Love (and Death?) of Woody’s Art : Movies: What effect will Allen’s personal problems have on his career? Some believe he will be punished professionally, others say the public can separate the man from his work.

To me, American serious pictures always have one foot in entertainment, and I like more personal drama, though there may not be a market for it.

--Woody Allen

Since Woody Allen and Mia Farrow began their bitter child-custody battle last August, the public has had a ringside seat. The court judgment came down clearly against Allen on Monday, but what is still unclear is how Allen’s movie career will fare against the unpredictable tide of public opinion.

The 10-month struggle began with Allen’s admission that he is romantically involved with Soon-Yi Previn, now 22, whom Farrow adopted with conductor Andre Previn. It ended with Farrow winning custody of adopted children Dylan, 7, and Moses, 15, and biological son Satchel, 5. A scathing judgment gave Allen only limited visitation rights.

In spite of the negative publicity, TriStar Chairman Michael Medavoy--who has worked with Allen for 19 years at Orion and TriStar--said his studio is committed to remaining an outlet for the actor-writer-director. Allen has a multipicture deal at TriStar that gives him tremendous control over the production and marketing of his films.

“I hope that people’s artistic careers stand on their own. I never asked, nor do I care, about any of the artists’ (personal lives)--whether you go back to Michelangelo, or Van Gogh, or, if you will, Charlie Chaplin. . . . Their artistic achievements end as their artistic achievements,” he said.

Art and life began to blur, especially in “Husbands and Wives,” which showed characters played by Allen and Farrow breaking up on screen, and Allen flirting with a much younger woman (played by Juliette Lewis). But neither that irony nor critical acclaim pulled in moviegoers.

TriStar launched the film within a month of the initial disclosure of the Allen-Farrow split, five days earlier than planned. Though it played on 865 screens, far more than any previous Allen movie, it only made $10.4 million in theaters.

Medavoy still feels Allen is a good investment for TriStar. “We are not a philanthropic organization in the sense that we’re going to support artists that we don’t feel are deserving. I’m very well aware of that fact,” he said. “I can’t afford to be a philanthropist with other people’s money.”

There have been no discussions, Medavoy said, about changing the release date for Allen’s next film, “Manhattan Murder Mystery,” which is supposed to be in theaters Aug. 20.

Historically, Allen’s movies have been nearly impossible to see before their release. TriStar has tested both of its Allen films, Medavoy said, but he didn’t remember if that was the policy at Orion. He said a Pasadena test audience responded “extraordinarily well” to the new romantic comedy-mystery that stars Allen, Diane Keaton, Anjelica Huston and Alan Alda. Some Hollywood executives said that a popular film would certainly help deflect any career damage, but that it was likely that Allen would be “punished” for his perceived indiscretions.

“A lot of what works about Woody Allen is people’s ability to identify with him . . . and you can’t identify with somebody that you don’t have any respect for,” one marketing executive said. “Maybe over time that will heal, but over the short term, he’s not as funny as he used to be--his old foibles feel a little hollow.”

Charles O. Glenn, who was head of marketing for Orion from mid-1984 to mid-1989, said Allen’s films, with the exception of “Hannah and Her Sisters,” have not played well outside urban centers. If Allen loses any viewers, it is likely to be the sometime fans, he said.

“His pictures, in the main, appeal to a very special Woody audience that has admired his filmmaking and couldn’t wait for the next Woody Allen picture to come out. But it was not a large audience, as audiences go,” said Glenn, who is currently the president of marketing for Bregman/Baer Productions Inc.

“I don’t think his popularity abroad, like in France and England, where his pictures play well, will decline greatly. If there is any decline, it will be in the United States because of our puritanical attitude on life and things,” he said, adding, “What happened in somebody’s personal life should not bear on what they do in their professional business.”

Eric Lax, author of “Woody Allen: A Biography,” said it is difficult to speculate what effect the media’s invasion into the director’s private life will have on his work.

“These are the sort of questions or facts that will be answered this year and next when the films come out. But my feeling is that the body of his work is so broad and so important, that it will withstand this or anything else,” Lax said.

Lax said the morality in Allen’s films--which deal with issues of religion, life, death and God--caused him to be doubly judged. The courtroom battle also seemed more dramatic because it was taken out of context, he said.

“What these two people (Allen and Farrow) were doing is no different than what millions of other people are doing every day,” he said. “The difference is the amount of publicity.”

Richard Jewell, an associate professor of film history at USC and self-declared Allen fan, said that Allen could have career trouble ahead if past controversies are any indication. The careers of Fatty Arbuckle, Charlie Chaplin and Roman Polanski were virtually ruined by such scandal.

“I think very much the same thing will happen to (Allen) that happened to Chaplin, where he was able to come back many years later a champion and collect the accolades he had earned,” Jewell said. “History will have proved him to be the most important film artist of his time.”

Teri Redman, a high school teacher from Santa Monica and fan of Woody Allen since she saw the 1971 comedy “Bananas,” said she loves his work, “but as an individual, I have a very difficult time separating a person from his art.”

“When he used to put his neuroses on the screen and we laughed at it, I didn’t think in my wildest imagination that he would carry that over into his private life . . . I don’t think I’ll ever look at him the same way again,” she said.

What bothers her most is not his infidelity, but his admitted relationship with Soon-Yi Previn. “I think he’s going to have problems for a long time to come. In fact, the people on the West Coast are the most forgiving . . . our values are just a little more allowing. This has become acceptable in Los Angeles.”

People in middle America, she suspects, will be far less forgiving. “That might play in L.A., but that ain’t going to play in Kansas,” she said.

Another big fan, Jason Winston, 22, said, “I have always been able to separate Woody Allen’s art from his personal life. I’ve always thought his films reflect his personal life, but I can appreciate them as films.”

Winston, who said he’s in line the first week a new Allen film comes out, doesn’t believe any of the allegations of child abuse and was surprised by the judge’s ruling.

“I thought there had been a fairly bad portrayal of Farrow in the media, to the point that she (seemed) vindictive and a little insane, albeit a great actress. If I had been the judge, I don’t think I would have given either of them custody,” he said.

Marshall Brickman, who co-wrote “Annie Hall,” “Manhattan” and the upcoming “Manhattan Murder Mystery,” said the people who will have a problem with Allen’s future movies are probably the same ones who had problems with them before.

Allen is “one of America’s premier filmmakers,” he said. “I find it hard to believe that the quality of the work is going to change because of the judgment of a hysterical judge.

“Obviously, I’m a friend and a colleague, and I think he got a bad judgment,” Brickman said. “One of the problems with the sophistication of the media lately is that the temperature of any particular situation is taken every 30 seconds, so that you really lose the larger picture. . . . If people wait some time, things may be seen differently.”