Word: arts
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Dates: during 1970-1979
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...they don't publish. Every field becomes fair prey for new books. But the academic jargon doesn't fit everything--there's something especially out of place in the sort of analytic attention which Maurice Yacowar gives to Woody Allen in his new book, Loser Takes All: The Comic Art of Woody Allen. The cult of Woody Allen would be inexplicable if he didn't touch on some particular mood special to his times--the anxious defeated mood of the likeable losing neurotic. And the extent of his success would suggest that he touches on it rather in kind reassurance...
...Allen is especially interested in the relationship between art and life...
...pound weakling before, Yacowar magically transforms him into the beach bully of the art world. For some of us, precisely Woody Allen's redeeming feature is that he places himself on the 'before' side; he knows that it's good to be able to laugh at yourself, but it's better not to find yourself needing to spend all your time in this pastime. Hence the nimbus of gloom on all his films. Certainly few people would recognize what makes Allen so popular in the tone Yacowar wields...
...genial. Most film criticism tends to be dull, especially the kind which tries to give a prose version of the film. This can only be a dilution, so, the first priority should be to find something strong enough to need explaining. This doesn't necessarily limit film criticism to 'art' cinema--good articles could be written on, say, Allen, Scorcese, or Polanski, besides Hitchcock. But - surely - we don't want books explicating Woody Allen, who's obvious enough anyway...
...gavotte these three dance is a glum one, too stately in pace. Offstage, there are rumbles of Fascism's approach, and doubtless the message is that private preoccupations of the sort described here made Mussolini's triumph easy. But Director Griffi is more interested in art deco interiors than he is in that or any other theme. The result is an irritating and so porific film. Those in need of an Antonelli fix are advised to see Till Marriage Do Us Part a second time - at least it's funny about decadence...