A Jew in His Movies

By Abe Fried-Tanzer
KOC Assistant Editor
New York University

Woody Allen has been making films since the 1960s, and his latest, "Whatever Works," marks his fortieth directorial effort. Allen is very distinguishably a Jewish character, and he presents his own take on Judaism in his films. While his perception isn't always an endearingly positive one, his films are one way that Jewish characters, and not simply Jewish actors, have managed to feature prominently on the screen over the years. His neurotic characters and endless quips become the stuff of classic cinema.

Woody Allen's most memorable Jewish character is portrayed by the director himself in his Oscar-winning "Annie Hall." Allen's comedian, Alvy Singer, was an intensely neurotic New Yorker, who described his childhood in Brooklyn as literally having grown up under a rollercoaster. Alvy analyzed every situation he encountered, and very often his religion caused him aggravation. When someone asked him, "No, did you," he interpreted the question as "No, Jew?" Alvy also sits at his girlfriend's dinner table, and sees himself through the eyes of her relatives, decked out in Hassidic garb and looking quite uncomfortable. Alvy's Jewishness was done for comedy, but after all, that's what Woody Allen does best.

A later film of his, however, uses Allen's religion to tackle more serious issues. In his 1989 film "Crimes and Misdemeanors," Martin Landau's Judah Rosenthal (the name offers a clue) is being torn apart by guilt over an action he endorsed, and flashes back to his childhood memories of a Passover seder. He uses the rabbinic-like figures in his family to question his morals, and debate whether what he did was really right. It's a fascinating look at how Judaism affects an extremely secular Jew, and how his childhood religious experiences still stuck with him despite a distancing from orthodoxy throughout his life.

Allen's recent films have strayed away both from his religion and from New York. Allen rarely appears in the movies anymore ("Scoop" being the exception in the past five years), and his films have taken place in London and Barcelona. His latest film, "Whatever Works," is a return to New York and to a Jewish character, Boris Yellnikoff, played this time by Larry David, who, despite his more abrasive nature, bears more than a passing resemblance to Allen. Boris never quite acknowledges his religion, but his Allen-like viewpoints and fondness for knishes give it away. Allen has moved on to a new part of his career, where he's desperate to reinvent himself because his old shtick just isn't quite working as much anymore, but is he abandoning his roots? Allen Konigsberg, as he was born, has been a crucial part of the development of comedy films over the past forty years. The marvelous part is that, even if he's not presenting overtly religious Jewish characters, he's always injecting aspects of the Jewish culture with which he grew up into his characters and films. His creations may travel outside Jewish New York, but it's unlikely they'll completely lose their distinctly Jewish Woody Allen signature.

[Posted 7/21/09]