Life Lessons from Woody Allen

I confess I am a huge film buff. But I've never really been a Woody Allen fan, even though most film critics consider him to be one of the most gifted and influential filmmakers of our time. Of course, some of my film savvy friends who are aficionados of Allen's work have been recommending some of his more interesting films. Although often very dark, many of him movies have some interesting worldview themes.

Woody Allen's personal life has certainly been checkered with controversy. Last week Chuck Colson discussed Allen's life and work and recent interview in the Washington Post:

"The heart wants what it wants."

You may remember those words. They're the excuse Woody Allen offered in 1992 for leaving his longtime lover to run off with her daughter. Even many of Allen’s fans were repulsed by the affair and by Allen’s cavalier attitude...

So Allen's heart got what it wanted. According to the unwritten laws of our culture--and according to the philosophy he expressed in that infamous sentence--he ought to be happy.

Only he's not, according to a new interview in the Washington Post. Interviewer David Segal quips that Allen's worldview "is so bereft of meaning, so godless and absurd, that the only proper response is to curl up on a sofa and howl for your mommy."

Not the kind of talk you would expect from one of the most successful men in film. By any secular standard Allen should be on top of the world. Apparently this is not the case. According to Colson:

As Allen confesses, movies were only a "means" for him to live the kind of lifestyle he wanted, but now that he has it, he has to keep making movies to distract himself from it. Like the writer of Ecclesiastes, who "withheld not [his] heart from any joy," Woody Allen apparently has concluded that "all is vanity..."

Read the entire commentary on BreakPoint:  When the Heart Gets What it Wants

Read the Washington Post interview with Woody Allen: Cloud in the Silver Lining