MovieChat Forums > Everyone Says I Love You (1997) Discussion > Why does every guy in a Woody Allen movi...

Why does every guy in a Woody Allen movie. . .

posted 18 years ago by Wednesday_Next
10 replies | jump to latest

End up talking just like Allen? I've seen this happen time and time again. John Cusak in Bullets Over Broadway comes to mind, and in Everyone Says I Love You there was Alan Alda blibbering away, and the wonderful Edward Norton doing an SNL-type Woody Allen impression. The only one who seemed able to resist was Tim Roth.

Is it just that Allen brings out this kind of behavior, or is it that he encourages it as a director? He certainly doesn't *dis*courage it.

I liked the singing fine. It was a sweet idea. But the idea that either Goldie Hawn or even more, Julia Roberts could ever be attracted, much less head over heels in love (or lust) with Woody was so impossible to witness, though, that I had to fast-forward through a lot.

[–] The_White_Hotel 18 years ago

People are always going on about how none of these attractive women could ever be attracted to Woody Allen. On the Manhattan board, the Annie Hall board and the Woody Allen board there are recentish threads all saying variations of "it's unrealistic that these women would find Woody Allen attractive because he's short/balding/nasal etc".

Well firstly that makes you all sound incredibly shallow and image obsessed. Do you people not believe in inner qualities? Is physical attractiveness the be all and end all of everything? Beauty is in the eye of the beholder, it's subjective, and just because you cannot see beauty somewhere doesn't mean that no one else can.

Secondly, Woody Allen has been dated/married some very very attractive women. In the 60s and 70s he was linked with women who were also linked with people like Warren Beatty and Steve McQueen. Apparently there are people in the world who won't dismiss someone just because they don't conform to your personal idea of what constitutes attractiveness. And that's a good thing, don't you think?

"Reality is the new fiction they say, true is truer these days, truth is man-made"

[–] Wednesday_Next 18 years ago

To be honest, it wasn't because of his physical appearance that I found it impossible to believe. Rather it's because of his endless schtick. I know that in real life he has dated lots of attractive women. And presumeably he doesn't do the blither-blither-blither head-bobbing pacing routine through every date. But onscreen he has this vaudvillesque uber-neurotic act he goes through, and it seems to infect every man in his movies to do an imitation, making it very hard to believe in the story, since real people don't behave like this.

[–] The_White_Hotel 18 years ago

Yeah, I do see your point, sorry if my last post was a bit brusque, it wasn't really aimed at you, more in general. With a movie like "Everyone Says.." though I don't think you can fault it for having characters that behave unrealistically, people are bursting into song and performing (admittedly shoddy) dance routines all the time. It's stylised and is not meant to be realistic. For the record, I think Ed Norton makes a terrific job of the Woodyesque persona.

"Reality is the new fiction they say, true is truer these days, truth is man-made"

[–] upurnoz 17 years ago

imo woody allen is quite annoying and boring. i think he's even depressing sometimes. don't really understand why ppl like him so much, and i'm not talking about his looks.

The ceiling was crushing us...so we made a skylight

[–] jescci 17 years ago

The first time I noticed this was with Michael Caine in Hannah And Her Sisters - a 6'2" English Woody. Odd thing is I see it with some of the female characters too.

You know me. I'm the same as you. It's two in the morning and I don't know nobody.

[–] 17 years ago

[deleted]

[–] The_White_Hotel 17 years ago

"Diane Keaton was a walking talking Woody in "Annie Hall" for sure"

I don't know, I think Diane Keaton's just like that. I've seen interviews with Woody Allen where he says something like "that's just Diane's character, the first thing she does when she wakes up in the morning is apologise".

"it seems to be logical (to me) that these actors are being instructed by Woody Allen to "do it like this. Here, let me show you." And they do it just like he does!"

I think that's probably true up to a point, but the opposite has also been true. I think it was during shooting Bullets Over Broadway that Woody had to tell John Cusack to STOP doing the Allen impression and just try to play it in his own way.

"I of course can't swim so I never have to face it"

[–] MorriganVamp 16 years ago

It could be that the dialogue and the writing are so Allen-esque that it is hard for them not to deliver the lines in his particular brand of mannerism.

I mean a lot of his movies, well his comedic ones, the dialogue is neurotic and stuttery, and Allen is neurotic and stuttery, so there you go.

I think that's what it is. But I have noticed it too. Especially Natasha Lyonne in Everyone Says, she was totally an Allenite.

[–] stevenackerman69 15 years ago

Maybe he is just contagious, that's all. Sometimes it is interesting how in Allen films the people talk a little differently than in real life. Look at Helena Bonham Carter in Mighty Aphrodite.

[–] hooper-xxx 14 years ago

Why does every guy in a Kevin Smith movie end up talking like Kevin Smith? It's because he wrote it, stupid. The characters (especially the male leads) are him.