"I am two with nature." Woody Allen

I hate to admit this -- there are two television programs that I absolutely must see and get thoroughly entangled in: Gauntlet 2 and Project Runway. The first step to recovery is admitting, right? Anyhoo, I figured out why Robin from the Gauntlet fascinates me. Check it:

Sources: Robin / Scarlett

If you stripped Scarlett Johansson from her L'Oreal contract and fantastic scripts…If she was a cracked out deviant, she would resemble MTV’s Robin. Now that that’s settled…

For my literati peeps (possible spoiler alert). Toombsday and I saw Match Point over the weekend. We didn’t know much about the film, only that it was written and directed by Woody Allen. In the opening scene, I was taken aback. Quoi? Woody Allen writing an English film? Has he even been outside of New York? How does he plan on bottling l’eau d’anglais?

I adore Allen for his capacity of capturing human flaws while adding a New Yorker’s sensibility (read: neurotic). Allen has only been writing films for forty years. Maybe he’s a little bored with New York’s inspiration. Drawing from his film’s portrayal of the British, I have determined the following: 1) They all play croquet; 2) They all wear heavily starched dress shirts; and 3) They all skeet shoot after drinking G&Ts.

But if you have not yet had an opportunity to see Match Point, please do so. Some have compared it to Woody Allen channeling Hitchcock. And a film can never go wrong when you combine those two. In short, his film compared love versus lust, and the emotive complexities between the two. Love is a soft, comfortable place where his character continually returns for validation, renewal, security, yada yada. Lust, a manic state, is exciting and thrilling -- an addiction of sorts.

Maybe this is why he chose to go with a British flair -- perhaps with our overindulgent American qualities, our current pop culture consciousness can not do justice to this level of writing. We do not exude “the fitness of character,” that is required in a traditional tragedy (and by traditional, I mean Aristotelian). The British still have traditional elements of language, culture, etc. that they have not yet destroyed (correct me otherwise). This also may be why he chose Scarlett Johansson to play this role -- she’s an oversexed American tart who spins men into a tizzy. By placing her within this film’s environment, her character suffers an absurdity of her own false expectations from Britain’s entertainment industry and a married man. The contrast makes England a fitting location for this tension. In essence, Scarlett’s end is our end (and I won’t tell you what that is).

This is probably Woody Allen at his best. Even though it is part Hitchcock, it is in essence homage to Greek tragedy with an American spin (even though it’s “English”). To accomplish this, there is a “whole” plot in which we are introduced to the characters untainted by their flaws, only to have them succumb to their faults and finally reach a concluding catharsis. What makes this equally Allen and Aristotle is the catastrophe, or the reversal of events, which is entirely wrapped up in the Allen’s symbol of tennis and the fate of “the net,” hence the name Match Point, from the protagonist:

The man who said "I'd rather be lucky than good" saw deeply into life. People are afraid to face how great a part of life is dependent on luck. It's scary to think so much is out of one's control. There are moments in a match when the ball hits the top of the net and for a split second it can either go forward or fall back. With a little luck it goes forward and you win. Or maybe it doesn't and you lose.

There are no coincidences in this work, only a fated connection between events strung together by human flaw. Allen even gets to dash a few of his quirky stylistic effects of post-war operas and angry ghosts. And this, my friends, is what makes Allen rock. And this film is utter genius.

I would love to draw out these Greek/American/British comparisons on an etch-a-sketch for you, but I don’t want to alienate anyone (if I haven’t already). Please comment if you want to kibitz about it.