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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

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Original poster

To be repulsed by the way Woody Allen

111 replies

nigelslaterfan · 21/07/2015 14:09

Gets away with making film after film of a minty old bezzer copping off with Emma Stone, Joaquin Phoenix and Colin Firth (shame on you Colin, for signing up you sinner, and shame on you for that film you did with Emily wot sit) when the actors are old enough to be her dad.
I'm so sick of seeing movies exult this crusty old male fantasy. I guess we should be grateful Woody doesn't book actresses that look under 16, thankful for small mercies for 'artists' pedalling their ill concealed perv-ons.
I can't even enjoy his funny films now.

OP posts:

etKrusTe · 21/07/2015 19:25

ps, I don't think it's fair to blame the actresses for saying yes to the work. They want the work, they want their foot in the door, they want the pay cheque. They're not the ones with all the money and the power. Their career is ahead of them, they hope.

I had a version of this argument with my brother recently. I threw down a sunday supplement magazine in disgust because every woman in it, no matter why she was interviewed, she was tarted up, or made to look like a doll, or a bit 'porny'. he said the same, said it was 'their choice'. but they're always trying to take the publicity for their book/song/film/new venture. They aren't the ones who set the terms.

Lots of women would say no to the half-dressed suggestive photos that infantalise them, but they're the ones whose songs/books/tv shows we haven't heard of.

LucilleBluth · 21/07/2015 19:52

I am a huge fan of his work, and I would throw the word genius around when referring to him, BUT how do you reconcile a dodgy personal life with artistic genius. I don't know!

LucilleBluth · 21/07/2015 19:54

etKrusTe.......I agree. There's a fabulous up and coming comedian called Amy Schumer, I love her. She just did a 'comedy' photo shoot for the cover of GQ, it was sooooooo sexualised. Why? It does my head in.

KevinKnowsImMiserableNow · 21/07/2015 20:01

Joaquin Phoenix is not a minty old bezzer you charlatan.

A 26 yo going out with a 39 or 40 year old is hardly unusual is it?

etKrusTe · 21/07/2015 22:09

I'm surprised at Amy Schumer in the last few days. She was talking about deal breakers in a relationship and said that if a man wouldn't go down on her, that'd be a deal breaker. I thought, why tell us that!?!? seriously! I thought she'd made a career out of mocking the way women are viewed principally in a sexual way. But yeh, her earlier stuff, I love it.

Original poster

nigelslaterfan · 21/07/2015 22:30

Kevin, it may not be unusual but Hollywood creates expectations as well as reinforcing negative stereotypes.

Kristin Scott Thomas plays Ralph Fienne's love interest in 'The English Patient' then she plays his girlfriend's mother in the Dickens film they did. Of course that was a true story of Dickens falling in love with a girl younger than his daughters (I think).

I just think there is something a bit weird about a man who can't be with a woman who is his equal in age. The desire for a perfect little girl to worship and control or the desire for a woman who is so dazzled that she doesn't see the baby in him.

OP posts:

KevinKnowsImMiserableNow · 21/07/2015 22:55

I'm in a 13 year age gap relationship myself and find both your tone and your assumptions rather rude, nigelslater.

etKrusTe · 21/07/2015 23:15

well, you're missing the point kevin. I went out with an older man once, (and a much younger man once as it happens) but can you not see that ordinary mumsnetters and their ordinary partners aren't influencing the mainstream. You and your private life aren't part of a collusion to present a male fantasy as the norm.

WaggleBee · 22/07/2015 03:05

I just think there is something a bit weird about a man who can't be with a woman who is his equal in age.

I think this was what Kevin was finding rude, etKrus.

I also find that comment offensive.

I dislike Woody Allen and his films and do agree about the hypocrisy of Hollywood when it comes to male and female actors ages. However that sweeping, derogatory statement is taking it out if Hollywood and is offensive to 'ordinary' men and women in age gap relationships.

misskelly · 22/07/2015 03:18

Never mind Woody Allen what about the fact that plenty of actors are willing to work with Roman Polanski. He takes creepy to a whole different level, I've not been able to see Kate Winslet in the same light since she worked with him and tried to justify herself, yuck.

RitaKiaOra · 22/07/2015 03:29

What's the golden rule? Half your age plus seven?
I know couples with a 10-13 year age gap who are very happy.
Older women are cougars, Older men are sugar daddies...society has always been rude about May-December relationships.
I would struggle with a massive age gap simply because common frames of reference are what keep me and dp together but if a connection works it works and you'll build your own memories/in jokes.
I do not find Woody Allen funny. I also do not understand his and Polanski's hero status in Hollywood. I read Dylan Farrow's allegations. I feel sorry that she was not able to testify in court.

RoboticSealpup · 22/07/2015 03:50

It's not just Woody Allen, though, is it? It's one manifestation of a bigger tendency to cater mainly to the male audience. Another example is that most (if not all) teen comedies have at least one scene in which some impossibly hot woman initiates sex with some geeky regular Joe, seemingly for no other reason than cheap thrills for the boys watching. In one of the Harold and Kumar movies, the scriptwriters didn't even bother coming up with a reason why Malin Akerman's character asks H&K to double penetrate her in a sex-sandwich. She just asks them to do it as soon as they meet. In another one of those movies, H&K go to a party where all the guests have to be naked from the waist down. All of the partygoers are women, and at one point the camera zooms in on someone's barely-there pubes. My point is that Hollywood movies are generally horribly sexist and crap.

RagstheInvincible · 22/07/2015 07:48

I don't care how old he is or how young his leading lady is or who he fathers/marries irl.

I just find his films balls achingly un-funny. What people see in them I really do not know. I dumped broke up with a g/f outside a cinema because of our differing views over Annie Hall.

KevinKnowsImMiserableNow · 22/07/2015 07:53

I'm not missing the point walrus, I'm responding to Nigel's assertion that there's something weird about man who 'can't be with someone his own age' a comment that applies to ALL age gap

KevinKnowsImMiserableNow · 22/07/2015 07:55

...relationships INCLUDING those of ordinary people on MN.

I'm not stupid,workers, I understand the patriarchy but I'm also able to respond appropriately to sweeping statements. Maybe read what's been written next time before you barge in, huh Etruscan?

KevinKnowsImMiserableNow · 22/07/2015 07:56

EtKrusten that should say, bloody auto correct

KevinKnowsImMiserableNow · 22/07/2015 07:56

Ffs this phone! All of that to etkrus, I have no idea who walrus and workers are!

Pepperpot99 · 22/07/2015 08:04

It seems that in the film world it is perfectly ok to be a convicted rapist and paedophile - Roman Polanski, or an incestuous paedophile - Woody Allen. Go figure.

Bambambini · 22/07/2015 08:20

Depends how old you were when you got together with your 13 yr older partner. A lot of people feel uneasy by big age gaps and often with good reason. I 've recently been looking at a Philipnes expat forum. 30, 40, 50 year age gaps - yes i do feel uncomfortable. With many 13 year age gaps - probably not so much unless the younger one was a teenager.

etKrusTe · 22/07/2015 18:35

"barge in" kevin ? I was just giving my opinion, as every body else is doing.

LokiBear · 22/07/2015 18:44

He married his adopted daughter. Another of his adopted daughters accused him of rape. This has never been investigated properly and the poor woman has been to hell and back. I wouldn't pay to watch his films.

ApocalypseThen · 22/07/2015 18:52

I can see why the statement that there's something weird about man who 'can't be with someone his own age' could be seen as offensive, but there's a difference between just happening to be in an age gap relationship and being unable to be in a relationship without an age gap.

KevinKnowsImMiserableNow · 22/07/2015 19:13

Maybe it wouldn't seem so much like barging in if you hand't stormed in saying I was "missing the point" whilst spectacularly missing the point yourself?

TTWK · 22/07/2015 19:36

and Colin Firth (shame on you Colin, for signing up you sinner,

I assume you mean Magic in the Moonlight, which is an utterly brilliant film.

Woody Allen makes a film a year, and they are usually great. He writes and directs them, and on a shoestring budget. That's why so many top actors want to take part, often for a fraction of what they could earn making some Hollywood blockbuster. Just for the kudos of working with Woody Allen. His personal life may be a car crash, but that doesn't diminish from his talent.

etKrusTe · 22/07/2015 19:54

Kevin, wind your neck in. My point was valid and I had a right to express it.

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