<p>The title to this thread is misleading. Maybe the mods could change it?</p>
<p>If you really want to know about favorite WA movies…mine is Take the Money and Run. The scene with him playing the cello in the marching band is hilarious.</p>
<p>As for WA as a person…I think he is a sleaze bag.</p>
<p>^I remember that movie. I sensed self-pity in that movie that I wasn’t comfortable with.</p>
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<p>How do you know that the kid is “used”? Kids tend to downplay bad experiences. From what I understand molested kids feel guilty not outrage. They need to overcome their sense of guilt to talk about it. I would think it could take some coaxing. </p>
<p>Woody Allen is a horrible person who makes horrible movies. How anyone can watch and like his garbage is beyond me. Someone who would marry his own daughter is someone who could be a child molester. </p>
<p>Not exactly sure what the point of the thread is. I’ll watch Leni Riefenstahl’s movies about Hitler because they’re interesting to see. Bing Crosby beat his kids, so I shouldn’t watch The Road to Morocco? A number of big stars, directors, heads of studios, famous artists, etc. have done bad things. Sometimes that bothers me and sometimes it doesn’t. </p>
<p>I remember reading an interview with John Wayne that was so bleeping racist in a colonial way, but Stagecoach is pretty cool. Jane and Peter Fonda talked bluntly about their father’s abusive nature. </p>
<p>Charlie Chaplin was mean to his wives. Paulette Goddard told stories about him prodding her with his cane when she’d slouch and controlling her movements … but the little tramp is special. </p>
<p>We tend to flip back and forth between understanding people are multi-faceted, capable of good and bad, and imagining them as the characters they play. </p>
<p>Really. If you look at a Jackson Pollock, do you think about the alcoholism? There was a recent spate of stories about William S. Burroughs. He shot his wife in the head and then helped destroy their son’s life. But you can find Naked Lunch on shelves everywhere and the simple fact is they write about Burroughs today. (And remember, he was cast in Drugstore Cowboy and hailed everywhere at the end of his life, though he killed his wife, destroyed his family, etc.) </p>
<p>I could go on and on and on. If we want to talk about famous stars, artists, politicians, etc. who have destroyed their children’s lives, ruined marriages, etc., we would have a very long list.</p>
<p>A relative has been posting drawings by Ernst Haeckel - look him up - great scientist, complete racist lunatic. Ignore the science because his ideas spread into nonsense? What about William Shockley then? Bobby Fischer was an absurd lunatic in most of his beliefs, but he was also one of the very best chess players ever. Even Isaac Newton spent a ridiculous amount of time pursuing utter nonsense like alchemy - and even weirder stuff - even though the basics of chemistry were not unknown. </p>
<p>Thank you for an excellent response, Lergnom. Sorry, razorsharp, I’ve watched and liked his films for 40 years. I guess I must not think they are garbage. My favorites are “Crimes and Misdemeanors” and “Midnight in Paris.” </p>
<p>We had a great thread some years ago about whether great artists can also be decent people. It doesn’t happen often, apparently. <a href=“Can you love the art but loathe the artist? MJ anyone? - Parent Cafe - College Confidential Forums”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/parent-cafe/746447-can-you-love-the-art-but-loathe-the-artist-mj-anyone-p1.html</a> </p>
<p>If we learn tomorrow that Shakespeare was a child molester, would it make his work garbage? It’s deeply troubling to think of the possibility of Woody Allen being a molester. If he is proven guilty, I’ll still admire his work.</p>
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<p>And if it turned out Woody Allen was making child pornogrphy movies and winning awards for his work in the child porn community, you would go to the theater and pay to watch his new latest non-child porn movie? I sure hope not.</p>
<p>Lergnom makes a good point, in essence, that bad people still can make good works, but I think there is a line that should not be crossed. If Charlie Sheen beats his wives, its one thing. If he were to begin molesting his children, that would be another and I cannot image supporting the paychecks received by a child molester. </p>
<p>The good news is we can support or not support whatever we want. I won’t shop at Walmart, wear Diane von Furstenberg or watch Woody Allen films. All personal issues for me, but if you want to support a child molester that’s your choice.</p>
<p>The prosecutor had enough to charge him. The family opted not to go forward with a trial to spare the child. </p>
<p>It is true that nobody will ever know what really happened except Woody and his daughter. </p>
<p>That said, I cannot imagine any parent, particularly one im spotlight, ysing an innocent child as a pawn on public display if there was not merit to the case. </p>
<p>I think it’s especially difficult because many of his films (especially just before the time that the allegations about Dylan first arose and when he began his relationship with Soon-Yi) deal with issues that come a little too close to the accusations. He cast his close friends and there were themes of family betrayal, I really enjoyed Hannah and Her Sisters when it was first released, but now the thought of it makes me cringe.</p>
<p>I am tempted to see Blue Jasmine because it sounds like a great film. But I can’t bring myself to spend money to watch it.</p>
<p>I wanted to see Blue Jasmine for Cate Blanchett but forgot it was a Woody Allen film. Generally, I dislike them all. </p>
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<p>Says who? I like most of his movies and love a few of them. I don’t have any first hand knowledge of his character or sexual tendencies so I won’t make a judgement about that. I take offense to the second article only because I don’t think that that reporter has any right to weigh in on the matter. He’s not involved and is expressing his opinion of what happened based on his own biased hero worship of Allen (IMO). Who gives a %#@$ what HE thinks about something that happened or didn’t happen decades ago.</p>
<p>As far as the separation of art from the artists actions and character I feel that we all can decide that for ourselves. Personally, I enjoy the music of Michael Jackson, the movies of Woody Allen, the art of Jackson Pollack. I don’t care what they were or are like as people. I’m not involved with them. Would I want my money to be a contribution toward depravity of any kind? No but there is no evidence that it is.</p>
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<p>I so wish that you were right, but I’m afraid that, in my experience, you are wrong. People, under the influence of love/hate, have often used an innocent child as a pawn. Many of them did not even, in their heart of hearts, understand that their memories and perceptions were mistaken. They were, nominally, good people who would not consciously do such a thing. The human mind is a complex thing. </p>
<p>To me, it’s more believable that the family didn’t go forward with a trial to spare the child than they were pawning her.</p>
<p>I agree with Lergnom about separating one’s art and life/character. In Woody Allen case, unfortunately his art is merged with his life. In Crimes and Misdemeanors, he seemed to legitimize crimes or at least put a humane face on it blurring what’s wrong and what’s humane. Morally corrupt.</p>
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Not the family. It was the prosecutor who elected not to go forward on that ground. (It was a very odd decision.) (Just my opinion, but I think Farrow would have happily seen Allen in the defendant’s seat at a trial.) I don’t see evidence that either parent put “sparing the child” high on the priority list. Both made the whole affair as public as possible. </p>
<p>Per the Daily Beast article, Moses, the other of Farrow’s and Allen’s adopted kids, is now estranged from her and has reconnected with Allen, citing “brainwashing” in the molestation case. So no, I’m not going to judge Woody Allen on the basis of these slippery “facts”, and I’m still going to watch his movies. To respond to the title of the thread (which was taken from the first line of Dylan Farrow’s open letter), I think Annie Hall is one of the all-time great movies.</p>
<p>To answer the thread title’s question: Sleeper. It is not the best WA movie, but I vividly remember watching it with my kid sister and laughing until tears were streaming down our faces. I’ve also enjoyed many of his “better” films, but Sleeper is my best memory. </p>
<p>To answer the original question, I have several “favorite” Woody Allen films, Annie Hall was my first “favorite”, and I also love Midnight in Paris, and To Rome with Love. Sleeper was hilarious, and when I first saw Love and Death I was deep into a Russian literature class and was mesmerized by how intellectual his humor was with that film. </p>
<p>I don’t read tabloids, don’t buy in to rumors, and like the poster above me, I still listen to, dance wildly and exercise to Michael Jackson, and even though I may think someone’s a pig (Mel Gibson comes to mind) I still will see his films (I saw The Beaver, and thought it was exceptional). </p>
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Except that she was not his daughter, either biological, step, adopted, or otherwise.</p>
<p>It may be edging into creepy for a 50-something man to pursue a 20 year old women. But Soon-Yi was not a child.</p>
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<p>You know something no one else does?</p>
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<p>Read more: <a href=“Woody Allen's daughter Dylan Farrow breaks silence on details alleged sexual abuse in letter | Daily Mail Online”>Woody Allen's daughter Dylan Farrow breaks silence on details alleged sexual abuse in letter | Daily Mail Online;
Follow us: @MailOnline on Twitter | DailyMail on Facebook</p>
<p>How do you conclude Allen did not marry his adopted daughter?</p>
<p>Easy to see how WA can evoke such strong opinions. I like his movies but only love a few. I read both articles and found there to be a lot of uncertainty about the truth. Although I do believe she truly thinks she was molested. Both WA and Mia are odd to me, living a lifestyle I could never comprehend. Their relationship was never in the normal part of the bell curve. And Mia’s recent comments about her sons paternity have made me question her even more. I have not come to the conclusion that he is a pedophile. </p>
<p>Razorsharp, Mia Farrow adopted Soon Yi Previn with her previous husband, Andre Previn, who was and is her father. </p>
<p>Nevertheless, I think it’s much more than an older man marrying a much-younger woman he meets wherever. He and Farrow had a long-lasting relationship and had bio and adopted children together even if they didn’t live in the same home. To me it is beyond disgusting that he married her 20-year-old daughter.</p>