Writer Woody

On the occasion of Essentially Woody, a a 28-film retrospective of the work of Woody Allen, George Robinson makes the case that the man will be remembered as a writer, not director: "As a writer he is an original and unique voice, family resemblances aside. As a director, he remains a shaky amalgam of incompatible influences, a filmmaker who has never found an entirely congenial visual style and whose best work often succeeds despite, rather than because of, his choices of camera angle, blocking and mise-en-scene." Either way, as the man said, he'd rather not achieve immortality through his work -- he'd like to achieve it through not dying.