Woody Allen falls into one of the most rarified categories of artist: the auteur filmmaker whose vision pervades every aspect of his work. Allen is also one of the most recognized cinematic figures of the twentieth century; indeed, he has more "name value" as a writer or director than do many of the actors who star in of his films. However, for all his acclaim and fame, Allen maintains a relatively balanced perspective on his own importance. As he told Natalie Gittelson in a New York Times piece, "I'm not holed up in my apartment every night poring over Russian literature and certain Danish philosophers. I'm really hardly a recluse. When a half-dozen paparazzi follow me down the street, naturally, I don't like that very much. But I do go out all the time--to movies, to shop, to walk around in the street, to those parties I think I'll enjoy."
Allen turned personal neurosis into a cottage industry with his more than thirty movies, most of them written, directed, and performed by this one-man talent show.
