May 21–28, 1998

20 questions

Barbara Kopple

Interview by Sam Adams

		Direct Talk: Woody Allen and Barbara Kopple

Barbara Kopple made her name chronicling the history of the downtrodden, winning an Oscar for her devastating portrait of a Kentucky miners' strike with Harlan County, USA (1976) and revisiting the subject of labor struggles with American Dream (1990). Wild Man Blues, her latest "non-fiction film," focuses on an altogether more privileged subject: Woody Allen. Following Allen and his jazz band around Europe during a three-week tour, Blues delves deep into the life of the famously reclusive Allen, and includes some fascinating sequences of interaction between Allen and Soon-Yi Previn, his controversial bride and former foster daughter. Kopple, 51, is currently putting the finishing touches on Generations, a portrait of the Woodstock generation and their Woodstock 2-going offspring, and a pair of fiction features. She spoke from the Manhattan offices of her production company, Cabin Creek Films.

How did you become involved with Wild Man Blues?

It was not something I came up with. I was sitting in my office and a friend of mine from Chicago named Jim Stern called, who's a really prominent theater producer. He said, "Would you like to go on tour with Woody Allen?" and I said, "Yeah, right." It was 23 days, 18 cities on a jazz tour, and I said, "I'm game." Two days later, Woody's sister Letty Aaronson called and said, "Would you like to meet Woody?" So I went over to his apartment and the two of us just sat and talked for maybe 30 or 40 minutes—not one word about the tour. Nothing. We were talking about everything, probably even the weather. All this time was passing, and I figured eventually one of us would have to say something about the film, and it would probably have to be me. So I just said, "Woody, are you looking forward to this tour?" and suddenly he woke up and said, "No! I don't want to go. It was put together two years ago, I'm going to cities I've never been to in my life, I have work to do here. I don't want to go." And that just thrilled me, because I knew it was probably going to be a very interesting trip.

How was it dealing with a subject who's not known for opening up about himself? How did you develop a rapport?

We worked 16 to 18 hours a day, so that part of it was horrible, grueling. The crew and I would say to each other, "We're never doing this again." We wouldn't even get to sit at a table and eat, we'd have to grab a sandwich and run. I had Woody wired all the time with a wireless mike, so we'd always know what he was doing and what he was up to. Woody was great. He didn't necessarily know when I was rolling. He'd given us total access to shoot everything, and he was fine. He just got used to us. The trauma for him was being in these different cities he didn't know anything about. He wouldn't know if there were paparazzi around the corner or fans screaming, what was in store for him. Even simple things like where he was going to do his laundry, or where he was going to eat, he couldn't figure out. Those were the things that really captivated him, and we were like nothing. He didn't think about us very much at all.

When you set out to make a movie like this, how much do you determine your angle in advance?

I always do a lot of research, and then I end up throwing it out the window, because real life takes over and you don't know where it's going to lead you. But I knew I wanted to do a film about who Woody is, at least on this 23-day tour, and I knew I wanted to do a film about what his relationship with Soon-Yi was. So that was where a lot of my focus was.

So much of documentary making is editing. With a performer like Woody, who's already established his own rhythms, did you find yourself wanting to cut to his rhythms instead of your own?

Our first cut of the film was 11 and a half hours, so we ended up having to whittle it down and whittle it down. Woody was funny all the time, it wasn't as if it was at a particular time. When I was doing sound, I would be doubled over with laughter, and I'd have to try and laugh inwardly and hope it wouldn't get on the soundtrack.

Were there moments that really surprised you?

One of the things that surprised me was watching Soon-Yi. I'd never heard her speak before. I'd seen all the news stuff and pictures; you just saw her with Woody, holding his hand. On this trip, she was alive, she was a woman in her own right. She was saying things to Woody that maybe he didn't agree with, but they were certainly very truthful. She kept him on the go and would take him out to places, where he'd probably have preferred to stay in his hotel room. I also think the scene with his folks was pretty wonderful, because even Woody Allen, when he goes home, he becomes a child. Here's this very brilliant guy, and he's turning into a 12-year-old, with his mom saying she'd like him to fall in love with a nice Jewish girl. Or his father saying maybe he would have made more money if he'd have been a druggist.

Wild Man Blues will be opening on Friday, May 22, at the Ritz at the Bourse.