It is not funny: Woody Allen and Film Society of Lincoln Center boss Richard Pena (Photo: Evan Agostini/Getty Images)

Admittedly, I wish I had been a little more proactive in trying to scale the walls at Lincoln Center for Monday night's Woody Allen event. Nature abhors a vacuum, however, and as such, Gawker and Variety bring us some of Allen's cynical homicide from Match Point's pre-screening discussion.

To wit, from Variety:

Helmer also said that although he "still loves" Gotham, he didn't mind London, where the pic was shot. "London is a city that is comparable to New York -- it's not like I was filming in the middle of the desert."

Allen also displayed his legendary pessimism at the event, a tribute to him. "I think there are small oases when we forget the abysmal nightmare of human existence, like a cold drink on a very hot day. I don't have a good feeling about" -- he took a reflective breath and looked around the auditorium --"anything at all."

Yikes--although being at the Walter Reade Theater usually stems my misanthropy for at least a little while. At least he "still loves" New York. Nevertheless, this is me, wincing.

Gawker, on the other hand, wielded a little more critical eye:

We are pleased to report that Woody in person looks precisely like Woody on film — the same delivery, the hand gestures, and same voice, the same baggy sportscoat and khakis, the same self-deprecation.

We are less pleased to report that the Q&A was largely a bust. ... The moderator, Film Society of Lincoln Center official Wendy Keys, arrived with a list of relatively banal questions — Where do you get your ideas? Does writing a film bring you pleasure? — from which she never deviated. (She did provide an unintentional highlight when she exuberantly welcomed the crowd to the Film Society’s “Big Woody Night,” which, briefly, suggested a film much more interesting than the one we expected.)

Indeed, everybody pretty much liked the movie, which is all set for a Christmas Day release. The irony of this is not lost on Gawker, which notes, "One imagines a cross-promotional deal will be worked out with the Ollie’s Chinese-restaurant chain and marketed through New York-area synagogues." I could not have said it much better myself.