Woody Allen will film his next movie in New York, and then promptly return to Europe to do three more pictures in Spain. Everyone knows the pint-sized Jewish auteur was in something of a lull before departing for England to shoot Match Point, Scoop, and Cassandra’s Dream. And he just completed the Vicky Cristina Barcelona, in you guessed it, Spain. But New Yorkers shouldn’t take his so-called boycott too personally. One of the key reasons I would guess he’s plans to shoot another three pictures in Spain after a brief return to New York is all the money the government is giving him. As it were, the Barcelona city government dished out $1.6 million for Allen’s last picture. Of course, they claim it’s a “public investment”–not a government subsidy–but a government subsidy by any other name still smells . . . In defense of Allen though, I must say the conventional wisdom that he did nothing of value between Crimes and Misdemeanors and Match Point is slander. Two of Allen’s great works–or at least best writing–are from the 1990s. I am thinking of Bullets Over Broadway and the Sweet and Lowdown. And though Allen is not typically associated with the conservative movement, there are several gems in his canon for the (precious few) right-leaning souls out there who actually have a sense of humor. Consider the scene in Annie Hall when Allen goes over to his ex-girlfriend’s apartment at 3:00 am to kill a spider.
She hands him a magazine.
This isn’t Allen’s only amusing potshot about conservatives. In Bananas, when he goes to buy a pornographic magazine, National Review is hanging between Hustler and Playboy.
