Woody Allen – The Cinema of Neurosis

4-part course with MARY WILD

Woody Allen is a prolific filmmaker; his style ranges from slapstick to dramatic art cinema with dark philosophical undertones, often combining tragic and comic elements. He frequently stars in his films, typically in the anxious, insecure intellectual persona he developed for stand-up in the 1960s. There are few artists who have represented psychoanalytic concepts as consistently as Allen has; he is the premier Freudian director, having spent several decades undergoing analysis. Oedipal fantasies, aggressive impulses, death anxiety, polymorphous perversity, and hypochondria have figured largely in his repertoire.

Since the 1990s, and especially in recent times, Allen’s private life has been a controversial topic in the public discourse. An allegation of child molestation, and marrying his long-term ex-girlfriend’s young adopted daughter, led to a media frenzy and cultural ‘cancellation’. Allen as cause célèbre never fails to provoke impassioned responses, with divergent opinions about his moral integrity. However, his professional output remains objectively important to many cinephiles, and he has made a huge contribution to the popularisation of psychoanalysis in mainstream culture, therefore a dedicated space for interested parties to engage deeply and critically with his content is warranted.

This course presents Woody Allen’s work as the Cinema of Neurosis, featuring motifs such as existential angst, self-sabotage, obsessing over minor details, the compulsion to repeat negative life patterns, and resisting satisfying experiences. Often the neurotic is referred to as “anally retentive”, or comes across as an inhibited figure retreating from life, delaying commitment, doubting the words they use, and fearing punishment. Woody Allen’s most iconic characters are quintessential neurotics, stuck in the ambivalent space between love and death, forever preoccupied with the question: “What is the meaning of life?”

Advance viewing is optional. Film scenes will be shown in the course.

Part 1: 1970s (Jan 7)

Love and Death (1975)

Annie Hall (1977)

Interiors (1978)

Manhattan (1979)

Part 2: 1980s (Jan 14)

The Purple Rose of Cairo (1985)

Hannah and Her Sisters (1986)

Another Woman (1988)

Crimes and Misdemeanors (1989)

Part 3: 1990s (Jan 21)

Husbands and Wives (1992)

Manhattan Murder Mystery (1993)

Deconstructing Harry (1997)

Celebrity (1998)

Part 4: 2000s (Jan 28)

Anything Else (2003)

To Rome With Love (2012)

Wonder Wheel (2017)

A Rainy Day in New York (2019)