Love defies analysis, says Woody Allen as he learns to live without his shrink

WOODY ALLEN, the film-maker and comic, now believes that the passion between a man and a woman can be so strong - whatever the circumstances - that it cannot be resisted, or controlled, even with the help of a therapist.

In his first filmed public interview for 35 years, the veteran Manhattan neurotic tells Michael Parkinson that the ministrations of an analyst are useless in such cases.

Allen, who left his long-standing partner Mia Farrow to live with her adopted daughter, Soon-yi, whom he later married, says that he gave up therapy because of his young wife and that his contentment with her has made treatment unnecessary.

While he refuses to speak in detail about the start of his relationship with Soon-yi Previn, what he does say about his feelings towards women is a clear reference to the affair, which has upset many of his fans.

Talking in London in front of a 350-strong invited television audience, Allen, 63, explains that his conclusions follow a recent decision to come out of analysis. He spent more than 40 years "on the couch" - sometimes visiting his therapist several times a week - yet he tells Parkinson he now regards the process as an irrelevance: quite something for a man who purportedly once had to consult his shrink over the decision to change over to cotton sheets from polyester.

A strong attraction between two people, Allen argues, will always defeat analysis and that is part of its beauty. One BBC employee who watched the show said he was surprised by how impassioned Allen became on that theme. "He was extremely lyrical and very romantic about it all and it was actually quite touching. He had obviously thought a lot about it, although he almost implies that if you put any man in close quarters with a 20-year-old who is not a blood relation, the results are pretty inevitable."

After his affair with Soon-yi, his long relationship with Farrow broke up. She went on to fight an acrimonious custody battle over their children.

A question on that subject from Parkinson provokes the comedian's anger. "He became quite cross and asked Parkinson why people are so morbidly curious about this part of his life," the observer said. "Although it was hard to tell whether his anger was a rehearsed defence and a good way of deflecting attention from his own behaviour."

Allen, who appears relaxed throughout the 50-minute interview, is keen to emphasise how happy he is these days. Wearing his customary dark cords and jumper (Farrow said he had a phobia about bright colours, such as pink), he discusses his love of New York, his admiration for his former girlfriend Diane Keaton and his disillusionment with analysis.

A BBC spokeswoman said both Parkinson and the producers regard Allen's interview as an international coup. "It was quite something because, although he has occasionally spoken to Barry Norman in the past, he has not talked in public about himself for many years," she said.

The show is due to be shown towards the end of the new series of Parkinson and it may form part of a rehabilitation campaign for Allen. While his last film, Deconstructing Harry, was bleak, a documentary last year, Wild Man Blues, was a fairly affectionate portrait.

In the interview Allen praises the acting of Kenneth Branagh and Leonardo DiCaprio, who star in his new film, Celebrity, and defends DiCaprio against the suggestion he is just a pretty face. He gets his biggest laugh when he says critics no longer bother him. "It is the same three people who come to see my movies in any case," he jokes.

When the talking has to stop, Focus, page 16