Sweet and Lowdown (1999)

Director:

Woody Allen

Writer (WGA):

Woody Allen (written by)

Release Date:

26 January 2000 (France)

Genre:

Comedy | Music

Plot:

In the 1930s, fictional jazz guitarist Emmet Ray idolizes Django Reinhardt, faces gangsters and falls in love with a mute.

Plot Keywords:

Jazz | Train | 1930s | Gangster | Rat

Awards:

Nominated for 2 Oscars. Another 1 win & 11 nominations

Cast

Woody Allen	...	Himself
Ben Duncan	...	Himself
Daniel Okrent	...	A.J. Pickman
Dan Moran	...	Boss
Tony Darrow	...	Ben
Chris Bauer	...	Ace - Pool Player
Sean Penn	...	Emmet Ray
Constance Shulman	...	Hazel - Hooker #1
Kellie Overbey	...	Iris - Hooker #2
Darryl Alan Reed	...	Don
Marc Damon Johnson	...	Omer
Ron C. Jones	...	Alvin (as Ron Cephas Jones)
Steve Bargonetti	...	Musician Friend
Benjamin Franklin Brown	...	Musician Friend
James Urbaniak	...	Harry

Also Known As:

Woody Allen Fall Project 1998 (USA) (working title)

MPAA:

Rated PG-13 for sexual content and some substance abuse.

Runtime:

95 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Sound Mix:

Dolby Digital (Mono)

Certification:

Singapore:PG | Iceland:L | Australia:PG | Finland:S | France:U | Germany:12 | Netherlands:AL | Norway:11 | Portugal:M/12 | Spain:13 | Sweden:7 | Switzerland:12 (canton of Geneva) | Switzerland:12 (canton of Vaud) | UK:PG | USA:PG-13

Filming Locations:

Fresh Pond Rail Yards, Queens, New York City, New York, USA

Company:

Magnolia Productions

Trivia:

The scene towards the end of the film in which Emmet Ray is drunk in a New York bar was filmed in "Chumleys," a bar on Bedford Street in Greenwich Village.

Goofs:

Revealing mistakes: The guitar that Emmett destroys at the end of the movie is (thankfully) not a genuine Selmer Maccaferri. The shattered fragments clearly show a bolt-on neck. The genuine instruments used a bolt during construction, but this bolt was removed before the guitar was completed, leaving an empty hole. (The instrument actually destroyed was a disposable prop created by Michael Dunn.)

Quotes:

Blanche: What do you think of when you play? What goes through your mind?
Emmet Ray: Yeah, that I'm underpaid. I think about that sometimes.

Movie Connections:

Referenced in This Filthy World (2006)

Soundtrack:

Abide with Me

For The Love Of Django

When we try to understand genius, or love, or "why?", we run into the same problem that the ancients encountered:

"I went to the poets … I took them some of the most elaborate passages in their own writings, and asked what was the meaning of them — thinking that they would teach me something. I must say that there is hardly a person present who would not have talked better about their poetry than they did themselves. That showed me in an instant that not by wisdom do poets write poetry, but by a sort of genius and inspiration; they are like diviners or soothsayers who also say many fine things, but do not understand the meaning of them." — Socrates, The Apology

So here we have Woody telling a story about a storyteller, who talks and struts endlessly (Penn has a ball with this), but can only say anything through music, and he can't explain a bit of it. Much like Woody, who prattles on about every neurosis, but speaks volumes through his control of the medium. It's just something he's born to do.

And this is the only way to understand Django -- with only two working fingers on his fretting hand (accidental disfigurement), he reinvented the whole medium of guitar. The new shape of his hand forced him into holding octaves - which can be done on guitar with two adjacent fingers, unlike on the piano - and changing the way leads and comping - here, self-accompaniment - were played. His art was the necessary step before Les Paul, and thence to Wes Montgomery, and so on to you and me.

Here is devotion without hagiography, because all of this is wrapped into "one of those Emmett Ray stories", where you can 'never be sure' of what is truth, confabulation, or exaggeration.

Brilliance. Bravo, to all.