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• Sunday, February 12, 2006 09:43 PM

  The Ten Year Peak

  John Cleese once said that all artists have about a ten year period of peak creativity which is followed by gradual or sudden decline. A look at the comedians of old bears this out: The Marx Bros between 1930 and 1937 created "Duck Soup", "Horse Feathers ", "A Night at the Opera", and "A Day at the Races". This was followed by inferior product like the "Big Store" and "Go West". Chaplin between 1925 and 1936 made "the Gold Rush", "The Circus", "City Lights", and "Modern Times" followed by notable failures "the Great Dictator" and "Monseiur Verdoux". That brings us to Woody Allen the only truly great comedian mentioned in the article.Steve Martin and Albert Brooks are minor talents in comparison. Between 1969 and 1979 Allen made his best films: "Sleeper", "Love and Death", "Annie Hall" , and perhaps his greatest "Manhatten". He certainly hasn't made anything close to as good as "Manhatten" and lately seems to be just be going through the motions. I haven't seen "Match Point" but like most of Allen's current product it gets good to great reviews usally along the lines of "his best work in years", or "Woody's back!" , this is followed by general apathy at the box office and then obscurity until the next Allen release.

  —Ronaldino
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