Last night must have counted as about the third time I've seen this film, but that did little to detract from the joy of watching it again. This is in part becuase Allen manages to cram as many ideas into this one film as most directors manage in a lifetime. Around the fairly simple plot of a writer returning to his old university to receive an honorary award, we are treated to a series of flashbacks and stories within stories, each of which build on each other and multiply Allen's comic possibilities. It's also Allen's dirtiest, filthiest and most sexually upfront film so far (is Allen playing himself and how he thinks the world sees him after his real life shenanigans?). Someone once said about Allen that he uses shrinks to help him find excuses to get away with his appalling behaviour, and there's certainly an element of that in this film (at one point Allen's character compares himself to Hitler, or at least as the fourth worst man in the world if you count in Goebbels and Goering). But in between all the usual trademark sequences of self-doubt and nihilism are some of the best comic moments I've ever seen on film. Period. The scene where Kirstie Alley (Allen's former wife) confronts him with the fact that he has been sleeping with her patients is pure class. Add to that the conversation Allen has with the devil ("blind girls are so grateful") and the idea that an actor (not the camera) can be out of focus, and you've got 90 mins of quality entertainment. Great quotes abound, but perhaps one of my favourites is the retort Allen throws at his Brother-in-law when he accuses him of thinking he's a paranoid Jew, "I think you're the opposite of a paranoid. I think you go around with the insane delusion that people like you." Perfect! 10 PP.
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