Woody's Dark Outlook Still Inspires Him

Woody Allen has inspired more than 40 years of laughs, but remains down on life, Newsweek reports. “I don't want to depress you,” he says, “but it's a meaningless little flicker.” Some say his new film, Vicky Cristina Barcelona, celebrates the pleasures of the flesh, but Allen differs. “You have a meal, or you listen to a piece of music, and it's a pleasurable thing,” he says. “But it doesn't accrue to anything.”

Yet he still enjoys comedy—his next film will be a laffer starring Larry David—and sees entertainment as an antidote to life. "You could argue that the Fred Astaire film is performing a greater service than the Bergman film," he said. "Fred Astaire, you walk in off the street, and for an hour and half they're popping champagne corks and making light banter and you get refreshed, like a lemonade." (More Woody Allen stories.)