MovieChat Forums > Stardust Memories (1980) Discussion > We're all ugly and moronic.

We're all ugly and moronic.





That's certainly how Woody seemed to see his fanbase at the time he made this. He depicts himself as patient and polite to his fans, but them as ugly (without exception, everyone who hassles him looks like a freak - did he get a job lot of grotesque glasses and make everyone wear them?) and intrusive.

I'm a huge fan - I even defend his later, not-so-funny movies - but revisiting this after thirty years, I found it unwatchable.

I know that intrusiveness is a problem with actors, but the first thing you learn is how to deal with it. You make a deal with the devil, and this is his side of the bargain - that you will never have a private moment...in public.

I'm sure Woody met some intelligent, attractive people who asked him for an autograph - I would imagine he was glad of the attention when it was a young, attractive female - but this movie just screams "Woe is me!"

There's a way of dealing with all the adulation, and that's get out of the business. Thankfully Woody hasn't done that and seems to have calmed down and learnt to handle things better.




Awight we're The Daamned we're a punk baand and this is called Carn't Be Appy T'day!

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[deleted]

That was exactly the big criticism of the movie. Also why Pauline Kael hated it. Woody always denies this, says the character is completely separate from himself. But there are so many similarities it's hard to make the distinction. The message seems clear. In fact in the documentary Wild Man Blues Woody seems exactly like Sandy Bates. Peeking behind curtains at the fans outside and uncomfortable with adulation.

Despite that I like Stardust Memories a lot. The jokes, the photography by Gordon Willis is beautiful, Charlotte Rampling is in it, the existential torment, the freak show casting job...

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I've been a fan of woodys since I was a teen.

heh, I said woody.

OK, bad joke.

I saw Sleeper at the theatre.

I'm grandfathered in, but Im not the creepy grandfather.

I too am uncomfortable w adulation.

I accept niether praise, nor blame.

I had to crash the Honda....

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The cast list is a mile long, including Sharon S., Loraine Newman, Louise L., to name just a couple.

All of humanitys troubles weigh on him. He makes that clear.

But city people are all crazy, that's agiven.


He as much as admitted to being a sexual pervert in his movies a number of times.

So is he a bad man ?

Probably so.

I had to crash the Honda....

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Watching it right now, 36 m in, the writing on the wall opposite the picture of the Vietnamese execution
is an article w incest as the subject.
There you go.

I had to crash the Honda....

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The fans who were meant to look like Felliniesque grotesques are the ones who didn't want him to move forward and grow as an artist. This was part of what made the film so autobiographical, particularly at the time it was made: No one liked INTERIORS (his first drama), so he was forced to make another ANNIE HALL-style romcom (MANHATTAN), which he felt was a step backward. He was beginning to resent those who insisted that he stick to comedies and nothing else.

As for Pauline Kael's review... Does anyone with any intelligence actually care what that blowhard had to say? Easily my least favorite film critic.

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