good - above average even. You know: okay.
#ConfessYourUnpopularOpinion
I've noticed a slight trend - not enough samples to tell - but tits have disappeared from recent releases. Either a reaction to #MeToo by virtue signalling or the result of breasts everywhere already and actress breasts aren't anything but average.
@rcocean:
Woody Allen represents everything wrong with Pop culture today.
Is Woody Allen really occupying that much space in contemporary pop culture? Can anyone name say, the last three or four, Woody Allen pictures? I sure can't. The last I could recall, off the top of my head, was Vicky Christina Barcelona (the Johansson reference may have helped), and that was over 10 years ago.
Johansson is a #MeToo #ShProgressed? [Casting] Couches full of women... feminine females.
The complaint against Weinstein seems to be his insensitive seduction methods. But he's rich and can offer a role, so I'm not sure what the complaint really is.
Take the role or don't, I don't care. There are other actresses.
A superb article based on interviews of Woody Allen and Soon-Yi Previn.
Yup.
And we know what Weinstein said in his interviews. And what Epstein said in his. And what Kevin Spacey said in his as well. People always tell the whole unvarnished truth.
I've outgrown Woody Allen comedy but it used to be fun. The stodgy was stodgier back then so the target worked.
Something could be done against feminist #MeToo successfully today, if Woody wanted to. Today's stodgy.
see?
It's FINE for a director to sexually use a woman in exchange for a terrific part
It's CRIMINAL for a director to deny a part to a woman because he doesn't want to sexually use her
Woody TOTALLY helped Scarlet's career; 'nuf said
The ARRL is running a week-long contest in honor of their founder Hiram Percy Maxim, on his 150th birthday. I thought he was an ugly-uninteresting person back in the 50s when his picture first came up, and I'm happy to say that the few hams trying to participate today aren't getting any answers at all. Apparently the meeting involved overestimated the enthusiasm for the organization.
Now if there were a sex scandal, there might be something. Try that next year.
Weinstein chased a not-yet-famous 16-year-old Kate Beckinsale around a London hotel room while wearing a towel. If you remember her first TV appearances, she passed as a twelve-year-old at the time. She was smart enough to just circle a sofa, then head out the door. Another story from Kate for Hardin's Heroes file.
What was illegal is illegal, so prosecute that. Better if you complain at the time, though. The discussion target there is the law, good law or bad law.
What was not illegal is the question. Role for sex.
Weinstein is the victim here, as are all men. They're wired by their mothers to like women, at least briefly. It gets them in all sorts of trouble. Most of humanity's troubles stem from it, in fact.
Dylan: Moses supposes erroneously.
Weinstein needed rehab in smooth operator school, is all.
Women on the other hand are wired by their mothers to nag and change their minds. A toxic mix in a legal system that doesn't take account of it; or, lacking a legal system, mob action system.
I never accept at face value allegations of child abuse introduced in the middle of bitter custody disputes, especially when made by someone as batshit crazy as Mia Farrow.
What was not illegal is the question. Role for sex.
You can't just try it on with a 16-year-old thinking she plays the same game you do. That is illegal. She should have bashed in his skull with a faux Ming vase. And had her step-father's hard-Left pals throw the body into the sewer. That is called a fitting end in Hollywood scripts.
Woody Allen represents everything wrong with Pop culture today.
Let me FIFY.
Woody Allen represents everything that went wrong with popular culture over 30 years ago.
Didn't he lust after a teenage Hemingway girl in Manhattan?
Allen only played straight man to the real star Diane Keaton.
In 1989, Woody made a genuine excellent movie, Crimes & Misdemeanors. He played a loser nebbish (what a surprise!) who loses his dream girl, Mia F, to Alan Alda, of all people. But, he's not the star, it's Martin Landau.
That was 30 years ago.
Here's what he's done since:
New York Stories (segment: Oedipus Wrecks) (1989)
Alice (1990)
Shadows and Fog (1991)
Husbands and Wives (1992)
Manhattan Murder Mystery (1993)
Bullets over Broadway (1994)
Mighty Aphrodite (1995)
Everyone Says I Love You (1996)
Deconstructing Harry (1997)
Celebrity (1998)
Sweet and Lowdown (1999)
Small Time Crooks (2000)
The Curse of the Jade Scorpion (2001)
Hollywood Ending (2002)
Anything Else (2003)
Melinda and Melinda (2004)
Match Point (2005)
Scoop (2006)
Cassandra's Dream (2007)
Vicky Cristina Barcelona (2008)
Whatever Works (2009)
You Will Meet a Tall Dark Stranger (2010)
Midnight in Paris (2011)
To Rome with Love (2012)
Blue Jasmine (2013)
Fading Gigolo (2013)
Magic in the Moonlight (2014)
Irrational Man (2015)
Café Society (2016)
Crisis in Six Scenes (2016)
Wonder Wheel (2017)
A Rainy Day in New York (2019)
Rifkin's Festival (2020)
Basically, he's churning out a yearly load of the same, slightly variable, obscure, pointless flick that nobody sees or cares about.
Please stop, Woody! You are 84.
here's an interesting twist:
https://nypost.com/2015/06/05/billionaire-safra-family-puts-manhattan-townhouses-up-for-sale/
I remember clearly the hysteria of the McMartin and Fells Acres preschool molestation claims. Folks went to prison for many years based on a mountain of lies that poured out of the mouths of children that had been planted there by adults. There was never an accounting for that travesty, and the lives of the Amiraults and McMartins were forever ruined.
Whether Dylan actually believes what she says happened when she was a little girl is irrelevant since it has been amply demonstrated that adults are often the authors of those beliefs. I give Scarlett a ton of credit for running against the tide on this.
- Krumhorn
I agree with Charlotte, or Scarlett, or whatever her name is.
I don't want to live in a country where a man can't cheat on his wife with his adoptive daughter and then turn around and marry her.
He's so neurotic and JUST SO GODDAMN CUTE, how could you stay mad at him?
#MeToo was purportedly about sex, labor, and progress.
Take the role or don't, I don't care. There are other actresses.
9/6/19, 2:06 PM.
Wrong. He blackballed Mira Sorvino, a delightful and, may I add, delectable starlet who was worthy of a far greater Hollywood career than she had. Doubtless there were others.
That, if you need to know what's in it for you, is what's in it for you. Superior actresses who won't sleep with the director et al don't get roles, and lesser actresses who will have sex for parts, do.
He also betrays his shareholders or stakeholders, inasmuch as fewer people see the movies than would if he chose better players.
Only a perv wouldn't hit on Scarlett Johansson
I remember her part in whit stillman's Barcelona, where she played a Spanish girl, alongside tushka Bergen, who has kept a low profile since, a film with Brendan frasers, an episode on angel,
Re: Bay Area Guy:
Basically, he's churning out a yearly load of the same, slightly variable, obscure, pointless flick that nobody sees or cares about.
I've not seen many of these films, but the ones I have seen (that I can remember) aren't really the same at all -- Midnight in Paris has a weird time travel gimmick, Blue Jasmine is about a stereotypically awful New Yorker being stereotypically awful outside of New York, and Magic in the Moonlight sort of reminds me of one of those Bernard Shaw plays (like Man and Superman, which is . . possibly not intended to be as comedic as I find it), except with a lot more sentimental fluff.
You can't just try it on with a 16-year-old thinking she plays the same game you do. That is illegal. She should have bashed in his skull with a faux Ming vase. And had her step-father's hard-Left pals throw the body into the sewer. That is called a fitting end in Hollywood scripts.
#MeToo isn't about illegal. It's about legal.
You don't need a #MeMovement for illegal. Just prosecute it.
That, if you need to know what's in it for you, is what's in it for you. Superior actresses who won't sleep with the director et al don't get roles, and lesser actresses who will have sex for parts, do.
He also betrays his shareholders or stakeholders, inasmuch as fewer people see the movies than would if he chose better players.
Weinstein produced great movies. Actresses are interchangeable. I've watched a lot of them. I can't tell them apart, except for ones that have acting tics.
The shareholders can vote him out if they want. CEO's are typically incompetent anyway. But you've got to find somebody more competent, is the rub.
The scolds are out in force today.
Woody's a genuine American comic genius as joke writer, story writer, stand-up comic, and movie-maker. There's nobody posting here--including some old-fashioned gents who stand ready to administer sound thrashings to artsy cads--that has the slightest clue what transpired in the Allen-Farrow household.
Narr
Haven't seen his last few dozen, the early stuff was and is genius
I have no opinion on his guilt or innocence, but I’ve never found him funny and never liked his movies.
#MeToo isn't about illegal
Sure it is. And the difficulty of getting something done about it without the grenade going off in your face and ruining your life as well. Only the liars wind up better off--assuming a civil settlement.
Allen, Spacey, and Weistein will probably never see prison. Inmate NN7687--Bill Cosby--had to roll up real numbers and stay in the public eye with comedy tours to finally get what he had coming to him.
I gave credit for his early work, and I saw the one with emma stone and colin firth, but there's a big gap between films,
meanwhile, on another ranch,
acecomments.mu.nu/?post=383129
I think I first became aware of Woody Allen as a stand-up comic on the Jack Paar show -- so that gives you a context. I thought he was pretty good. If I had to guess, I'd say that half his movies were good, and half weren't. That's probably not far off anyway. I don't judge him for marrying the Asian girl because that's no business of mine. So far as I can tell, he hasn't been credibly accused of criminal conduct -- I don't consider accusations from angry ex-wives as necessarily credible. At his age he ought to retire, of course -- but so should Senators Sanders and Warren and Ex-VP Biden, so what do I know?
Vicky Christina Barcelona
IIRC, in that film one of the American characters is a graduate student who goes to Barcelona to study some aspect of Catalán culture while speaking neither Spanish nor Catalán. That's when Woody lost me.
Francisco D said...Woody Allen represents everything that went wrong with popular culture over 30 years ago.
Didn't he lust after a teenage Hemingway girl in Manhattan?
I enjoyed Manhattan, but yes. He played a 40-year-old man with a girlfriend who was still in high school. And none of the other characters batted an eyelash. It was treated as perfectly normal.
Bay Area Guy, I recommend Sweet and Lowdown. Woody’s barely in it. Great music, fun story.
Kay said...
I have no opinion on his guilt or innocence, but I’ve never found him funny and never liked his movies.
Have you listened to his old stand up comedy records? If not, you should give them a listen: (1) you will lively have fun laughing at genuinely funny material and (2) you might change your mind about whether he is/was funny.
I've always thought that his stand up comedy was his best skill. Before doing standup himself, he sold jokes to big name comedians for years starting when he was in his teens.
===========================
I don't understand people saying he should stop making movies. He likes making movies. Some are pretty good. No one is making anyone go see them. The last one I saw was To Rome with Love, which was a light, fun romance/comedy with an interesting historical/literary twist. If I actually went to the movies, I probably would have seen more of his.
#MeToo #SheProgressed is also not about quasi-incestual relationships. It was a witch hunt and political hit job targeting one Senate and a SCOTUS candidate in particular, which tragicomically aborted some marginally viable friendlies (a la Antifa in Charlottesville). A political myth maker that progressed too far. Wasn't Johansson a leading advocate of the #MeToo #SheProgressed movement?
Not a fan of Allen’s typical movies, but one I really enjoyed was one from 1987 called “Radio Days”. It’s loosely based on his childhood growing up in Rockaway Queens with his stereotypically Jewish family. Hilarious and lighthearted at the same time. I recommend it.
If you need something to watch, Carnival Row on Amazon Prime is off-beat and watchable. And free. I'm halfway through. And yes there are fairies and other fae. Get over it. So far there is no Orange Man stand-in, so you have to give them credit. Minor nudity, though, so credit again.
This show is spoiled for me, as I've already seen the sequel: Scarlett Betrayed!
short version: Woody lied to her about everything.
I've actually all the movies listed above, having gone on an Allen DVD binge a few years ago.
Some of these films are very strong works and some quite watchable, including: Shadows and Fog (1991), Manhattan Murder Mystery (1993). Bullets over Broadway (1994). Mighty Aphrodite (1995), Celebrity (1998), The Curse of the Jade Scorpion (2001), Match Point (2005), Vicky Cristina Barcelona (2008), Midnight in Paris (2011), To Rome with Love (2012), Blue Jasmine (2013), and Irrational Man (2015). I highly recommend Match Point, a very Hitchcockian movie, Irrational Man, and Vicky Christina.
How many movies have Coppola, Lucas, or Scorsese made in the past 20 years? Not many. I give Allen huge credit for showing up every day for work and creating one of the most incredible bodies of work in film history, perhaps the most amazing ever.
It's amazing that people hate Allen for being married to the same woman for 22 years.
Weinstein didn't do anything wrong exchanging roles for sex.
Of course he did. Since 1993, Miramax has been owned by Disney so the roles Weinstein was trading for sex didn't belong to him. If nothing else, Weinstein is guilty of misappropriating Disney's property. Unless, of course, the casting couch was written into his employment contract, which is pretty doubtful.
Of course he did. Since 1993, Miramax has been owned by Disney so the roles Weinstein was trading for sex didn't belong to him. If nothing else, Weinstein is guilty of misappropriating Disney's property. Unless, of course, the casting couch was written into his employment contract, which is pretty doubtful.
If they're not happy with Weinstein, they can fire him, they can sue him. It's not a mob action problem or an outrage problem.
Disney was aware of the casting couch, however. Comedians were doing jokes about it in public about Weinstein specifically and it always got a big laugh.
The problem with CEOs is that it's no good just to disfavor inefficiencies but you have to find somebody better. Weinstein apparently was great. So why replace him.
He's gone now and the movies suck, just an opinion from a few samples.
Incidentally, once you're aware of the romcom formula, guys can just watch the first half. Guy gets girl. Women have to stay for the whole thing to get to their hook, man apologizes.
Weinstein didn't do anything wrong exchanging roles for sex.
Job requirements include:
high school diploma
2 years related experience
3 references
feminine female black diversity class (brown will also be considered)
couch and desk service to the boss
and more
I've seen most of his movies. You don't hate yourself for watching them. Some clunkers but they're mostly literate and intelligent and every so often they're better than that. He writes great parts for women. That's probably why the actors he worked with were so reluctant to denounce him. By closing him down, they're depriving themselves of worthwhile future soliloquies.....There's definitely, observably something amiss with his libido. However, on the available evidence, I don't think a jury would convict him of child molestation. How does this due process thing work?
Slightly off topic: They no longer play the music of R. Kelly and Michael Jackson on certain stations. Why doesn't the shutdown apply to Phil Spector? He actually murdered a woman. Are sexual offenses worse than murder?......Also the music of Ike and Tina Turner. Should we boycott the music of Ike Turner because of his abusive behavior towards Tina but if we did that wouldn't we also be consigning Tina to oblivion. These are difficult moral questions that I struggle with during the long night.
Good point:
https://m.imdb.com/name/nm0074065/
All hale Woody Allen! The little guy parlayed his talent and his neuroses into a great career in the movies. Scarlett Johansson speaks up for comon sense.
Mia Farrow is crazy and coached little Dylan into a Woody accuser. Ronan looks too much like Frank Sinatra to be taken seriously.
It’s a crazy world.
I don't want to be a mere 'lurker' so I'll coment: Woody is avery complicated case - because he's Jewish and 'ugly', with it. That's been his spiel from the begining. Can we distinguish between the obvious anti-semitism and the real, alleged assaults? What is he accused of? That he fell in love with his step-daughter before she of the when one can consent? Yucky - but is according to Mia Farrow during a very stormy divorce proceeding. And he probably did - fall in love, that is - but did he consumate it - that we won't know unless she tell's us, his, now, wife. For he isn't Weinstien, he isn't ' hands on' as Miss Johanson explicitly tells us. Would she lie? Who knows. Like all 'artists' she's waiting for next 'work'- and who is the better craftsmen, apart from Michael Mann and Ridely Scott, still in existence? Quaeritur.
Sorry, Anne, that was a bit messed up - I was rushing to be 'published'! But you get the jist - ie one shouldn't dismiss Miss Johansons bona fides, out of hand. Is Mr Allen 'creepy' because he's creepy or because he's a Jew? Or both? Or neither? I suppose I throw a stick in this fire because I grew up with his films and I have a great affection for them - born in ' 67 and Dennis Potter and Woody Allen were my education. I can't give him up.
And, of course, the question, the stupid question, always arises - would one refuse to watch, for instance, 'Manhatten' because the director turns out to be a bastard - is the beauty of that film changed, 'touched', 'smeared' by our feelings about it's author? We know about Visconti, Godard, Wim Vender, don't we? Always the question is what shit , what kind of mud, what excrement, what bs does art come from? The old 'fleur de mal'? Would one want only 'virtuous' 'people' to create? Or, a more fundemental question, a question the 'Puritans' can never answer, can 'virtuous' ' people' create? As Yeat's put it Locke took a rib out of women and produced the spinning jenny!
I think the time difference - between the UK and the US - must mean I will be moderated - immoderate as I am. You're still asleep - everyone is still asleep.
But I really appreciate your blog - and, yes, because you are a woman and of a certain maturity. It is possibly impossible to find a blog that isn't immature or stupid. I'm always, in my head, defending you against the kind of trollish behaviour (sometimes down right rude) your blog seems to suffer. You're not - what anyone seems to think you are! Just a good woman. Bona voluntas.
Because this is just to you and, being in your best graces, you will moderate out this comment, I'll leave with a poem:
Everything said forgets it's bon chance
Of an accident that broke my screen as I was
Driving through the dead skirts of Paris:
Where the car must turn but doesn't to the heart of
Those streets smiling and forgetting.
Broken
Beneath that bridge and our youth on its hands and knees
Or back there, the half green lawn, and where jokes
Where a plenty and didn't need to be remembered.
I thought, something strange, like hope might brew
As when - i bought a house, I sawed the wood, and the place dissippeared beneath me.
And what are 'Good Women'? Accept from a poem from Chaucer - which he was forced to write, by his Queen, as compensation for writing about 'bad women'. No, what are 'noble Women', good women? Well, Joni Mitchell, for once. Does she have 'agency'? Of course. One of the few women one could still respect, since Akhmatova died:
Song For Sharon
by Joni Mitchell
play
Printer-friendly version of this lyric
I went to Staten Island, Sharon
To buy myself a mandolin *
And I saw the long white dress of love
On a storefront mannequin
Big boat chuggin' back with a belly full of cars
All for something lacy
Some girl's going to see that dress
And crave that day like crazy
Little Indian kids on a bridge up in Canada
They can balance and they can climb
Like their fathers before them
They'll walk the girders of the Manhattan skyline
Shine your light on me Miss Liberty
Because as soon as this ferry boat docks
I'm headed to the church
To play Bingo
Fleece me with the gamblers' flocks
I can keep my cool at poker
But I'm a fool when love's at stake
Because I can't conceal emotion
What I'm feeling's always written on my face
There's a gypsy down on Bleecker Street
I went in to see her as a kind of joke
And she lit a candle for my love luck
And eighteen bucks went up in smoke
Sharon I left my man
At a North Dakota junction
And I came out to the "Big Apple" here
To face the dream's malfunction
Love's a repetitious danger
You'd think I'd be accustomed to
Well I do accept the changes
At least better than I used to do
A woman I knew just drowned herself
The well was deep and muddy
She was just shaking off futility
Or punishing somebody
My friends were calling up all day yesterday
All emotions and abstractions
It seems we all live so close to that line
and so far from satisfaction
Dora says "Have children"
Mama and Betsy say "Find yourself a charity
Help the needy and the crippled or put some time into Ecology"
Well there's a wide wide world of noble causes
And lovely landscapes to discover
But all I really want to do right now
Is find another lover
When we were kids in Maidstone, Sharon
I went to every wedding in that little town
To see the tears and the kisses
And the pretty lady in the white lace wedding gown
And walking home on the railroad tracks
Or swinging on the playground swing
Love stimulated my illusions
More than anything
And when I went skating after Golden Reggie
You know it was white lace I was chasing
Chasing dreams
Mama's nylons underneath my cowgirl jeans
He showed me first you get the kisses
And then you get the tears
But the ceremony of the bells and lace
Still veils this reckless fool here
Now there are twenty-nine skaters on Wollman Rink *
Circling in singles and in pairs
In this vigorous anonymity
A blank face at the window stares and
stares and stares and stares and stares
And the power of reason
And the flowers of deep feeling
Seem to serve me
Only to deceive me
Sharon you've got a husband
And a family and a farm
I've got the apple of temptation
And a diamond snake around my arm
But you still have your music
And I've still got my eyes on the land and the sky
You sing for your friends and your family
I'll walk green pastures by and by
© 1976; Crazy Crow Music
I'll just throw this in here, since I came across it yesterday: Orson Welles on Woody Allen:
"I hate Woody Allen physically, I dislike that kind of man. …
"I can hardly bear to talk to him. He has the Chaplin disease. That particular combination of arrogance and timidity sets my teeth on edge. …
"He is arrogant. Like all people with timid personalities, his arrogance is unlimited. Anybody who speaks quietly and shrivels up in company is unbelievably arrogant. He acts shy, but he’s not. He’s scared. He hates himself, and he loves himself, a very tense situation. It’s people like me who have to carry on and pretend to be modest. …
"To me, it’s the most embarrassing thing in the world—a man who presents himself at his worst to get laughs, in order to free himself from his hang-ups. Everything he does on the screen is therapeutic."
I'll second "Radio Days" as a fun movie to watch. Added points for not having Woody in it. And as a Hemingway fan (now there's another guy with bad morals and great works), I'll recommend "Midnight in Paris." Haven't seen the others.
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