A Touch of Wit and Neurosis:

The Life and Work of Woody Allen

Resources at the SJRCC Libraries

- Eric Biggs

PAL = Palatka Campus | OPC = Orange Park Campus | SAC = St. Augustine Campus

= Book | = DVD

Four Films of Woody Allen by Woody Allen - Publisher's Marketing: "Complete screenplays of four of Woody Allen's most famous films. Hilariously funny, with all actions included."

Call number: PAL - PS3551.L44 A6 1982

Mere Anarchy by Woody Allen - Publisher's Marketing: ""I am greatly relieved that the universe is finally explainable. I was beginning to think it was me."-Woody Allen
Here, in his first collection since his three hilarious classics "Getting Even, Without Feathers, "and "Side Effects," Woody Allen has managed to write a book that not only answers the most profound questions of human existence but is the perfect size to place under any short table leg to prevent wobbling.
"I awoke Friday, and because the universe is expanding it took me longer than usual to find my robe," he explains in a piece on physics called "Strung Out." In other flights of inspirational sanity we are introduced to a cast of characters only Allen could imagine: Jasper Nutmeat, Flanders Mealworm, and the independent film mogul E. Coli Biggs, just to name a few. Whether he is writing about art, sex, food, or crime ("Pugh has been a policeman as far back as he can remember. His father was a notorious bank robber, and the only way Pugh could get to spend time with him was to apprehend him") he is explosively funny.
In "This Nib for Hire," a Hollywood bigwig comes across an author's book in a little country store and describes it in a way that aptly captures this magnificent volume: "Actually," the producer says, "I'd never seen a book remaindered in the kindling section before.""

Call number: OPC - PS3551.L44 A6 2007

"Woody Allen: Interviews" collects over twenty-five years of interviews with the director of "Manhattan," "Hannah and Her Sisters," "Crimes and Misdemeanors," "Bullets Over Broadway," and "Annie Hall," for which he won an Oscar. The book's interviews reveal a serious director, often at odds with his onscreen persona as a lovable, slap-stick loser. Allen talks frankly about his rigorous work habits; his biggest artistic influences; the attention he devotes to acting, screenwriting, and directing; and how New York fuels his filmmaking.

Along with discussing film techniques and styles, Allen opens up about his love of jazz, his Jewish heritage, and the scandal that arose when he left his longtime partner Mia Farrow for her adopted daughter. Including four interviews from European sources, three of which are now available in English for the first time, "Woody Allen: Interviews" is a treasure trove of conversations with one of America's most distinctive filmmakers."

Call number: OPC - PN1998.3.A45 A3 2006

The Films of Woody Allen by Sam B. Girgus - Publisher's Marketing: "The Films of Woody Allen is the first full-length study of Woody Allen the artist as opposed to the celebrity and personality and argues that Allen is a major artistic force. On the cutting edge of contemporary critical and cultural consciousness, Allen challenges our notions of authorship, narrative, perspective, character, theme, ideology, gender and sexuality. A student and admirer of the classic Hollywood cinema, Allen combines this appreciation for American directors with a developed sensitivity to experimental European directors such as Fellini, De Sica and Bergman. Probably the most widely recognized aspect of his work involves his films that experiment with narrative, plot and psychology. In the films dating from the early seventies, Allen develops into one of America's great innovative directors as he takes his brilliant comic impulses seriously. His technical, literary, visual and linguistic innovations introduce intensity and complexity to his humour. Instead of continuing on the path of zany comedy, he carefully creates films that form an original union of the serious and comic."

Call number: SAC - PN1998.3 .A45 G57 1993

The Films of Woody Allen: Critical Essays edited by Charles L.P. Silet - Publisher's Marketing: "In The Films of Woody Allen: Critical Essays, Charles L. P. Silet brings together two-dozen scholarly articles that address the core of Allen's work from a variety of cultural and theoretical perspectives. With a special emphasis on his films of the 1980s, this collection includes both general essays that examine various themes and issues encompassed in Allen's repertoire, as well as discussions that focus on one or two specific films. A number of the articles collected here were originally published in now hard to locate places, while others were selected from journals not usually associated with film studies. The result is an anthology of essays that presents an overview of the central issues raised by Allen's body of work as well as a close examination of fourteen individual films that convey these larger themes."

Call number: SAC - PN1998.3 .A45 F55 2006

It Don't Worry Me: The Revolutionary American Films of the Seventies by Ryan Gilbey - Publisher's Marketing: ""It Don't Worry Me" celebrates the enduring genius of the time by scrutinizing the work of ten directors. More than just a tribute to past glory, this book takes a close look at the work of these filmmakers with a contemporary eye, discovering an urgency and innovation still resonant today."

Call number: OPC - PN1993.5.U65 G55 2003

Allen's prolific achievements are all but unparalleled in cinematic history. To fans, his films have always represented an ongoing autobiography, through which he has bared his self-deprecating overanalytical soul to the world. It was not until 1992, when his stormy private life turned into sensational headlines, that the cracks in the familiar persona appeared. The lines separating art and fact, myth and reality, public and private life, became increasingly blurred.

Marion Meade has tracked down scores of people in Allen's life who have never before spoken to an Allen biographer: boyhood pals; Brooklyn neighbors and teachers; colleagues Buddy Hackett and Mel Brooks from his early career as a television writer and stand-up comic; actors Maureen Stapleton, Max von Sydow, and Bob Hope; director Sydney Pollack; and the film reviewers who have followed his career for decades -- Vincent Canby, Roger Ebert, Stanley Kauffmann, Andrew Sarris, and John Simon. She also details the numerous examples of art imitating life in Allen's films, particularly the extraordinary saga behind his marriage to the adopted daughter of his long-time lover, Mia Farrow.

In reconstructing Allen's life, Meade explores the cult of celebrity in America -- how it is our own infatuation with the rich and famous that has made it possiblefor this supremely talented man to shrewdly manipulate both the media and the moviegoing public."

Call number: SAC - PN1998.3.A45 M43 2000

Woody Allen: New Yorker by Graham McCann - Publisher's Marketing: "This book is the first detailed study of Woody Allen's life and work, and an original attempt to locate Allen's work in the great tradition of American popular culture. It explores that inimitable New York Jewish voice in the themes, dreams, hopes and hidden meanings of Allen's urban humour, with countless examples of Allen's own hilarious comic lines."

Call number: SAC - PN 2287 .A53 M3 1990

Woody Allen on Location by Thierry de Navacellev

Call number: OPC - PN1997 .R2183 1987

Annie Hall - Summary: "New York comedian Alvy Singer recalls his on-again, off-again relationship with Annie in flashbacks, flash forwards and even animation."

Call number: OPC - PN1997 .A837 2005 DVD

Call number: SAC - PN1997 ANNIEH DVD

Crimes and Misdemeanors - Summary: "An eye doctor and a documentary filmmaker are married men with different moral dilemmas in Manhattan."

Call number: SAC - PN1997 CrimesA DVD

Deconstructing Harry - Summary: "Harry Block has gone through three wives, six psychiatrists and dozens of girlfriends during his long literary career. But when Harry writes a bestseller about his best friends, who soon become his worst enemies. Now, instead of going back to his old school to be honored for his literary achievements, Harry's going straight to hell."

Call number: SAC - PN1997 Deconstruc DVD

Hannah and Her Sisters - Summary: "Hannah is the always-successful older sister, and her two sisters resent her. One is a would-be writer, performer drug addict and the other is a confused student having an affair with her husband. Add to the mix Hannah's alcoholic mother and long-suffering father, and her hypochondriacal ex-husband and you have one truly dysfunctioal New York family."

Call number: SAC - PN1997 .H366 2001 DVD

Husbands and Wives - Summary: "A New York professor and his wife notice their own marital troubles when their best friends split up."

Call number: SAC - PN1997 HusbandsW DVD

Interiors - Summary: "A perfectionist frustrates her daughters and drives out her husband. Directed by Woody Allen."

Call number: OPC - PN1997 .I687 2000 DVD

Call number: PAL - PN1997 Interi 2000 DVD

Call number: SAC - PN1997 Interiors DVD

Manhattan - Summary: "A divorced TV writer with a teen-age girlfriend falls in love with a married friend's mistress."

Call number: OPC - PN1997 .M361 2000 DVD

Call number: PAL - PN1997 Manh 2000 DVD

Call number: SAC - PN1997 Manhattan DVD

Manhattan Murder Mystery - Summary: "Married New Yorkers explore wild theories surrounding the death of a next-door neighbor. Directed by Woody Allen."

Call number: OPC - PN1997 .M366 1998 DVD

Call number: SAC - PN1997 Manhattan Murder DVD

Match Point - Summary: "Chris, a former tennis pro, social-climbs into the world of the British upper crust when he gets engaged to one of his wealthy tennis students. But Chris is not the type to leave well enough alone, and he soon falls for Nola, a sexy American actress who is dating his rival Tom, Chris' soon-to-be brother-in-law."

Call number: OPC - PN1997 .M381 2006 DVD

Call number: SAC - PN1997 MatchPoi DVD

Melinda and Melinda - Summary: "A complex story of a woman whose life is told from both a tragic and a comic perspective. Both stories involve the same woman, but feature wildly different results."

Call number: OPC - PN1997 .M41 2005 DVD

Call number: SAC - PN1997 MelindaM DVD

A Midsummer Night's Sex Comedy - Summary: "On one magical summer's day, an inept inventor's mysterious orb casts a lustful spell on all those staying at his home for the weekend. Shakespeare will never be the same again."

Call number: OPC - PN1997 .M5281 2005 DVD

Mighty Aphrodite - Summary: "Sportswriter Lenny has become obsessed with meeting the natural mother of his adopted son. After a lengthy quest to find her, he discovers that she is not what he had imagined. Linda, the biological mother, is a ditsy call girl completely unaware of Lenny's intentions for their meetings. Eventually the two become good friends and Lenny helps her to begin searching for a respectable life."

Call number: SAC - PN1997 MightyAp DVD

Play It again, Sam - Summary: "A hypochondriac film buff turns to his idol, Humphrey Bogart, for advice about women. Directed by Herbert Ross."

Call number: OPC - PN1997 .P696 2001 DVD

September - Summary: "Vermont neighbor Howard loves Lane who loves Peter who loves Stephanie. Directed by Woody Allen."

Call number: OPC - PN1997 .S3674 2001 DVD

Sleeper - Summary: "Deep-frozen for 200 years, a health-food store owner wakes up in a no-sex police state and hides as a robot."

Call number: SAC - PN1997 Sleeper DVD

Vicky Cristina Barcelona - Summary: "Oscar winner Javier Bardem (No Country for Old Men), Oscar nominee Penelope Cruz (Volver) and Golden Globe nominee Scarlett Johansson (The Nanny Diaries) light up the stunning city of Barcelona in this sexy romantic comedy. Vicky and Cristina are two young Americans spending a summer in Spain, who meet a charming Casanova and his beautiful but volatile ex-wife. When they all become romantically entangled, the smoldering sparks begin to fly in hilarious fashion."

Call number: OPC - PN1997 .V545 2008 DVD

Call number: SAC - PN1997 VickyCr DVD