Of course, you missed the entire “late-in-life” article I posted.
And again, you don’t get any brownie points or Gold Stars for “siding” with anybody. All that does is prove you have no interest in the truth. Possibly getting to wag your finger and say “I told you so!” after the facts are (or are not) revealed means zilch.
And nothing personal backatcha. Just seems to me these kind of accusations need to have their day in court. Sorry if I come across as heated.
AHarford and Singer argue like… Husbands and Wives.
Well, I haven’t paid to see any of his movies since this whole horrible thing surfaced, and what I’ve caught on cable hasn’t convinced me that his movies are any good anymore anyway. I think the last honest movie (and consequently great movie) he made was Crimes and Misdemeanors.
I mean, Woody Allen was the guy who cast Mariel Hemingway as his preteen girlfriend in Manhattan. He exposed a lot (if not all, clearly) of his peccadilloes in his movies. That’s one of the things that made them so great–stylized renderings of what was going on in his psyche that had the ring of truth to any human. But then, when he was basically forced to make an honest woman of what was essentially his stepdaughter, and never had a mea culpa moment, it’s like he put a barrier between his psyche and his writing, and everything after that was superficial and phony.
I completely believe Dylan, and did when it was just Mia Farrow saying it. So, I stopped paying to see his movies.
I dunno, this is such a serious allegation, and the “facts” being played around with in the Media make it very unlikely that we’ll ever know the real truth.
Woody Allen casting Mariel Hemingway as an 18 year old is not the same as molesting a 7 year old girl IMO. And if we are going by what film makers put on the screen, then I guess John Carpenter likes to murder teenage girls on Halloween.
Also, Allen isn’t really part of “Hollywood”: hell he refuses to attend the Oscars, even when he’s nominated.
Well…you don’t know for a fact that he doesn’t.
That’s actually repulsive. Damn, I hadn’t heard this story at all.
Allen might not be part of Hollywood but Hollywood loves him. They continually fund his films even if there’s very little financial gain and actors consider him to be the #1 director to work for even over someone like Scorsese.
To be fair, Dylan didn’t start these allegations as an adult. They came to light when she was still a child. This isn’t a case of recovered memory. She seems to have kept to the same story since she was a child.
A[quote name=“Dr Harford” url=“/community/t/149215/woody-allen-pedophile#post_3593994”]
If his adult daughter comes forward with this, yes, I am going to take her side until I hear some sort of explanation. A one line statement from Allen’s lawyer isn’t going to do it.
[/quote]
Why would you take someone’s side simply because they accussed the other? What are you basing your loyalty on? It seems arbitrary and illogical. One side accuses, the other denies it. Who’s telling the truth and how do you know?
And why should actors avoid working with a talented filmmaker simply because he’s been accused of pedophilia?
I also want to make this perfectly clear – if Allen is actually guilty, fuck him.
Right, but we don’t know he’s guilty. Thing of what happens when “civilians” divorce or have tempestuous relationships. All kinds of shitty, vile accusations get made and the kids are very often a focus.
Now add in the fact that most actors are high strung to begin with, then add the reality distortion field of the Celebrity Media Machine, and IMO there is no way you can know the truth of the matter. I mean us, the media observers.
Oh, of course. I just don’t want any posts like, “Hey, yer the fella what de-fended that kiddy-diddler, aint’cha!” down the line.
Hey, yer the fella what de-fended that kiddy-diddler, aint’cha!
Him having an affair with a girl who is virtually his stepdaughter isn’t an allegation, and as far as Dylan’s story, I err on the side of the kid, sorry. I loved Woody Allen prior to this mess, but here was someone whose films excoriated hypocrites becoming the worst kind of hypocrite in life. He didn’t say “I made a mistake, I’m sorry.” He said “She’s a mature woman, we’re in love and we’re getting married.” Not only is the knowledge and power differential in that relationship totally lopsided, if you believe Mia (which I do), at the time, he was begging Mia to take him back and putting it all behind them in exchange for dumping Soon-yi.
And I wasn’t equating the Manhattan storyline with the Dylan allegations. I guess you missed the “clearly not all” qualifier in my post. But I was pointing out that the Manhattan storyline had the ring of truth and why wouldn’t it? It’s not uncommon for older, learned types to have young girlfriends, just look at what’s coming out these days about Salinger. But putting it onscreen with self-awareness is honesty – whether it’s about his own life or what he observes in the world around him – and Woody Allen’s movies since the meltdown have lost that ring of truth.
Hm I think Match Point and Midnight in Paris are honest films, just not as scathing as something like Interiors or Stardust Memories. And I think that has more to do with Woody being in his 80’s.
I also think, in general, as artists become more and more famous, they lose the ability to observe the world around them, or more accuratly, their world contracts to the point where they only interact with other famous and rich people. Thus we get Celebrity (actually a good idea undone by Branaugh). Also see Stephen King’s stories pre and post celebrity.
The most disturbing thing to me about that Vanity Fair article, (discounting the molestation accusations, which as I’ve stated I just don’t know about), is that apparently Soon Yi was considered almost Retarded. And Woody Allen married her.
That tacks with your comment about the “Power differential” between the two. But consider this. Woody Allen is a world famous, well respected multimillionaire film directer. He has access to the most beautiful women (of all ages) in the world. And he married Soon Yi. To me, that’s Love, however misguided or influenced by Allen’s personal issues. “The heart wants what it wants”. And I’m sure we all know of couples who seem completely mismatched but who are in love with each other.
I feel completely unqualified to have an opinion on this topic!!
Another interesting article on the subject:
http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/20…-fast.html
Among other things it refutes the suggestion that Soon-yi is in any way retarded. Apparently she has a masters degree, so I’m not sure where that rumour came from.
This is the one that really blows my mind. So you’ve got a rich and famous older guy suddenly spending massive amounts of time with an extremely intelligent 18 year-old and eventually they hook up. Looking at it in that light - Woody was never a father figure, and barely knew the girl before they started hanging out together - their relationship just becomes yet another slightly strange May-December romance. And one that’s outlasted almost all the others of its kind that make a splash in the tabloids.
Now, the Dylan stuff is of course separate and a much more daunting subject to tackle. But I’m kind of surprised that the Soon-Yi thing is STILL being used as a signifier of his monstrous nature in light of all the facts.
I can’t believe it was only today that I realized a distinct fact of the case. The molestation supposedly happened after the Soon-Yi affair was found out.
I had no idea.
So either Woody Allen is a horrible human being or Mia Farrow is a horrible human being.