Is he happy with his films? “No,” he says firmly. “I’ve squandered an opportunity that people would kill for. I have had complete artistic freedom. Other directors don’t get that in their lifetime. But I have a very poor record given the opportunities I’ve had. Out of 40 films I should have 30 masterpieces, eight noble failures and two embarrassments, but it hasn’t worked out that way.
“Many of the films are enjoyable by the mean standards of movies, but look at what has been accomplished by people who have done beautiful things - Kurosawa, Bergman, Fellini, Bunuel, Truffaut - and then look at my films. I have squandered my opportunities and I have nobody to blame but myself.”
This is said equably, not self-pityingly. “I can’t blame a studio’s interference. I used the actors, scripts and music I wanted. I cut them the way I wanted. Still they weren’t great.”
Quite a lot of people like his movies, I point out. “There are a few better than others, half a dozen, but it’s a surprising paucity of worthwhile celluloid.” (The six he prizes: Purple Rose of Cairo, Match Point, Bullets Over Broadway, Zelig, Husbands and Wives and Vicky Cristina Barcelona.) “You reach a certain age and you come to the conclusion that greatness is not in you,” Allen says. “You aspired to greatness when you were younger, but either through lack of industry or lack of discipline or simply lack of genius you didn’t achieve greatness. The years go by and you realise: ‘I’m this mid-level guy.’ I did the best I could.” He sees my slightly stricken expression.
“It’s not hard to accept. I didn’t compromise or sell out, but I’ve never achieved what I hoped to.”
I squandered my chances, says Woody Allen | The Australian
Posted 1 year ago
