Tom Shone

"Ten Things Woody Allen Has Done For You"

His reputation obscured by controversy, his talents occluded by his own sheer productivity, Woody Allen is a filmmaker hidden in plain sight — the invisible icon. When was the last time you took a good look at Love and Death? Do you remember just how radical Annie Hall’s ending was? Whatever happened to that seventies filmmaker who completely upended out notions of how a comedy should look and feel and sound? On the eve of Woody Allen’s 80th birthday, and the publication of his book on the filmmaker, Woody Allen: A Retrospective, film critic Tom Shone offers ten reasons we should be grateful for the one great auteurist success story of American cinema. Using clips from ten of his favorite Allen movies, he will use all his expertise as a film critic and historian to explain why Allen is not only a figure as important as Chaplin, but how the comparison even does Chaplin a few favours.