Can Woody Allen Work in Hollywood Again

"Allen v. Farrow" marks the latest stage in ostracizing the filmmaker from American audiences, merely history suggests he still has options.

By any estimation, the Woody Allen business looks like it'due south in terrible shape. The 85-twelvemonth-former filmmaker was farther ostracized by the industry when "Allen 5. Farrow," the four-part HBO series from directors Kirby Dick and Amy Ziering, resurrected sexual attack allegations leveled against him by his daughter Dylan Farrow. At present, every bit the finale of "Allen v. Farrow" reverberates, some may assume that Allen has no path frontwards to keep making movies.

He does, of course. Pushback won't faze him — he's got a decade of it nether his belt — nor will box-function ignominy, as his career has more than of that than success. What about an entertainment industry that'south actively hostile toward financing the small, specific, not-inexpensive dramas that he makes? That'due south irrelevant: While he's intractable about the movies he makes, Allen appears to exist infinitely flexible when it comes to financing and — perhaps more than any major filmmaker working today — doesn't care almost what happens to his films afterwards he'southward made them.

As "Allen five. Farrow" points out, Allen'due south pariah status in the U.S. bears similarities to convicted rapist Roman Polanski, whose "An Officer and a Spy" won France's Cesar Award for Best Managing director almost exactly a year agone. Like Allen's latest moving picture, "Rifkin's Festival," it has even so to secure U.S. distribution. With #MeToo pushback expanding across Europe, disgraced artists who one time plant sympathetic crowds abroad now expect more vulnerable.

However, because Allen was never convicted of a law-breaking — and even the "Allen v. Farrow" allegations allow the filmmaker's defenders to maintain their line of defense — there is more than leeway for the support organization that enables him, and allows him to maintain the resource he needs to make movies, albeit outside of the U.S. As Diane Keaton said in the 2014 Gilt Globes tribute sampled in the docuseries: "Information technology'south safety to say that Woody Allen is an anomaly."

The current spate of Allen backfire has come up in fits and starts, beginning with Ronan Farrow's tweet criticizing the Gold Globes for ambulation an Allen tribute in 2014. That was followed by a slice by Farrow in The Hollywood Reporter on May 11, 2016, which overshadowed the premiere of Allen'southward "Cafe Society" as the opening choice of the Cannes Motion picture Festival. The #MeToo movement followed a year later with Harvey Weinstein's downfall.

Still, for Allen, the impact wasn't immediate apparent. In September 2017, Amazon Studios announced that it would distribute his next film, "Wonder Wheel," equally part of a multi-film deal. The next month, the world changed. The New York Times ran its Weinstein expose, followed by Farrow's own reporting in The New Yorker; meanwhile, and so-Amazon Studios president Roy Price was suspended over allegations of sexual misconduct and Amazon canceled the red carpet for the "Wonder Bike" premiere at the New York Movie Festival.

When "A Rainy Mean solar day in New York" came around in 2018, stars Timothee Chalamet and Elle Fanning distanced themselves from the project and Amazon dropped its U.S. distribution. The motion picture grossed about $22 one thousand thousand worldwide. (In the U.Due south., it fizzled theatrically but briefly topped VOD charts.)

By so, Allen had completed his 49th feature, "Rifkin'south Festival" — a self-referential comedy starring Wallace Shawn every bit neurotic moving-picture show professor who accompanies his publicist wife (Gina Gershon) to the San Sebastián Film Festival. The movie offers no sense of a fallen auteur: Shot by world-class DP Vittorio Storaro, it turns on black-and-white homages to classic picture palace that class the professor's outrageous dreams, from "Breathless" to "The Seventh Seal," the latter of which includes a cameo by Christoph Waltz. The "Breathless" bit is quite funny, merely the schtick gets old and the romcom setup is tiring from the commencement. In a bizarro universe in which Allen'southward scandals never happened, it would nonetheless rank as an underwhelming shrug from a filmmaker who never bothers to reflect on his failures.

"Rifkin's Festival"

Six months subsequently information technology premiered at the very festival where it takes place, "Rifkin's Festival" has however to secure U.South. distribution. The pic did come out in Espana, where information technology grossed $1.iii million to date; Italian distributor Vision said information technology still planned to release the movie when theaters reopen. Signature Entertainment, the U.Grand.-based company that brought "Rainy Day" to North American theaters and VOD, did not answer to a asking for comment nearly whether information technology would accept on the new moving-picture show. The dwindling forces that allowed "Rainy Day" to find its way to the American marketplace have prodigal for now, while even European markets historically sympathetic to his situation pull back.

Though "Allen five. Farrow" singles out longtime Allen publicist Leslee Dart as 1 of the forces responsible for managing blowback, Dart left 42 West, the visitor she co-founded, final year. She maintains a position at parent visitor Dolphin, just no longer represents Allen, who has no American publicist — nor much need for one, since the market for his movies in the U.S. barely exists. (Hyperactive's Caroline Turner continues to represent him overseas.) Requests for comment from 42 West were forwarded to Allen'south sister and longtime producer Letty Aronson, who hasn't responded to media inquiries beyond the articulation argument from Allen's army camp lambasting "Allen v. Farrow" weeks ago.

His infrastructure looks frail, but Allen's success or failure doesn't depend on industry savvy. Much of his career has been defined by commercial doubt, and outright failure, merely he's had no shortage of people willing to give him money and exit him lone. "All he requires is a lot of freedom," said one executive with a history of working with Allen. "He never expects a picture show to be a success, so he never gets aroused and is always surprised when a picture is successful. That'south rare."

When Allen pivoted from his satirical work of the '60s and early '70s to the more than acclaimed dramedies of Oscar juggernaut "Annie Hall" and "Manhattan," he did so under the guidance of United Artists executive Arthur Krim, who gave Allen free rein. When Krim co-founded Orion in 1978, Allen followed and spent the prolific next decade of his career juggling more ambitious textile ("Zelig," "Hannah and Her Sisters," "Radio Days") every bit his international reputation continued to blossom. When Orion imploded at the finish of the '80s, Allen scored a final-cut deal with TriStar Pictures to make "Husbands and Wives." That flopped at the box office, leaving the studio disinterested.

Woody Allen directing "Buffet Society"

Kristin Callahan/ACE/King/Shutterstock

So Allen pivoted again, turning to private financing for much of the '90s, with producer Jean Doumanian'southward Sweetland Films supporting the filmmaker on well-received piece of work ranging from "Bullets Over Broadway" to "Everyone Says I Dear You." After the partnership ended in a lawsuit, Allen careened through a serial of deals with Dreamworks, Searchlight, Focus, and The Weinstein Company, before settling with Sony Pictures Classics for seven movies. Three of these won Oscars — "Vicky Cristina Barcelona," "Midnight in Paris," and "Blue Jasmine," which also became the filmmaker's highest-grossing release.

Allen left that arrangement because Amazon Studios, which signed a Idiot box deal with him for the much-maligned 2016 miniseries "Crisis in Six Scenes," lured him with a lucrative offer to finance his splashy ensemble one-act "Cafe Guild." Amazon also committed to Allen's next two projects and insiders say the studio seemed to think little of the pushback at the time. Information technology wasn't until "Wonder Wheel" striking the New York Pic Festival the next twelvemonth that the public outcry intensified. Though Allen received a standing ovation at Alice Tully Hall in Lincoln Center — possibly the last time he would be received that fashion for the New York audience that had embraced him for decades — the wider response was at the other finish of the spectrum.

"People were really woke by then," one marketing executive involved in the release. "The negative publicity had cut in. The way he delivers his movies, there's non a lot of fourth dimension. Everybody was worried, but just had to ride it out."

Allen was in post-production on "A Rainy Twenty-four hours in New York" when Amazon decided not to release the movie and sever its ties to the managing director. Amazon executives were reportedly defenseless off-baby-sit by the decision, which took identify at the highest levels of the corporate hierarchy; the people who would have been tasked with working on the movie never even saw information technology. The filmmaker went on to sue the studio and win back the rights, which he sold to a set of international territories. In the meantime, Spanish production studio Mediapro signed on to finance "Rifkin's Festival."

Even now, Allen could garner another deep-pocketed supporter. "He wants to be with people that want to be with him," said one executive with a history of working on several successful Allen ventures. "He can get financing from wealthy individuals that want to back him. At that place's probably always someone out there who would want to back Woody." In some cases, U.Due south. distributors of his piece of work oasis't even been privy to the budgets of the movies earlier they've boarded the projects.

"Wonder Cycle"

That bespeak remains critical considering, many insiders agree, Allen would rather finish working than work for inexpensive. He's fast, but his budgets tend to have sizable cost tags — both "Wonder Wheel" and "A Rainy Day in New York" cost $25 million — and not only considering of their name actors, many of whom would probably done the projects for free. Allen maintains a homegrown pace, sometimes reshooting big patches of his movies until he's satisfied, and insists on summit-tier coiffure.

Anyone who supports Allen works on his terms. For at present, he remains surrounded by the dealmakers who take guarded him for decades, including Aronson and ICM amanuensis John Burnham. "They don't endeavour to hustle people," said one source familiar with the procedure. "They never have."

The only enabler necessary for Allen to keep working is someone willing to write a cheque, and plenty of well-heeled figures, public and private, spend their money in ethically dubious ways. "It doesn't feel similar he'south desperate to do this," one former producer said. "He would only practise information technology if he has total command. He won't be hired by somebody."

Still, Allen faces a broader cultural reckoning that makes its own decisions. Fifty-fifty if he does make another movie, his touch on will continue to wane. The nebbishy Jewish caricature that cemented his brand years ago doesn't exactly register with the zeitgeist. "A Rainy Day in New York" likely plant some measure of success due to the profitable allure of its young star, Timothee Chalamet.

All the same, the obnoxious, self-obsessed characters and their ravenous sexual appetites institute in many of Allen'due south earlier movies don't parse in 2021. The scandals hateful respected actors are increasingly unlikely to acquaintance themselves with his work, much less nurse a romantic obsession with it. Then there are the movies themselves, which zig-zag through half-baked ideas that read as reductive variations of formulas he exhausted long ago.

For those of united states of america who grew up adoring much of Allen's early versatility, the macerated returns oftentimes register equally a repudiation of nostalgia. There are passionate Allen fans across the industry who still defend him, admitting in whispered tones, proclaiming the injustices committed against a major artist ostracized in the court of public opinion. People who accept never read legal briefings or shown much investment in sexual assail cases now see themselves as bold truth-tellers in service of Allen's exoneration.It'southward a wonder how much amend those efforts would piece of work toward advocating for stronger artists worth the investment.

"Allen v. Farrow"

HBO

"Allen v. Farrow" lacks Allen's perspective beyond audio clips from his contempo memoir, only a more counterbalanced have wouldn't change the appetite for his hit-or-miss oeuvre. He'due south explored combustible relationships through intellectual soul-searching, and laced bleak, Bergman-esque melodrama with intrigue, but his movies no longer make a case for their own survival.

Allen and his financiers share a general indifference to negative publicity, but the world at large seems all too eager to move on without him. Information technology would exist user-friendly to conclude that "Allen v. Farrow" will serve as the sour coda to Allen's career, but there's a lot of contest for that slot between industry compunction, shifting cultural interests, and the filmmaker'southward own credible disinterest to his fate. It has get a cliché to cite Allen's "Annie Hall" line that he would "never join a order that would allow a person like me to be a member." Allen was quoting Groucho Marx, just it'south not the only time the director has received more credit than he'southward due.

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Source: https://www.indiewire.com/2021/03/woody-allen-career-allen-v-farrow-new-movies-1234623181/

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