Director: Woody Allen
Year: 1977
Country: U.S
Language: English
In 1977 Annie Hall was up for Best Picture at the 1977 Academy Awards, however nobody really expected it to win. The problem? Star Wars. The big budget Hollywood Blockbuster that became the highest grossing film of all time (not adjusting inflation). The Sci Fi epic changed the way major Hollywood studios wanted films to be made, not as intelligent art but as mindless blockbusters like Avatar. Why? Greed. It effectively ended the golden age of American movies. Star Wars promised to rule the cinematic world by winning every award possible, but one little film stood in its way. This film was Annie Hall
Unfortunately, Annie Hall is not as well known as Star Wars, but why? The characters are very human, they express real emotions and are almost far to intelligent for today's audiences. Characters driven by desires and emotions, they use references that would fly by most people. Though Annie Hall is built upon a brilliant screenplay that provides great dialogue and brilliant monologues. It is the opposite of its 1977 rival, where Star Wars was built on action, this film is built on talking. Everywhere the two characters known as Alvy Singer (Woody Allen) and Annie Hall (Diane Keaton) go there are constantly talking. About life, love and death.
This film was saved by editing. Originally it was 140 minute murder mystery. The editor of this film thought it was junk, cut 45 minutes of the original film and thus the Romantic Comedy genre was never the same again. Annie Hall stars Woody Allen as the neurotic stand up comedian Alvy Singer. Raised under a rollercoaster, he both hates and loves New York City, often expresses it with short witty lines of contempt, and has a various amount of relationship worries. Though it's ok, he sees a therapist for his anxieties. His love interest, Annie Hall (Diane Keaton) is a cute, intelligent, scatterbrained woman. She is at first eager in love, but then becomes disinterested and emotionally exhausted from her relationship with Alvy.
There are funny conversations, sad conversations, angry conversations and awkward conversations and all serve a great purpose, to analyze the average relationship. When Alvy and Annie meet each other for the first time, at a tennis match with friends, their conversation starts awkwardly like all conversations do but eventually builds up into something more. The dialouge is important and meaningful to understand the average relationship and the misunderstandings around language. Alvy says one thing and Annie gets upset, worrying about something that wasn't even mentioned in the conversation. It explains how "reading between the lines" in a relationship doesn't work all the time. It explores how important conversation is to the relationship and how interpretation can make or break it. It explores how crazy a relationship can be. You would think that since Alvy lived under a rollercoaster during his childhood he would be used to the ups and downs of life.
It also examines the breakup and the death of a relationship. As Alvy says "Our relationship is like a shark, and I think what we have on out hands here is a dead shark". Unfortunately love tends to fade over time and unless you've found the right person your love will end. Alvy finds little comfort in the dating scene, making jokes that just don't connect with people. "I don't understand, is that a joke?" It is depressing yet truthful. Nobody wants to be dumped, but it happens to the best of people. He asks a question to the audience, breaking the fourth wall which he does throughout the film, why do we keep searching for relationships when we know that it'll be a rollercoaster of emotions? They're totally crazy, absurd and irrational but maybe it's better than being alone. The end scene is rather optimistic, a green signal at a stoplight as if to say "go for it", "don't be afraid to get the relationship you want."
In conclusion, I was always worried about getting into a relationship until I saw Annie Hall, like Alvy I always thought they were emotionally destructive and irrational. Even though I'm currently where Alvy is at the end of the film, I can't help but see that green light. Go for it! Life is odd but too short to worry about the many possible dramatic situations that can result from a relationship. The film is funny and obviously better than every romantic comedy after it. While most rom coms are about how to people fall in love, have an arguement, then fall in love again in a hopelessly cheesy way this is quite different. Annie Hall is a surprisingly accurate study on the North American relationship that just might inspire you to find the love of your life, or improve your current relationship. Praise it! 5/5
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