Woody: 'Sad' sums me up

Woody Allen has confessed that one word sums up his life - "sad".

And he claims he is saddest of all because he has never made a film masterpiece.

The director, whose latest movie Match Point, starring Scarlett Johansson, is released next month, says: "I'm not so great as I thought, or hoped, I'd be.

"I was sad when I faced up to that. The only thing standing between me and greatness is me. A masterpiece isn't in me."

Allen, who turned 70 this year, says he is pleased with Match Point - his first feature shot in London.

"Usually I'm not, so it's a great step forward," he admits.

But, he tells Radio Times, he is less pleased with his follow-up effort, Scoop, also filmed in London and starring Johansson. The director, now poised to shoot a third feature in the capital, is also scathing about people who claim the film industry is a risky business.

"Risky in real life is tunnelling out of Auschwitz," he says.

Allen, who famously left first wife Mia Farrow for their adopted 21-year-old daughter Soon Yi and is now estranged from their son Seamus, says despite his successes he remains relentlessly pessimistic.

"If you talk about my life, I'd say 'sad' is the best word to describe every aspect of it," he says. "What is 'success' in the big picture? It hasn't rendered me immortal."

The full interview appears in the New Year issue of Radio Times, out today.