Woody Allen finally finds feminine side

George Lang

Published: August 21, 2008

BEVERLY HILLS, Calif. — When Woody Allen ponders the connection to women he conveys in his latest film, the famed writer and director recalls a time when he couldn't understand — or write from — the female perspective.

But things change: Allen now holds news conferences in Los Angeles, a place he described as like "living in Munchkin Land" in "Annie Hall," and his penchant for setting films in his beloved Manhattan has given way recently to British shoots for "Match Point" and "Scoop," and a Spanish setting for his latest love letter to women, "Vicky Cristina Barcelona."

"The interesting thing is, and I've said this before, that when I first started, I could never write for women," Allen said at the Four Seasons Hotel in Beverly Hills. "When I wrote my first couple of films and did them, and when I used to write my cabaret act and I would write sketches for television, I could never write for women — I always wrote the male point of view. This went on and on for quite a while, and people even commented about it at the time."

That changed in the early '70s when Diane Keaton entered the picture. They first worked together on Broadway in "Play It Again, Sam." And as they began dating and moved in together, Allen found his viewpoint shifting. With Keaton as his muse, Allen started writing female characters with depth and nuance, and that continued in Allen's personal and professional relationship with Mia Farrow in the '80s and early '90s.

"Through some kind of, you know, Socratic osmosis or something, I started writing for women," he said. "Then I sort of only wrote for women."

His most recent muse, professionally speaking, is Scarlett Johansson, who starred in Allen's last three films including "Vicky Cristina Barcelona." Allen said that his partnership with Johansson was an accident, but a happy one.

"I had Kate Winslet for 'Match Point' until the last week of preproduction," when she left the production for family reasons, Allen said. "I knew Scarlett was a great actress and a beauty, but I didn't know if she was really what I had written. I hired her, and I became totally captivated by her. I thought she could simply do anything."

"Which is the highest compliment for an actor," Johansson said the following day during a roundtable interview. "I wish that all the audience felt that way forever and ever; I think every actor wishes that. It's great to know that he believes in me in that way, and it's certainly exciting for me because I've always been such a huge fan. It was such a part of my upbringing: Every time anybody said, 'Who do you want to work with?' I'd say, 'Well, there's always Woody Allen,' thinking, 'How do I get in that inner circle?' "

Despite the professional chemistry he finds with female actors, including Johansson's co-stars Penelope Cruz and Rebecca Hall, and the insight into women he achieved with Keaton, Allen said that at 72, he has a jaundiced view of how actual love works.

"I haven't found any answers that you really want to hear," he said. "I have a pessimistic view of relationships. My view of it has always been that you talk about it with your friends and you scheme and you plot and you see psychoanalysts, and people see marriage counselors, and people get medicated, and they do everything they can. But in the end, you've got to luck out. It's complete luck. It's total luck."

Travel and accommodations provided by The Weinstein Co.

(an excerpt from The Oklahoman, Aug. 15)

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