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In this week’s edition of Canon Of Film, we take a look at one of Woody Allen‘s most popular films, ‘Crimes and Misdemeanors’. For the story behind the genesis of the Canon, you can click here.

Crimes And Misdemeanors (1989)

Director/Screenwriter: Woody Allen

Part dark tragedy, part dark comedy, or is it all comedy? It’s certainly all dark to say the least. Considered by almost everybody as one of Woody Allen’s very best films (although I’m not sure Woody would agree), ‘Crimes and Misdemeanors’, wasn’t his first dramatic film, that was the Ingmar Bergman-esque ‘Interiors,’ and it certainly wasn’t his last comedy, yet it clearly represents the moment in Allen’s career when he started to abandon comedy in favor of drama and tragedy. Well, maybe “abandon,” is the wrong word, but he certainly began to lose interest in comedy around here.

Ethan Hawke’s directorial debut profiles the wit and wisdom of pianist and teacher Seymour Bernstein

Actor and writer Ethan Hawke makes his (somewhat overdue) directorial debut with a documentary that, despite its title, is nothing to do with Jd Salinger: instead, it’s an admiringly respectful profile of former concert pianist Seymour Bernstein, who now devotes his time to teaching. Hawke’s interest in Bernstein – a gentle, owlish figure in his late 80s – doesn’t seem to be specifically musical, but more as a repository of life-manual wisdom for those who, like Hawke, are trying to live the artistic existence. (Though few are as confounded by matinee-idol looks and successful acting careers as Hawke is.) This film makes for a pleasant, engaging experience, with Bernstein coming across rather like Louis Levy, the subject of Clifford Stern’s film in Woody Allen’s Crimes and Misdemeanors, complete with donnish American-Yiddish accent.

Broadway Choral directorarranger Chapman Roberts has created a blockbuster evening of Broadway showstoppers featuring and award winning all male cast that include Norm Lewis, Andre DeShields, Ben Vereen, Keith David, Larry Marshall, Keith Robinson, Ted Louis Levy, Omar Edwards, Frank Owens, and Longineu Parsons being held in the Queensborough Performing Arts Center located at Queensborough Community College 222-05 56th Avenue, Bayside, New York.