"Stardust Past"
I have always believed that the interviews of the director himself are the materials that most truly reflect the director's feelings. It wasn't until I saw Woody Allen's interview answer on "Once Upon a Time in Stardust" that I questioned the authenticity of the director's answer for the first time.
Stieg: "Stardust Once Upon a Time" is an enduring work, just like "Chinese Mystery Box", there will be new discoveries every time you change the angle. Do you think it's a movie that needs time to test, and that's why it got cold feet in the first place?
Woody: No, I think people's reactions are very personal. Audiences think that when I call the audience and critics idiots in the film, I'm alluding to them. They take the character as me, so it's so pissed when Sandy says people who like him are stupid. In fact, if I really thought that, I wouldn't say that in the movie, it's not like that at all.
Woody Allen vehemently denies that his taunting of audiences and critics in his films is what he really thinks. In my opinion, no, I am afraid that in the eyes of any viewer who has watched "Once Upon a Time in Stardust", it is completely a large-scale, destructive, and indiscriminate attack. Will Woody Allen admit that he hates and hates the rabid fans and critics who point fingers at him? Smart he certainly didn't want to ruin his career. So he won't admit it, but in all fairness, Woody's negative emotions are understandable. Go ask those couples who have had a sweet life for decades, haven't they quarreled? Don't they hate and hate each other at some point in their lives? It's just human nature.
"Once Upon a Time in Stardust" is considered to be Woody's autobiographical film, but Woody denies that, like his previous answers to such questions, the protagonist Sandy in the film just has his shadow, but never represents him myself. "Once Upon a Time in Stardust" is a chaotic, stream-of-consciousness film that has been filmed with the least plot after synthesizing Woody Allen's childhood experiences and many years of experience in filming. Its plot is so chaotic and obscure, which is entirely the inevitable result of Woody Allen's subjective editing of the film. Woody replaced the plot in the movie with real life for a while, and then arranged it into a movie plot shot by the leading actor Sandy in the movie. Audiences struggle to sort out the plot of Once Upon a Time in Stardust, but Woody Allen fully appreciates his complaints, as Woody Allen expected.
It is worthy of encouragement that Woody Allen, as a director, has reached the peak of his ability in the use of lenses in "Once Upon a Time in Stardust". Long shots, jump shots, follow-up shots, fixed shots, close-ups and other shots play smoothly in Woody's hands, without showing a trace of pause and slowness. You can see that in "Annie Hall", the camera technique of the characters disappearing from the camera and walking back to continue reading lines is more familiar in "Stardust Once Upon a Time". Woody Allen has no shyness to say that he has benefited from the great cinematographer of "Annie Hall", Gordon Willis, in "Once Upon a Time in Stardust" Woody has completely mastered his favorite shots . Like a top cook using the top cookware he is familiar with. “By the time of Once Upon a Time in Stardust, I had more control over the medium, and I’ve gotten more and more comfortable with it since then.” —Woody Allen
Woody Allen is fed up with rabid fans and critics, fed up with their self-entertaining praise and viciously sarcastic criticism. He's tired of audiences and aliens always saying " watched all your movies and loved your early comedies ". He presents his pessimism and nihilism unreservedly to the audience. Film fans, film critics, producers, film companies, wives, sisters, lovers, representatives of various charitable associations. . . . . . Even the aliens have to take care of him, and everyone has to rely on him, rely on him, and get some benefits from him. And our great director, Woody Allen, didn't even know what the point of making a movie was at this point: "I don't want to do comedy anymore, they can't force me to do it! You know, I don't feel comedy. Look at the world, All I see is human suffering.", "Why would I make those movies if nothing lasts? Or anything else?" Woody dumped all the negativity on the audience at once , he couldn't take it anymore.
Thank goodness, "Once Upon a Time in Stardust" as Woody's two serious and almost boring "Inside of My Heart" and "Manhattan" works, this time finally has something new and interesting to bring to the audience. "Once Upon a Time in Stardust" has rich photography techniques, and the editing and story progression are perfectly matched and just right. The movie was finally willing to give the audience some fun to reminisce and play with, and he finally stopped using Diane Keaton, who made the audience's aesthetic fatigue, as the heroine. However, the audience at the time did not like this very artistic "Stardust Once Upon a Time", and the movie box office was a big failure at the time. After all, art films are fan favorites, not audiences.
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