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Manhattan


Manhattan (1979)



Director: Woody Allen
Cast overview: Woody Allen, Diane Keaton
Running time: 96 minutes

I'll make an admission immediately - I struggled to get through this. I managed, just about, but it certainly wasn't due to the movie's positive qualities. I'm a Woody Allen fan, of sorts, but this felt completely pointless, and couldn't keep me interested. OK, it wasn't that bad, but I didn't think it was a patch on Annie Hall, the only other Allen film I've seen thus far. It dragged terribly, I didn't much care about the characters on show, and - apart from the usual subtle humour (and even that seemed less prevalent than it should have been) - there really wasn't much here to interest me or keep me involved.

The opening shows a film that is extremely promising, and George Gershwin's "Rhapsody In Blue", coupled with an Allen voiceover, worked well to introduce the film and give a sense of place, the New York that Allen has used in virtually all of his films. It wasn't the black-and-white cinematography that was off-putting either, rather the lack of a script that managed to draw me in and the sheer boredom I experienced through most of this.

Yes, it does feature a strong cast - Allen himself, Meryl Streep, Diane Keaton, Mariel Hemingway - but that alone isn't enough to drag it above the depths of weakness and mediocrity, in my view, and it's not a film that'll be featuring high on my seventies list. What puzzles me is that this is one of the most highly rated Woody Allen films - it must just be me...



Quotes
Isaac Davis: My analyst warned me, but you were so beautiful I got another analyst.

Isaac Davis: I had a mad impulse to throw you down on the lunar surface and commit interstellar perversion.

Isaac Davis: I think people should mate for life, like pigeons or Catholics.

Trivia
Apparently, there exists a clause in the studio's contract for the film that mandates that the movie must always be shown in letterbox format in any home video release and/or TV/cable broadcast.

Woody Allen disliked his work in this film so much he offered to direct another film for United Artists for free if they kept Manhattan (1979) on the shelf for good. Allan later reportedly said: "I just thought to myself, 'At this point in my life, if this is the best I can do, they shouldn't give me money to make movies'."

First film in black-and-white directed by Woody Allen.

Trailer