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Annie Hall, considered by many to be the quintessential Woody Allen romantic comedy, won the 1977 Oscars for Best Picture, Best Actress (Diane Keaton), and Best Original Screenplay (Woody Allen and Marshall Brickman). I have been wanting to review this film for some time, but felt that a re-watch was necessary in order to be completely fair to a film that is regarded as a masterpiece by some.
This film recounts the rocky and tumultuous relationship between a stand-up comedian and writer named Alvy Singer (Allen) and a ditzy would-be singer named Annie Hall (Keaton). I have never counted this film as among Allen's best work and a recent re-watch made it a little easier to articulate my feelings about this film.
First of all, I am unsure what Woody was thinking with the title of the film, as it clearly seems to be Alvy's story and not Annie's. We get flashbacks throughout of Alvy's childhood (Joan Newman and Mordecai Lawner are very funny as Alvy's parents), but they really have nothing to do with the alleged story at hand, which is the relationship between Alvy and Annie, which I found aggravating partially because of Alvy's condescending and snarky attitude about life in general, his tendency to blame any injustice in his life on anti-semitism, and that no one's opinions about anything trump his own.
I don't understand Annie's attraction to Alvy because he makes it clear in no uncertain terms that he feels she is uneducated and takes it upon himself to buy books for her to read and how to feel about them, and then turning around and getting an attitude with her when she does start developing her own opinions and they differ from his. He tells Annie to her face that she is a talented songstress, but is completely annoyed when an important record producer (Paul Simon) shows interest in her. I am of the opinion that Alvy is one of the most unappealing characters Allen has ever played and I also believe that the character is probably closer to the real Woody Allen than any character he has played.
There is a lot of breaking of the 4th wall here, including Alvy speaking directly to the camera at times, that just felt a bit forced and hard to swallow. Though I must admit to enjoying one scene where Annie's soul leaves her body in the middle of sex with Alvy because Alvy refused to let her smoke a joint before sex. Alvy's comment about how a laugh from someone who is high doesn't really count to him had to sting some of Woody's fans, who I suspect have been known to imbibe once in awhile. Alvy's sensibilities tended to leave a very bad taste in my mouth and the only moment where I laughed out loud during the entire movie was when he put a little cocaine to his noise, sneezed, and blew it all over the room.
On the positive side, I did enjoy Keaton's performance as the title character, a delicious and vividly human characterization where you never catch Keaton "acting". I guess I can understand her Oscar win, though I think she gave a far superior performance the same year in Looking for Mr. Goodbar but either way, she was the Best Actress of 1977. The film also features some brief glances at a lot of future stars like Carol Kane, Christopher Walken, Jeff Goldblum, Shelly Hack, Sigorney Weaver, and Beverly D'Angelo.
For Woody Allen purists, this film is a must; however, it is this reviewer's opinion that he has done much better work (Manhattan, The Purple Rose of Cairo, Radio Days
Crimes and Misdemeanors, Deconstructing Harry, Manhattan Murder Mystery, Broadway Danny Rose to name a few).
Annie Hall, considered by many to be the quintessential Woody Allen romantic comedy, won the 1977 Oscars for Best Picture, Best Actress (Diane Keaton), and Best Original Screenplay (Woody Allen and Marshall Brickman). I have been wanting to review this film for some time, but felt that a re-watch was necessary in order to be completely fair to a film that is regarded as a masterpiece by some.
This film recounts the rocky and tumultuous relationship between a stand-up comedian and writer named Alvy Singer (Allen) and a ditzy would-be singer named Annie Hall (Keaton). I have never counted this film as among Allen's best work and a recent re-watch made it a little easier to articulate my feelings about this film.
First of all, I am unsure what Woody was thinking with the title of the film, as it clearly seems to be Alvy's story and not Annie's. We get flashbacks throughout of Alvy's childhood (Joan Newman and Mordecai Lawner are very funny as Alvy's parents), but they really have nothing to do with the alleged story at hand, which is the relationship between Alvy and Annie, which I found aggravating partially because of Alvy's condescending and snarky attitude about life in general, his tendency to blame any injustice in his life on anti-semitism, and that no one's opinions about anything trump his own.
I don't understand Annie's attraction to Alvy because he makes it clear in no uncertain terms that he feels she is uneducated and takes it upon himself to buy books for her to read and how to feel about them, and then turning around and getting an attitude with her when she does start developing her own opinions and they differ from his. He tells Annie to her face that she is a talented songstress, but is completely annoyed when an important record producer (Paul Simon) shows interest in her. I am of the opinion that Alvy is one of the most unappealing characters Allen has ever played and I also believe that the character is probably closer to the real Woody Allen than any character he has played.
There is a lot of breaking of the 4th wall here, including Alvy speaking directly to the camera at times, that just felt a bit forced and hard to swallow. Though I must admit to enjoying one scene where Annie's soul leaves her body in the middle of sex with Alvy because Alvy refused to let her smoke a joint before sex. Alvy's comment about how a laugh from someone who is high doesn't really count to him had to sting some of Woody's fans, who I suspect have been known to imbibe once in awhile. Alvy's sensibilities tended to leave a very bad taste in my mouth and the only moment where I laughed out loud during the entire movie was when he put a little cocaine to his noise, sneezed, and blew it all over the room.
On the positive side, I did enjoy Keaton's performance as the title character, a delicious and vividly human characterization where you never catch Keaton "acting". I guess I can understand her Oscar win, though I think she gave a far superior performance the same year in Looking for Mr. Goodbar but either way, she was the Best Actress of 1977. The film also features some brief glances at a lot of future stars like Carol Kane, Christopher Walken, Jeff Goldblum, Shelly Hack, Sigorney Weaver, and Beverly D'Angelo.
For Woody Allen purists, this film is a must; however, it is this reviewer's opinion that he has done much better work (Manhattan, The Purple Rose of Cairo, Radio Days
Crimes and Misdemeanors, Deconstructing Harry, Manhattan Murder Mystery, Broadway Danny Rose to name a few).