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Masterpiece Movie

Annie Hall (1977)

Review by Shamma M. Raghib

Genre: Comedy-Romance
MPAA Rated: PG
Campus Rating: 9.3/10
Run Time: 109 min.
Cast: Woody Allen, Diane Keaton, Tony Roberts, Carol Kane, Paul Simon, Shelley Duvall, Janet Margolin, Christopher Walken
Director: Woody Allen

"Life is full of loneliness, misery, suffering, and unhappiness - and it's all over much too quickly," says Woody Allen at the beginning of Annie Hall.

This classic movie had won the hearts of my parents since the first time it released. A romantic comedy like no other before it, Annie Hall is Woody Allen's entrance to a bag-load of other cinematic/comedy hits. This unique filmmaker/star/director is capable of mixing several different styles, moods, and genres, and making them all work to their fullest extent. His characteristic signature styled scenes shift forward and back in time in the blink of an eye, and complex storytelling works on a comedic, dramatic, and emotional level all at the same time. In short, it's a brilliant work of filmmaking, and at the peak of being funny.

Woody Allen plays Alvy Singer, who disjointedly recounts the relationships he's had over the last several years, and most notably with Annie Hall (Diane Keaton) a struggling singer. Through a series of flashback vignettes and fourth-wall shattering asides, Singer ties in his anxieties in relationships with other neuroses for a state-of-mind type of storytelling, where reality and fantasy mix in mostly comedic fashion.

This film won three Oscars Keaton as Best Actress, Allen as Best Director, and the film itself as Best Picture. Annie Hall's complex narrative structure was a breakthrough style at the time, and one in which Allen himself would borrow from in subsequent films to good success.

Here is a quip from the movie… When Alvy expresses reluctance to let Annie move in with him, and she complains that her apartment is too small and has bad plumbing and bugs, who but Alvy could take "bugs" as his cue, and observe, "Entomology is a rapidly growing field." And only Annie could interpret this as, "You don't want me to live with you."

Alvy: I don't want you to live with me!? Whose idea was it?

Annie: Mine.

Alvy: Yeah, it was yours, actually, but I approved it immediately.

And it goes one throughout the movie. ….need I say more?