Post by petrolino on Jan 13, 2018 2:07:18 GMT
The "crime doesn't pay" parody 'Take The Money And Run' is ostensibly a tell-tale docudrama detailing the life and times of career criminal Virgil Starkwell (Woody Allen). It follows hardened thief Virgil's rise and fall, rise and fall, rise and fall, and rise and fall. The son of a German immigrant, Virgil developed a tendency towards hyperbole and an aversion to truth from an early age, as well as an enduring love of easy money.
'Take The Money And Run' is Woody Allen's second feature film, though it feels like his first original feature. He's assisted by Walter Hill who lends grit to the milieu and has a cast and crew full of gruff New Yorkers on hand. Allen had envisioned Jerry Lewis directing his script but the project came back to him and rest is history ...
There are things I like about 'Take The Money And Run', in many ways a sketch-based read-through for Allen's comic masterpiece 'Annie Hall' (1977). If you ever wondered about the French embrace of Allen's ouvre, look no further than 'Take The Money And Run'. Marvin Hamlisch's soundtrack evokes the subtle melodic poetry of Claude Debussy, Erik Satie and Maurice Ravel during romantic passages, Janet Margolin's impressionable young artist dresses on her first date like a Parisian waif, and Hamlisch counters the sentiment with some Louisiana style jazz refrains (Allen would soon jam with the Preservation Hall Jazz Band when scoring his 1973 sci-fi spectacle 'Sleeper'). It's an auspicious debut proper for Allen whose grasp of the technical side of filmmaking would become as impressive as that of Lewis. Add in tight wordplay and creating writing of the highest order and you have a gag-filled comedy that rarely skips a beat, even if it isn't quite the fully rounded feature that Allen would go on to make annually.
Allen's cineliterate pseudo-documentary draws distinct elements from the prison picture, the heist movie and "lovers on the run" features. Allen also takes aim at courtroom dramas, home invasion thrillers, criminal exposes and the sensationalised biopic. He includes a myriad of theatrical ideas too, ranging from an early filmic flirtation with the 4th wall to a modified Greek chorus. Janet Margolin is terrific as Allen's initial muse and she passes the torch on to Louise Lasser in the closing chapter. Allen had observed significant advancements occurring in French crime cinema when he made 'Take The Money And Run', though its own heart lies within the classic American crime picture. Serio-comic gems like Jean-Luc Godard's 'Pierrot Le Fou' (1965), Alain-Robbe Grillet's 'Trans-Euro-Express' (1966), Georges Lautner's 'Sorrel Flower' (1967) and Michel Audiard's 'Leontine' (1968) were subversive works that blurred lines and the same could be said for 'Take The Money And Run'.
"He was an atheist. I tried to beat God into him but it was, it was too tough."
Woody Allen
'Take The Money And Run' is Woody Allen's second feature film, though it feels like his first original feature. He's assisted by Walter Hill who lends grit to the milieu and has a cast and crew full of gruff New Yorkers on hand. Allen had envisioned Jerry Lewis directing his script but the project came back to him and rest is history ...
"Martin and Lewis, in their free-associational way, were playing out the inner psychodrama of the new American male: the tug-of-war between the sexy, pompadoured cool cat who seemed to have walked right out of the movies, becoming the man American men now wanted to be (Robert Mitchum, Hugh Hefner), and the geeked-out wussy failure they feared in their hearts they were. Lewis, who expressed Jewish anxiety as much as Woody Allen, was a nudnik who emasculated himself before anyone else got the chance. And in the movies, where he played a dozen variations on this character, he took it on a hilariously skewed odyssey — a comic lunge for freedom."
- Owen Gleiberman, Variety
"On working with John Huston, Sam Peckinpah, Norman Jewison & Woody Allen : They were all talented filmmakers; interesting individuals, but as far as learning anything … I think what you learn is everyone makes their own way. As far as creativity goes, I think you get your head to a place where things are discovered, not invented. It’s that Platonic, Keat-ian idea that you don’t really write a poem; it’s already there, and you find it. I think that’s true for the audience as well: they discover what they already know or intuit. And that’s the most ideal relationship between the audience and the storyteller. Now Huston and Peckinpah had very similar outlaw personalities. At the same time, they were wildly disparate fellows; Sam worked in a much narrower—some would say deeper—channel, while Huston had a wider field of interest. I think it was also important that he was a much more omnivorous reader… which isn’t to say he was smarter or more talented, but he possessed a worldview, and sophistication, that went way beyond the very restricted world Sam chose to live in."
- Walter Hill, The Hollywood Interview
- Owen Gleiberman, Variety
"On working with John Huston, Sam Peckinpah, Norman Jewison & Woody Allen : They were all talented filmmakers; interesting individuals, but as far as learning anything … I think what you learn is everyone makes their own way. As far as creativity goes, I think you get your head to a place where things are discovered, not invented. It’s that Platonic, Keat-ian idea that you don’t really write a poem; it’s already there, and you find it. I think that’s true for the audience as well: they discover what they already know or intuit. And that’s the most ideal relationship between the audience and the storyteller. Now Huston and Peckinpah had very similar outlaw personalities. At the same time, they were wildly disparate fellows; Sam worked in a much narrower—some would say deeper—channel, while Huston had a wider field of interest. I think it was also important that he was a much more omnivorous reader… which isn’t to say he was smarter or more talented, but he possessed a worldview, and sophistication, that went way beyond the very restricted world Sam chose to live in."
- Walter Hill, The Hollywood Interview
“There’s not much pleasure in directing. I get up very early and come to the set and stand around all day while the cinematographer spends three hours lighting the set, then I get 30 seconds to do the scene and then we move on and he lights for another three hours and I get another 30 seconds. It’s tedious. I don’t do it in order; just a piece here and a piece there .The pleasure is when I get home and look at all the footage and sit down and put it together and put in the music and make it look like something.”
- Woody Allen, The Telegraph
- Woody Allen, The Telegraph
Woody Allen & Louise Lasser
'L'Hiver Est Mort' - France Gall
There are things I like about 'Take The Money And Run', in many ways a sketch-based read-through for Allen's comic masterpiece 'Annie Hall' (1977). If you ever wondered about the French embrace of Allen's ouvre, look no further than 'Take The Money And Run'. Marvin Hamlisch's soundtrack evokes the subtle melodic poetry of Claude Debussy, Erik Satie and Maurice Ravel during romantic passages, Janet Margolin's impressionable young artist dresses on her first date like a Parisian waif, and Hamlisch counters the sentiment with some Louisiana style jazz refrains (Allen would soon jam with the Preservation Hall Jazz Band when scoring his 1973 sci-fi spectacle 'Sleeper'). It's an auspicious debut proper for Allen whose grasp of the technical side of filmmaking would become as impressive as that of Lewis. Add in tight wordplay and creating writing of the highest order and you have a gag-filled comedy that rarely skips a beat, even if it isn't quite the fully rounded feature that Allen would go on to make annually.
"Legendary talent manager Jack Rollins’ client list played a key role in defining comedy in the last half of the 20th century and beyond. Woody Allen, David Letterman, Robin Williams, Joan Rivers, Billy Crystal, Mike Nichols, Elaine May, Paula Poundstone, Martin Short, Robert Klein — all were on his roster at one point or another. Along the way, Rollins helped create the role of the modern show business manager. “When I went into this business in 1946,” he said in a 1988 Chicago Tribune interview, “there weren’t managers. There was Milton Berle’s mother.”
- David Colker, The Los Angeles Times
"Charles E. Joffe was able to guarantee Allen complete artistic control over his films, including casting and script approval, final cut, advertising and promotion - a very rare deal indeed in Hollywood. As an agent of a stable of comedians such as Billy Crystal, Steve Martin and Mike Nichols and Elaine May, the fast-talking, cigar-chomping Joffe was known as a tough negotiator, causing Robin Williams, one of his clients, to dub him the Beast. In 1985, Joffe got Crystal $25,000 for each appearance on Saturday Night Live."
- Ronald Bergan, The Guardian
- David Colker, The Los Angeles Times
"Charles E. Joffe was able to guarantee Allen complete artistic control over his films, including casting and script approval, final cut, advertising and promotion - a very rare deal indeed in Hollywood. As an agent of a stable of comedians such as Billy Crystal, Steve Martin and Mike Nichols and Elaine May, the fast-talking, cigar-chomping Joffe was known as a tough negotiator, causing Robin Williams, one of his clients, to dub him the Beast. In 1985, Joffe got Crystal $25,000 for each appearance on Saturday Night Live."
- Ronald Bergan, The Guardian
“I love overcast days. I know what [Ingmar] Bergman meant when he went to California and then left because it was too sunny. I could never work permanently in Los Angeles with all that sun. When it’s bright out, I want to hide. If I get up and it’s gray and drizzling, that makes me happy… crazy, I guess. Pauline Kael was over here telling me what she liked and didn’t like about ‘Interiors.’ She didn’t like my preoccupation with death, she said. She goes for robust movies, that strain of American sensibility that’s energy and wisecracking and vitality. I’m more of two minds. Maybe one of the reasons I wanted to make ‘Interiors’ was that I could deal with serious things. It’s tough to deal with serious issues in comedy; all you can do is slap at them. Except for Chaplin’s ‘City Lights,’ of course, which said about all you can say about a certain kind of serious love…”
- Woody Allen speaking with Roger Ebert, The Chicago Sun-Times
- Woody Allen speaking with Roger Ebert, The Chicago Sun-Times
Roy Scheider & Janet Margolin
Allen's cineliterate pseudo-documentary draws distinct elements from the prison picture, the heist movie and "lovers on the run" features. Allen also takes aim at courtroom dramas, home invasion thrillers, criminal exposes and the sensationalised biopic. He includes a myriad of theatrical ideas too, ranging from an early filmic flirtation with the 4th wall to a modified Greek chorus. Janet Margolin is terrific as Allen's initial muse and she passes the torch on to Louise Lasser in the closing chapter. Allen had observed significant advancements occurring in French crime cinema when he made 'Take The Money And Run', though its own heart lies within the classic American crime picture. Serio-comic gems like Jean-Luc Godard's 'Pierrot Le Fou' (1965), Alain-Robbe Grillet's 'Trans-Euro-Express' (1966), Georges Lautner's 'Sorrel Flower' (1967) and Michel Audiard's 'Leontine' (1968) were subversive works that blurred lines and the same could be said for 'Take The Money And Run'.
