Wild Man Blues Review
by "Ted Prigge" (chandlerb AT geocities DOT com)July 10th, 1998
WILD MAN BLUES (1998)
A Film Review by Ted Prigge
Copyright 1998 Ted Prigge
Director: Barbara Kopple
Starring: Woody Allen, Soon-Yi Previn, Eddy Davis, Cynthia Sayer, Don Barrett, Greg Cohen, John Gill
I adore Woody Allen's movies more than almost anyone else in the world, and I can't even explain why. So a documentary on him that actually follows him around, that allows us a sneak peek at his life, and shows us a Woody Allen sans one of his script...well, that automatically appeals to me and anyone else who watches his movies (all eight-and-a-half of us). After all, Woody is a paradox when it comes to celebrities: he's constantly being talked about on the news for this and that, but no one knows a thing about him. Basically no one goes to see his movies, and only about 5 or 10 percent of the American population has even seen a Woody Allen film, but everyone thinks they can imitate him and whenever you bring his name up to people, they give you a bad look. Seeing Woody Allen "unplugged," I suppose you can call it, is incredibly intriguing to me basically because I've been watching his movies for years and I couldn't tell you a thing about his personal life.
"Wild Man Blues" conveniently comes out following Woody's film, "Deconstructing Harry," a mind-bending, hilarious portrait of the public's perception of him as an amoral, selfish sonofabitch which ulimately questioned whether or not that was the real Woody Allen. And bizarrely enough, this film questions the same thing. For about an hour-and-a-half, we get to follow Mr. Allen as he travels all around Europe, stays at expensive-looking hotels, plays numerous jazz shows, meets fans, and finally has dinner with his parents back in Manhattan. We see Woody talking with his band, with various people, and even talking with Soon-Yi herself, and the whole time we have no clue if it's really Woody or just an act.
Basically, "Wild Man Blues" works on three separate levels: on one, we have a reflection of Woody Allen, in all his glory, whether it be fake or not; one another, we have a portrait of a subgenre of music that is almost extinct today; and on yet another level, we have a subtle, classy rebuttle to Mia Farrow's scathing autobiography, "What Falls Away," which, frankly, made Woody out to be Lee Harvey Oswald (and therefore her out to be the world's dumbest woman for spending over a decade with him). We see a lot of each of these, but no real balance of them. The director, Barbara Kopple (a two-time Oscar winning documentary filmmaker), at first wanted to make a film about the band itself, but upon shooting a bit, decided to leak a lot into Woody's life, and you can actually see this transition. The film begins as a nice balance between letting Woody talk to the camera and showing the band both in front and behind the scenes.
But as the film goes on, we see less and less of the band, and we see more and more of Woody. And as we see more and more of Woody, the more cartoonish he becomes. When we first meet Woody, he's almost nervous about talking to the camera, and he comes off as very serious and shy. He discusses why he loves staying in Paris, and talks about his music and why he loves it, and not once does he say any great one-liners. But as the film moves along, he gradually adopts his screen persona. It's hysterical to hear him do his schtick (his criticism of Italian hotel staffs is priceless), but which is the real Woody? Was he at first too nervous, but then became comfortable with it later on? It doesn't help that his mother at the end tells the camera he's nothing like his screen persona, and that his movies reflect very little of Woody Allen the person.
I suppose the message, as unintentional as it probably is, is that Woody Allen is someone whom we can never really learn of in depth because he's different with everyone else. To his band, he may seem a bit cold, while to the band leader, he's incredibly friendly. In his movies, he's whiny and hysterical and loves to talk, but when performing, he says three words and they play music. The film is basically saying that no man can possibly be the same to everyone, I suppose.
One of the main strengths of the film is, though, is in its moments that it happens to capture, and those other big things that it shows us. Some of Woody's one-liners that he makes up on the spot are as hilarious as the ones he has written in his movies. There's the sight of Woody trying to swim in a pool with Soon-Yi, and even a hilarious bit where Woody and Soon-Yi continually keep missing eachother in a hotel. And there's even a couple moments that are manipulated by Kopple, like one where Woody is being hounded by European fans of his, and the soundtrack begins to play Nino Rota's brilliant score from Fellini's "8 1/2," which had to do with a film director who is plagued by too many problems, like fans and producers. There's even a wonderful moment where Woody explains why he doesn't like awards (hint: it has something to do with Brando...which is also one of my main reasons for not liking awards).
The real expose in the film is not really Woody, but Soon-Yi, who is barely shown as nothing more than a horny young girl of his, but here emerges as what seems like the perfect soulmate for Woody as well as an incredibly intelligent woman. Seeing Soon-Yi tell Woody that he has to be more open with the members of his band is one of the coolest things I have ever seen, and it makes her out to be an almost maternal presence for him, always giving him sound advice, and making him calm and pleasant. Take that, Mia!
If anything, "Wild Man Blues" suceeds in telling us to give up on seeing Woody as who he really is, and that we may never really see him. We learn very little about him in the running time of the film, but what we get is mouth-watering stuff that makes us want to perhaps just meet the guy and see what he's like to us. I know that the fact that I wasn't able to see what he's really like is disappointing, but for some reason, it doesn't come off that way.
MY RATING (out of 4): ***
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