Who shot the seagull? Anton Chekhov's influence on Woody Allen's Bullets Over Broadway
1998; Salisbury University; Volume: 26; Issue: 3 Linguagem: Inglês
ISSN
0090-4260
Autores Tópico(s)Musicology and Musical Analysis
Resumowasn't equal to it. But maybe next time will be, or maybe it will take me five more tries. But it's the goal that's important. With these kinds of films you're talking about the highest kind of achievement-like that of O'Neill, Chekhov, Bergman . . . Maybe now that I've moved into my fifties and am more confident, can come up with a couple that are true literature. -Woody Allen (Lax 371-72) Woody Allen, despite his lack of a formal education, has always seemed to be well-versed in Russian literature. There are, for example, numerous references to Tolstoy and Dostoevsky throughout his work. In Bullets Over Broadway, he owes a special debt to Chekhov in terms of plot, characterization, and the creative life of the Russian writer and playwright that resonates throughout the film. The infrastructure and themes of Bullets resemble most closely Chekhov's first major play, The Seagull. Prominent features of both are the struggles of young writers and actresses, numerous love triangles, debates about art and the artist, two writers with different talents and destinies who are in love with leading ladies,l an overbearing grande dame of the theater, a play within each work, concluding gun shots, and final revelations from those characters capable of seeing themselves and their circumstances for what they truly are. The theatrical spirit of the film is reinforced as well through Allen's decision to frame most of his scenes in long-shot (as if we are watching a play through a proscenium).2 Bullets opens with David Shayne (John Cusack) declaring to his agent Julian Marx3 (Jack Warden), an artist and won't change a word of my play to pander to some commercial Broadway audience.4 To Marx's objections that he cannot afford another financial failure, David declares, It's the theater's duty not just to entertain, but to transform men's souls. Chekhov's Treplev is just as earnest as he describes the open-air theater upon which his play involving the world soul will be staged: There's a theatre for you! Just the curtain and the two wings and beyond it-open space. No scenery. You have an unimpeded view of the lake and the horizon. We'll raise the curtain at half past nine when the moon comes up.5 Just as David pursues his mission by staging God of Our Fathers, Treplev's work is a challenge to his mother's theatrical world. He says: Moreover, she knows that have no use for the theatre. She loves the theatre, she imagines that she's serving humanity. whereas in my opinion the theatre of today is in a rut, and full of prejudices and conventions. When see the curtain rise on a room with three walls, when watch these great and talented people, these high priests of a sacred art depicting the way people eat, drink, make love, walk about and wear their clothes, in the artificial light of the stage; when hear them trying to squeeze a moral out of the tritest words and emptiest scenes-some petty little moral that's easy to understand and suitable for use in the home; when I'm presented with a thousand variations of the same old time, the same again and again-well, just have to escape, run away as Maupassant ran away from the Eiffel Tower which so oppressed him with its vulgarity. (123) David begins his work on a hopeful note. He writes, Monday, September 10. Today rehearsals began and have decided to keep a journal. Perhaps my experience will be of value to others just as have poured over with relish the notes of my idols, Chekhov and Strindberg. And in keeping with Treplev's need for Nina to be exactly on time and to deliver his lines on the makeshift stage, David initially is adamant about his casting choices. He calls the mob moll Olive (Jennifer Tilly) a thing and refuses to consider her for the role of the psychiatrist. When David does capitulate to guarantee funding for the production, he tries to set a professional tone it the first rehearsal when she is accompanied by Cheech the bodyguard (Chazz Palminteri): I don't like other people watching rehearsals, generally as a rule, because the actors are very sensitive. …
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