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Title: Woody Allen: A Biography by Eric Lax ISBN: 0-306-80985-0 Publisher: DaCapo Press Pub. Date: 26 December, 2000 Format: Paperback Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $16.00 |
Average Customer Rating: 3.25 (4 reviews)
Rating: 4
Summary: This one doesn't rip him apart in matters that don't matter
Comment: A natural stage in my succession of becoming a Woody Allen freak was picking up a biography. Any single one would have suited my needs, because I knew only as much as somebody who had seen ten or so of his movies and was beginning to show some serious interest in this singular personality.
It turned out that by accident I had picked out just the right book. Eric Lax delivers over 400 pages of what seems to be a very detailed and reliable account of Woody's life. Contrary to the tabloid-like obsession with Allen's women which many writers of today appear to revel, Lax's primary emphasis is on his work, influences, and progress as a comedian. A special section was added to the end of the book to summarise the events of the last ten years (the first edition of this biography was published in 1991), including the row with Mia Farrow and Woody's marriage to Soon-Yi Previn. But it remains a biography of the man it boasts in the title, not a collection of second-hand conjectures and prejudices about what he might seem to be. Indeed, this is left to the army of Woody admirers who like to derive his character from the roles he has played or written.
The shattering of preconceived images that surround the private self of Woody Allen is probably one of the major strengths of Lax's book. Woody is shown as somebody who has been engaging in his beloved trade for years and now shows genuine surprise about all the fuss that is being raised around his straightforward life. Nevertheless, I refuse to buy such a portrayal, simply because I am one of those blind followers who have merged Woody on-screen with the real-life Woody. True or not, it is an illusion I am prepared to live, for that is the main attraction of his movies.
Rating: 3
Summary: Reasonable bio of one of America's great artists
Comment: It's a commonplace that many artists have questionable private lives. What Mr Allen does or doesn't do in his private life is of passing interest to me. That he likes younger women doesn't make him much different, maybe unfortunately, from millions of other men (is Rupert Murdoch a classic example or what?) If I want gossip I read a magazine. Mr Allen's work on the other hand interests me very much. This bio by Mr Lax is good for excerpts from Mr Allen's comedy routines and in revealing the movie making experience from the editting point of view, shooting, casting, writing and rewriting. I don't think the prose skill of Mr Lax is especially high but the book's subject matter is interesting enough, and Woody Allen's writing amusing enough, to carry it along.
Rating: 1
Summary: under his thumb
Comment: I read this book long before Woody Allen's personal troubles became public. (I've always been an admirer of Allen's films.) It is, hands-down, the worst biography I ever read. Lax is more than reverent of Allen; he is obsequious and subservient. At a very early point in the book, I began to sense that every word had been approved by Allen. By the end, I though Allen's publicist and psychiatrists had probably signed off too.
P.S. If I had an option of giving this book no stars, I would have done so.
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Title: Woody Allen on Woody Allen: In Conversation With Stig Bjorkman by Woody Allen, Stig Bjorkman ISBN: 0802134254 Publisher: Grove Press Pub. Date: November, 1995 List Price(USD): $14.00 |
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Title: Woody Allen: A Life in Film by Richard Schickel ISBN: 1566635284 Publisher: Ivan R Dee, Inc. Pub. Date: September, 2003 List Price(USD): $22.50 |
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Title: Woody Allen: A Biography by John Baxter ISBN: 078670666X Publisher: Carroll & Graf Pub. Date: December, 1999 List Price(USD): $27.00 |
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Title:Radio Days ASIN: B00005O06M Publisher: Mgm/Ua Studios Pub. Date: 06 November, 2001 List Price(USD): $19.98 Comparison N/A, buy it from Amazon for $17.38 |
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Title: The Reluctant Film Art of Woody Allen by Peter J. Bailey ISBN: 081319041X Publisher: University Press of Kentucky Pub. Date: April, 2003 List Price(USD): $19.95 |
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