Letters to the Editor
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any Allen movie.....
No Allen movie deserves any notice. I know I am pissing in the wind but that someone could take naked pictures of his girlfriend's adopted minor daughter and later take her to bed and 'get away with it' is mind boggling to me and an affront to any kind of moral values pretensions we pretend to uphold.
Yes, he is an artist, an intellectual and a satirically funny man.
But, yes, he is an adulterer and worse, a man who took advantage of his position, both as a father figure and as a powerful man in society and money.
My first wife was sexually abused for six long years by her father, from the age of 12, when she trusted, loved and adored her father, until the age of 18...when she had learned to block out her feelings toward him.
So I am more than normally attuned to incest and inappropriate sexual conduct.
Mr. Allen is a piece of dirt.
Jeffrey J. Johns
130 Canterbury St.
Lawrenceburg, KY. 40342
jjj522002@yahoo.com
cell 502-600-2111
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Respond to me, Mr. Allen
I intended to include this comment in my previous comment.
I welcome any response, including from Mr. Allen himself, to my remarks.
I will stand by my remarks, to the end of my life, until someone can persuade me of my mistake.
sincerely, with love, Jeff Johns
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Jeff Johns
I'm not Woody Allen, sorry to disappoint.
Now, I don't approve of the way Allen ended his relationship with Mia Farrow or the way he began one with Soon Yi (and neither does he, according to interviews), but what on Earth makes you think Soon Yi was a minor when he took pictures of her?
According to Wikipedia, she was at least 20 when that happened and there are no sources I know of that put her age below 18.
If you can provide some kind of evidence that she was a minor when she began her relationship with Allen, your outrage would make at least a little sense.
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Come again?
"My first wife was sexually abused for six long years by her father, from the age of 12 ..."
And I'll bet she'll really appreciate your outing her experience on Salon. Never mind that you didn't name her; you signed your own name and posted your address. How long before a mutual acquaintance links you to her?
"So I am more than normally attuned to incest and inappropriate sexual conduct ..."
Does she know you're exploiting her story and using her family tragedy to score points against some celebrity on an easily accessed, popular website? Damn, that's some real sensitivity!
"Mr. Allen is a piece of dirt."
Look in the mirror, kid.
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a soul divided
I both agree with the outraged letter writer and also with the theory that no matter what the artist's values their work should stand alone. For example whether or not Shakespeare was anti semitic his work is still wonderful. Thus, I completely contradict myself, turning from one point to the other, around and around.
It IS outrageous that he is married to his stepdaughter. It breaks the most important taboo on which the safety of children is built - that their parents, and 'parental figures' - won't have sex with them. There's just no getting around it as far as I can see. He has done the most terrible thing imaginable and got away with it. I'm amazed Mia Farrow didn't completely lose her mind. I might have in the same situation.
On the other hand I continue to see his films and did so right from just after 'it' had happened - 'Manhattan Murder Mystery', one of my favourites.
Whatever the consistent position on all this is - which certainly I have never managed to find - I have always found it bizarre that an artist so concerned with morality - the holocaust, adultery, sin and wrongdoing come up again and again in his films - should be so blind when it comes to himself.
I remember his justification at the time in an interview with Time magazine was 'the heart wants what it wants'. I couldn't believe it. Of all the superficial shallow self justifications. Hitler I'm sure felt the same way.
All I can conclude is that Allen is also divided, and in his case with much more serious consequences. I am merely divided in my reaction to the man vs the artist. He is so divided that he doesn't see how his life contradicts the powerful values and concerns his own films are concerned with.
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LauraBB
While everyone, including Mr. Allen, recognizes that he made serious mistakes, let's not pretend that facts don't matter.
"It IS outrageous that he is married to his stepdaughter."
He was never married to Mia Farrow. They never even lived together. And he was never a "father figure" to the children Farrow adopted well before her relationship with Allen began. Soon Yi was an adult when she entered into her relationship with Allen (which has lasted the better part of 15 years and produced two children).
"He has done the most terrible thing imaginable and got away with it."
More terrible than rape? More terrible than murder? Please. Does Soon Yi believe it was the most terrible thing imaginable? Is she not an individual with her own mind, her own feelings? Why assume that she is so weak that she is unable to leave this horrible person?
I agree with the parts of your post on the separation of the artist's work and his/her life.
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Take a deep breath and move on.
Woody and Soon-Yi have been in an adult, consensual relationship for 14 years. They have been married for 9.
People, seriously. Time to get angry about other things now, and discuss his work as an artist.
I have yet to see "Scoop", but Allen caught my interest again with "Match Point" (which I seem to think was far more powerful and devastating than SZ does).
It seems there are so few artists that matter anymore, it would have been a shame to lose Woody forever to the "Anything Else"s in the world. We have plenty of hacks that can take care of that crap, Woody, thanks for steering back into your own dark and funny soul.