
Woody Allen
A Travesty of a Mockery of a Sham
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Narrated by:
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Seth Lews
About this listen
Woody Allen was once made a knight commander by France, but he didn’t know because the paperwork got lost in the mail.
A decade later, he found out about the award by reading about it in the New York Times.
Across nearly nine eventful decades, Allen’s life has been full of surprises. Writing jokes got him a gig as the youngest writer of Sid Caesar’s television dream team. As a rising comic, he boxed a kangaroo on TV. He made a blank-check deal with a major studio for terms unmatched in Hollywood apart from early titans like Chaplin and Welles. All before Annie Hall.
Yet despite once being one of the most consequential American cultural figures, Allen is now persona non grata. In this judicious biography, acclaimed biographer Patrick McGilligan charts the meteoric rise and fall of the comedian whose nonconformity proved both his secret genius and Achilles’ heel.
Drawing on meticulous research, McGilligan reconstructs Allen’s Brooklyn boyhood, his salad days as a television comedy writer, his rise to stand-up, and the thoughtful, award-winning filmmaking of his golden years in the 1970s and ’80s. His messy relationships with wives and girlfriends, including Annie Hall costar Diane Keaton, were essential to his artistic development and undoing. Yet no one could have predicted his tumultuous personal and professional relationship with actress Mia Farrow, his alleged abuse of their adopted daughter Dylan, and his subsequent marriage to Mia’s daughter Soon-Yi Previn.
In this comprehensive, sweeping, and rigorous account of Allen’s life and career, McGilligan astutely reveals the writer’s writer beyond the smoke and controversy, and paints a compelling portrait of the most creative, productive, and influential filmmaker of his time.
Supplemental enhancement PDF accompanies the audiobook.
PLEASE NOTE: When you purchase this title, the accompanying PDF will be available in your Audible Library along with the audio.
©2023 Patrick Mcgilligan (P)2023 HarperCollins PublishersListeners also enjoyed...
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Lives of two Hollywood Giants
- By rumdok on 03-08-25
By: Kenneth Turan
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Easy Riders, Raging Bulls
- How the Sex-Drugs-and-Rock 'N' Roll Generation Saved Hollywood
- By: Peter Biskind
- Narrated by: Dick Hill
- Length: 23 hrs and 41 mins
- Unabridged
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Easy Rider, Raging Bulls follows the wild ride that was Hollywood in the 70s - an unabashed celebration of sex, drugs, and rock 'n' roll (both on screen and off) and a climate where innovation and experimentation reigned supreme.
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Great Dish, Sketchy Analysis
- By Dubi on 12-14-13
By: Peter Biskind
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Woody
- The Biography
- By: David Evanier
- Narrated by: Aaron Abano
- Length: 15 hrs and 59 mins
- Unabridged
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In this first biography of Woody Allen in over a decade, David Evanier discusses key movies, plays, and prose as well as Allen's personal life. Evanier tackles the themes that Allen has spent a lifetime sorting through in art: morality, sexuality, Judaism, the eternal struggle of head and heart. Woody will be the definitive word on a major American talent as he begins his ninth decade and his sixth decade of making movies.
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For Woody fans
- By Frank Markow on 06-21-16
By: David Evanier
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It Seemed Like a Bad Idea at the Time
- The Worst TV Shows in History and Other Things I Wrote
- By: Bruce Vilanch
- Narrated by: Bruce Vilanch
- Length: 5 hrs and 36 mins
- Unabridged
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Bruce Vilanch is known as a go-to comedy writer for award shows, sitcoms, and top-heavy variety specials, but he has also been responsible for quite a few of the worst shows ever put on television—legendarily bad productions. It Seemed Like a Bad Idea at the Time is a lifetime reflection of what Vilanch has experienced, learned, forgotten, dismissed, and embraced in decades of working in show business
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For show biz lovers
- By Sarasota on 03-07-25
By: Bruce Vilanch
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Jim Henson
- The Biography
- By: Brian Jay Jones
- Narrated by: Kirby Heyborne
- Length: 21 hrs and 18 mins
- Unabridged
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He was a gentle dreamer whose genial bearded visage was recognized around the world, but most people got to know him only through the iconic characters born of his fertile imagination: Kermit the Frog, Bert and Ernie, Miss Piggy, Big Bird. The Muppets made Jim Henson a household name, but they were just part of his remarkable story.
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Dramatically complete
- By T on 10-01-13
By: Brian Jay Jones
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Down and Dirty Pictures
- Miramax, Sundance and the Rise of Independent Film
- By: Peter Biskind
- Narrated by: Phil Gigante
- Length: 23 hrs and 30 mins
- Unabridged
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Down and Dirty Pictures chronicles the rise of independent filmmakers and of the twin engines - the Sundance Film Festival and Miramax Films - that have powered them. Peter Biskind profiles the people who took the independent movement from obscurity to the Oscars, most notably Sundance founder Robert Redford and Harvey Weinstein, who with his brother, Bob, made Miramax an indie powerhouse.
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For the independent film lover!
- By natalie on 08-26-14
By: Peter Biskind
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Kubrick
- An Odyssey
- By: Robert P. Kolker, Nathan Abrams
- Narrated by: Perry Daniels
- Length: 24 hrs and 33 mins
- Unabridged
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The enigmatic and elusive filmmaker Stanley Kubrick has not been treated to a full-length biography in over twenty years. Stanley Kubrick: An Odyssey fills that gap. This definitive book is based on access to the latest research, especially Kubrick's archive at the University of the Arts, London, as well as other private papers plus new interviews with family members and those who worked with him. It offers comprehensive and in-depth coverage of Kubrick's personal, private, public, and working life.
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A stellar biography for Kubrick lovers
- By Daniel on 09-10-24
By: Robert P. Kolker, and others
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The Big Goodbye
- Chinatown and the Last Years of Hollywood
- By: Sam Wasson
- Narrated by: Sam Wasson
- Length: 11 hrs and 43 mins
- Unabridged
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Chinatown is the Holy Grail of 1970s cinema. Its twist ending is the most notorious in American film and its closing line of dialogue the most haunting. Here for the first time is the incredible true story of its making. In Sam Wasson's telling, it becomes the defining story of the most colorful characters in the most colorful period of Hollywood history. Here is Jack Nicholson at the height of his powers, as compelling a movie star as there has ever been, embarking on his great, doomed love affair with Anjelica Huston.
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This book is cursed
- By Dobbs on 04-13-20
By: Sam Wasson
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This Was Hollywood: Forgotten Stars and Stories
- Turner Classic Movies
- By: Carla Valderrama
- Narrated by: Carla Valderrama
- Length: 7 hrs and 3 mins
- Unabridged
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From former screen legends who have faded into obscurity to new revelations about the biggest movie stars, Valderrama unearths the most fascinating little-known tales from the birth of Hollywood through its Golden Age. The shocking fate of the world's first movie star. Clark Gable's secret love child. The film that nearly ended Paul Newman's career. A former child star who, at 93, reveals her #metoo story for the first time. Valderrama unfolds these stories, and many more, in a volume that is by turns riveting, maddening, hilarious, and shocking.
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Hollywood Fun
- By Ernie D. Casciato on 01-06-21
By: Carla Valderrama
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Adventures in the Screen Trade
- By: William Goldman
- Narrated by: Kiff VandenHeuvel
- Length: 13 hrs and 39 mins
- Unabridged
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No one knows the writer's Hollywood more intimately than William Goldman. Two-time Academy Award-winning screenwriter and the best-selling author of Marathon Man, Tinsel, Boys and Girls Together, and other novels, Goldman now takes you into Hollywood's inner sanctums...on and behind the scenes for Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, All the President's Men, and other films...into the plush offices of Hollywood producers...into the working lives of acting greats such as Redford, Olivier, Newman, and Hoffman...and more.
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Classic in the field stands up
- By Jenny Jenkins on 01-01-24
By: William Goldman
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Mere Anarchy
- By: Woody Allen
- Narrated by: Woody Allen
- Length: 3 hrs and 22 mins
- Unabridged
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For the first time ever, hear Woody Allen’s Mere Anarchy in the author’s own distinctive and hilarious voice. Here, in his first short-story collection since his three classics Getting Even, Without Feathers, and Side Effects, Allen has managed to write a book that answers the most profound questions of human existence.
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What can I say…?
- By Diane on 07-03-12
By: Woody Allen
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Box Office Poison
- Hollywood's Story in a Century of Flops
- By: Tim Robey
- Narrated by: Tim Robey
- Length: 8 hrs and 57 mins
- Unabridged
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From grand follies to misunderstood masterpieces, disastrous sequels to catastrophic literary adaptations, Box Office Poison tells a hugely entertaining alternative history of Hollywood, through a century of its most notable flops. What can these films tell us about the Hollywood system, the public’s appetite–or lack of it–and the circumstances that saw such flops actually made? Away from the canon, this is the definitive take on these ill-fated, but essential celluloid failures.
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Boring and dull
- By Tech Guy on 05-29-25
By: Tim Robey
As for the balance of the book, it's informative with backstage and administrative goings on, if a bit repetitive in reciting plots to the successive films (those who buy this book will probably already know the stories, so it just serves as filler). It's written in a strictly chronological style, which is to say, preparations and casting of the next film are often detailed prior to the debut and release of (and subsequent reactions to) the prior film, which can lead to a few misunderstandings as to which actor did what when for which film. And I'm not sure why the narrator (who did better with most pronunciation later in the book, affected a half hearted Woody-ish voice when reading quotes. Not strong enough to be genuinely critiqued, but enough to wonder why he did it!
In the end, the book is a fair, comprehensive view of a genius comedian and filmmaker and a genuinely weird (in any way one wishes to define it) human being. He certainly portrays some cringeworthy moments in his films, particularly regarding young women. But he's also unquestionably one of the preeminent filmmakers to showcase women in a diverse range of roles, powerful, vulnerable, quirky and complex. Diane Keaton and Mia Farrow absolutely shine in his films. Cate Blanchett has a strong filmography, but Blue Jasmine features her in a way that would be virtually unimaginable from any other filmmaker. I certainly hope that reason will be restored, and that, along with his comedic genius, will be his legacy.
+First Impressions+ (original review below)
I felt the need to write an intermediate review to share my thoughts thus far.
First, full disclosure, I regard Woody Allen as the preeminent comedic filmmaker of the latter half of the 20th century, bar none. Not even Mel Brooks or the Pythons, whom I love, match him. That stated, a few impressions...
It's a bit concerning that I am only 4 chapters in (about a quarter of the way through the book, Allen is just making What's Up Tiger Lily and Casino Royale, not yet to Take the Money and Run.), and I've already heard the name of (previous Allen biographer) Eric Lax referenced (no lie) over a dozen times, as well as Allen's book "Apropos of Nothing", half a dozen times. I understand that a biographer will cover well-trodden ground at times, and citations are necessary, but at a point it becomes a distraction, as the listener wonders why this new book is even needed. (The author lays out the case in the PDF, and I suspect the book will bear sweeter fruit in later chapters.
Which brings up the point of the 'scandal'. I have no sacred cows in the arts, but yet I have no problem separating the art and the artist. I will look at all the information and come to conclusions. Long story short, I believe Moses and the adoptive children, and I don't believe Mia (I won't add Dylan, as she is a victim, in any reading of the case). But I was bit worried with what I feel is the author's mis-characterization of "woke" and "cancel culture". It certainly is unfortunate that his reputation and standing in the film community has suffered over this situation. But it is a mis-application of 'wokeness', in my opinion. I would happily self-identify as woke, as I view it as a recognition of historical social injustice and the desire to remedy its effects. Some take it too far, without a discerning eye. And let's face it, none of the "anti-woke" crowd would have ever bothered to watch a Woody Allen film, much less defend him against baseless allegations. It remains to be heard how the author plays this card, but I continue with trepidation.
Finally, for now, I rarely ever criticize narrators, as it usually is nitpicking. There have been numerous mispronunciations, most of which consist of the usual suspects of calling Deborah Kerr as it's spelled rather than 'Carr' as it is pronounced properly, or mangling "bon mots". But when he referred to the Parisian hotel as "the George V" (yes, pronouncing V, not 'cinq'), I just about had enough. Again, on its own, humorous. But too much, and it becomes a distraction.
Final Impressions (after First Impressions)
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A seriously in depth look at Woody’s Career
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