To Rome With Love (2012): review 2/10

The stories of various characters in Rome, including a young architect and his older correspondent, a music producer and and opera singer played by Benigni.

It feels as if Allen made up this film as he went along, trusting to fate or depending on cliche to guide him. The pacing is awful, the jokes sink.  Allen himself is irritating, as is Benigni and one leaves the film grateful for the end.

The film fails to celebrate Rome, or even American presumptions about it, as Allen's previous Parisian film managed to do.

Everyone Says I Love You (1996): review: 8/10

The romantic tribulations of a wealthy New York family, including scenes in Venice and Paris.

The film is excellently narrated by Natasha Lyone- indeed all the acting is supurb- and includes various songs from classic musicals: the knitting together of the many characters is elegant, and the whole has a delightful energy.

You Will Meet a Tall Dark Stranger (2010): review: 1.5/10

In London. an elderly man leaves his wife to date a prostitute of low social origins; his ex-wife consoles herself with the aid of a soothsayer and alchohol. Meanwhile, their daughter and her husband, who are an art dealer and struggling writer respectively, argue and meet others.

The stilted script and wooden acting suggest an utter lack of curiousity about how people truly fuction: as a consequence the film lacks humour or bite.

And Woody Allen's London is, as ever, insipid: completely lacking any of the messiness of the real. Indeed there is something annoying about his parade of expensive places.

Woody Allen's stock themes and devices: older man and younger woman, stuggling writers, the cultured upper middle classes, jazz music and Americans abroad are shuffled together and reproduced with increasing weariness each time he makes a film.

Whatever Works (2009): review: 7/10

In New York, an opinionated misanthrope meets and helps a simple young woman from the south.

The piece has the construction of a sitcom, with plain sets and uninteresting photography.

The script is often extremely funny, making a virtue of the -somewhat obvious- set-piece character contrasts that lend it momentum.