It is difficult to think of New York without imagining 'his' Manhattan, without having Gershwin's music in the ear and without remembering some characters poised between psychosis and great loves.

Yes: Woody Allen, with his 86 years today and over 50 feature films, has influenced the imagination of many viewers, bringing them to the Big Apple steeped in his political, religious, cultural and artistic ideas. 

Prolific director: almost a film a year, he is also an actor, screenwriter, playwright and musician.

A jazz lover, Allen, since the 70s, is the clarinetist of the 'New Orleans Jazz Band' with whom he performs on Monday nights at the 'Cafe Carlyle in Manhattan', a small place always besieged by his fans. especially Europeans.

The director, winner of Academy Awards, Goya, Golden Globe, Venice Film Festivals, Cannes and Berlin, had started as a television writer, becoming one of the finest pens on the small American screen.

His move to the cinema, initially, had suffered from the television comic style, generating

slapstic

k films (implausible comedy).

The turning point came in 1977, with 'Me and Annie': the sentimental comedy, winner of four Oscars, considered by critics to be his masterpiece.

From that moment on, Allen marked the history of Cinema with his ironic, often nihilistic stories, which he proposes as a key to offering his vision of the world and of life, permeated by incursions of Jewish and psychoanalytic faith.

Also passionate about literature and philosophy, we can say of Allen that his 86 years are made of art, but also of a turbulent and discussed private life, shaken by the end of his second marriage, the one with Mia Farrow, due to the blossoming love. with Soon Yi, their adopted daughter, and the sexual assault allegations.

It was precisely these accusations that unleashed against him the #MeToo movement (the one promoted by celebrities who are victims of sexual harassment) and many actors, and caused the choice of Amazon Studios not to honor a contract with him that, despite everything, continues to make film "not to get old", according to his words.

In fact, a new screenplay is already ready “to be made in Paris”, as he declared during the presentation of his latest film, 'Rifkin's Festival', released in 2021.

In Paris?

Yes. One of the director's three favorite cities, formerly the setting for 'Midnight in Paris', 2011, because "I love the city, I don't like the countryside. Outside New York there are only two cities in the world where I feel at home. : one is Venice, the other is Paris ”.

And then: try again Woody.