The artist's job is not to succumb to despair but to find an antidote for the emptiness of existence.

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He began to call himself Woody Allen. Allen Keaton and Roberts would reprise their roles in the film version of the play directed by Herbert Ross. 1980s
Allen's 1980s films even the comedies have somber and philosophical undertones with their influences being the works of European directors specifically Ingmar Bergman and Federico Fellini.

By the mid-1960s Allen was writing and directing films first specializing in slapstick comedies before moving into more dramatic material influenced by European art cinema during the 1970s. In the early 1960s Allen started performing as a stand-up comic emphasizing monologues rather than traditional jokes. Critic Roger Ebert has described Allen as "a treasure of the cinema".