10 Best Films About Writer's Block

10. Deconstructing Harry

Woody Allen's late 90's work can generously be described as spotty. In this 1997 film, the director/actor plays Harry Block, a successful author about to be honoured at a University from which he was once expelled while working on a semi-autobiographical novel. Worse, he is suffering from his namesake while trying to distract a distressed, suicidal ex with a brand new story - a kind of neurotic Sherherezad.

Along the way, segments of Block's fiction serve as flashbacks along a roadtrip with a prostitute and his son. These vignettes also blend in with his own reality, serving as semi-autobiographical examinations of his own damaged psyche. By the end of Harry's own personal dilemma, he's literally slid out of focus, overtaken by a blurry image.

A few segments are late-period Allen's best work, like Robin William's out-of-focus actor and Billy Crystal's Satan. It's one of Allen's more open-ended comedies, and surprisingly personal for such a prolific writer. Yet the question still lingers: can one who functions so well in art manage to do so in their personal life?

Ask Ronan Farrow.