Coming out of the Wood(y)work

Whatever (cinematic) Woody Allen makes is worthy of watching, especially his off-the-beaten path classic like Sleeper, a low-fi, science fiction farce.

Sleeper came out in 1973.

The Allen wrench

The new Woody Allen movie is slated for release shortly.

Blue Jasmine, is, as is a typical Allen movies, primarily the story of a woman, trapped inside, what Allen calls the "Greek cycle.".

He sees the Greek cycle--a life cycle in which both fate and free will determine a life's path from an acme to its nadir--in the fall of a super-rich housewife as earnestly as the Greeks saw in the kings and gods'. 

In Allen's own words, Blue Jasmine is the story of 

[A] very high Upper East Side liver” who “had a precipitous drop and had to downsize radically. [...] She went from someone with charge accounts every place and a limitless amount of money, virtually, to someone who had to shop in bargain places and even get a job.

A lovely piece on Woody Allen's reputation as the "woman's man," is here.

An alarmist, not a hypochondriac

Woody Allen has a gift for intelligent humor.

So when he writes to clear any misconception of who he really is--an alarmist, not a hypochondriac--it's worth a read. 

Allen confesses to also having "an animal fear of dying":

I sometimes imagine that death might be more tolerable if I passed away in my sleep, although the reality is, no form of dying is acceptable to me with the possible exception of being kicked to death by a pair of scantily clad cocktail waitresses.

But, to be a misunderstood alarmist, a hypochondriac and somebody who is pathologically fearful of dying, is better than to be a Republican, concludes Allen.