From gag writer to Oscar winner and beyond

Woody Allen began his career writing jokes and scripts, progressed to stand-up and acting, then wrote and directed his first film, Take the Money and Run, in 1969. Like many of his early works, this screwball comedy starred Allen as a hapless, self-demeaning schlemiel who bumbles his way through preposterous and hilarious situations. After winning an Oscar for Annie Hall in 1977, Allen made Manhattan, Stardust Memories, and Hannah and Her Sisters, mining a deeper and more subtle humor based on personality and psychology. His later work revealed a poignant mix of tragi-comedy, charm and fantasy with The Purple Rose of Cairo, the nostalgia of Radio Days, the multiple plots of Crimes and Misdemeanors, and the bittersweet tone of Alice. The success of his recent Match Point, a tense, psychological drama, is proof that Allen is not yet through reinventing himself as a filmmaker.

The Movie Icon series: People talk about Hollywood glamour, about studios that had more stars than there are in heaven, about actors who werent actors but were icons. Other people talk about these things, TASCHEN shows you. Movie Icons is a series of photo books that feature the most famous personalities in the history of cinema. These 192-page books are visual biographies of the stars. For each title, series editor Paul Duncan has painstaking selected approximately 150 high quality enigmatic and sumptuous portraits, colorful posters and lobby cards, rare film stills, and previously unpublished candid photos showing the stars as they really are. These images are accompanied by concise introductory essays by leading film writers; each book also includes a chronology, a filmography, and a bibliography, and is peppered with apposite quotes from the movies and from life.