Cross-cultural communication （49）　

49）A Jewish Theory through Woody Allen
I have liked Woody Allen since I was a medical student, so I have watched almost all of his films. When I went to the US as a resident in family medicine, I chose a hospital in Brooklyn, New York, partly because of his influence. He is not a very well-known filmmaker in Japan, so I will introduce him briefly.

Woody Allen was born in the Bronx, New York in 1935. However, he has lived in Brooklyn since he was old enough to remember. He dropped out of university and initially became active as a stand-up comedian. He later went into film, and in his early works he directed and starred in almost all of them. Many of his films are romantic stories about unattractive Jewish man who meets beautiful women by chance, but all of them have a certain low-key, melancholy humor. In addition, Jewish jokes and self-deprecating gags poking fun at his own Jewishness appear in his lines. If these were the works of a non-Jewish producer, they would almost certainly have been heavily criticized by the American Jewish community.

Up until the 1980s, Woody was reasonably well known in New York, but he was still a minor figure. Surprisingly, however, he was very popular in France from that time. In the 1990s, he had a relationship with a Korean woman, who was the adopted daughter of his partner at the time, Mia Farrow, and he even married her. Of course, Mia fell out of love with him, and he was also heavily criticized by the public. At that time, Woody escaped to Paris, where he was always warmly welcomed.

In 2000, he moved the setting of his films to Paris and other parts of Europe, and began to focus on directing, selecting young actors to play the lead roles. The young actors' natural talent and enthusiasm for his work made his films a worldwide hit, and he achieved great success at the box office. In the 2005 film “Match Point”, which was shot in London, the beautiful actress Scarlett Johansson plays a supporting role.

Now, are the Jewish jokes and self-deprecating gags that frequently appeared in Woody's early works common in the Jewish community in America, centered around New York? From my experience as a resident doctor at a hospital in Brooklyn, where the Jewish population was in the majority, during the three years of the 1980s, the answer is yes. The majority of the white patients, nurses and doctors in the area around the hospital were Jewish, and whenever you spoke to them, they would inevitably make a self-deprecating Jewish joke. But, even if by mistake, you must not say it yourself. Even if it's not as bad as the Anti-Defamation League, they will definitely give you a disgusted look.

My fellow resident, David, was a man who seemed to have been born with a mouth. He was also Jewish, and we would joke around with each other. During my rotation in behavioral science, there was a lecture on depression, and we learned that one of the main symptoms of depression is guilt (a sense of guilt and self-deprecation). On the way home from that lecture, David said, “There's no Jewish youth who doesn't feel guilty. Does that mean that all of us Jews are depressed?” and started laughing, satisfied with his joke.

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