Rating: 
Summary: Visionary vs. voyeur, contributor vs. parasite
Review: What a great opportunity a Woody Allen biography represents. Here's one of the great masters of American cinema, an artist who has been producing prolifically for over thirty years. Before our eyes, he went through mastering various cinematic styles and then transcending them all, contributing as a philosopher, writer, comedian, actor, director, even musician. Along the way, Allen produced a body of work replete with a quality all too rare in any, particularly American motion pictures: a thinking, interesting approach. The audiences and critics speak for themselves: here's a true visionary.Unfortunately, those who make a name for themselves are destined to attract parasites. Enters Marion Meade, the voyeur. Unable to create worthwhile art or even advancing the cause of understanding it better or enjoying it more intelligently, she has nothing to offer that's pertinent to the art of Woody Allen. What she does offer is plenty of gossip and garbage. After having the Allen-Farrow "scandal" publicly dished out for too long, who needs more of this? Is it really a surprise to anyone after watching W.A. movies that the man should have character flaws, past pain and ongoing neuroses. Isn't the genius of his work to allow us to identify so readily with his character? If you need gossip to make yourself feel superior to a man who has had something genuinely great to offer, then don't pass this one up. If you prefer some degree of integrity in your writing, and are desirous to learn about subjects worth remembering, avoid this one at all cost.
Rating: 
Summary: Delightful, but guilty pleasure
Review: With 'The Unruly Life of Woody Allen', Marion Meade has written a delightful, gossipy life story of the irreplacable New York artist. Anyone who has seen his work knows the basic gist of the story: raised in Flatbush during the '40s, a dropout of NYU film school, a self-made auteur by his late 20s. A filmmaker whose work manages to nostalgize, lampoon, and transcend the New York Jewish intellectual scene. Who is the man behind all this? Marion Meade supplies a lot of details about his life without ever really getting to the heart of the man. I can't fault her for that, since I'm not sure any writer could understand someone at once so sentimental and mean spirited, so artistic and tired, so trailblazing and so old fashioned. Why do we need to? His films speak for himself, and his life speaks for itself. We don't need to like or understand the man to be entertained by his movies. This book is a gossipy, guilty pleasure. It will hold the interest of anyone curious about what the Woodman eats for breakfast, which co-stars are still his friends, what a declining audience has done to his career. The Mia Farrow fiasco is covered in some detail -- probably a little too much time in spent on the custody trial and subsequent legal problems with his film production company. The book covers no new ground but does provide a lot of new details. I enjoyed it and would recommend it to fans.
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