Thinking about her role on the way home led me to thinking about the person who created her role --a man, creating an awesome role in film for a woman.
Woody Allen should really be lauded for this, on two points. Men typically can't write good roles for women. (Take the Cohen brothers; Joel told his wife Francis McDormand, (according to an interview with her after the film Friends with Money) that only a woman can write good roles for women). And because he gave a woman--two women actually--Sally Hawkins as well--opportunities to shine in a medium where women are typically marginalized. Diane Keaton was right to to say that "Woody's women...are....the hallmark of Woody's work." And he well deserved receiving The Golden Globe for Lifetime Achievement.
Or did he? In light of Woody Allen's child-molestation accusation, was Nicolos Kristof correct in writing in the New York Times, "shouldn’t the standard to honor someone be that they are unimpeachably, well, honorable?"
And should we be listening to Ronan Farrow weigh in here as well?
Missed the Woody Allen tribute - did they put the part where a woman publicly confirmed he molested her at age 7 before or after Annie Hall?
— Ronan Farrow (@RonanFarrow) January 13, 2014
(--oh, and about Ronan Farrow; after Mia's Vanity Fair interview it's about 99.9999999% certain that he's Frank Sinatra's son; so in Mia we're probably not dealing with an entirely straight-shooter ~)My take is that this age-old accusation can't detract from the honor that Woody Allen's received. In the same sense that we can't consider Lee Harvey Oswald guilty of mudering JFK, given that he never had a trial, we need to assume that, since he's never been found guilty in a court of law, that Woody Allen is entirely blameless.
And so phew, I'm left to care-freely bask in the awesomeness of Cate Blanchett and the person who created her role.
This piece will be my final word on this entire matter.
