“To me,” Mr. Allen said, “there’s no real difference between a fortune teller or a fortune cookie and any of the organized religions. They’re all equally valid or invalid, really. And equally helpful….”
Q. The ideas of psychic powers and past lives, or at least people who believe in them, are central to your latest film. What got you interested in writing about them?
A. I was interested in the concept of faith in something. This sounds so bleak when I say it, but we need some delusions to keep us going. And the people who successfully delude themselves seem happier than the people who can’t. I’ve known people who have put their faith in religion and in fortune tellers. So it occurred to me that that was a good character for a movie: a woman who everything had failed for her, and all of a sudden, it turned out that a woman telling her fortune was helping her. The problem is, eventually, she’s in for a rude awakening.
Q. What seems more plausible to you, that we’ve existed in past lives, or that there is a God?
A. Neither seems plausible to me. I have a grim, scientific assessment of it. I just feel, what you see is what you get.
Well why doesn’t he do something realistic from his worldview.
5 year old: “Daddy what happens when I die?”
Daddy: “You cease to exist and your body rots.”
No, Br. Micheal. This is all camp, all upscale, fashionable, pessimism. His “realism” is neither scientific nor heartfelt. It’s a pose by a professional poseur, an attempt to be the bluejeans anti-celebrity.
Did you like his complaint about his relative poverty? This is ersatz, yiddish self deprecation. I’m sure he doesn’t believe in anything much, to be sure, but the presentation is the small-mouthing of a persona. Larry
[Would commenters please go easy on the colorful adjectives and address issues rather than personalities – thanks – Elf]
Nevertheless he should be challenged on the ramifications of the worldview he purports to hold. Of course most reporters are not up to the task.
does Woody really think the Islamofascists would grant him the same film making (and other) freedoms he enjoys in a Judeo-Christian society?
yawn
Yes, elves, I DID get carried away. But I get so angry listening to “celebrities” (who have money coming out their ears) complain about the hardships of their circumstances. Larry
No. 6: Mr. Allen was not pleading personal financial poverty (although spiritual poverty might be a reasonable take-away), he was commenting on his film budgets. I read the piece hurriedly while travelling, but I found nothing in it that suggested that filming in predominantly Muslim countries would strike Mr. Allen as an improvement over the US or Europe. So comment no. 4 is puzzling. Have we become so hysterical about Muslims that we see “Islamofascists” everywhere, or have my reading skills taken a real tumble lately?
Woody who?
#8 I think he was the cowboy in Toy Story
#7, I wasn’t referring to his personal finances, onlhy his grievances that have made his life SO difficult that brought on this attack of poor mouthing. I submit that he should have been thankful that he has made millions and millions in a society that let him do it and will continue to do so. This is reverse chutzpah and wholly unmerited on the basis of his prolonged success. Larry
I didn’t detect anything in the article or in anything else I have read about Allen that indicates he is unappreciative of his financial status.