Woody Allen's "SLEEPER"

Cafe Society
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[QUOTE=askeptic]
I am convinced that the real Woody Allen was abducted by aliens in 1978 because everything after Anni Hall has been complete and unmitigated shit. Sweet and Lowdown was not quite as bad as the other stuff but definitely the absolute brilliance that was Woody Allen disappeared in the late seventies. It was either alien abduction or he started taking himself too seriously…
[/QUOTE]
Or option 3: he grew up and started making more sophisticated movies.

Manhattan, Hannah and Her Sisters, Crimes and Misdemeanors, Broadway Danny Rose, The Purple Rose of Cairo, A Midsummers Night Sex Comedy (which was definitely not intended to be a comedy) and Bullets over Broadway are as good a list of films as any director during that time, and things like Zelig, Radio Days, Everyone Says I Love You, Sweet and Lowdown, Mighty Aphrodite, Small Time Crooks and Match Point are good, if not quite great. I also like Deconstructing Henry for its further exploration of the themes in Bullets Over Broadway and Sweet and Lowdown

He’s had some stinkers, certainly, and is on the downside of his career, but he’s produced more great films than any other living director.

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[QUOTE=RealityChuck]
Or option 3: he grew up and started making more sophisticated movies.

Manhattan, Hannah and Her Sisters, Crimes and Misdemeanors, Broadway Danny Rose, The Purple Rose of Cairo, A Midsummers Night Sex Comedy (which was definitely not intended to be a comedy) and Bullets over Broadway are as good a list of films as any director during that time, and things like Zelig, Radio Days, Everyone Says I Love You, Sweet and Lowdown, Mighty Aphrodite, Small Time Crooks and Match Point are good, if not quite great. I also like Deconstructing Henry for its further exploration of the themes in Bullets Over Broadway and Sweet and Lowdown

He’s had some stinkers, certainly, and is on the downside of his career, but he’s produced more great films than any other living director.
[/QUOTE]

Different strokes I guess. I don’t consider any of those movies “more sophisticated”. The earlier movies were sophisticated, the ones you mention were pretentious IMHO. (excepting Sweet and Lowdown and Zelig, while I wouldn’t class them with his prior genius, neither do I class them with awfulness that is his post 1978 career)

This of course is just my opinion, not really interested in fighting about it. :slight_smile:

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I love Woody Allen movies . . . except for that twitchy redhaired guy that’s always in 'em . . .

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[QUOTE=TV time]

A little side note: the people who owned the house featured in the film were driven crazy by fans making pilgramages to the house which is not that far outside Denver and was just visable from the highway. People would come by at all times of the day and night and almost demand tours of the place.
[/QUOTE]

I don’t think anyone was living in the Clam House–at least not back then.
We occasionally poked around there as youngsters and it always was deserted.
Sleeper is probably my favorite Woody Allen movie.

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Sleeper Memories: (May be a lot of repetition of what has already been said.)

Past Archives:

Bill Graham: He had a personal relationship…
Richard Nixon: He must have committed a terrible crime, because all info erased.
Howard Cosell: When someone had committed a terrible crime against the state, they had to listen to this man, as punishment. (Woody concurs.)

Woody tries to demonstrate how funny “chattering teeth” can be.

Being chased by police, Woody can barely keep ahead while trying desperately to get a turbo-prop device off the ground, while furiously flapping his arms to aid it. He finally manages to do so and to elude them, but he gets stuck in a tree. Then, instead of the prop rotating, it is Woody rotating in the opposite direction.

Police try to fire bazookas, with disastrous results. For them, that is.

When he goes past a farm with greatly enlarged farm animals, he deadpans, “That’s a big chicken.”

While the researchers try to assure the police that nothing illegal is going on, Woody can barely start walking again.

The Volkswagen starts right up, after centuries. But even funnier: Everything, especially homes and cars is radically different. But McDonald’s is exactly the same.

The tailor: “All right, we’ll take it in.”

We’re doctors; we’re not impostors”

“Check the cell structure!” is repeated by Woody and the Diane, while dancing about, and either clapping hands or snapping fingers. This is right after the H.A.L.-like computer has recommended it, and they have no clue how to do it.

H.A.L.: “That would be a very serious mistake.”

Gun held up to the nose, making the attackers freeze in their tracks for a while. Woody decides to shoot, but the gun is a fake, and only displays the word “BANG!”

The nose is thrown in front of some sort of futuristic “steam roller” and when it is completely flattened, the men pick it up and examine it, perhaps deciding whether or not to despair.

I’m probably not remembering a lot.

One friend from college (I had just graduated) reported that he started laughing almost as soon as the movie started, and that he didn’t stop until the end. It was only movie he could say that about. And, while I can’t make the same claim, it was one of the few movies I came away from remembering one funny scene after another! :smiley:

  • TBJ