Woody Allen has branded his acclaimed movie Manhattan a disappointment, insisting his script was "too preachy".
The complex 1979 romantic comedy was a huge critical hit, garnering two Oscar nominations and a British Academy of Film and Television Arts (BAFTA) award for Best Film. It was also placed on the US National Film Registry after America's Library of Congress deemed it to have cultural significance.
But despite the movie's plaudits, Allen is adamant he would write the screenplay differently if he was to shoot the film again.
... But Woody wasn't happy
He tells the Associated Press, "When I saw it, I was not crazy about it. To this day, I have memories of it as being disappointing to me. I'm not saying it wasn't beautifully filmed - it was (cinematographer) Gordon Willis, shot in black in white - and the people were good. But the writing was too preachy, too self-righteous. That's one of the reasons I thought (2001 film) Match Point was a good film, because it wasn't preachy or self-righteous. It just was what it was."
The work of Woody Allen has recently been chronicled in a documentary by Emmy Award-winner Robert Weide, who reports in the film how the director was so convinced he'd botched Manhattan when he completed it, that he offered to make his next film for the studio, for free. They refused.
Here's a little taster of Manhattan, where Woody describes what makes life worth living, for all those millions of fans who can't remember just how bad, preachy, "botched" it is...