Hannah & Her Sisters 1986

Woody Allen married his ex wife's adopted daughter. This was my only knowledge of him as a child in the 1990s. In 2017, he's now infamous for allegations that he molested another adopted daughter when she was 7. And the case don't look good: https://www.vanityfair.com/news/2014/02/woody-allen-sex-abuse-10-facts Honestly, there's still a shred of possibility that this is some misunderstanding that never should've gone public, but is it possible for his filmography to really shine light on this man's innocence or lack thereof?

Hannah & Her Sisters is an ambitious, warm and very successful Woody movie. Its a clever reworking of his dramatic film "Interiors", combing that film's Ingmar Bergman-esque angst with Allen's more popular comedic stylings. Of course he does it in a conceptually intellectual way: the film is told in 3 stories that flip-flop between mellow tragedy & mellow comedy. Allen had far outgrown his extreme comedy and wouldn't approach extreme tragedy again for a while. The combination was so influential that the film plays like an HBO series more than an Academy Award winner. From Tod Solondz' Happiness to Curb Your Enthusiam to Wes Anderson, many have expounded on Allen's vision of cinema.

And Allen's real genius is in creating a form of cinema so tied to dramatic theater, arthouse cinema, sitcom, vaudeville, standup, literature, poetry and even music. The stories are very grounded and would be boring in any one medium, but work in the context of this film. Allen is a director who understands film completely and has personalized the technology to suit his tastes & needs.

Exploring the narrative, Allen creates a dysfunctional family of males & females, Jews & gentiles, who all represent different parts of himself. He wants us to know that every character is him. He has Michael Caine & Max Von Sydow making Jewish references. They are Woody. And Mia Farrow's performances in Allen's films are always a female impression of Allen. I can't tell if thats stylized or if he really molded her into his image in their personal lives. The whole thing is a Freudian headtrip, with the audience as Woody's paying analyst. This sounds indulgent & morose, but the film is light & upbeat throughout. But there is a dark side of Woody Allen that is always beneath the surface. There is a joke about child molestation here, multiple references to his problems with Farrow and her adopted children & so much inappropriate sexual-romantic behavior that is just chalked up to "normal mid-life crisis". There's nothing damning in the text but it raises questions.

Is Allen the victim of circumstance? Or he a predator? Was Mia Farrow being overly protective of her adopted children or not protective enough? Is Dylan Farrow a victim or a very disturbed person? Maybe Farrow used her daughter's claim simply to win a divorce against the man who stole her other daughter. Judging from a film made YEARS before the scandal, you could argue the case for all of this contradictory stuff. But humans are contradictions, Allen being a textbook case. But being a mixed up, complex, dirty, weak-willed guy isn't an admission of guilt to a horrible, horrible act.

Whatever the truth is, Woody is still a pioneer and masterful artist/entertainer. He has helped our culture tremendously - as much as a film comedian can I suspect - and that much can't be argued. Because we don't know what happened, I still recommend this man's films. And if he turns out to be a real monster, he should have to suffer more than he has... but the films are still good.