The films of Woody Allen - Charles L. P. Silet

From What's Up, Tiger Lily? to Match Point, Woody Allen's work has generated substantial interest among scholars and professionals who have written extensively about the director. In The Films of Woody Allen: Critical Essays, Charles L.P. Silet brings together two-dozen scholarly articles that address the core of Allen's work from a variety of cultural and theoretical perspectives. With a special emphasis on his films of the 1980s, this collection includes both general essays that examine various themes and issues encompassed in Allen's repertoire, as well as discussions that focus on one or two specific films.
General essays explore Allen's Jewish background as a religious and cultural facet, his apparent love affair with New York City, and his relation to various strains of humor_particularly American film humor, but also Allen's broad use of such traditional comic tropes as irony and parody. The essays on individual films include examinations of some of Allen's most significant work including Love and Death, Annie Hall, Interiors, Crimes and Misdemeanors, Hannah and Her Sisters, Manhattan, and Shadows and Fog.
A number of the articles collected here were originally published in now hard to locate places, while others were selected from journals not usually associated with film studies. The result is an anthology of essays that presents an overview of the central issues raised by Allen's body of work as well as a close examination of fourteen individual films that convey these larger themes. A wide-ranging exploration of one of America's most innovative and productive modern directors, this book should appeal to both professionals and students of contemporary film comedy.

Charles L. P. Silet teaches film in the Department of English at Iowa State University. He has published 15 books, including The Films of Steven Spielberg (Scarecrow, 2002).

...these essays are exhilarating because of sharp and loving insights...laugh-out-loud cheerful...The book simply cannot lose....Highly recommended.
CHOICE, Vol. 44, No. 6 (February 2007)

Twenty-four contributions from film scholars critically examine the cinema of Woody Allen. Some essays are general in scope, examining larger themes and issues in Allen's films, while others focus on one or two of his more significant works. The emphasis is on films of the 1980s. The essays were previously published in various journals. Editor Silet is emeritus professor of English at Iowa State University.
Reference and Research Book News, November 2006