At The Movies
DAVID ELLIOTT
Special to The Jewish News
ild Man Blues docu-
ments, with almost
squeaky niceness,
Woody Allen's 1997
tour of Europe — 18 cities in 23 days
with his "New Orleans jazz" band, a
small group of musicians in easy sync
with clarinetist Allen.
This is not a searching or difficult
film, like Barbara Kopple's previous,
demandingly tough American Dream
and Harlan County, U.S.A. Not much
is at stake musically — Allen and his
big, happy banjoist, Eddy Davis,
describe the music as "crude" and
"primitive," though they're not slip-
shod about it. And little is at stake
financially, since Allen doesn't need
income from the heavily attended
concerts.
David Elliott, film critic for The San
Diego Union-Tribune, writes for Copley
News Service.
Deconstructing
Woody
Woody Allen shares his
feelings on organized
religion, rituals and
growing up in a
Jewish family.
PHILIP BERK
Special to The Jewish News
JN: In Deconstructing Harry, now
available on home video, your char-
acter takes issue with his sister's
newfound commitment to Judaism
and casually trivializes the question
of ritual circumcision. Is that type of
humor offensive to traditional Jews?
WA.: No, not even for a second. My
guess is that it [wouldn't] be offensive
at all to anybody.
JN: Are those your true feelings?
8/7
1998
86 Detroit Jewish News
ly at the Cafe Carlyle.
A
There is plenty of enjoyable music,
but most viewers will probably
come for the cozy peeks at
feature-length
Allen backstage and in posh
hotels with his then-com-
documentary by two-time
panion (now wife) Soon-
She comes off
Academy Award winner Barbara Yi as Previn.
calm, sensible and
likable, tolerant of
kvetching and
Kopple, "Wild Man Blues" tracks Allen's
hypochondria, and
like a sister than
Woody Allen and his New Orleans- a more
lover.
There is no mention
style jazz band through a recent of Mia
Farrow (but one
thinks: If the adopted
Soon-Yi turned out this
European tour, exposing the
well, give Farrow some
credit). Insider cynicism
private person behind the
might say the film is a case of
spin doctoring Allen's image
public persona.
after its tabloid ravaging, but
The music is very pleasant (old
"Dixieland" standards such as
"Shine," "You Rascal You," "St.
Louis Blues"), performed with
rhythmic proficiency before
glad crowds. The only dud
audience, aloof to Woody
mania (he's a bigger star
in Europe than
America), is a grim
bunch of rich people at
an Italian benefit per-
formance. They are like
mummies waiting for
Gabriel to blow, but
Allen is gently diplo-
matic.
Allen fell in love with
jazz when he was a boy,
when the New Orleans
sound was enjoying a come-
back thanks to Sidney Becher,
Bunk Johnson and Louis
Armstrong. A black tutor helped,
Allen still practices on his stick every
day, and in Manhattan he is a regular
performer with his group most recent-
Was your son circumcised?
WA.: Pardon me?
JN: What are your feel-
ings on the subject?
WA.: I don't have any
personal feeling on that
whatsoever. Whatever is
good for my comedy at
the time is the direction
I'm going. If it's funny to
make a joke on circumci-
sion, that's perfectly fair
game for me, but I have
no personal view on it or
interest in it one way or
the other.
such suspicion is close to tabloid
thinking — it's losing the spirit of this
occasion in favor of false knowingness.
Photographers follow the star
then that's great. If it's something
that's painful then I would be against
it. But I really don't know what the
medical pros and cons of circumci-
sion are. What I oppose is all kinds of
religious ritual whether it's circumci-
sion or going to church on
= Christmas or obeying any
religion's ritualistic mumbo
jumbo. Religiously, you
71 know, I have a very critical
view of all the organized
religions and all the cos-
tumes that the people wear
and the nonsense, the fake
nonsense, about what God
really wants and what you
should do and what you
shouldn't do. I just don't
buy into any of that, in
any of the religions.
JN: Do you oppose the
Jewish tradition that
boys are circumcised on
the eighth day?
WA.: I'm against any
kind of religious ritual.
Circumcision itself as
Woody Allen and Soon-Yi Previn in the documentary "Wild
something that's benefi-
cial to health or detrimen- Man Blues." Soon-Yi admits in the film that she has seen very
tal to health, I don't know few of Woody's movies and has never read his books.
about. If it's something
that's good for the person,
JN: Do people assume
your films are autobio-
graphical?
WA.: That's always been
true from my first movie,
Take the Money and Run. I
had to go around telling
people that I never wanted
to be a bank robber.
JN: But, for example, by
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