Every dog has its day

Blue Jasmine (2013)
Story & Direction: Woody Allen

We were just discussing the other day whether a person's work should be assessed by his work alone. Quite often than not, personal actions, inactions, mistakes and crimes are used with vile against their ingenious work of art. Just because of Hitler's nefarious acts, are we going to downplay his picturesque painting of Vienna? How about his push for advancement in German technology? Then there is Roman Polanski with the cast of black cloud overshadowing his deeds. What about all the prodigies, geniuses and the insane who are a separated alone by a fine line who had behaviours clashing with norms of society?
Woody Allen, often frowned upon by the world at large for the alleged misconduct with his step daughter, has come up yet with another winner. It has all the trademarks of Allen's typical brand of comedy.
Cate Blanchett, gives a Oscar deserved performance of downtrodden wife of a crooked businessman in verge of mental breakdown.
She flies in from New York to crash into her sister's life in San Francisco.

VW - Hitler's pride of joy
(Volkswagen - folk's wagon)

Jasmine's (Cate Blanchett) story is told in flashbacks as the story progresses. Jasmine and her husband (Alec Baldwin) lived amongst the uppity society with their ill gotten gains through creative accounting and manipulative Ponski scheme. They used to look down their low brow sister and her then husband when they visited New Year. They (actually Jasmine claims ignorance over the whole scheme) also used their money to invest in failures.
After discovering of husband's extramarital affairs, Jasmine snitched all of her husband's business to the FBI. The Government and lawyers took all their money, made them paupers and put her husband in jail who eventually killed himself. Her young adult son left university to be on his own.
The mentally stressed Jasmine tries to pick up the pieces and start life anew in San Francisco. Life is not easy for her as she has to endure the wrath of Ginger's ex-husband, her new boyfriend, advances of her new boss, her desperation to live the high life and her willingness to bluff herself all the way through to charm a wealthy suitor.
An entertaining flick with lots of emotion with a twang of comedy infused in it.

Life made complicated

This 1977 Woody Allen film is the typical story in typical Woody Allen style of a typical insecure nervous guy Alvy Singer @ Max (Woody Allen), a comedian, monologuing about his frustrating life and his break-up with his girlfriend, Annie Hall.
He starts talking about his childhood life living under a roller coaster and his perennially squabbling parents and his weird Jewish relatives.

 Max, after 2 failed marriages, try to make it with a struggling singer, Annie (Diane Keaton). The two are equally pathologically pessimistic on everything. They find a psychoanalytical explanation to their every dissatisfaction. Even I would get irritated with his constant each others' squealing and whining if I were in their shoes.
He makes everything look complicated and so does she.
After living together for some time in New York, he manages to give her confidence to sing and jump start her flogging singing career. Then they got bored with each other. After some soul searching in California, they go separate ways.
She then lives in with a guy in California but that also did not work out after some time. Life goes on.
Max stages his first play based on his life story.
Max and Annie bump into each other one day. They had coffee and some casual talk, and head on separate ways, both happy with such an arrangement.
I remember watching Woody Allen long ago in RRF as the disgruntled insecure loser narrating his life failures and since he has made many such depressing movies. In a way, he is just laughing at the modern life style. I guess, in real life too, he must be weird - with the same spectacle frame over the years and the inappropriate behaviour with his step daughter!

The golden era is now!

Midnight in Paris 2011

40 over years after Shammi Kapoor gyrated to the world through his signature dance moves in 'Evening in Paris', Woody Allen's handiwork of 'Midnight in Paris' made it to the Oscars.

'Midnight in Paris' is a typical Woody Allen movie with a rather timid male character trying make sense of life and is bullied upon to do things, like getting married, where to stay after marriage and take ridicules from the soon to be in-laws. Owen Wilson (Gil Pender), a dreamy screenwriter who is trying to write a novel and is hoping to hit it big. He is in Paris to gain inspiration for his writing just like the great writers did in the 20s. Writers always felt that Paris on the 20s was the place to be to churn out the creativity charms of a person. He secretly wished that he was living in that era.

His fiancé meets up with a friend (a Mr Know-It-All) and his partner but Gil feels out of place as he is belittled more than once. Whilst walking back to his hotel, he gets lost. After the stroke of midnight, he is picked up by a group of reveling party goers in an old Peugeot. He is transported back in time to a time he loves to be- Paris in the 1920s! And he meets up with great writers like Ernest Hemingway, Scott Fitzgerald, Salvador Dali, poet T.S. Elliot, painters Pablo Picasso and Matisse. Gil yo-yos from the past to the future as and when he felt like it by waiting at a designated point at midnight. He even gets his manuscript to be read by a great writer.

He hooks up with Adriana, Picasso's girlfriend who is a kind of confused girl with confusedly promiscuous  people around her. We really get to appreciate many of the songs of the 20s like "Let's Do It, Let's Fall in Love" by Cole Porter which sounds freshly cheeky!
During their last outing, Gil and Adriana discover that they had moved to  the 1890s where they meet other artists who worship the time before their time, the Renaissance, just as much as Adriana adores artists before her time! Now our hero realises that he should be happy with the present and do the best with what he has.
He stays back in Paris (at present time), breaks up with his fiancé and find common things with a French girl named Gabrielle who enjoys same things like he does like walking in the Parisian rain.......

It is a typical Woody Allen movie with Woody Allen type of a hero in Owen Wilson. I simply had that deja vu feeling that the story was predictable - Man about to be married, rediscovers himself, uncertain whether he should take the plunge but turns cold feet, makes his stand and everybody is happy! Too many times.....