If he keeps making them like “Midnight in Paris” and “Vicky Christina Barcelona,” I hope Woody’s European tour goes on for a long, long time.
So let’s see, that leaves Venice, Lisbon . . .
^ Practically, all the glamorous, “exotic” European cities Matt….I wonder how come Allen ended up being so conservative instead being a progressive intellectualy. Such a pity…
Indeed, Dimitris, although I’m quite surprised he’s not planning a film in Berlin instead (or is he already doing one?). I always get the vibe that Berlin is recently for many THE capital of cool (and liberals) while Munich is the rich and the conservative, the typical of the capitalist’s south, for sure quite cultivated in the common European sense but not really that exotic.
Or it’s simply him quite liking the applause they gave him in his jazz concert here last year and being polite in returns :).
At the rate he’s going he’ll be making films in Oslo, Vilnius, and Zagreb soon! Anyone for a Woody Allen lark in the beautiful pockmarked buildings of Sarajevo?
I can’t wait for woody to make his films in russia, africa and japan.
I don’t think Munich is as square as its reputation, boring sometimes but out there in the suburbs most of the houses have swimming pools in their gardens. There’s also all these small towns that surround it with these small rivers running through them. The bridges are cut into the rock faces in a way that there are stone gorges and deep precipices as a result. That’s where you would find all the good ice cream shops. You could go further out into the Alps too.
Berlin’s already been used in a lot of films from Wiemer period through to renunification. If Woody went there now he would probably have to sit in cube shaped nightclubs with high tech soundsystems or basements with men dressed in leather or stare at graffiti and homeless people.
A recent example is Berlin Calling.
It is the same with Venice, he is already doing Rome so there is not much advantage to doing a film there. Would like to see him do Tokyo. Africa is a possibility but why wouldn’t he just go somewhere out there in the Punjab instead.
“At the rate he’s going he’ll be making films in Oslo, Vilnius, and Zagreb soon! Anyone for a Woody Allen lark in the beautiful pockmarked buildings of Sarajevo?”
Athens is more exotic than Zagreb and Sarajevo Wise guy, you are aware that Balkans aren’t the Yugoslav countries and only???
“I always get the vibe that Berlin is recently for many THE capital of cool (and liberals)”
That was in th 70’s, nowadays, it becomes the sophisticated “melancholy” of the Germans, Allen might pick Berlin if he likes the more exotic Munich and more Hollywood-friendly to be honest town.
By the way, Russia and Japan are countries, Africa is a continent, you probably meant to say Egypt or South Africa?
as long at it does not star christoph waltz, I am interested.
This thread will turn into a Eurovision song contest if we’re not careful here. Doesn’t really matter where you decide shoot it, you need to a have the story first, if you do not have a story you will not have a film.
“I wonder how come Allen ended up being so conservative instead being a progressive intellectualy. Such a pity…”
Ah, well we just had a discussion of Woody as “intellectual” but his aesthetic politics have always been fairly conservative and reactionary. Just take his views of post-big band/dixieland popular music.
“Doesn’t really matter where you decide shoot it, you need to a have the story first, if you do not have a story you will not have a film.”
I thought Woody has recently been doing the reverse based on what country gives him money to make his films…. Pick a city and then choose the script.
What’s wrong with Christoph Waltz, Den? I hope he becomes Woody’s next surrogate. if he does film in Germany, I bet either Bruno Ganz, Franka Potente, and/or Maximilien Schell will all have roles.
“I thought Woody has recently been doing the reverse based on what country gives him money to make his films…. Pick a city and then choose the script.”
Yes, I agree with this. He’s doing gigs wherever he can get a date with whoever wants to sit in. Since leaving NYC (as a filmmaker) he seems to have generally loosened up his approach quite a bit so that, in a lot of ways, he’s less aligned with Bergman and Fellini and Lubitsch as models and has become something of a expat version of late Eastwood.
He’s sort of already done Athens with the bits of Mighty Aphrodite that were shot on location. And Moscow with Love and Death, though I think the whole production was actually in Eastern Europe somewhere.
Love and Death was shot in Paris and Budapest.
“He’s sort of already done Athens with the bits of Mighty Aphrodite that were shot on location.”
Are you nuts? From Wikipedia about Mighty Aphrodite’s locations:
“Manhattan locations include Bowling Green, Central Park, and FAO Schwarz. Additional exteriors were filmed in North Tarrytown and Quogue. The Greek chorus scenes were filmed in the Teatro Greco in Taormina on the island of Sicily.”
Technically, he wanted to be inspired by ancient comedies / tragedies but that wasn’t very successful anyways. Whatever the case may be, our stupid government rejected to offer him the Acropolis in Athens for his film purposes, so of course he’d follow other means of resolution.
Moreover, as with Matt’s indications about where Love and Death was shot, it’s one thing to shoot a story in locations related to it and another to actually set your location as an integral part of your OWN story, just like with Spain, England and France (and probably Germany too)
Speaking of Italy, I hear that his upcoming film might be set there based on Boccaccio’s Decameron….damn you Woody, you just don’t have any ideas anymore…
“Whatever the case may be, our stupid government rejected to offer him the Acropolis in Athens for his film purposes,”
yeah, how is it that the government allowed Vardalos to shoot her modestly budgeted piece of shit film around the Acropolis but not others? Because they thought it would be good for tourism perhaps, even though the film is loaded with crude stereotypes? haha.
I’d like to see more adventurous films shot in Athens. Most of the ones i’ve seen make the city look boring. in fact, i’d say that very few Greek film makers have captured the buzz of the city on film in the modern age.
It’s nowhere near the most attractive capital in first world Europe, but it has a character all of its own, and is no longer the ugly duckling of Europe like it was 15 years ago.
I dont give an eff about first world and second world Europes (what does that mean anyway Joks, that Athens is and Tirana isn’t?), I just want to see a bolder and less confined Allen, who he seems to be following the typicalities of other filmmakers for the past oh, 100 years (?) fiming and exploring the same cities over and over, in a sort of European hegemony!
Adventurous films DO exist in Athens (for what it’s worth), you just have to search more and be less demanding! (no need to hijack this thread, hehe), since adventurous as a word is in the eye of the beholder ;) I’ve seen a lot of of cities like New York and Paris in many films which looked more boring than exciting (evne on the great films), so it’s all relative once again…
^^Dim, you didn’t answer my question about Vardalos. was it just a question of money there?
That was completely disgraceful.
^ Yes it was. As it so happens with most of our islands too.
Speaking of islands, how did Malta escape from Woody’s insight???
“II always get the vibe that Berlin is recently for many THE capital of cool (and liberals) while Munich is the rich and the conservative”
An artist i met years ago lived in Berlin between 2003-2006 and he said the feeling he got there, as a creative individual, was that ‘anything is possible’, which is the exact opposite to the vibe he picked up on in cities like Paris or London.
Berlin is reknowned for having a great arts scene nowadays.
Woody has said there will be no cows or mountains in his movie and he only wants the city.
Paris is too much overrated for me anyway, you wouldn’t go to Cardiff and then have an opinion about Wales. I would rather head further south, swim in lakes and drink cheaper wine.
.
With his new comedy “Midnight in Paris” opening in German cinemas August 18, Allen told weekly news magazine Focus about how he was eyeing the Bavarian city as potential film location.
“I’m thinking very seriously about a project there,” Allen told the magazine.
After a recent bevy of European films, the 75-year-old New Yorker said he was impressed by Bavaria’s capital: “Munich is a wonderful city, very cultivated and sophisticated. The food is good, the beer is good — I’d love to spend a few months there for a film shoot.”
Although Allen is famous for his Big Apple oeuvre, he is currently filming in Rome after using London, Barcelona and Paris as backdrops for his movies.
http://www.thelocal.de/society/20110812-36921.html
This could be good? I spent a few weeks living in Munich with a wonderful family and came to the conclusion that the reason they have good beer is to wash down all the pretzels, bread, processed cheese and ham. A nice place but would turn your digestion system inside out in a matter of days.
They also have these very rich sausages that do no cook well on BBQs. I kept telling them it’s not cooked yet, the sausage is still white! But continued to eat them anyway.
Oh and Claudia if you are out there somewhere….