Writer-director Woody Allen between scenes on the
set of his new drama, Match Point.

At age 70,
Woody Allen
is back with
Match Point,
his*most critically
acclaimed film
in years.

B

ergman said the worst thing would be to
die on a sunny day," said Woody Allen on
Dec. 1, 2005.
It was his 70th birthday; and he was hanging
over the back of a large-armed chair that he'd
swiveled around, face in hand, simultaneously con-
cerned father and pliant child. He says he doesn't
like the sun; and when he woke up that morning, it
was a clear, bright day.
The sun was out and Woody Allen was 70 years
old. "I'm morbidly resigned," he said, unsmiling, with
quick shakes of his head. "Once you get over 20," he
said, "all the birthdays stop being fun. You start to get
anxiety about being 30, and then 40. It's just another
birthday to get through. More bad news."
But it hasn't been all bad news lately, not by a
long shot. Just a few days before, Allen had spoken
at Lincoln Center to hundreds of worshipful Upper
West Siders, as the ticket-less mobbed outside in a
kind of historical re-enactment of the 1970s, when
Woody's every movement caused New York frenzy.
They were pressing against the glass doors to see
him, as they used to in the pre Stardust Memories
days, when he was the adorable auteur, as much the
gold standard for New York cuteness as Ed Koch,
Barbra Streisand and the Mets.
Now they were back, lined up outside with hope-
ful eyes, all in celebration of the release of his new
movie, Match Point, cheered at Cannes, juiced in the
press and set to open in Detroit on Friday, Jan. 20.
By Dec. 13, he was back in the awards game that
he had left behind years ago, nominated for four
Golden Globe Awards, including nominations for

-

Suzy Hansen
Featurewell.com

best picture, best director, best screenplay and for
Scarlett Johansson, his new Keaton-Farrow stand-
in, as best supporting actress. At Monday's Globes,
however, Match Point lost the first three awards to
Brokeback Mountain, and Johansson lost to Jewish
actress Rachel Weisz for The Constant Gardener.

Reinventing Woody
Match Point looks, at first, nothing like a Woody
Allen film, not even like Crimes and Misdemeanors
or Another Woman; it's bigger and more austere,
chilly and tragic. It's about all the classic Allen sub-
jects: class, love, infidelity, fertility, character.
It's witty, but isn't funny. And it isn't mind-blow-
ing — although one scene is. And it's little surprise
that a man who started working at 15 as a joke
writer, who succeeded in many areas of show busi-
ness, and has created 40 films, would have at least
the capacity to reinvent himself at 70.
The scene at Lincoln Center, however, did look
like a Woody Allen film: Troops of fans and intellec-
tuals pushing, shoving, sputtering film trivia, look-
ing for a little osmotic dose of Woodyness.
At that moment, swept into the arms of Alice
Tully Hall, it was amazing.to be driven back, back
into the age of Annie Hall or Manhattan or even
Hannah and Her Sisters, when it was Woody's New
York and we just lived in it.

The Hype Returns
For New Yorkers of a certain age — and I'm 28 —
he is still our director, the Jewish Male of All Jewish

Comeback Kid on page 42

January 19 a 2006

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