The Woody Allen Pages Turns Three

Look – I didn’t expect this either. This whimsical idea turned into a project that has lasted three years. That’s not supposed to happen.

It is funny for me to think of my own relationship with Woody’s work in the years leading up to doing this. You Will Meet A Tall Dark Stranger was barely released in many countries, and I think will be seen, professionally, as a low point. Then it was Midnight In Paris, and everyone was talking about Allen again (well, some people were). With the rise of twitter, news feeds, WordPress and other fun stuff, it was easier than ever to stitch together a website.

The first film I covered was To Rome With Love. It is ironic to be nostalgic of that film, – it deals so much with nostalgia. But there was a lot of learning about what worked and what doesn’t, and it was fun to make the site work and find an audience so quickly.

The last year has been fun, although I didn’t get as much done as I wanted to (maybe because I became a father for the first time in February). A lot of work was done on the film guides, and I will continue to make the best resource pages I can for Allen’s films, books, plays and more. And we started an irregular column about the music used in Allen’s films.

I’ve also learnt a lot about film, and the film industry. How international box offices work. Or a Cannes Film Festival. I’ve discovered a lot great films and had lots of great discussions.

I love feedback, and I don’t get enough of it. If there’s something you want to see, please let me know. There’s some big ideas I’d like to get to, but that could be years away. I’ve been thinking about what a Woody Allen Pages book might look like. I’ve been thinking about what to do on his 80th birthday. But what websites do you like?

If you want to help, the best way is to share our articles. Let people on Facebook, Twitter and more know this site is around. Link to us, if you have a website. If you are feeling particularly generous, you can donate some money via paypal. Thanks to everyone who made a comment or helped us out this past year too.

The first year was an experiment. The second year was a bit of defiance. This third year was fun, and I’m looking forward to another. If Woody is right, that life is a horror show and the only solace is distraction, then I hope to provide more distraction for you.