Why Did Woody Allen Change The Title?
Jeffrey Wells gets it right: ‘Woody Allen’s latest, an anthology piece set in Rome, once had a great title — “The Bop Decameron.” But under-educated people the world over said they didn’t understand what it meant, and so Allen went with “Nero Fiddled” — a mildly dreadful title. But the under-educated didn’t understand that one either. So now the film is called “To Rome With Love” — surely the drippiest that Allen has ever gone with in his 40-plus years of filmmaking.’ This is what happens when, after decades of meager grosses, you finally have a big hit (“Midnight In Paris“). You want another big hit, so you dumb down the title. I understand why Woody started doing movies no longer in New York but in every European cultural center. But at this point the overriding concept has gotten so formulaic that he may as well just title each movie “World Capital No. 3” and so on.
