Woody Allen cowrote, directed, and stars in this award-winning film as a kvetchy Brooklyn comedian wistfully recalling his bygone relationship with flighty, adorable, and... more
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Annie Hall [1977]
Annie Hall is one of the truest, most bittersweet romances on film. In it, Allen plays a
... more
thinly disguised version of himself: Alvy Singer, a successful--if neurotic--television comedian living in Manhattan. Annie (the wholesomely luminous Dianne Keaton...
Annie Hall [1977]
Annie Hall is one of the truest, most bittersweet romances on film. In it, Allen plays a
... more
thinly disguised version of himself: Alvy Singer, a successful--if neurotic--television comedian living in Manhattan. Annie (the wholesomely luminous Dianne Keaton...
Advantages: A funny and enjoyable experience Disadvantages: Erm...you might not like Woody Allen
Annie Hall was the 'breakout' film for Woody Allen as a director. The film won four Academy awards including best picture/director and saw Allen move away from the freewheeling comedy films he was best known for at the time. Annie Hall is essentially about the relationship between Alvy Singer (Allen), a typically neurotic Allen character, in this case a comedian, and aspiring singer Annie Hall, played by Diane keaton in an Oscar winning performance. ... ...between Alvy and Annie's family. Annie Hall begins with Allen speaking straight to the camera as Alvy. The scene is an immediate indication that Allen has moved on and is seeking to make a different type of picture with more ambition. Alvy's very Woody Allen concerns give us an insight into his character and make an arresting beginning; "There's an old joke - um... two elderly women are at a Catskill mountain resort, and one of 'em says, "Boy, the ...
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Advantages: Accessible, good natured, consistenly funny Disadvantages: That Allen never quite matched the brilliance again.
...DIane Keaton as the titular Annie Hall, it's as pleasurable a way to spend 90 minutes as I can imagine.
Alvy Singer (Allen) is a gag writer, a Jewish gag writer, a neurotic Jewish gag writer. Failed relationships, a career stuttering in sitcom land, Alvy shuffles through life examining how it all wound up like this, and casting his bespectacled ears and eyes about for the next conspiratorial remark or gesture.
Hopelessly paranoid, he is suddenly ... ...on firm action and winning Annie back.
The old paranoid neurotic boy meets dizzy neurotic girl story. 'Annie Hall' is every relationship you've ever had, but with every crossed word and embarrasing moment amplified by 10. The good times display a warmth and genuine appreciation for feelings that Allen so frequently misses the point of. The humour in the screenplay, co-written with Marshall Brickman, comes refreshingly from all angles. There is clever ...
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Advantages: Please see review Disadvantages: Please see review
...Best Picture and Best Director, Annie Hall, a bittersweet, autobiographical romantic comedy, is the quintessential Woody Allen film. Featuring all the themes - love, relationships, neuroses, fame, guilt, pessimism, his love of New York (and dislike of LA), death and life - that we have come to expect from a man whose writing and directing career has spanned more than three decades. Plot summary:
Allen plays the main character, Alvy Singer, a standup ... ...is only when he meets Annie that he sees himself as someone worth being with. Annie [Diane Keaton] is about as opposite in personality as Alvy as possible. When he meets her, she's unaffected and vivacious if quirky [she throws around terms like "La-de-dah" and "neat" without the slightest heed for sophistication]. The contrast in backgrounds and interests between Alvy and Annie provides much of the material for satire in the film. When Alvy goes ...
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Advantages: Woody Allen dialogue at its finest with universally brilliant performances Disadvantages: If you don't like any other Woody Allen movie you won't like this one
...Amy and Mike Nichols' Closer, Annie Hall points out that love is not always a many-splendoured thing. Love can hurt, love can make us confused and love can not always lead to the obvious conclusions. This isn't the standard boy meets girl, boy gets girl, boy loses girl, boy gets girl back again. This is more like boy loses girl and painstakingly analyses his relationship from various points intercutting moments of his life before meeting girl and ... ...films (he has never watched Annie Hall or any of his other films since he finished them) has resulted in this being a bare-bones DVD release, so it may be an idea to rent the film first, as I did, and there's a good chance you'll then decide it has to be a part of your permanent collection. ...
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Advantages: Great film Disadvantages: No features!!
...for me, is Allen's best. Annie Hall is the ultimate Woody Allen film; it has a perfect balance of slapstick and verbal humour, it is original and fresh, and it is very engaging, with characters who behave like real people, not constructs, or a means to an end.
You know the story by now; the neurotic Woody Allen character falls head over heels in love with sorta arty, sorta sporty, mainly ditzy Annie Hall (played by the ever wonderful Diane Keaton), ... ...character is no longer with Annie Hall).
It features many elements we have come to expect from Woody Allen, not just the neurotic porrayal of himself. We also get the simple black and white credits which open the film (bizarrely at odds with the rest of the film in the austere authority they give the beginning of the film), we get rantings about anti-semitism (Woody Allen's not a "self-hating" Jew, honest) and name dropping aplenty (there's a particuarly ...
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Actor(s): Woody Allen, Diane Keaton, Tony Roberts, Carol Kane, Paul Simon, Shelley Duvall, Janet Margolin, Colleen Dewhurst, Christopher Walken
Director(s): Woody Allen
Genre: Comedy - Romantic
Classification: 15 years and over
Production Year: 1977
Running Time: 1 hour 29 minutes
Video Category: Feature Film
Country Of Origin: United States of America
Plot: A nervous romantic comedy about the relationship between a young Jewish comedian and a mid-Western girl.
Release details
DVD Region: Region 2 (Europe)
Studio(s): MGM ENTERTAINMENT; CINRAM LOGISTICS
Release date: 10/07/2000
No of Discs: 1
Catalogue No: 16026 DVD
Editor: Wendy Greene Bricmont, Ralph Rosenblum
Set Designer: Robert Drumheller
Barcode: 5050070002799
Production Designer: Mel Bourne
Screenwriter: Woody Allen, Marshall Brickman
Cinematographer: Gordon Willis
Composer: Woody Allen
Director of Photography: Gordon Willis
Producer: Charles H. Joffe, Woody Allen, Marshall Brickman
Author: Marshall Brickman, Woody Allen
Voice: Woody Allen
Comedian: Woody Allen
Costume Designer: Ruth Morley, Nancy McArdle, George Newman, Marilyn Putnam, Ralph Lauren
Languages
Main Language: English
Dubbed Language: French, German, Italian, Spanish
Hearing Impaired Language: English, German
DVD Description
Woody Allen cowrote, directed, and stars in this award-winning film as a kvetchy Brooklyn comedian wistfully recalling his bygone relationship with flighty, adorable, and irrepressibly midwestern (read: not Jewish) Annie Hall. The film marked a transition from Allen's earlier absurdist comedies to a richer vein of thoughtful consideration of relationships. The gentle narrative revolutionized the urban romantic-comedy genre, while Keaton's hip, man-tailored wardrobe set the 1977 fashion standard. The film is filled with memorable scenes and oft-quoted lines and features Allen talking right into the camera, a technique that was not commonplace at the time. Allen, playing comedian Alvy Singer, uses many of his stand-up comedy routines in the film as he woos the wonderful Diane Keaton, playing the title character, Annie Hall. As Alvy helps Annie mature, she grows apart from him, choosing to live in Southern California, which is the antithesis of his deep love for New York. The film features fabulous visual and verbal gags, a propensity for food scenes, and memorable cameos by the likes of Marshall McLuhan, Paul Simon, Christopher Walken, Truman Capote, Shelley Duvall, and others.
Technical information
Special Features: Original Theatrical Trailer, Booklet
Aspect Ratio: 1.85 Wide Screen, 16:9 Wide Screen
Sound: Mono
Dubbing Sound: Mono English French German Italian Spanish
Award information
BAFTA: Best Actress 1977 (Diane Keaton)
BAFTA: Best Direction 1977 (Woody Allen)
OSCAR: Best Screenplay Written Directly For The Screen 1978 (Woody Allen, Marshall Brickman)
OSCAR: Best Director 1978 (Woody Allen)
OSCAR: Best Actress In A Leading Role 1978 (Diane Keaton)
Professional reviews
Review: "...Funny and sorrowful....[ANNIE HALL] puts Woody Allen in the league with the best directors we have." (New York Times, p.C22, 21/04/1977)
Included in the New York Times "10 BEST FILMS OF 1977" (New York Times, p.II:1, 25/12/1977)