Woody Allen Bananas

Radio Days (1987) Movies

Posted by Efgrapha at April 23, 2015

Woody Allen's gentle and nostalgic tribute to the glory days of radio and coming-of-age during World War II plays like Fellini's Amarcord filtered through Neil Simon. The nominal star is Seth Green as Joe, a teenage Jewish boy, growing up with a house full of relatives in Brooklyn. Allen cuts between Joe's working class neighborhood of Rockaway Beach, Queens, and the glittery and glamorous world of radio in Manhattan.

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Midnight in Paris (2011) Movies

Posted by Someonelse at Oct. 12, 2011

Owen Wilson, Marion Cotillard, Rachel McAdams, Kathy Bates, and Carla Bruni star in Woody Allen's romantic comedy about a family on a business trip in the City of Light. As a young couple engaged to be married experiences a profound transformation during their visit to Paris, an idealistic man with a romanticized view of the city finds that there's plenty of truth to that old adage about the grass being greener on the other side. Michael Sheen, Mimi Kennedy, and Kurt Fuller co-star.

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Zelig (1983) Movies

Posted by Efgrapha at April 30, 2014

Zelig (1983)
DVD5 | VIDEO_TS | PAL, 16:9 (720x576) VBR | 01:15:52 | 4 Gb
Audio: AC3 2.0 @ 192 Kbps (each): English, German, French, Spanish, Italian
Subs: Dutch, English HoH, French, German HoH, Italian and Spanish
Genre: Mockumentary, Satire, Fantasy Comedy

Leonard Zelig, the "human chameleon", is profiled in this mock-documentary. Director Woody Allen appears as Zelig in scenes that purport to be vintage newsreel clips of the 1920s and 1930s, but are actually clever recreations, "aged" and scratched-up Citizen Kane-style by special-effects maestros Joel Hynick, Stuart Robinson and R. Greenberg Associates. An appropriately pompous narrator details the life and times of Leonard Zelig, whose overwhelming desire for conformity is manifested in his ability to take on the facial and vocal characteristics of whomever he happens to be around at the moment. He shows up at batting practice with Babe Ruth, among William Randolph Hearst's guests as San Simeon, side by side with Pope Pius at the Vatican, and peering anxiously over the shoulder of Adolf Hitler at the Nuremberg Rally. Becoming a celebrity in his own right, Zelig inspires a song, a dance craze, and a Warner Bros. biopic.

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Hannah and Her Sisters (1986) Movies

Posted by Sartre at Oct. 10, 2015

A Woody Allen Manhattan mosaic, Hannah and Her Sisters concerns the lives, loves, and infidelities among a tightly-knit artistic clan. Hannah (Mia Farrow) regularly meets with her sisters Holly (Dianne Wiest) and Lee (Barbara Hershey) to discuss the week's events. It's what they don't always tell each other that forms the film's various subplots. Hannah is married to accountant and financial planner Elliot (Michael Caine), who carries a torch for Lee, who in turn lives with pompous Soho artist Frederick (Max Von Sydow). Meanwhile, Holly, a neurotic actress and eternal loser in love, dates TV producer Mickey (Allen), who used to be married to Hannah and spends most of the film convinced that he's about to die. Appearing in supporting parts are Lloyd Nolan and Maureen O'Sullivan (Farrow's real mom), as the eternally bickering husband-and-wife acting team who are the parents of Hannah and her sisters. The film begins and ends during the family's traditional Thanksgiving dinner, filmed in Farrow's actual New York apartment. Hannah and Her Sisters collected Oscars for Michael Caine, Dianne Wiest, and Woody Allen's screenplay.

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Everything You Always Wanted to Know About Sex But Were Afraid to Ask (1972) Movies

Posted by Sartre at Oct. 27, 2016

Reuben contains seven episodes based on "helpful" questions answered in the book. Among these are: "Do Aphrodisiacs Work?", in which Allen appears as a court jester who uses a love potion to spark the erotic interests of the Queen. "What Is Sodomy?" stars Gene Wilder as a doctor who throws away his marriage, career, and position in the community when he falls madly in love with an Armenian sheep named Daisy. "Why Do Some Women Have Trouble Reaching Orgasm?" is a parody of stylish Italian films of the '60s in which a slick playboy discovers his wife can climax only when they make love in public places. In "Are Transvestites Homosexuals?," Sam has his little secret revealed at a most inopportune moment. "What Are Sex Researchers Actually Accomplishing?" features John Carradine in a great parody of his mad-scientist roles as Dr. Bernardo, whose research into human sexuality has led to a fearsome mutation – a 50-foot tall female breast! While the quality of the episodes is uneven, the best rank with the funniest moments of Allen's career, especially Gene Wilder's touching romance with the sheep and the final sequence inside the male body.

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Take The Money and Run (1969) Movies

Posted by Sartre at Dec. 29, 2013

When Woody Allen's fans refer to his "earlier, funnier" pictures, they often cite his directorial debut as a shining example. Co-written by Allen and Mickey Rose, this side-splitting takeoff of crime documentaries stars Allen as Virgil Starkwell, a sweetly inept career criminal. The film's most celebrated sequence involves Virgil's inability to write coherent holdup notes ("I have a gub"), but others include Virgil's losing battle with a recalcitrant coke machine and his misguided effort to emulate John Dillinger by carving a gun out of a bar of soap (his weapon disintegrates in a heavy rain). As was often the case in Allen's early films, not all the gags work, but for the most part, Take the Money and Run is a delight, enhanced by the on-target supporting performances of Janet Margolin, Marcel Hillaire, and (uncredited) Louise Lasser, as well as the energetic musical score of Marvin Hamlisch.

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Manhattan (1979) Movies

Posted by Sartre at Sept. 11, 2016

On the heels of Annie Hall, the Oscar-winning romantic comedy that rocketed Woody Allen to the front ranks of American filmmakers, Manhattan continued Allen's romantic obsessions in a slightly darker, more pessimistic vein. Allen stars as Isaac Davis, a TV comedy writer sick of the pap he is forced to churn out and harboring dreams of being the great American novelist. His love life is in barbed-wire territory: he is tormented by his second ex-wife Jill (Meryl Streep), a lesbian who has written a tell-all book about their marriage, and he is dating teenager Tracy (Mariel Hemingway), to whom he refuses to commit, and keeps hinting that a breakup may be imminent. Manhattan is both a seriocomic dissection of perpetually dissatisfied New Yorkers and an ode to the city itself, filmed in glorious black-and-white by ace cinematographer Gordon Willis, and set to a score of rhapsodic George Gershwin music.

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Love and Death (1975) Movies

Posted by Sartre at Oct. 20, 2016

Woody Allen's Love and Death is purportedly a satire of all things Russian, from Leo Tolstoy and Fyodor Dostoyevsky novels to Sergei Eisenstein films, but it plays more like a spin on Bob Hope's Monsieur Beaucaire. Allen plays Boris, a 19th century Russian who falls in love with his distant (and married) cousin Sonja (Diane Keaton). Pressed into service with the Russian army during the war against Napoleon, Boris accidentally becomes a hero, then goes on to win a duel against a cuckolded husband (Harold Gould). Intellectual in-jokes abound in Love and Death, and other gags are basic Allen one-liners. The pseudo-Russian ambience of Love and Death is comically enhanced by the Sergey Prokofiev compositions on the musical track.

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To Rome with Love (2012) Movies

Posted by edi1967 at Oct. 16, 2012

To Rome with Love (2012)
A Film by Woody Allen
DVD9 | VIDEO_TS | ISO | PAL | 2,35:1 | 16:9 | 720x576 | 01:47:32 | 5% Recovery | 5,84 GB
Languages Available: Italian, English Dolby Digital 5.1 AC3 | Subtitles:Italian
Extra: Menù, Scene Selection, Theatrical Trailer
Genre: Comedy | 3 nominations

To Rome with Love follows four different concurrent but unrelated plotlines taking place in the Eternal City. American tourist Hayley falls in love and becomes engaged to Italian pro bono lawyer Michelangelo while spending a summer in Rome. Her parents, Jerry and Phyllis, fly to Italy to meet her fiancé and his parents. Jerry happens…

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Broadway Danny Rose (1983) Movies

Posted by Sartre at Nov. 16, 2013

A smaller, amusing comedy from writer/director Woody Allen, Broadway Danny Rose begins with a bunch of show business vets sitting around a table at New York's Carnegie Deli and reminiscing about the legendary titular character, a loser of an agent who would represent anyone, including blind xylophonists, piano-playing birds, and has-been crooners with drinking problems. Allen plays Rose as a befuddled, warm-hearted schlub who finally has a shot at getting somewhere when he signs washed-up lounge singer Lou Canova (Nick Apollo Forte) and nearly brings his career back to life. The film has a lighter, warmer touch than the Allen films that preceded it (Stardust Memories and Zelig).

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