Woody Allen’s career encompasses 46 films across almost half a century. People try to make sense of his oeuvre by dividing the films into different periods. There are several approaches, from classifying them into genres (screwball comedies or the “early, funny films,” tragedies, and romantic comedies), muses (Diane Keaton, Mia Farrow, Scarlett Johansson), Allen as the off-beat hero versus casting a proxy, or as mentioned before, by events in his private realm. What they all have in common though, no matter what period they belong to, is that they are “imaginatively written, beautifully photographed, and well acted” (Lax 280). I would like to suggest the following five generic approaches: (1) the Early-Period (1965-1976); (2) the Coming-Of-Age Period (1977-1981); (3) the Mia-Farrow Period (1982-1992); (4) the Post-Scandal Period (1993-2002); and finally (5) the Post-9/11 Period (2005-2013).
Allen’s so-called “early, funny movies” (Allen, Stardust Memories), characterize the first period of his career. Films such as Bananas (1971), Sleeper (1973) or Take the Money and Run (1969) are more or less recognizable by their parodistic and surrealistic humor riddled with slapstick comedy. Diane Keaton starred in most of Allen’s early films and also shared a deep personal relationship with him. The 1975’s film Love and Death paved Allen’s way to more elaborate and profound films that would continuously center on the philosophies – love and relationships as well as life and death.
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