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‘Allen v Farrow’: the 5 most disturbing revelations from the HBO docuseries
This post contains spoilers for HBO’s “Allen v. Farrow” episodes 1-4. The story of Woody Allen and his adopted daughter Dylan Farrow is not new, but the HBO documentary series “Allen v. Farrow” brought to light new details about the high profile sexual abuse charges against the filmmaker and family home videos never seen before that seem to support the claims of Dylan and his mother, Mia Farrow. Now, with the release of “Allen v. Farrow ”, the audience hears directly from Farrow, both 35 and 7 years old, while she details her experiences with Allen and his“ intense affection ”for her“ all the time ”. Shortly after the first episode of the four-part docuseries, which premiered last Sunday, Allen and Soon-Yi Previn – none of whom participated in the series – called the work “a hatchet riddled with lies”. Allen also repeatedly denied molesting Dylan Farrow, who first shared his account as an adult, in an opinion piece in 2014. Read also: Why Mia Farrow is ‘scared’ by Woody Allen’s reaction to HBO’s Allen docuseries vs. Farrow ‘Here are the five most disturbing lessons in the series. Allen developed an “intense” interest in Dylan and put his head on his lap, nestled in it in his underwear. Dylan Farrow remembers how Allen knelt in front of her as a child, put his face in her lap and cradled her on the bed wearing only his underwear. These interactions were also witnessed by a family friend, the nanny of a family friend and Mia Farrow. “I remember sitting on the edge of the bed, the light in the bedroom, the satin sheets. There were clarinet reeds. I have memories of going to bed with him. He was in his underwear, and I was in his underwear, hugging. I remember your breath on me. He would just wrap his body around me very intimately, ”recalls Dylan. “Every time he showed up at the apartment, like a magnet, he came right at me. Intense affection, all the time. ”Courtesy of HBO While disturbing home images, a 7-year-old Dylan says Allen“ touched [her] privates ”The docuseries is full of homemade images that Mia has filmed of the family over the years. Several videos show Dylan, aged 7, explaining that Allen touched her in the attic of Farrow’s Connecticut home. “He touched my private parts,” said a young Dylan after Mia asked her what happened. “And then he was breathing on my leg.” Dylan interrupts to indicate where, before saying, “He squeezed me so hard that I couldn’t breathe.” When Mia asks her to explain where he touched her, Dylan points to the space between her legs. She then tells her mother how Allen took her to the attic. Also read: Dylan Farrow speaks after the premiere of ‘Allen v Farrow’, tells ‘fellow survivors’ that they ‘are not alone’ “He said, ‘How about a time between father and daughter?’ And then I said, ‘Well, OK,’ ”Dylan continues on another video recorded by Farrow. “We went to your room and went to the attic. Then he started telling me strange things. Then, secretly, he went to the attic, went after me and touched my private parts. ”When Mia asks again what private parts he played; Dylan points between her legs. “Did he touch your front parts?” Farrow confirms. “Yes,” says Dylan, looking upset. In another video made by Mia, Dylan, 7, says: “When I was in the attic, he said, ‘Don’t move, I have to do this.’ But I shook my ass to see what he was doing and he said, ‘Don’t move, I have to do this! So, if you stay quiet, um, we can go to Paris. ‘”Recalling the incident as an adult, Dylan says he felt“ trapped ”. “He told me to go to the attic with him. I remember lying on my stomach and my back to him, so I couldn’t see what was going on. I felt trapped. He was saying things like, ‘Let’s go to Paris together. You will be in all my films. ‘So he sexually assaulted me, ”she recalls. “I just remember focusing on my brother’s train set and then he just stopped. He finished and we just went down. ”Also read: ‘Allen v Farrow’: Mia Farrow narrates ‘Absolute Bulls-‘ Calls with Woody Allen about Soon-Yi Woody Allen and Dylan Farrow. “Allen v. Farrow” from HBO Hospital in Yale-New Haven: Yale’s Child Sexual Abuse Center destroyed all notes of his assessment of Dylan. In 1992, then Connecticut state prosecutor Frank Maco, who was leading Allen’s investigation, commissioned an assessment of Dylan by Yale’s Child Sexual Abuse Center at Yale-New Haven Hospital to determine whether Dylan would be able to testify in court and going through a criminal process would traumatize her. The two social workers who worked on the assessment interviewed Dylan nine times in three months – a number considered too high by child abuse experts interviewed in the documentary. The report, completed in March 1993, concluded that Dylan “was not sexually abused” by Allen, that there were “inconsistencies” in Dylan’s statements and that those statements were “probably reinforced and encouraged by his mother”. The clinic then informed Allen and Mia Farrow of the report’s findings and allowed Allen to hold a press conference outside the hospital, where the filmmaker said the report cleared him by concluding that “no harassment, no sexual abuse has ever occurred”. But all the notes made during the evaluation were destroyed by the clinic and none were given to the investigators. “In short, this was basically an uncontrolled assessment,” says Maco. During the custody battle between Allen and Mia Farrow, the presiding judge ruled that Allen’s behavior towards Dylan was “grossly inappropriate”, that the evidence presented at the trial established that Mia was a “loving and caring mother” and that she was not there was “no credible evidence to support Allen’s claim that Mrs. Farrow trained Dylan,” according to documents presented in episode 3 of the series. The judge also concluded that the Yale-New Haven report was “sanitized” and ” less reliable “because of the lack of notes and the” authors’ reluctance to testify “at the trial. In a separate investigation conducted by the Child Welfare Administration in New York, the social worker investigating the charges against Allen, Paul Williams, had spoken one of the social workers who evaluated Dylan for the Yale-New Haven report. According to the case files analyzed by documentary filmmakers, the social worker – Jennifer Sawyer – dis Williams who believed in Dylan and believed he had more to reveal. Courtesy of HBO Christina Engelhardt, Allen’s “muse” for “Manhattan”, says her relationship with Allen when she was 17 had a “price” on Christina Engelhardt, a former model who said she met Allen at age 16 and became intimate with him at 17, reflects on the “price” that his relationship with the filmmaker had in his life. “I was very much in love with him. I thought he was a magician, ”recalls Engelhardt, who said that Allen said she was his muse in“ Manhattan ”in 1979, he recalls. “I felt like I was the lucky one. That’s where I came from at that time in my life. ”“ I had that sex appeal when I was young. I had a trauma. I had been raped four times between 12 and 14 years old by people my family knew, so I started thinking, ‘Who can I trust?’ And I trusted him. I am not saying that it is right, wrong or good, but there was no one. I just had me, ”she continues. “I know it hurts me. It hurt me in how I am in relationships, trust in relationships. And that made me a super vigilant mother. I wouldn’t let my daughters go to an older man’s house, no matter what. “Christina Engelhardt (Getty Images) Dylan, as an adult, told former Connecticut prosecutor Frank Maco that he would like to have his” court day “Dylan and Maco reconnected in the fall of 2020. In their conversation, Dylan told Maco – that she ended up refusing to press charges against Allen and pursue a criminal case – which she would have liked to witness and have her “day in court.” “My mother always told me that I had a lot to thank you for, that I was spared the circus of a court and all that madness and probably trauma. But a part of me really, really wishes that I could have done this and that I could have my day in court, “she says to Maco.” You have every right to have whatever feelings I have, but I can tell you now, [it’s] it’s my fault, because there was never a chance for me to do that to you, ”Maco replies. “Simply putting it in the bank, freezing it, is incomprehensible. But I never want to hear that you blame yourself. I made the decision. And do I think about it? It is clear. That case, as many cases as I tried, as many cases of sexual abuse as I tried, as many cases of homicide as I tried, what is the case that will be with me for the rest of my days? My decision in this investigation. ”Read the original story ‘Allen v Farrow’: The 5 most disturbing revelations from HBO’s Docuseries on TheWrap