The Humor of Woody Allen - Essay Example

The humor of Woody Allen Carney is of the view that the films of Woody Allen use comedy as a means to avoid delving into the real problems of his characters. He is critical of the manner in which Allen uses humor as a tool to trivialize the serious problems of his characters. He contends that Allen never allows the audience to be truly disturbed by any of his characters and quickly sanitizes any dangerous situations that may be momentarily revealed by blowing it away in a puff of humor. Carney is of the view that in employing such a technique, Allen tries to explain away his characters’ problems too easily and therefore, his humor serves a detrimental purpose in draining away the potential value that his films could represent. This is opposed to the view of Nangy Pogel who affectionately refers to Allen as the “little man” and views his humor as a cartoonic representation of the Director. Girgus sees a more serious purpose behind Allen’s view and is of the view that it serves to deepen the intricacy of the narrative rather than detract from it. In his criticism of Allen’s films, Carney therefore differs from these other two authors in that he views the humor in Allen’s films as an element that detracts from the real value that his films could have. Comedy: Carney is critical of Woody Allen’s use of humor in the context of the real problems that the characters in his films may face. He points to the example of Hannah’s drug problem in the film Hannah and her sisters. Holly has a serious problem of drug addiction, yet it is never presented as such in the film, although the problem is mentioned in almost every scene in which the character of Hannah appears. Her muddled state and her pleas for money while in a drug induced state are presented in an endearing rather than a frightening manner. She is openly shown taking drugs in only one scene, when she goes on a date with Mickey (played by Allen). Yet the scene that ensues after she takes drugs is full of gaffes and jokes and it ends up with Hannah being cured of her drug problem. This is another aspect that Carney is critical of – the manner in which serious problems are often revealed only at the end and then miraculously cured through the use of humor. In the film Annie Hall, when Annie is almost being induced to try drugs, the character of Alvy tries the drug and sneezes the powder all over the room, thereby dispelling the frightening moment when Annie could have slipped into that dangerous state in a puff of powder humor, and the problem ends right there and the time bomb is defused. Carney argues that such problems can rarely be resolved so simply in real life, therefore Allen’s films have a measure of unreality wrapped about them. As opposed to Carney’s criticism, Pogel finds the comedic Allen rather endearing and refers to the nerdy, awkward persona of Woody Allen as “the little man” (Pogel 57). She views Allen’s character in Annie Hall as the cartoon caricature persona of himself, which later evolved into more somewhat more sophisticated characters in later films. Girgus finds a deeper meaning behind the humor in Allen’s films and argues that the “complex relationship between desire, narrative and language” is wonderfully simplified in the film Annie Hall through the use of humor, both visually as well as verbally (Girgus 47) Non dramatic nature of his films: Carney also comments on the non dramatic nature of Allen’s films. The film maker always provides cues to the audience on exactly how they should think and does not allow them to think about the characters themselves or to be disturbed by them in any way. He illustrates this by pointing out how Allen uses voice overs of the main characters to express what their inner thoughts and feelings are, instead of allowing these inner thoughts and feelings to reflect in the character’s demeanor, his gestures, manner and expression. In the film Annie Hall, as the character Annie played by Diane Keaton and Alvy played by Woody Allen converse, Alvy asks Annie about her photographs and Annie responds, “yeah, yeah, I sorta dabble around, you know”. The subtitle at this point lets the audience know what Annie is thinking inwardly, “I dabble? – Listen to me, what a jerk.” Similarly, Alvy outwardly responds, “They’re…they’re wonderful, you know, they have…uh…a quality” and Alvy’s subtitle reflects what he’s really thinking: “You’re a great looking girl.” (www.people.bu.edu). Carney is critical of such use of subtitles or voice overs to reflect the inner turmoil of the characters, which ought to instead be revealed through their actual performances, because it offers an easy way out for Director Allen to tell the audience how his characters are thinking instead of letting them figure it out for themselves. As opposed to Carney’s critical view, Girgis admires the use of such narrative techniques in Annie Hall. Girgis states “the opening speech by Alvy Singer and the scenes that follow it exemplify the complex nature of narrativity in contemporary discourse.”(Girgus 45). He is also of the view that Alvy’s narration dramatizes the relationship between histoire and narrative discourse, with the events of the histoire being “themselves a mental construction that…..the viewer in a significantly different way learns through discourse or mimesis.” (Girgus 45-46). As a result, the narration that forms an integral part of Allen’s films, either through the use of subtitles or voice overs to express what the character is feeling and thinking inwardly is in fact a juxtaposition of the mental construction of an event visa vis the outward progression of the same event. As opposed to Carney’s views, Girgus feels that the juxtaposition of such elements intensifies rather than simplifies the film narration. Pogel offers the view that the narrative parallels in the film Annie Hall are not in the nature of a distraction or making things simple for the audience. Rather she finds the film’s narrative structure conducive to explaining not just the relationship of Annie and Alvy per se, but rather the manner in which Alby perceives and recalls his relationship with Annie Hall, since the entire films is based in narrative that moves side by side with the visual elements and dialogs of the film. Romance: Carney is also critical of the manner in which Allen simplifies the complexity of romance and relationships while using the vehicle of humor. In the film Hannah and her sisters, there is an argument that erupts between Hannah’s old married parents, because Hannah’s mother had been flirting with a younger man. Carney points out how Allen carefully whitewashes romance and avoids injecting any element of a serious disruption of the relationship between Hannah’s parents, through a serious affair between Hannah’s mother and the man she was flirting with. Hannah’s parents verbally abuse each other and dirty laundry is aired in public. However before the scene is allowed to become real and reflect the real problems of romance and relationships, rather it is glibly explained away by Hannah’s voice over that says, “She was so beautiful at one time and he was so dashing…..all the fights and infidelities to prove themselves….and blaming each other. It’s sad.” Hannah finishes her voice over with an “it’s impossible to hold it against them.” Carney points out how this crisis which could have been a profound one in revealing real life crises with romance is never allowed to progress into such a scene, but magically disappears and is never mentioned again. Carney is critical of such an unrealistic treatment of romance in Allen’s films because it serves to illustrate how Allen never goes down to tackle the real problems in people’s lives. He allows the real nature of the problems to peek out for a brief few minutes and then magically soothes and puffs it away through the use of humor. Pogel’s opinion of romance in Allen’s films differs from Carney’s view in that she sees the expression of humor in Allen’s films as an element that serves to enhance the romantic elements in the film by imbuing them with a light hearted idealism. Girgus views the humor in Allen’s films as a means of expressing the complexities of inherent desire in an simple manner for the audience. In conclusion however, Carney’s searing criticism of Allen’s films hits the nail on the head, when he states that humor in Allen’s films serve to imbue his films with superficiality. In all situations where there exists potential for a profound and moving portrayal of the complexities of human emotion and relationships, Allen steps in to defuse the situation with humor, which in effect drains away the value and the moving nature of the experience that could have been provided to the film viewer and leaves behind a superficial portrayal of characters that never quite manages to live up to its momentarily glimpsed potential value. References: * Carney, Ray. “Modernism for the millions: The films of Woody Allen” Retrieved October 23, 2007 from: http://people.bu.edu/rcarney/carncult/woody.shtml * Girgus, Sam B,. “The films of Woody Allen.” * Pogle, Nancy. “Woody Allen” Read More