Oedipus Wrecks thirty years on

30 years ago Coppola, Scorsese and Allen came together to make 'New York Stories'. Each director contributed a mini movie about their favourite city. Curiously one actor, Paul Herman, was given a bit part in all three segments. Recently I watched New York Stories for the first time in many years. The first story (Life Lessons by Scorsese)was very good. The second story (Life Without Zoe by Coppola)was very bad. And the third story (Oedipus Wrecks by Allen) was very funny.

In her review for The New Yorker Pauline Kael suggested the best thing about Oedipus Wrecks was Julie Kavner (who shortly after the film would be cast as Marge in The Simpsons). Kael wrote, "Woody Allen has written the role that Julie Kavner deserves: she’s the cartoon Jewish woman redeemed, and she plays it superbly—she’s a Yiddishe Olive Oyl, a hopeless involuntary comic. And, even in the guise of Sheldon the lawyer in tweeds, Woody Allen recognizes her as his soul mate. The movie is a Freudian vaudeville, worked out with details such as Sheldon’s loose, improved sex life during the period of his mother’s disappearance."

I'm also a big fan of Kavner. She appears in several other Allen movies; Hannah & Her Sisters (86), Radio Days (87), Alice (90), Shadows & Fog (91), Don't Drink The Water(94), Deconstructing Harry (97)and she's brought a bit of magic to all of them. As you'd expect they both have said complimentary things about each other... 

Allen described Kavner as being "a naturally funny person", and added, " When she does a scene, you listen to her and look at her, and the prism through which it's all filtered is funny." Whilst Kavner has been quoted as saying, "Woody is a true filmmaker, one that has something to say, continually experimenting on different themes within his own film-making", adding that "anything Woody ever does, I always want to do...I don't even have to read it." 

One part of the film features a stage magician who has a box that seemingly makes people disappear - this idea is not a million miles away from a story Allen featured in his book, Side Effects published in 1977. The story is called, Kugelmass Episode. And it's about how Professor Sidney Kugelmass meets a magician called "The Great Persky" who has a cabinet that people climb into and are then sent back in time. (It's interesting to think how the time traveling aspect of the story would eventually evolve into the 2011 film, Midnight in Paris which made over 150 million dollars at the box office.)Oedipus Wrecks isn't a challenging or ground breaking movie, it's simply Woody giving people what they want.

Fans of, Curb Your Enthusiasm may be interested to see this movie as it features a cameo from a young Larry David. The pair would of course work together again when David starred in Allen's 2009 film, Whatever Works. In my opinion David's acting is good in Oedipus Wrecks and he's convincing in the part he plays. In Whatever Works I feel David is trying to do an impression of Woody but he can't quite express feelings of emotional turmoil and anxiety on screen the way that Allen can. The only actor I could imagine delivering as good a performance as the central character in Oedipus Wrecks is Gene Wilder.
Allen often says that people confuse his screen persona with the man he is in real life. Amusingly, in 1997, many years after Oedipus Wrecks was released there was a documentary made about his life called, Wild Man Blues and in one scene we see Allen introduce his 90 year old mother to his South Korean born wife Soon-Yi Previn only to hear, "Why don't you marry a nice Jewish girl?" -  sometimes life imitates Woody Allen movies. 

Oedipus Wrecks (from 'New York Stories')reviewed by Harry Pye

July 2019