An Interview with Woody

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Not that Allen has forgotten about laughs. While in the thick of making Manhattan, he spent dozens of hours watching Bob Hope movies to compile a one-hour film tribute for a Lincoln Center gala honoring the comedian. "I had more pleasure looking at Hope's films than making any film I've ever made," Allen says. "I think he's just a great, huge talent. Part of what I like about him is that flippant, Californian, obsessed-with-golf striding through life. His not caring about the serious side at all. That's very seductive to me. I would feel fine making a picture like Sleeper tomorrow, but I get the feeling the audience would be disappointed. They expect something else from me now. But I wouldn't let that prevent my doing it. It would be just too much fun to make a real out-and-out junk kind of thing." With some regret, Allen found himself having to cut jokes out of Manhattan in the editing. "They were very funnyalways called up my travel agent and called it off at the last minute. It got to be a big joke among my friends. But I like Paris. It wouldn't kill me if someone said I would be forced to live there the rest of my life." In Paris, Allen plans to do "the exact same things" he does at home: drift around, eat and go to movies. Or maybe he won't. "If I get my predictable anxiety attack," Allen adds, "I'll get on the next plane and come right back to New York."

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