Posts Tagged Jewish Humor

I love going to the movie theater in the summer.  If you’re thinking Green Lantern and Thor, we may be on different pages.  My idea of a killer summer film is one which absorbs me to the point of mental separation from the world outside of the theater.  The Conspirator did so, Hesher tried, but my two trips over the last week really pulled me into the alternate movie universe.  I know that critics and viewers are buzzing about Terrence Malick’s The Tree of Life, but I don’t think I’m even prepared to write coherent observations of the film yet.  The Philadelphia Inquirer claims that the film “aspires to change your life,” but don’t fret, I won’t preach at you.  Instead, I want to talk about everyone’s favorite New York Jew and why his newest film shattered my expectations.  

At the end of Midnight in Paris, as I sat listening to the music, the man behind me (not the one snoring, but the other guy) said, “Owen Wilson was great, he just really got Woody Allen.”  This comment got me thinking about Woody Allen (I always feel that I have to refer to him by full name), and how it is that an actor like Owen Wilson, so seemingly different, can channel him.  According to many lovers and haters, Woody Allen represents the quintessential New York Jew.  He has taken neuroticism and self-deprecation – age-old themes used by Jewish funnymen – and made them not only modern, but cosmopolitan.  Woody Allen played by Woody Allen, or Woody Allen channeled by Larry David (in place of Zero Mostel for the disappointing Whatever Works), is a character well-known and well-developed.  But really, Woody Allen is a lot of things- a brilliant writer, observer of human social etiquette, musician, and a visionary.  What I love about Woody Allen is that I connect with him as a Jew, but also as a lover of culture.  Midnight in Paris is in no way overtly Jewish, nor is it un-Jewish.  It just is.

The aforementioned character of Woody Allen is easily recognizable, but Owen Wilson’s character (Gil) in Midnight in Paris is not neurotic or self-deprecating- yet he is still a Woody Allen character.  Gil could be delusional, but we as an audience are led to view him as a successful traveler of time.  Gil seamlessly becomes an enviable figure as he is able to do what all humans wish to do – travel to times of yore.  I gushed each time a figure was introduced – no more so than for Cole Porter – and realized that Woody Allen is my favorite New York Jew because he gets me and thousands of other viewers into a theater to watch his movies and we all love and hate them for different reasons.  Woody Allen connects with my musical and literary desires, just as Owen Wilson connects with Woody Allen’s, and together we share an incendiary summer film experience.  Do yourself a favor and go see Midnight in Paris!