Got Woody?

Today marks the 70th birthday of Allen Konigsberg, more well known to us as Woody Allen. One of the greatest American film makers and my favorite, Woody Allen has a career marked with great successes and failures yet still holds up as one of the most thought-provoking and insightful filmmakers in the history of Hollywood.
I've been accused of being an Allen fanatic; like but not on the level of a Bruce fanatic. I'll gladly keep the label. Sheerly brilliant, Allen in his films has been able to capture the essence of life's experiences. Struggles and failures, joys and pains, Allens characters and stories portray them all. Of course, Allen's worlds are fantasy lands; where else would we find people who constantly quote their favorite authors and poets, where else do women absolutely worship Cole Porter, Benny Goodman and Humphrey Bogart; finally, where is this Manhattan, since possibly only one-tenth of one-percent can afford to live in the apartments and neighborhoods of New York City?
None of this matters; what does is the question of one's happiness in a world where God either is clearly present or possibly absent; love blooms and fades and people either hold on or lose it; the universe is truly chaotic and at random and therefore it takes effort to make your way through the craziness called living that even those who get lost succeed. Taking Allen's truely greatest films and you'll see issues that make people uncomfortable: infidelity, lust, love, trust, longing, and understanding. Characters, sometimes as wooden and stilted as a singular person throughout most of his films, all have completely realistic aspects that one can strongly identify with. His films have often determined my moods or mindsets for days on end; sometimes I can't get my head around plotlines, brilliant dialogue and funny one-liners that I'll use as my own and even sometimes his films make me question what I have often either considered true or right. True art makes us do just those things.
I've already rambled on about my favorite Woody Allen films and won't tonight. I will encourage others to watch his films and get back to me as to whether they agree or not. I'm open and sympathetic to each and every anti-Allen diatribe. Find a filmmaker from the last four decades that still currently makes films and I'll put Woody's up to them any day. He'll win, too.