Reality, Absurd Dreams, and Faux History: Woody Allen’s Stardust Memories & Zelig
Reviews of two zingers from Woody Allen: the not-really-comedic Stardust Memories (1980) and the brilliant mockumentary Zelig (1983), both on Blu from Twilight Time.
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BR: Stardust Memories (1980)
Woody Allen’s examination of fame, adulation, and the worth of a comedian’s career is filtered through a Felliniesque lens that’s still a bit of a challenge 35+ years since its release, perhaps because, to paraphrase fan salvos aimed at central character Sandy Bates, ‘it’s not as funny as his older films…
BR: Zelig (1983)
Woody Allen’s Zelig drew plenty of attention for its bravura visual effects in which fictional Leonard Zelig (Allen, of course) and others were seamlessly blended with real newsreel and archival film footage, creative a perfect mockumentary that feels like some previously lost, one-time, feature-length Fox Movietone production that was initially aborted and later completed decades after the footage was discovered in some dank vault holding RKO oddities…
Woody Does Expressionism: Shadows and Fog (1991)
Review of Twilight Time’s new Blu of Woody Allen’s homage to German Expressionism, Shadows and Fog (1991), plus some personalized editorial blather.
BR: Shadows and Fog (1991)
Drawing from his one-act comedy play “Death,” Woody Allen expanded his Franz Kafka riff into an overt homage to German Expressionism, that moody film style characterized by shadowy B&W cinematography where daylight is barely seen,..
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