Growing up in a Jewish family on Long Island in the 1980s, Woody Allen was a revered name in my household. He represented the pinnacle of creative achievement in comedy and filmmaking.
Of course, he later went ahead and started dating and later married Soon-Yi Previn a.k.a. Mia Farrow’s adopted daughter. Allen and Farrow were together throughout Soon-Yi’s adolescence, which is exactly why their eventual relationship is rightly viewed as predatory.
So by the early ‘90s, Woody nosedived into let’s call it the Talented Creeper territory, where he’s uncomfortably lurked ever since.
Until now.
Now the Talented Creeper has chosen to participate in a Moscow film festival “hosted by film-maker Fyodor Bondarchuk, a long-term political ally” of Vladimir Putin, according to The Guardian.
You remember Vlad Putin, right? You know, the guy who decided it was cool to invade the sovereign nation of Ukraine for “reasons” and murder countless thousands of innocent people in the process?
Here’s Woody’s take on his participation in the Russian film festival run by Putin’s buddy: “…whatever politicians have done, I don’t feel cutting off artistic conversations is ever a good way to help.”
Let’s give a little advice to the guy who married his partner’s daughter, 35 years his junior: don’t associate with Putin’s allies in any way, shape, or form.
Just don’t.
You’ve done enough creepy things in your day, Mr. Allen, and this ain’t helping you or your legacy.
Woody Allen as filmmaker
Since this is a pop culture website, a quick word on Allen’s actual film legacy (such as it is, given his personal life and the awful decisions he’s made).
And I’ll make a bold statement here: Woody Allen stopped being a relevant voice in pop culture before he started Soon-Yi.
1970s Woody is where he achieved his greatest concentrated body of work. I have a deep and abiding soft spot for the lunacy of Sleeper (1973), while Annie Hall (1977) and Manhattan (1979) are arguably the best movies he’s ever made. And if I had to name my own pick, I’d vote for Annie Hall, particularly because of Diane Keaton’s spectacular performance.
I used the word “best” carefully in the above paragraph because my personal favorite Woody Allen movie of all time is Crimes and Misdemeanors (1989).
Martin Landau and Alan Alda are fabulous in it, and it’s a funny movie brimming with ideas and thorny questions.
One of those thorny questions is: how do you live your life if you completely “get away” with the bad things that you’ve done?
Or another way to ask the same question is: is it really possible to get away with the bad things that you’ve done?
Because of course we can’t get away from ourselves.
In the end, we all need to live with our decisions, for better or worse.
And for the sad overall legacy of Woody Allen the human being, it’s looking worse on the whole.