Customer Reviews

The Films of Woody Allen (Cambridge Film Classics)

5 star:		(1)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

I expected an intelligent and interesting interpretation of Allen's major movies, but I got some highbrow gibberish instead. The author starts by talking about Allen's life (a short overview would in my opinion be enough) and then goes on to "interpret" his movies. In the first place, he quotes too much and commentates the statements that other critics have given about Allen's movies (he obviously lacks fresh and original ideas)... To make a long story short, it's an extremely boring book about an extremely funny and amusing subject.

Sam Girgus sounds like a college professor trying to impress some freshmen students. He has no idea how to make a interesting subject interesting to read about. Don't waste your money on this garbage.

The other reviewers have pointed out the obvious. This is a book steeped in monstrously convoluted post-modernist analysis. But the simple truth is that it's hard to take any book seriously that starts out with a bald mistake. Girgus says that "Play It Again, Sam" starts out in a New York cinema - when the whole film takes place in San Francisco, with shots of the Golden Gate, an apartment on Telegraph Hill, a cancelled dinner in Sausalito, and a weekend at Point Reyes. Girgus, of course, is from New York . . . sigh.

It got here very fast (concerning that it came from USA to Brasil) and the book is in a very good state.