Reading Comprehension

PT128 · S4 · P2 · Q8 Woody Allen

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ln filmmaker Woody Allen's Deconstructing Harry, the writer Harry Block is presented as extremely neurotic and narcissistic.

Topic

Woody Allen's films

Framework

Noteworthy Figure/Phenomenon

Main Point

A theme present throughout Allen's career is critiquing people whose lives are dedicated to and obsessed with art.

Summary

P1 - Example 1, Deconstructing Harry

This paragraph opens with a vignette of this movie's central character, and then we get our Purpose Pivot in the 3rd sentence.

While the narcissism is exaggerated for comic effect, the effect is not simply comic: this film is emblematic of Allen's career.

In Noteworthy Figure passages, we're attuned for moments that sound like the author is crystallizing the essence of the artist. What was their unique angle / style / voice all about? So this sentence looks like an early nominee for our Most Valuable Sentence.

P2 - Example 2, Stardust Memories

This paragraph begins with "For instance", so we know it's supposed to be illustrating a Big Idea we just heard. We would remind ourselves of the big idea merely documenting their private suffering and fobbing it off as art", and our author suggests in the final line of this paragraph that Woody Allen probably struggles with this himself, worrying that he himself is guilty of this critique.

P3 - Example 3, Manhattan

Our first sentence again reinforces our main theme: a denigratory (to denigrate is to insult / debase) take on the artistic enterprise.

The themes in this movie again involve pretentious, narcissistic artists who try to turn their own woes into tragic art.

P4 - No Cause, No Effect strengtheners

This last paragraph provides a handful of examples to demonstrate that when Allen's characters are not narcissistic artists, he portrays them much more happily and gives them good outcomes in the story.

8.

It can most reasonably be inferred that which one of the following principles underlies the author's argument regarding Allen's films?

  1. Critics should consider not only

    Out of Scope: artistic merit

    This author was pretty neutral in describing Woody's motif. She never indicated she thought it was insightful, new, tiresome, etc. So her argument didn't involve any principle of "how you judge a film's merit".

    28% picked this

  2. People who are not themselves

    Unclear Impact

    Is our author herself an artist? We have no idea. If she isn't, then this answer would say that she shouldn't even have written this passage.

    1% picked this

  3. Correct

    The fate that a character

    Why this is right

    This is very mildly phrased, so it's easy to agree with. It certainly isn't a principle underlying the bulk of the passage, but it sort of explains how the last paragraph relates to the previous three paragraphs. The author is building a case that a motif throughout Allen's films was to mock snobby artist types. The author tries to further illustrate that main contention by showing us that Allen doesn't mock nonartistic types. The evidence for that is that the nonartistic characters tend to have happier outcomes (the fate that character meets in the movie). The beginning of the last paragraph is saying, "It is also significant that in Allen's films, the less artistic the characters, the more likely their narrative is to result in a happy ending." Is that also significant? It only relates to what we've been talking about so far if "the likelihood of resulting in a happier outcome is indicative of the filmmaker's approval / disapproval of that character".

    Skill tested: Principle · how this choice captures the passage's function is the move to repeat next time.

    67% picked this

  4. The writer of a film's

    Out of Scope: writer of screenplay

    I don't know how this answer was pretending to be relevant, other than the outside knowledge trap for people who know that Woody Allen usually writes and directs his films (but that's never said in the passage). Our author is never talking about who wrote the screenplay vs. other contributors to a film. The only contributor we talk about is Woody Allen.

    3% picked this

  5. Prior work of a film's

    Out of Scope

    Out of Scope: cast members' prior work This passage never talks about what other roles the actors in Woody Allen movies had portrayed before they appeared in a Woody Allen film.

    1% picked this

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