The 50 or so journalists were waiting, seated, while the photographers stood next to the doorway, blocked by a rope. Without warning, Woody appeared. I was only aware of this because of the dozens of flashbulbs going off and, a moment later, the photographers, not more than 3 feet in front of him, yelling, "Woodeee, Woodeee," as if he could identify which photographer was addressing him and thus make eye contact with that man’s camera. It seemed it would end after a long moment, but instead went on for awhile, as more than 20 photographers took photos of a small, expressionless man in his trademark black glasses, slacks and dark sweater with a white collared-shirt beneath, standing in front of a drab curtain. Woody Allen is a diminutive man, every bit exactly as he appears onscreen, both young and old simultaneously, no more than five and a half feet tall. He is the anti-Depp, to be sure, but like a fine wine, they can’t get enough of him here in France.
He sat down at the table in the front of the room, and the questions began. But very little of what was said related to The Curse of the Jade Scorpion. Most were about Woody’s career in general, his thoughts on New York in the last week, nostalgia for decades past and other issues. Several of his responses were in French; broken, simple, almost childlike French, much like my own, but with a cadence and accent no different from his spoken English. Despite a few snickers, it seemed that his use of French was appreciated. Over the course of the press conference, he never smiled and made only a few jokes. But he is undoubtedly an interesting, complicated and engaging man. Some highlights:
When asked about his affinity for the 1940s:
(Translated from French) The problems are different nowadays, more drugs and crime. The music has changed. There isn’t Cole Porter or George Gershwin. No more cabarets. Everyone stays home and watches television. New York life in the 1940s was a great time, with a spirit. And visually it was very interesting. Therefore, when I write the screenplay for a film, I really like the eras of the past. Nowadays, it’s all about cell phones and McDonalds; it’s not interesting.
His thoughts on the attacks in New York and how it will be a different city in the future:
I want to say this in English because it is very serious…this was a very traumatic experience, very shocking, but not really a surprise. Because we all expected that New York, just like any other city in the world—Paris, London, Los Angeles, Chicago—would not be immune from terrorism. But the attitude has awakened the government in the U.S. to the gravity of the problem. And fortunately, I think, they are aware of the complexity of it. It is a difficulty that has to be combated in many different ways. I would think that in addition to the obvious avenues of approach, that is, economical, political, military intelligence, counter-intelligence, it’s even possible that a military option would be one strand of this but hopefully a last resort, and the smallest strand of it. My own personal feeling is that all these things may be found to be necessary, but the key thing is finding the root of the problem and figuring out what would drive people to such extreme action. It’s possible that the world will have to change, and there has to be a fairer distribution of wealth in the world. And all this has to be looked at, but we must not lose sight of the fact that a terrible crime has been committed and those responsible should be brought to justice. I’m optimistic at the moment, that the president, who I’ve always been very critical of, has an understanding of the problem. And all the talk I’ve heard in the U.S. has revolved around the complexity of the issue and that it’s not a simple solution problem and requires a long, cooperative and multi-layered attempt at a solution.
Everyone now has been encouraged to continue their lives, not hide or alter their way of life. So I’m here [in Paris], everyone else in New York is doing what they normally do. Theater has started, football has started, baseball has continued. New York City is a very strong city that has had many problems in the past. They’ve gotten over them, and they will get over this one, too.
Meanwhile, in the Arts, while the content of some people’s work may reflect this tragedy, the structure of the arts in general will continue as is: music will be written the same way, plays will be written about all the same subjects, movies will be made about all the usual subjects and life will go on as it always does after any tragedy.
Are you a moralist, and what role does humor play in your morality?
I think morals are built into every dramatic or comic story that works. When one writes a play or screenplay and it actually works, you can bet your life that a moral position will be articulated, without the author even trying; it’s automatic. There is a moral position even in The Three Stooges, in everything you see.
On playing his investigator character in The Curse of the Jade Scorpion:
{Translated from French) When I was very young, there were many films like this in the 1940s, with Katherine Hepburn, Humphrey Bogart, Rosalind Russell and Claudette Colbert. There was always a detective who was very strong and intelligent. This role isn’t normal for me, because I play a comic role all the time. It gave me pleasure to play a role like this, like in The Maltese Falcon or in Double Indemnity, something like that. It was a grand experience.
His thoughts on Miles Davis:
(Translated from French) I really like Miles Davis. I was able to meet him when I was a comedian at a cabaret. We were on the same bill; I made jokes, and he played the trumpet. He was a genius, absolutely. This type of jazz is a bit too modern for me. I prefer the jazz of New Orleans, but I do also like the modern jazz of John Coltrane, Thelonius Monk, Miles Davis. It’s my second favorite. Yes, Miles Davis was incredible.
Should violence-saturated Hollywood change its ways in the wake of the recent terrorist attacks?
I thought it was ironic that the terrorists who despise American culture as exemplified by Hollywood movies, when they chose to act, did not emulate any great political or religious leaders but emulated the villains from a bad James Bond movie. I still think that it is very possible to create films that are works of art about this subject, about violent subjects. It depends on the depth of the artist. Hopefully, this will get rid of all the grade-B Hollywood terrible thriller films, special effects films.
Given what happens to your character in The Curse of the Jade Scorpion, have you ever been hypnotized in real life, or been the victim of a burglary?
I have never been hypnotized, I think that I would laugh. The rituals are so solemn, so serious and ridiculous that I wouldn’t be able to keep a straight face. I have been burglarized once in my life, in my apartment in New York years ago. Someone broke into the building and stole a television set from a different apartment. They broke into mine as they were working the whole building, then got panicky when they heard someone coming and so they left the television set. I came home, the doors were open and I had an extra television set.
Sean Penn told an anecdote while being interviewed on Inside the Actor’s Studio, that after shooting a scene in Sweet and Lowdown, you said, "You know what’s wrong, Sean? Everything is wrong, so let’s do it again." How do you like directing your actors, and how do you choose them?
I pick very good actors and actresses. Then usually, almost always, I leave them alone, don’t speak to them very much. I don’t confine them. And they do very good work, for which I get the credit. I tell them they are free to forget the script, they can change it, improvise, that I’m not an author who feels his script is sacred. But I speak to them very candidly because I assume they know they are great and that they are not insecure. So Sean Penn, for example, is one of the greatest American actors we’ve ever had. He’s free to say to me, "I hate this dialogue" or "I hate your idea for this scene." And I don’t get offended or insecure because I have many bad ideas, just like anybody else. And when an actor like Sean Penn does something I think is bad, I have no problem saying, "This is terrible, everything you did was terrible, let’s do it again." Because he knows clearly that I hired him and that I think he’s a genius and my criticism of him is not as an actor but only of this one moment.
On his consistent use of the same actors throughout his career:
Sometimes I use the same actors again and again. I’ve made many pictures with Diane Keaton, Mia Farrow, Dianne Wiest, Judy Davis and certain people in Jade Scorpion like Wallace Shawn, who I have used a number of times. But being the writer, my only interest, my only loyalty, is to get the best person for the role. So if it’s a new person, an old person, a big star or an unknown, to me it doesn’t matter. There is no pressure on me as to whom to hire, so I hire who I think is best for the role. Whatever happens, happens by chance.
What would you be doing if you weren’t a filmmaker?
I think if I was not in cinema, I would probably have been something menial like a messenger or elevator operator because I have no formal education and I wasn’t good in a university atmosphere. So I think I was extremely lucky, extremely, to realize that I could write jokes. Which is the silliest talent in the world. And it saved my life.
At what age did you think to first become a filmmaker, and which filmmakers influenced you?
One is certainly capable of emotionally or artistically being a filmmaker at a very young age. There is no reason in the world why age in important. Naturally, the work of the young will differ from the later work in ways that are both good and bad. The problem is, of course, that it is a difficult field to get established in, which is why you don’t see too many young people—who are quite capable of it—getting into it so easily.
As for the filmmakers that influence me, they were European. I was a strange person because my talent is comic, from cabaret and vaudeville, and yet the filmmakers that I loved the most were Bergman, Kurosawa, Renoir, Truffaut, Buñuel, Antonioni, Fellini, DeSica. Those were the ones who came along in my life when I was most impressionable and, to this day, made the best movies that so far in history have been made.
When I was a young man, French cinema, Italian cinema was gigantic in New York. There wasn’t a week that went by that there wasn’t a film of Truffaut, Godard, Lalouche or a revival of a Renoir or Jacques Tati film. These were the films that my generation’s audiences lived for.
On the repetition of themes and humor in his films:
I do a lot of films, and two things happen. One is that certain meaningful ideas and concepts will re-appear. This is a natural thing. If you look at anybody’s films, whether it’s Scorsese or Altman or Welles, you will see certain things that re-occur that are deeply imbedded in the director’s psyche. And sometimes, because of all the films I’ve made, I forget. An idea, a joke, a piece of dialogue that I did 20 years ago, I suddenly think of it again and forget that I already did it. Sometimes, someone will say to me, "You did this joke in a movie 20 years ago," and then I change it. But if I don’t catch it, then it happens again.
I never watch my films after I finish them. So films I made in 1968, 1970 or 1972, I haven’t seen in 30 years, I don’t know them. People come up to me in the street and say a line of dialogue, and I don’t know what they are talking about.
At the Deauville Film Festival last week, Christopher Walken quoted you as saying, "80 percent of life is just showing up." Can you comment on that?
I said that once because young people were talking to me about becoming playwrights. I was saying to them that most writers fail not because they wrote bad plays, but because they wrote no plays. They talk about it, wait many years for the perfect idea, but they never write the play. And so I said it’s very important to write the play, even if it is bad, that 80 percent of life is just showing up. If you just have the thing, you are more than halfway home; you are much further advanced than the person who has nothing at all. Even if it’s a bad play, you are much further on the road to success than the person who doesn’t write anything. If you just show up and jump into the pool, you’ll swim.
You seem to like a certain duality, schizophrenic behavior in both men and women. Would you say that is true?
Writers—whether they are dramatic or comedic writers—will always pick neurotic or psychotic characters to write about, whether it’s Eugene O’Neill, Tennessee Williams or Moliere. You will always write about characters who are extreme because they are much funnier, more dramatic and intense. For me, one of the greatest writers ever, Chekhov, always wrote about the contradiction in the human character. I feel that is a very good thing for comedy. In my film Hannah and Her Sisters, for example, Michael Caine is thinking of kissing Barbara Hershey and he’s saying to himself, "No, don’t do anything, wait until the time is right, stay calm and relax." And the second she walks back into the room, he jumps on top of her and kisses her because that’s what we all are really. There is a big difference between our head and our heart, and that reconciliation is very good for comedy.
