Allen says Hollywood will avoid terrorism

Allen often appears in his own movies

Hollywood will avoid making films about terrorism in America, according to celebrated director and actor Woody Allen.

But he believes independent film makers will see the US attacks in New York and Washington as "fair game".

Allen was speaking during a rare public appearance at the National Film Theatre in London as he promotes his new film Curse of the Jade Scorpion.

Allen, a native New Yorker, said he did not think he would be touching the subject in future films, because his movies are about comedy and the human psyche.

Allen appears with Hunt in Curse of the Jade Scorpion

He said: "I think there will be a lot of trepidation in commercial cinema about that subject matter, I am sure the people in Hollywood, whose main drive in films is to make money, would feel any reference or use of the word hijack or any reference to anything violent or remotely associated to that terrible tragedy would lose customers for them.

Insight

"That will be the only criterion that would matter and so they will force the minions that work for them to remove these things from their movies or not make movies about that subject.

"But any of the genuine artists working in film could very, very likely have ideas and inspiration that revolve around this tragedy or any tragic event and they won't hesitate to make the films because what is important to them is not the box office but confronting the problem and trying to have some sort of insight into the problem."

Allen, whose films include Annie Hall, Hannah and Her Sisters and Radio Days, confessed his ambition is to make one great film.

"I thought it was going to happen at one point in my life, I thought if I kept making films sooner or later it would happen by sheer quantity, " he said.

Fame

"But I am starting to think that I am going to have a body of work that ranges from so-so to decent, but never great."

He told the audience he never watched his own films after release, preferring to move on and "walk away from the damage".

Allen also opened up about the pressures of fame.

Allen had a bitter child custody battle with Mia Farrow

His own tangled love life was the subject of much media coverage after it was discovered he was having an affair with his then-partner Mia Farrow's adopted daughter Soon-Yi.

The pair have since married.

But Allen said: "I cringe. I have a very tough time with it. It is not something that comes naturally to me. I have gotten better at it but it's not my strong suit."

He also attempted to put the record straight about persistent stories that his films are autobiographical.

'Senseless'

"I have been telling people for years that there is not a huge similarity between me on screen and in real life," he added.

He added during an interview with the BBC's Hardtalk with Tim Sebastian that he was surprised at the "irrationality" of the attacks.

"It was just a senseless slaughter of thousands of people and it advanced no real agenda," he said.

"No oppressed people were liberated by it. Nothing happened. No demands were made. It was just a crazy act of random murder. We were surprised by that," he said.

He added that he was not pessimistic about the future, however.

'Settle problems'

"It's a terrible problem but terrorism is a problem that will be ameliorated, eradicated eventually," he said.

"Hopefully, the roots of it will be understood one day and hopefully, people will not want to do this to one another, people will not want to settle their problems and won't even think of killing people senselessly," he added.

Allen has also chosen his top 10 films of all time and they will be shown at the NFT in October.

Akira Kurosawa's Rashomon, three Ingmar Bergman films from Sweden, two by French director Jean Renoir and two apiece by Italians Vittorio De Sica and Federico Fellini are on the list.