One day someone will have to explain to me how Woody Allen does it. Every year there are movies. And every year, at least one of them is a Woody Allen movie. Without fail it would seem, for around 40 years. Sure, not all of them are good (a select few, I’m looking at you Whatever Works, are borderline unwatchable) but they are features. Full narratives, with full casts. And the majority of them are good. A whole lot of them are very good, in fact.
In 2012, expect to see Alec Baldwin as part of the cast for Allen’s next film. After years exclusively in New York (although the L.A. sequence in Annie Hall is quite wonderful in its own mean way), Allen has tackled foreign city after foreign city, from London (Match Point, You Will Meet a Tall Dark Stranger) to Barcelona (Vicky Cristina Barcelona) to Paris (this year’s whimsically-inclined Midnight in Paris) and, in 2012, Rome. Penelope Cruz confirmed that she would be starring in the new film as well, with talk of Jesse Eisenberg as the lead floating in the breeze.
Allen has said he feels he has yet to make a great film, which is at once surprising and sobering. There’s always some sort of film news with Allen, considering all the films he makes. For someone so prolific, one wonders how the filmmaker will know when what he’s made is great.
Do you feel Allen’s made a great film? If so, which one or ones?