Tribeca Florence, the first edition of the film festival, born from the collaboration between Tribeca Enterprises and the prestigious Tuscan Sun Festival (see on purpose the post Tribeca Enterprise Movies from Manhattan to Florence on the blog of Tuscany Holiday Rent) schedules for tomorrow, June the 13th 2012, a biopic on Woody Allen, that is an official biography of the mythical author of Manhattan, Annie Hall and many other comedies.
“Woody Allen: a documentary” is the impressive work by the director Robert Weide, who followed for over a year and a half the legendary character, known to be very reserved, to shoot his film. The career of Allen is told through movies, jokes, personal stories, ranging from the most various performances as filmaker, writer, comedian and musician. Such a stunning character could not be but controversial. The Italian film director Carlo Verdone is extremely critical towards the American colleague’s last work “To Rome with love” shot in Rome last summer with star actors such as Roberto Benigni and Penelope Cruz. On the other side mythical figures such as Sean Penn, Martin Scorzese, Scarlett Johansson and Diane Keaton tell comprehensive life stories underlining his most peculiar intimate features such as tenderness, wonder, humor and passion.
Charles Joffe, the talent scout who immediately with the other manager Jack H Rollins, recognized, in the sixties, the potentialities of this bizarre guy likes indulging in an amusing story about the beginning of Woody’s career. He was so shy that once on the stage of the Bitter End, a trendy hub of folksingers and hipsters of the Village, Woody tied his necktie so tightly that the public was afraid he was going to choking himself. Weide is quite skillful in telling Allen’s life’s details people hardly know. On one side he digs into his childhood to discover a six year old boy who starts at questioning himself about the great issues of life or bring forth his difficult school relationships because of his extremely embarassing shyness. On the other, the director is able to change into a story the autobiography of Allen since the first unstable steps into his career. We are thus shown the now well- established icon in his first hardly successful writings for papers like New Yorker and New York Times or his disastrous performances at the fashionable Manhattan uptown club Blue Angel and at the Kaufmann Concert hall with the trio of Bill Evans, the most influential post world war II jazz pianist. Weide’s declaration of love continues up to Woody’ finally acclaimed triumphs.
Don’t miss the distinctive pleasure in hunting down a biography which is worth getting to explore, on June 13 at 22.45 at the majestic Odeon Cinema, home of the Tribeca Florence, in the original English with Italian subtitles.
