WOULD I WORK FOR WOODY?

Woody Allen (picture from Wikipedia)

You do not see it very often nowadays but there is a British road sign which occasionally raises some knowing sniggers.  It shows an adult holding the hand of a child as they walk along the road.  It is meant to act as a warning to look out for pedestrians but it reminds some people of an older man grooming a younger girl – inevitably with a sexual overtone.  Having sex with children is one of the crimes that horrify us most of all and anyone locked up for it can expect little mercy from his fellow inmates who show far more respect for a man responsible for crimes of murder or robbery than for a ‘nonce’. Prisons can be Old Testament places when it comes to passing judgement.

This is the source of Woody Allen’s problems.  He has been accused by his stepdaughter Dylan of molesting her when she was young and this has led to a boycott of him by actors who were previously falling over themselves to appear in one of his films but now refuse the honour. The accusation was first made by Dylan years ago but has now been reiterated by her as an adult.  There is nowhere near enough evidence to convict Allen in a court and he has never been charged with a crime.  That does not stop people passing judgement in the court of public opinion.

A single accusation is one thing, multiple accusations another.  If a group of women or,  in the case of Kevin Spacey, men accuse Harvey Weinstein or a Bill Cosby of predatory behaviour (ie rape), then you feel there has to be some truth in the allegations.  One or two of them may have acted out of spite but a whole group of people who did not know each other?  Not bloody likely.

Only one person has accused Allen of molesting her but that someone was in his care.  Was she being manipulated by a vengeful mother who felt herself to have been wronged in the person of Mia Farrow, whose own brother has been imprisoned for the same crime she accuses Allen of?  Or was she bravely exposing the crimes of her famous stepfather who exploited his position and had demonstrated in films like Manhattan a fascination with younger women?  The short answer is that we will almost certainly never know in the absence of a confession by either person that they had either committed an offence or fabricated an accusation of the crime we fear and hate most.

But what if they were both telling the truth in different ways?.  Sexual crimes are notoriously hard to prosecute because they usually involve two people giving different versions of the same event, both sides convinced that they are telling it like it was.  This leads to many women having an absolute conviction that they have been raped without gaining the satisfaction of a conviction in court against the man they feel certain has raped them.  That same man breathes a huge sigh of relief and then walks away Scot fee, hopefully having at least learned not to repeat his mistake.

It is possible that Woody, in showing natural affection for a child who has been brought into his family but with whom he had no biological relationship, overstepped the mark and did things which did not amount to sexual molestation but which were significantly uncomfortable for Dylan. Don’t laugh.  Many fathers, encouraged to show affection towards their children, find themselves wandering into this grey area.  Blake Morrison wrote about this in When Did You Last See Your Father? and I have to admit that I have been there myself.  Yet I have a perfectly healthy relationship with my now grown-up daughter.  I can understand how a child, caught up in a vicious break-up of the type Woody Allen and Mia farrow had, and feeling the need to take the side of the parent she lives with, manages to turn behaviour which probably would have become an embarrassing private memory for both of them into a highly public crime for one of them.

The film industry is notorious for stories of aspiring actresses who are given parts if they submit to the advances of ruthless producers. They were once expected to accept these advances with a shrug or even the appearance of gratitude but are no longer prepared to become human fodder for sex predators.  There is a difference between actresses, who were usually thought to be sexually mature women, and sexually immature seven year old girls.  So Allen, who was untouched by allegations from the many actresses he worked with, has found his life torpedoed by an accusation he can never rebut by someone who was part of his now fractured family.

Whatever you think of his private life, he was and still could be a great director.  He has gone off the boil in recent years and I no longer make a point of going to see any film he makes, but I still have a soft spot for comedies like Café Society and Magic in the. Moonlight and I think Crimes and Misdemeanours and Annie Hall two of the greatest films ever made and Blue Jasmine worthy of an actress Oscar for Cate Blanchett, who has been asked but declined to boycott him.

I have never been tempted by acting as a career and do not have the skills needed to work in the technical side of the film industry so it is unthinkable that I will ever receive a call from Woody Allen to help him in what is left of his career as a director.  Moreover, where I come from you generally wait for the invitation before you send back the RSVP.  However, in the vanishingly unlikely event of being asked to work for Woody Allen, I would be inclined to accept the offer. 

Edwin Lerner

My other blog is diaryofatouristguide.blogspot.com