Directed By: Woody Allen
Starring: Woody Allen, Diane Keaton, Tony Roberts
Tag line: "A Nervous Romance"
Trivia: Woody Allen originally envisioned this film as a murder mystery with a romantic sub-plot.
Woody Allen, the writer/director/star of Annie Hall, once described this Award-winning film as “a romantic comedy with a contemporary urban neurotic”. It is certainly this, and a whole lot more besides.
Annie Hall is an account of the on-again, off-again romance between New York Jewish comedian Alvy Singer (Allen) and Annie Hall (Diane Keaton), an uptight WASP from Wisconsin. Over time, Alvy and Annie form a deep bond with one another, and manage to fall in love.
During the course of their relationship, the two discuss everything under the sun, from foreign films to their very unique experiences with therapy (Alvy is amazed when, on Annie's first visit to a therapist, she breaks down and cries. “I have never cried", he says, enviously, “I whine. I sit and I whine”). Alvy and Annie will spend several years together, surviving a handful of break-ups and reconciliations along the way. But a trip to California, where wannabe-singer Annie meets established show-biz personality Tony Lacey (played by singer/songwriter Paul Simon), may prove to be the final nail in the coffin of their tempestuous love affair.
Annie Hall was a semi-autobiographical work for Allen, one in a series of movies (along with 1980's Stardust Memories, and Radio Days in 1987) that would delve into his past and - occasionally - the recesses of his soul. In addition, Annie Hall offers up an honest look at relationships, and the ups and downs that define them.
Yet the movie even goes a bit further than that, taking us deep inside the lives and personalities of its lead characters. Alvy spends a great deal of time reflecting on events from his childhood, like when he and his family lived under the roller coaster at Coney Island. There are occasional visits to Annie’s past as well, along with a trip to her family's home in Chippawa Falls, Wisconsin, where her well-to-do parents (Donald Symington and Colleen Dewhurst) live with her anti-semetic grandmother (Helen Ludlam). Allen even finds time to squeeze a brief animated sequence into Annie Hall, in which a cartoon Alvy asks the Witch from Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs (who sounds exactly like Annie) if she’s upset because she’s getting her period.
Yet despite its varying personal and psychological attributes, Annie Hall is most definitely a love story. Allen and Keaton were former lovers in real-life (Keaton's real name is Diane Hall), and we sense that much of what transpires in the film isn’t so far removed from what really went down between them. It’s a relationship Allen obviously held dear to his heart, perhaps even the most important one in his life.
After all, it did inspire him to create this masterpiece.
No comments:
Post a Comment