I'm old enough to recall going to see Woody Allen's Manhatten

[hedgehog]

at the movie theater. Back then, you usually only had a general idea of what the film was about going. I recall a lovely opening tribute to NYC followed by an increasingly creepy film about a middle aged man dating a 17 year old. I think that was the last Allen movie i ever saw.

[TheMathieu]

1. His art reflected his reality.

Probably wanted that female character to be 7.

[kwassa]

2. That movie creeped me out, too.

I later had my own Woody Allen moment later a few years later on the beach in Santa Monica. I was in my early 30s, struck up a conversation with a very pretty and friendly young woman who appeared to be in her mid 20s. I asked her, after talking for awhile, what she did. "I go to high school" she said. Oh, shit .......

[hedgehog]

3. The differnce is that your response was "oh, shit", not

and what is your favorite subject?

[Scootaloo]

6. Bingo

I had the same sort of encounter. met this nice girl, hang out in town for a while, chatting and flirting, she mentions class, I ask her major.. .she looks blank and tells me she's in 11th grade.

That's an awkward one for sure, having to backpedal the trajectory without obvious panic mode.

I didn't succeed in avoiding obvious panic mode. Oh well.

[Mayberry Machiavelli]

4. Yeah. I think Woody Allen is a genius and great filmmaker, but...

I had the same reaction as you. The whole central love story of that film creeped me out and I went from being a huge devoted fan to only seeing his films intermittently over the years since.

[question everything]

5. Too bad. You missed the Purple Rose of Cairo, Hannah and Her Sisters

Crimes and Misdemeanors, Manhattan Murder Mystery, Bullets Over Broadway, Match Point, Midnight in Paris and, most recently, Blue Jasmine. And many more..

[Egalitarian Thug]

7. I think I've seen all of his films and I liked his early work much better.

After he became The Woody Allen, his work got very self-indulgent and neurotic. Much like Eddie Murphy, his talent is most obvious when a sane person is directing it.

[PoliticAverse]

8. Manhattan has an 8.1 rating on IMDB, my rating for it is 'WTF?!'.

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0079522/

[hedgehog]

11. The opening homage to NYC is wonderful, the rest, not so much.

[pipoman]

9. At what age does is it not creepy?

I get what you're saying, there have been many movies around this same scenario. Roman Polanski comes to mind..Baby Doll...and others. .

is it creepy because of the "life imitates art" aspect?

[hedgehog]

10. I think what is creepy about such films is the implicit suggestion

that such behavior is OK - especially if you are an "artist".

[el_bryanto]

12. I don't really agree with this analysis

It would be one thing if it were a literal child, but while young she is an adult. And more to the point he's playing a character who isn't admirable - he does break it off with her but can't really move on.

Also interestingly Woody Allen kind of hated the film and offered to do a movie for free if they would put Manhatten in a drawer.

[hedgehog]

14. IIRC, Marial Hemingway's character is a 17 year old high school student.

BTW - a lot of apologists claim some priests can't be called pedophiles because they went after older teenagers.

[XemaSab]

13. Not just ok, but a situation that anyone could find themselves in

What normal grownass man finds high school girls interesting on more than a physical level?

The normal response of a normal grownass man is disinterest, because high school girls don't have the life experience to have anything interesting to say.

[anneboleyn]

15. It is allegedly based on Allen's real-life relationship with actress Stacey Nelkin who was 17.

Allen has never publicly discussed their relationship. Manhattan (again, allegedly) is based on their relationship (it was a sexual relationship) which began when Nelkin was seventeen and Allen was forty two. Maybe this contributes to the "creepiness" factor; I don't know.

[MineralMan]

16. I was also disturbed about the relationship in that film.

IMO, grown men have no business having sex with high school girls quite a bit younger than themselves. I was troubled by the film, in part because Woody Allen was pretty autobiographical in his films during that period.

In 2014, several states in the US put the age of consent at 16. Despite that, I still believe that adult men have no business having sex with high school girls several years their junior. Even if not illegal, it sucks.

Despite the interesting qualities of Woody Allen's filmaking, "Manhattan" disturbed me enough to cause me to lose respect for Allen.