Woody Allen on the meaning of life - Hannah and her Sisters

nothing on tv last night, and I am tired of reading the book "On Killing, by Lt. Col. Dave Grossman, (a tough subject). So I saw woody allen's Hannah and her Sisters, on dvd. I really love that movie, especially the scene where he tries to kill himself with a rifle, misses, and then goes to see a Marx brothers movie which makes him believe that life is too much fun to end abruptly. I have been battling depression lately, and the movie really helped my outlook on life.

The picture of the Marx brothers includes their distant relative, Karl. Once while I was a teaching assistant at the Univ of Georgia, I remarked in class that there is a book published on the daughters of Karl Marx, he had no sons, and who they married and what happened to them and so forth. A student asked for the name of the book, and I couldnt remember it, so I said, without thinking, "The Marx Sisters" or something like that....and i paused, thought about what i just said, and started laughing uncontrollably. The class didnt get it, I guess these 19 yr olds never saw a marx brother movie.

More on Hannah and her Sisters: it has an amazing cast, including Max von Sydow, the famous actor from Igmar Bergman films. Woody is a fan of Bergman films, "Deconstructing Harry" is similar to Bergman's Wild Strawberries, "Love and Death" copies scenes from "the Seventh Seal." Anyway, there is a long scene with Barbara Hershey and Max and Barb go through it once, to practice where woody wants them to stand, walk and so forth. then they shoot it once, all the way through, and a second shoot, and woody says "wrap." Max is incredulous, a wrap after two takes? woody says he wants it fresh, with minimal rehersal, it makes the acting raw and more realistic. Max is impressed. what woody didnt explain is that his films make a very little profit, from low viewership, and that the only way to get the studios to back him is to keep his cost of making the film as low as possible. For example, "Sleeper" I think cost the most of the early woody films (i might be wrong), and the studios tried to keep his costs down after that. He never has had a "hit" with the exception of Annie Hall (Hannah comes in 3rd place in revenue of all his films). Also there are great scenes in Hannah, he takes the viewer on a tour of landmark buildings in manhattan (sam waterstan plays an architect), central park (he has mickey and holly walk left to right in front of stationery camera) and of course the last scene, at thanksgiving, with mickey and holly kissing, candles in the background, minimal lighting (there is a Scandanavian group of filmmakers who make movies with only natural lighting, or candles, but no "lights," I am sure woody knows of this group and borrowed their technique for the final scene.

The appearance of the punk rock band "39 Steps" (an Alfred Hitchcock film- woody picks a punk group with a name taken from a famous film and film director!) is followed by Mickey taking Holly to see Bobby Short at the Cafe Carlyle (Mr. Short died before I was able to see him at the Carlyle, one of the missed opportunities of my life) and they hear Mr. Short play "I'm in Love Again," a great rendition of the Cole Porter song, but I cant find it on Youtube, so here is Bobby sining "I happen to like New York," which is a song that woody put in the beginning of his film Manhattan Murder Mystery.

BTW, Woody used to play clarinet in a new orleans type jazz band at the Cafe Carlyle. I dont know if he still does it. BTW, a room at the Carlyle will cost you $395 for one night, summer rate, and apartments are available for purchase starting at $1.5 million (which might be a bargain in today's market). There is a $85 cover charge to see jazz bands at the Cafe Carlyle, supposedly woody plays there monday nights. I assume you need a reservation well in advance.