Woody Allen and his mighty aphrodites

Jasmine,a fallen New York socialite played by Cate Blanchett,is left emotionally brittle by the deceptions of her husband (Alec Baldwin),a philanderer and a financial huckster. Having fled to San Francisco to start anew,she is oblivious to the calamities that have stripped her of her station. She continues to be obsessed with class,status and knows how to pronounce Louis Vuitton for maximum annoyance. For all the illusions torn away from her by the end of Blue Jasmine,a comedy-drama by Allen,she stands as his latest distinctive female character in a roster full of them.

In the span of more than 40 of Allen’s films,including Annie Hall,Hannah and Her Sisters and Vicky Cristina Barcelona,strong and memorable women have become as much a hallmark of his movies as the venerable Windsor font in their credits. These are women who dominate,who struggle and love and fall apart,but they rarely conform to stereotypes.

Yet almost nothing connects these characters—who have been played by actresses including Diane Keaton,Dianne Wiest,Scarlett Johansson and Penélope Cruz—except that they have all sprung from the mind of the same filmmaker,one who professes no real insight into how he writes and casts his female characters but remains confident that he still knows how to create them.

“People have criticised me for being narcissistic,” Allen said. “For being a self-hating Jew. But not being able to create good women was not aimed at me very often.”

Allen may not wish to recall it,but his movies have also drawn charges of chauvinism and sexism,by detractors who have said they frequently depicted women as neurotics,shrews and prostitutes.

This chorus reached a climax of sorts in the 1990s,when acerbic films like Husbands and Wives and Deconstructing Harry were released and he had his notorious breakup with Mia Farrow,who discovered his relationship with her adopted daughter,Soon-Yi Previn,now Allen’s wife. Still,Allen has continued to create a steady supply of substantial roles for women,with Blanchett’s potent Blue Jasmine being the latest.

For successive generations of actresses,working in one of Allen’s films has become a kind of career validation. And for Allen,the phase of his career that began with the 2005 release of Match Point has seen him delve into female characters who are further removed from his familiar life experiences,and more interested in asserting their place in the world.

Allen,77,could not immediately account for why women figure prominently in his work except that,well,they interest him.

“They’re attractive,they’re complex,” he said. Allen credits his romance with Keaton that began in the 1970s with opening his eyes to the potential of female characters. “I started to appreciate her so much that I started writing from the woman’s point of view.”

Johansson affirmed Allen had a feminine side in him that longed to break out. “I believe Woody,at heart,would have been happiest to have been born as the classic opera diva,” she said. “He lives for dramatic flair,gossip,intrigue,crippling heartache and turmoil—just as long as it’s happening to someone else.”