The story of the fictional guitarist Emmet Ray, in the film Sweet and Lowdown, traces the path that so many artists take in pursuit of their craft; it is not just fictional artists like Ray who leave a wake of tragedy behind them. Rather, there are artists in just about every genre, from the writer Poe to the painter Pollock to the musician Presley who have lost control of their own lives, ending up following their own pride to tragedy. Ray’s gifts are more than apparent on the stage, but he blows through money, uses woman after woman, and drinks so heavily that he misses performances from time to time. He falls in love with a mute woman named Hattie, but his ego pushes him toward a woman with higher social stature, and so he marries a socialite named Blanche. Blanche does not love, him, though – instead, she uses him to inspire her own writings; their relationship is rendered even more complex by the fact that he screams Hattie’s name in his sleep. Ray leaves Blanche and goes back to Hattie, making the assumption that she has always waited for him; however, she is happily married. Caught up in his ego, Ray is still feeling sorry for himself on a date at the movie’s end, playing a song that Hattie had loved, still thinking about her and using his new date as his audience. Ultimately, for the artist, the purpose of others is to be an audience, or a canvas – and not to interact as equals.
Response to Text
Ultimately, Woody Allen is just as dismissive of his own audience, and of the people around him, as the artist he portrays in Sweet and Lowdown. He believes that the response that people have to his films is much less important than the artistic process he uses to make those films. An analysis of the personal relationships that Allen has had shows that, just as Emmet Ray and so many artists before him have done, Allen also views others as spectators waiting to honor him, not as peers or equals.
