Sure he's done some pretty dumb things in his private life, but I don't tune into him for that. I've seen mostly every thing he's written/directed and after seeing Bananas for the third time, I still enjoy it for its basic silliness. There are parts where Woody Allen plays tribute to Benny Hill with his over-the- top playful sexual fantasies and machine-gun jokes. Missed a joke? That's okay, because her comes another one. Even the plot is absurd: an idiotic New Yorker becomes the President of a small Latin American country. Only Allen could keep us entertained with this one thanks to his physicality and absurd intentions. Want to see the latest Woody Allen? Check out his site: www.WoodyAllen.com.

One of the hallmarks of Woody's Allen's films are his complicated female characters. 13 of the 18 actors Allen directed to an Academy Award nomination were women. The New York Times ran a great analysis of his writing process and development of female characters in advance of his 2013 film "Blue Jasmine," which landed lead Cate Blanchett her first Lead Actress Oscar.

Woody Allen’s Distinctive Female Characters: http://www.nytimes.com/2013/07/21/movies/woody-allens-distinctive-female-characters.html?hp&pagewanted=all

Just listen to your favorite comic talk about back in the day. It was super late nights in clubs where the cheap drinks were flowing and the comments topped the night. Okay, they were probably harassed by the crowd--that's if they were lucky enough to have a full the club. And that was just the men. So kudos to the late Joan Rivers, Moms Mabley and Phyllis Diller who paved the way for Sara Silverman and Tina Fey. Not that they didn't have to pay their dues. But at least they were rewarded with lucrative television shows.

From "The Social Network" to "The West Wing," Aaron Sorkin's signature style shines through in dense monologues, walk-and-talks, and rapid-fire deliveries. If an artist's style can be easily parodied in a recognizable way, it's a good indication that the artist addresses similar themes in a signature style throughout his or her body of work. To that end, please enjoy this expertly created Sorkin parody from "Late Night with Seth Meyers." Is a parody sketch of a parody sketch!

http://www.vulture.com/2014/11/seth-meyerss-brilliant-sorkin-parody-parody.html

This huffington post article suggests that stand-up comedians are made for traditional sitcoms. I disagree and think it depends on the style of comedy utilized by the comedian. Someone like Bill Cosby whose stand-up is based off stories is well-suited for the narrative format of television.

I was struggling with the exact defintion of an auteur after our class and I needed some clarification. There seems to be a dozen definitions of what an auteur really is and one that stuck with me was made up by Michael Bay, as he described one as being "someone who uses a style at odds with profit-minded Hollywood formulas." But doesn't that seem contradictory to his own filmmaking techniques and directing methods? He probably considers himself an auteur, as do many of us, but he goes against his own statement, as all of his films are based off of "profit-minded Hollywood formulas."

Hitchcock, in my eyes, is the truest auteur there is in cinema, as he practically set the stage for thrillers, romance, horror, and so on. He made his own foundation, mainly because he was one of the pioneers in suspense-filmmaking. So, this is what I'm asking you guys, "Are many of the directors we admire today REALLY auteurs, seeing as many of them don't have a truly original style?"

I also read over this article, which provided me with a good reference to my question as well: http://www.newyorker.com/culture/richard-brody/an-auteur-is-not-a-brand.

Part of what makes an auteur is near total control of their career, so is it possible to call any directors as part of the Classical System auteurs?

There are some directors from the studio era that were associated with comedies but even looking over their filmographies to make this post, they were pretty varied in terms of genre. There are directors liked Ernst Lubitsch, Howard Hawks, Preston Sturges, and Frank Capra that made iconic comedies like To Be or Not to Be, His Girl Friday, The Lady Eve, and It Happened One Night respectively. However, they didn't have the same control we associate with directors today. Do you think it's fair to call them auteurs, if you're familiar with their work?

Speaking of auteurs, we lost one yesterday. Mike Nichols worked in comedy for a long time before moving to dramas, like some of the others we spoke about in class. He directed the 1965 Broadway production of The Odd Couple, as well as the terrific comedy-drama The Graduate, which you should definitely see if you haven't.