In his memoir, “Apropos of Nothing,” Woody Allen recalls having some of his films distributed by Harvey Weinstein. Indeed, three of Woody’s biggest box office successes were sent to theaters via Miramax: “Bullets Over Broadway,” “Vicki Cristina Barcelona,” and “Mighty Aphrodite.” Each was a box office hit and scored many Academy Awards.
Woody writes:
Once, when Harvey Weinstein was distributing Everyone
Says I Love You, a film he bought for a lot of money, he saw,
hated, and asked me to take out the word motherfucker from
the rap song. I explained that I wasn’t going to do that. He
said if I would just cut that one word the movie, a musical,
could play Radio City Music Hall. I said I understand, but
I don’t make films to accommodate movie houses.
Incidentally,
despite what was printed in the newspapers, Harvey never produced any movies of mine. Never backed me. He only distributed a few already completed films and distributed
them well. In addition to Harvey’s skill at distributing,
he had an eye for offbeat, artsy movies and presented a
number of them. Still, I would never have allowed Harvey
to back or produce a film of mine because he was a hands-on
producer who changed and recut a director’s movie. We
never could have worked together.
