The First Shot of Allen: A Taste of His Neurosis and Genius

There is a crippling effect that Woody Allen can have upon his viewers and those reading the texts of his films, that is, the theories and ideas he offers in them. At least to me. And in the same way, I believe that Woody Allen’s crippling neurosis so prevalent in his persona and self-deprecating; his defeatist characters are at the same time an advantage and not only to his comedy. Advantage, you ask? Some may think his severe self-consciousness led to his many problems. Perhaps and most likely in addition to what seems like a lack of confidence. But in what I have grown to know about this complex comedian is that he used this trait with style, used it to display and uncover our own deepest, hidden doubts and questions about the meaning of life, the finality of death, if we’re able to be loved or love and so forth. His characters played individuals with heightened criticism of themselves, systems and institutions, and further were people who were led into skepticism quicker than a dog to a dropped morsel of food. For instance, the film “Bananas” (1971) mocks the media and the consumers of it with a skeptical tone, pointing out their ability to remove all seriousness from a situation of political unrest and dictatorship with numbness stronger than an OTC.



In regards to his over-wrought characters, in his film “Annie Hall”, the romance is one of wind-changing victories and downfalls. The constant, constant questions! The constant, constant incapacity to meet another’s wants! The romance ends badly, but what we learn from the film and the presented cycle of events and humorously combative dialogue is not a specific theory on romance but an attentiveness to reaching a revelation and understanding of what this thing called life is, what this will all add up to, and if relationships can ever be something successful.