Woody Allens Vision of Modern City Life - Essay Example

Woody Allen’s Vision of Modern Life Introduction Woody Allen seems to have a love for the modern city which is not seen amongst other artists. His vision is certainly taken through rose coloured glasses simply because he seems to ignore the negative aspects of living in the concrete jungle. This can be shown to be true by taking an examination of his life, his work and his own words which show that his view of the city is positive to say the least and often glorifies the idea of being in the city. Of course being born in a city will certainly help in creating the viewpoint which has been taken by Allen in his various works. He was born and raised in New York and has a Jewish background which is often displayed by many of his heroes in films. He certainly has a love affair with the city since the majority of his films are located and situated around New York and its surroundings. His comedic talents were obvious from his younger days in school as well as his stay at New York University and the City College of New York (Wikipedia, 2007). With this set of close connections to the city his films and words can be examined to show his vision of modern city life. Big City Life The first film which can be connected to these ideas is Manhattan. It was a commercial success when it came out in 1979 and for all practical purposes; it was a love letter from Woody Allen to the city of his birth (Lee, 2005). The story of the film connects with two couples who are within the city but for our purposes the opening sequence of the film becomes very important. The opening scenes of Manhattan show a montage city life which includes the skyline, eating places in the city, parades on New York streets, the parks of the cities and other important civic landmarks. At the same time, the voiceover given by the character of Isaac shows how much the city is loved by the writer. The adoration towards New York City is painfully obvious even if Isaac does not like many of the people living in the city or their behaviour towards him and others. While the city seems to have lost its value in some way since it seems to take out the idea of individuality from the people living in it, it gives something back to them in terms of creating a fraternity of city dwellers that have quite a lot in common. While a city like New York certainly contains prostitutes, drugs, criminal elements and even things which people would move to avoid, Allen focuses on the brighter side of living in a city rather than the suburbs. The brighter side shows a vision of high theatres, classical music concerts, museums and even a shot of central park where a play by Shakespeare is being played out. No shot in the opening sequence can be considered negative and this viewpoint of modern city life seems to be more idealised than a vision of the country life which normally shows how a person has to be close to nature to live in the country. A Distorted View? As reported by Lee (2005) this vision is “Overly romanticized, localized in Manhattan, grandiose, upper and middle-class, and consisting mostly of classy old buildings and cultural institutions (Lee, 2005, pg. 10)”. Of course there may be scenes within the film which show crowded avenues and loud people in the backgrounds but for the most part, the movie is filled with intimate as well as intellectual talks between friends and lovers. Certainly Allen could not prevent the city from being a congested, impersonal as well often selfish place but he did present a vision of opulence that is overly idealised. Even if Woody Allen looks at a location other than New York, it seems that his vision does not go beyond city life. For the 2005 release i.e. Match Point, Woody Allen stepped away from New York but came to London which is another iconic city in the global filmmaking arena. His vision of the city life is most clearly reported by The Guardian (2005) which says that: “After thirty years of using New York as both his location and inspiration, Woody Allen has become synonymous with the city. No other director or screenwriter has tied their themes and style so tightly to a particular place, and no one else has spent twenty-five of their thirty-eight films making Manhattan seem both impressive and romantic (The Guardian, 2005, Pg.1)”. Clearly, even if the artist steps away from the city loved so dearly by him, he remains attached to the romantic idealized vision of the city which can be found amongst other artists that love city life. Of course there have been artists that consider the city to be the foundation of all that is evil and wrong with the world. Wordsworth and others take nature to be a victim while cities such as London are the criminals of the world but Allen is a visual poet who finds his muse in society to come from life in the city. Even in the film set in London, the idea of the city remains connected deeply to middle class wealth, opulence and the ever present sense of being culturally connected to others within the same city. Woody Explains his Position Coming back to Manhattan, the cultural links between living in a city and being absorbed in the cultural history is also part of the viewpoint taken by Woody Allen. In his own words, Woody Allen admits that his view point of New York is quite idealistic but he defends the position he takes. He says that, “I presented a view of the city as I’d like it to be and as it can be today, if you take the trouble to walk on the right streets (Fox, 1995, Pg. 109)”. In this vision, New York and other cities which can be as great as New York depend on their greatness on the individuals that are living in them. This is because any city or any place in the world can inspire, become beautiful and even be seen as romantic. Of course it might be difficult to the beauty in desolated placed and former cities that have been destroyed by carpet bombers but for all practical purposes, it is easy to find charm and beauty in the architecture as well as the life of a big city. London, Paris, New York and many other cities around the world offer this charm but if the idnivdiual living in these great cities does not have an eye to look at the charm being offered then it is simply wasted. Woody Allen is certainly not that individual since he sees charm everywhere he goes in a city. In fact, he blames the individual for not noticing the beauty present in his city and even considers such people to be empty inside. He says that, “We have this opulent, relatively well-educated culture, and yet we see people lose themselves because they don’t deal with their sense of spiritual emptiness (Lee, 2005, pg. 11).” Clearly, as far as Woody Allen is concerned, life in the city does not create spiritual emptiness as some people have suggested in the past. For him, life in the city can only be appreciated once a person has developed a sense of spirituality which takes the city as a deity, the streets as religious guidelines and the magnificent buildings as religious temples. Conclusion I think that many of us who do not share Allen’s viewpoints may consider this to be a stretch from reality but the love that Woody Allen has for the city and the life of a city is certainly infectious. The presentation he makes will make the city seem like a beautiful place to live even with all the hassles that come from being in an overcrowded, noisy and often dirty place. While Woody Allen may feel that he owes a lot to the cities that he has sung sonnets to in the form of his cinematic creations, the descriptions are nice enough to make the cities grateful to him. Word Count: 1,441 Works Cited Fox, J. 1996, Woody: movies from Manhattan. The Overlook Press. Lee, D. 2005, ‘Heaven or Hell?Woody Allen and Martin Scorsese’s film depictions of 1970’s New York City’, [Online] Available at: http://web.mit.edu/david733/www/pastwork/downtown_in_movies.pdf The Guardian. 2005, ‘The Woody Allen guide to London’, [Online] Available at: http://arts.guardian.co.uk/fridayreview/story/0,12102,1454121,00.html Wikipedia. 2007, ‘Woody Allen’, [Online] Available at: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Woody_Allen Read More