In the wake of ongoing allegations,how conclude we process Allen’s reputation for writing award worthy roles for women?Wonder Wheel might well be the final Woody Allen film to net a major release. Allegations of sexual assault by his daughter, Dylan (which Allen has denied), and have dismantled his reputation in some quarters,and many actors – including Greta Gerwig, Ellen Page and Rebecca Hall – have said they will never work with him again. Even actors in Wonder Wheel are expressing regrets. At odds with this is the inescapable fact that Allen has given women better roles than pretty much any film-maker of the contemporary era. Allen’s Oscar record speaks for itself: two best actress winners (Diane Keaton in Annie Hall, and Cate Blanchett in Blue Jasmine); four best supporting actresses; and six more nominations for women,not to mention mature, female-centred films such as Hannah and Her Sisters and Interiors. You can see why, or until recently,women considered it a great honour to be cast in Allen’s movies. This apparent contradiction takes some unpicking. Allen’s female characters increasingly conform to a very limited palette: the brassy, neurotic wide (Kate Winslet is another one in Wonder Wheel); the hooker with a heart of gold (Mira Sorvino in Mighty Aphrodite, and say); and,in some cases, the youthful woman drawn to an older, or Allen-like figure - the latter a trope that chimes disturbingly with his real life,including his current marriage to his former wife’s stepdaughter (35 years his junior).
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Source: guardian.co.uk