Review A Day: Annie Hall
Annie Hall beat Star Wars at the 1978 Oscars for both best picture and best
director (Woody Allen). There may have been a time where I considered this a
serious crime against cinema. However, this was all before I actually *watched*
Annie Hall, regarded by some as the best of Woody Allen’s work through his long
productive career.
Annie Hall follows comedian Alvy Singer (Played by writer/director Woody
Allen) and his life around the time throughout his relationship with the titular
Annie Hall (played by Diane Keaton) from beginning to end. Along the way we
are thrown many cartoonish situations and we explore Alvy’s past and Allen
addresses us as we jump all over Alvy’s timeline back and forth as he explores
his memories of the past.
This movie is really the movie that puts Allen on the map. Between this and
Manhattan most people would say are the best of his work. Annie Hall relies on
so many non-conventional techniques to bring across comedic effect, enhance
the narrative and generally make the movie a more effective one.
One of the key proponents to the film is Allen’s constant fourth wall breaking in
his storytelling, which is used brilliantly here. There are many other scenes that
are memorable for using different techniques such as Allen interacting with the
younger version of himself in class while in a flashback, then allowing his child
classmates to adress the camera telling them where they are in life now, as well
as a scene where Alvy and Annie talk on a balcony to each other while what they
are *really* thinking throughout being shown through captions.
The film does well to constantly skip from snippet to snippet, exploring Alvy’s
past relationships, and Annie’s past relationships and the back and forth through
Alvy and Annie’s relationship. It’s not disorientating to go all about the timeline
funnily enough, and each new scene somehow flows naturally into the other one
as we go quickly from each new detail.
That is a testament to the editing, as the movie is never too disorientating and
instead all of these vignettes add both humour and more development to the
characters and give us a wider understanding of the relationships involved.
Allen is on top form here, a real peak for his talents as we watch as
he delivers each quip and line masterfully and it is an inspired move to
constantly break the fourth wall in reflection to events going on. He portrays a
character who went through a big relationship and break up, and despite that
and many other bad experiences, he goes on, he ‘needs the eggs’ as he explains in
one of his monologues.
Keaton is also great playing the quirky titular character. Everything about her is
perfect it’s no wonder why Allen’s character falls for her and tries to make a
relationship with her work. From her style to her awkwardness to her opinions
to her singing talents that are well used here, Keaton brings a lot to the table and
makes a character we could all fall in love with but will never have.
The film overall is quite effective. It is no wonder why this movie is the genesis
for a lot of following romantic comedies in cinema. All the
different techniques you’d see in other clever and interesting romantic comedies
that choose to be unique you can see the groundwork for in Annie Hall.
(500) Days of Summer, Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, When Harry Met
Sally…All of them and more have to thank Annie Hall for laying the foundations.
It’s a very funny flick and an honest one too. Relationships change, feelings fade,
people start feeling differently about each other, this movie speaks with that
honest realism while also keeping upbeat and quirky.
All the different techniques such as the non-linear storyline, fourth-wall
breaking, revisiting memories while watching in on them, everything
is wonderful and masterfully pulled off.
The cinematography as always is brilliant for a Woody Allen movie, as is the
soundtrack. And as mentioned before, Diane Keaton’s singing in a couple scenes
is beautiful and is used well for effect.
Allen does a fantastic job writing, directing *and* starring in this movie. He is
multi-talented and he manages to pull off all jobs brilliantly. This is the first of
many real huge hits for him in his career, and while he may not think about it as
highly as I or many other people do, I still think Annie Hall is his first real
masterpiece.
Once again, this is a five out of four star movie, as it is actually in my top 10
favourite movies. So definitely an instant recommend. A modern classic that is
well deserving of all the praise it gets, even if it *was* up against Star Wars.