Production Year: 1977 - Comedy - Director: Woody Allen - Original Language: English - Classification: 15 years and over - Starring: Christopher Walken, Woody Allen, Diane Keaton, Tony Roberts, Carol Kane, Paul Simon, Shelley Duvall, Janet Margolin, Colleen Dewhurst more
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
Annie Hall [DVD] [1977]
Annie Hallis 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 [DVD] [1977]
Annie Hallis 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 DVD
Winner of four Academy Awards including Best Picture and Best Director "Annie Hall" is ... more
Woody Allen's supreme masterpiece. Coming between such early slapstick farces as "Sleeper" and "Love and Death" and darker more reflective comedies like "Manhatt...
Annie Hall
Winner of four Academy Awards including Best Picture and Best Director, 'Annie Hall' is ... more
Woody Allen's supreme masterpiece. Coming between such early, slapstick farces as 'Sleeper' and 'Love and Death', and darker, more reflective comedies like 'Manhattan' and 'Hannah and Her Sisters,' this endearing semi-autobiographical film put Woody in the league with the best directors we have. Starring Allen as New York comedian Alvy Singer and Diane Keaton (in a Best Actress Oscar-winning role) as Annie, the film weaves flashbacks, flash forwards, monologues, a parade of classic Allen one-liners, and even animation into an alternately uproarious and wistful comedy about a witty and wacky on-again, off-again romance.
selected original 35mm film from Woody Allen movie Annie Hall. The collection has a black mount with black frame, an individually numbered plaque and certificate of authenticity.
Comedy - Director: Richard Boden, Mandie Fletcher, Martin Shardlow - Original Language: English - Classification: 15 years and over - Starring: Hugh Laurie, Miranda Richardson, Stephen Fry, Brian Blessed, Tim McInnerny, Tony Robinson, Rowan Atkinson
Production Year: 2004 - Comedy - Director: John Hay - Original Language: English - Classification: 15 years and over - Starring: Jennifer Love Hewitt, Jimi Mistry, Kate Miles, Dougray Scott
Comedy - Original Language: English - Classification: 12 years and over - Starring: Tessa Peake-Jones, Buster Merryfield, David Jason, Nicholas Lyndhurst
A review by dadmancat on Annie Hall (DVD) August 9th, 2004
Author's product rating:
Did you enjoy it?
Loved it
Story
Outstanding
Characters / Performances
Outstanding
Special Effects
Standard
How does it compare to similar films?
Outstanding
Advantages:
Accessible, good natured, consistenly funny
Disadvantages:
That Allen never quite matched the brilliance again .
Recommend to potential buyers:
yes
Full review
For me, Allen's cinematic legacy should be 'Annie Hall', 'Manhattan', 'Broadway Danny Rose', 'Purple Rose of Cairo' and 'Hannah and her Sisters', and after that it's all a bit of a lottery. 'Manhattan' is easily his most accomplished piece of film making, while 'Purple Rose' is a delightful piece of whimsy devoid of the later Allen bitterness and spite. 'Hannah' is drama and comedy pefectly combined, and 'Danny Rose' is like his standup routine stretched to feature length, anecdotary and unceasingly funny. Leaving us with 1977's 'Annie Hall'. His first film to venture away from slapstick, and focus entirely on the laughs to be found in his neurosis. 'Play it Again Sam' for the more discerning viewer.
Innovative in the comedy genre, Allen diluted his love for Bergman into great little touches, rather than plundering as he would on subsequent films, including split screens, addressing the camera directly and using out of body experiences.
The comedy is broad, and also reliably Allen, something for everyone. The screenplay bubbles along and even at his most bitter and resentful, Allen's lead character Alvy Singer is likeable and warm. Aided no end by sparkling support from 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 hopelessly in love. Introduced to Annie (Keaton) by best friend Rob (a great 'in your face' straight talking Tony Roberts), Alvy finds his awkwardness mirrored in the dizzy form of Annie. Embarking on a relationship, he suggests adult education to her, and a campaign of mind broadening. Only for her to broaden her mind to the extent that she sees the futility of their relationship.
Reflecting on yet another failure, Alvy looks back over his life, and decides 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 dialogue, sight gags, physical comedy, and if you wanted a blueprint of how and why comedy should work, then 'Annie Hall' is surely it.
Filmed amid Allens beloved Manhattan, and his despised west coast, 'Annie Hall' does not have the visual sweep of 'Manhattan', but instead populates the city with characters, hustle and bustle, and all the noises and glances that chip away at Alvy's self confidence.
If 'Manhattan' is how the city is in Allen's head, then 'Annie Hall' is how it is in real life. The film does possess an uncanny ability to throw larger than life characters at us, hilarious situations and yet make them feel rooted in reality. It's always just a small stride away from something you've done and seen, and works on a very human level, and I no doubt love it for an entirely different host of reasons to the next man. Rarely in cinema today do we get films that address us on such a personal level. As a direct comparison, a bedfellow may be 'When Harry Met Sally' but, somehow, that all happens up on the screen and one really, when pushed, doesn't care about the smug Crystal and 'too pretty for words' Meg Ryan.
They are Hollywoods version of an odd couple. Allen gives us the truly fucked up. The real people. It extends beyond the lead characters, to his family, as stereotypical a Jewish family you couldn't imagine, but in them you spot their frailties, their pride, their warmth and wishes. Keaton's family by contrast are screwed up in wholly different way (Walken appears as Annie's brother in an hysterical cameo), and are every dull, sterile, lifeless bunch you've had to encounter at a family party or works outing.
Allen's musings arise from his Jewish background, but they are still our concerns and worries too, if we only we admitted it. We differ in that we don't need a psychiatrist to ease us through our life, but then again, does that make him or us the fool? Afterall, he's just voicing everything that keeps us awake at night.
Amongst the cast are familiar, and just becoming familiar faces. Jeff Goldblum, Christopher Walken, Siguorney Weaver and Shelley Duvall. Paul Simon contributes an awkward, but nonetheless amusing role as a seedy record producer, and keep your eyes peeled for Truman Capote, as a Truman Capote look-a-like.
Shot in a vibrant lifelike style by Allen regular Mel Bourne (Manhattan, The Fisher KIng, Reversal of Fortune) 'Annie Hall' is good on the eyes. The soundtrack largely features recognisable standards, and really, I can think of nothing to detract from the film. Reassuringly it scooped 4 Academy Awards, Best Director, Best Lead Actress, Best Picture and Best Screenplay. It's worldwide trophy haul was staggering, and at the box office it recouped it's budget by 10 times alone in the US.
Spurred on by critical and commercial reaction, Allen emersed himself in his ode to Bergman, 1978s 'Interiors', a project he did not emerge unscathed from. A resounding chorus of disapproval saw him under studio pressure for box office receipts, and for that we have to be grateful, because he gave us 'Manhattan'.
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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Ciao members have rated this review on average very helpful
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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Ciao members have rated this review on average very helpful
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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13.06.2005
Annie Hall Review ofAnnie Hall (DVD)by
Rosebud1985
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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Ciao members have rated this review on average somewhat helpful
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)
![Annie Hall [DVD] [1977]](http://picnicb.ciao.com/uk/78522023.jpg)
