Woody's Overlooked Gems

Sweet and Lowdown marks Woody Allens thirtieth outing as a writer-director. This occasion makes it a worthwhile time to look back at the span of Allens accomplishments, a long list of movies that have inspired a love-him-or-hate-him divide among viewers. For those that fall into the first category, below is a list of five interesting but less-discussed Allen films that show both the range of his work and the consistent originality of his career (if youre new to Allen fandom, by all means start with Annie Hall). These titles have mostly fallen off of the radar screens of movie fans, but are well worth a rental.

1) Bananas (1971)

Shades of the Farrelly brothers inhabit this early slapstick about a nebbishy city-dweller played by (surprise!) Allen who somehow winds up in a backwards Latin American republic. The film plays upon stereotypes to no end, but its frequently hilarious and neatly demonstrates the fun of Allens immature work.

2) The Purple Rose

of Cairo (1985)

This meditation on the value of film and imagination follows a Depression-era housewife (Mia Farrow) who goes to the pictures for escapism and one day finds that her favorite movie character (Jeff Daniels) has somehow escaped from the screen and into her life. The movie gets unexpected poignancy out of its superb comic setup and shares with Sweet and Lowdown Allens talent for recreating the 30s.

3) Crimes and Misdemeanors (1990)

Allens most complex film has a dual plotline, with a comic strand about a filmmaker (Allen) intertwining with the story of a married man (Martin Landau) undergoing an affair and a crisis of faith. Landaus performance is a standout, and the merging of the two stories in the films final scene is both daring and entirely successful.

4) Alice (1990)

A wonderful story about a woman (Mia Farrow, in a role no one else could have played) whose deadened upper-crust marriage threatens to crush her until she discovers the power of her imagination, courtesy of a mysterious doctor. Along the way, they are some psychedelic sequences involving invisibility and flying. The liberation of Farrows character is mostly handled with nimble comedy, but its also serious enough to prove that Allens movies arent hopelessly mired in misogyny.

5) Shadows

and Fog (1992)

Too bizarre and cerebral for some, this black-and-white metaphysical murder mystery is set in the wee hours of the morning in an unnamed European city. The film ultimately hinges upon Allens real-life passion for magic tricks to give coherence to this Kafkaesque story. Occasionally funny and compelling, the movie is mostly notable for its cast, which features man of the moment John Malkovich and Madonna as circus performers and Lily Tomlin, Jodie Foster and Kathy Bates as whores.

Erwin R. Rosinberg