Stardust Memories

Here's Peter Biskind with what struck me as a pretty fair review of Woody Allen's autobiography, Apropos of Nothing, which you can order here. Some of the others I've seen have smelled of Agenda on the part of the reviewer but I think Mr. Biskind actually reviewed the book Mr. Allen wrote.

Yes, I finished it. I agree with Biskind that many of the ways in which Allen speaks of women he's known are curious if you're someone out to prove that you treat women with respect. I wish the book had a little less about the people Allen knew and more about behind-the-scenes or in-the-director's-head about his movies. And of course, I lost all respect for Woody on the page where he said he didn't like It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World.

Several of my friends who've read it take issue, as does Biskind, with Allen's assertion that he's never made a "truly great" movie. Based on things Allen said in the book and elsewhere, I suspect by the standards he's using, neither has any other filmmaker except Bergman, Truffaut and a couple of guys who directed the Marx Brothers. But the main thing I liked about the book was that it's funny. It's really very funny and I haven't felt that way about many books I've read in the last decade or three.