Woody Allen: A Biography - Softcover

Lax, Eric

3.74

713 ratings by Goodreads

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0306809850 ISBN 13: 9780306809859

Publisher: Da Capo Press, 2000

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When it first appeared in 1991, Eric Lax's splendid biography, written with nineteen years of access to Woody Allen, was universally hailed as the definitive portrait of a film genius. The next year, as Allen's long relationship with Mia Farrow disintegrated amid scandal, a new phase of his life and work began. For this edition, Lax has written a chapter on the breakup and the personal and professional changes that followed. He chronicles Allen's next eight films, from Shadows and Fog to Small Time Crooks, and again offers Woody's candid opinions of his art and himself. Published to coincide with Allen's sixty-fifth birthday, this updated biography will continue to be "required reading for Woodyphiles" (Kansas City Star).

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Review:

This affectionate biography of Woody Allen is the best account of his life you can buy. Eric Lax, a longtime friend of Allen's, does not recite Allen's story by chronological rote. Instead, he begins in the present day and digresses from it to past events. The result is an anecdotal account that manages to give all the details of Allen's development as an artist and a man while remaining consistently entertaining, enlightening, and funny.

From the Inside Flap:

ies are as instantly recognizable as Woody Allen. Few are as notoriously shy. And perhaps none are as elusive: Is Woody Allen a comedian who wants to be taken seriously? Or is he a serious artist whose films happen to be funny? The very fact that Eric Lax was granted access to Woody for four years in order to research this biography must be counted as a triumph. And what Lax has produced is a marvel of intimacy and insight: a book that traces Allen's career from his precocious start as a gag writer to his apotheosis as a genuine auteur; a book that takes readers behind the scenes of films such as Annie Hall, Hannah and Her Sisters, and Crimes and Misdemeanors; a book that overflows with Woody's candid opinions of his work, his personal relationships, and his life.
From the Trade Paperback edition.

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