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A couple of brief hunches-I'm a very average Sunday humourist- about Woody's situation as a paradigm of the rest-after all
he's been in the game since the era of Sid Caesar and blacklisting.
Very acutely described arc of inconsistency, Stephanie-but you don't say much about
the existential gap between the headlines and the business called show -we need a
younger-sisterhood Jane Fonda on the case too - the awareness of the ever-younger movie
punter-here in the UK too
1. Editorial control by people making concessions to the Benny Hill cap on power-broking right-wing
senses of humour-their world view engenders being perpetually amused by the 'little guy' but in a regressed, terrible-twos humourless, humility-free-way they think is folksy.
A percentage of any -eg-Woody audience I've been a part of expects a laugh every 4 minutes
and laughs robotically anyway even when theres a piquant double edge to a quip.
2.The demands of the celebrity circuit ditto plus the difficulty of keeping your
stand-up roots well-oiled when any p.a becomes a big deal for someone.
3.The demands of going behind the camera as well as giving some froissant of your
influence in the script while longing to escape from 1.
4. just growing older and more careworn
5. as Oscar Levant once said discovering the Real Tinsel behind the Fake Tinsel
6. Maybe its a question of balance-as Steph said, LA Story is a masterpiece even in
imitation of Woody ...because its unafraid and not in thrall to its subject, and
has something of a mythic quality about it (like, I think, Broadway Danny Rose or
most Python). Also there's that willingness and ability to simply observe on location, eg Jacques Tati.
Defamiliarisation, eg Woody crossing the pond,is one bold way out of this,and the guy
deserves credit for being insistently self-critical, modest and real.
