Eagerly anticipating this week ... (14-24)

Eagerly anticipating this week ... (14-24)
Ali Abassi's The Apprentice (2024)

2/13/2015

Celebrity (1998) or, Stars in New York



One simple poster for Woody Allen's Celebrity


QUICK REVIEW:

A travel journalist in New York leaves his wife through many years to explore. He subsequently looses his script for a novel and meets with different perplexing developments in his life. Meanwhile, his ex-wife changes her line of business quite happily.

It is certain that Celebrity is not among its master filmmaker Woody Allen's (Broadway Danny Rose (1984)) best films, but it isn't among his worst either. It has enough qualities to still be termed a good film in my opinion. But first the detracting elements:
Despite its master cinematographer Sven Nykvist (Persona (1966)), whose 4th and last collaboration with Allen this was, the visual side of Celebrity, which is shot in B/W, isn't completely satisfying, (among other things it has one truly horrible zoom.) The plot is a little scattershot, and the ceaseless parade of celebrities (Donald Trump, for instance) gives the film a smack of New York-centered show-off from Allen's then well-earned place as the city's King Kong of cinema.
But the lines and scenes of his script are again damned well-written, and Judy Davis (Barton Fink (1991)), Kenneth Branagh (Hamlet (1996)), Leonardo DiCaprio (Titanic (1997)) and Charlize Theron (In the Valley of Elah (2007)) are all excellent. Celebrity is a romantic dramedy that takes a fine look at celebrity, love and life, with some welcome humor.

Related reviews:

Woody Allen:  2014 in films - according to Film Excess
Magic in the Moonlight (2014) - Allen's irresistible French Riviera romance
2013 in films - according to Film Excess [UPDATED I] 
Fading Gigolo (2013) - Turturro's pleasant turn as a high-end NY prostitute  (as actor)
Blue Jasmine (2013) - Allen presents Blanchett, a woman under the influence
To Rome with Love (2012) - Woody Allen's slightest film to date   
Cassandra's Dream (2007) - Allen's well-laid but inconsequentiel English cul-de-sac  
Anything Else (2003) - Perfect contemporary relationship comedy  

The Curse of the Jade Scorpion (2001) - Allen's hypnotic, noirish shenanigans 

1998 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess  

Broadyway Danny Rose (1984) or, Keep Your Heart   
Annie Hall (1977) or, My Relationship with Alvie Singer   
Bananas (1971) - Woody Allen's South American misadventure is still a barrel of laughs   
Casino Royale (1967) - The packed spy spoof frontrunner, a film very much of its time (as actor)






Instead of a trailer for the film, which was only available in French, here is Allen, talking about his personal experience of celebrity

Cost: 12 mil. $
Box office: 5 mil. $ (US only)
= Big flop
[Celebrity didn't spin gold internationally, either. Audiences weren't, like critics, wooed much by the look of Allen's film, (B/W might also have kept many from it), and the theme of celebrity is one that he has arguably tackled better before as in Stardust Memories (1980). Celebrity was, however, a minor hit once it arrived in Spain (for some reason) five years (!) after the US release, where it made 2.5 mil. € in 2005.]

What do you think of Celebrity?

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Eagerly anticipating this week ... (13-24)

Eagerly anticipating this week ... (13-24)
Jason Reitman's Saturday Night (2024)