Monday 17 August 2015

Magic in the Moonlight (2014 Woody Allen & scr)

One of the director's lighter pieces, involving magic, but also faith and the afterlife. Fabulous he has employed a trio of British in cast comprising Colin Firth, Simon McBurney and Eileen Atkins opposite Emma Stone (Woody's new leading lady), Marcia Gay Harden, Erica Leerhsen, Jeremy Shamos (psychiatrist) and Hamish Linklater (ukulele-playing romeo).

Loved scene in which Firth and Atkins talk of his feelings for Stone, and clever twist in plot, and ending. All richly shot, in widescreen, against Côte d'Azur backgrounds by Darius Khondji.

Typically eclectic soundtrack includes Beethoven's 9th and Cole Porter 'You Do Something To Me'.

Does Soon-Yi read his scripts, we were wondering? She's a most important person, like Audrey Wilder. 'Give it a funny ending, Woody!' ...Maybe not.

Cassandra's Dream screening, Venice Film Festival 2007
" she’s never taken me seriously really. And to this day – you know I just left her now – she sees me as a complainer, a hypochondriac, a kind of idiot savant. She thinks that I’m very good at what I do and absolutely terrible at everything else. And she’s probably not far off. You know, it’s that kind of relationship. She’s not someone who sycophantically supports. You know, people thought when I first married her that, because of this big age difference, I’d married someone who’d idolise me. But that wasn’t the case at all. She hadn’t seen 90% of my movies, and to this day she hasn’t seen 60% of them. She’s just not that interested in them. And she’s a stern critic of my work. She unashamedly hates my clarinet playing. Can’t bear it. Can’t bear my practising. Never comes to a concert. Thinks it’s torture.." Guardian interview 2011.
So, after Joaquin Phoenix in Irrational Man, there's a 30s mob film, shot by Vittorio Storaro, and a six-part TV series for Amazon (writing completed).

Here's the couple on holiday in Orvieto this year. He was directing Puccini's 'Gianni Schicchi' in Madrid, with sets designed by Santo Loquasto.


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