Plot
Neurotic New York comedian Alvy Singer falls in love with the ditsy Annie Hall.
Release Year: 1977
Rating: 8.2/10 (88,757 voted)
Director:
Woody Allen
Stars: Woody Allen, Diane Keaton, Tony Roberts
Storyline Romantic adventures of neurotic New York comedian Alvy Singer and his equally neurotic girlfriend Annie Hall. The film traces the course of their relationship from their first meeting, and serves as an interesting historical document about love in the 1970s.
Writers: Woody Allen, Marshall Brickman
Cast: Woody Allen
-
Alvy Singer
Diane Keaton
-
Annie Hall
Tony Roberts
-
Rob
Carol Kane
-
Allison
Paul Simon
-
Tony Lacey
Shelley Duvall
-
Pam
Janet Margolin
-
Robin
Colleen Dewhurst
-
Mom Hall
Christopher Walken
-
Duane Hall
(as Christopher Wlaken)
Donald Symington
-
Dad Hall
Helen Ludlam
-
Grammy Hall
Mordecai Lawner
-
Alvy's Dad
Joan Neuman
-
Alvy's Mom
(as Joan Newman)
Jonathan Munk
-
Alvy - Age 9
Ruth Volner
-
Alvy's Aunt
Filming Locations: 2nd Avenue, Manhattan, New York City, New York, USA
Box Office Details
Budget: $4,000,000
(estimated)
Gross: $38,251,425
(USA)
(1977)
Technical Specs
Runtime:
Did You Know?
Trivia:
[June 2008] Ranked #2 on the American Film Institute's list of the 10 greatest films in the genre "Romantic Comedy".
Goofs:
Errors made by characters (possibly deliberate errors by the filmmakers):
Marshall McLuhan says "You mean my whole fallacy is wrong" which is redundant. He is essentially saying "You mean my whole [false argument] is wrong" which is not much of an insult.
Quotes:
[first lines]
Alvy Singer:
[addressing the camera]
There's an old joke - um... two elderly women are at a Catskill mountain resort, and one of 'em says, "Boy, the food at this place is really terrible." The other one says, "Yeah, I know; and such small portions." Well, that's essentially how I feel about life - full of loneliness, and misery, and suffering, and unhappiness, and it's all over much too quickly. The...
User Review
Allen's best, and one of the best films ever.
Rating: 10/10
The film that bested Star Wars for the 1977 Best Picture Oscar, Annie Hall
is a remarkable achievement in filmmaking that transcends its simple,
romantic premise to create a stunning portrait of not only 70's pop
culture,
but of human nature cumulative. Directed and co-written by Woody Allen,
who
has since directed other gems such as Hannah and Her Sisters and The
Purple
Rose of Cairo, Annie Hall also stars Allen as Alvy Singer, a neurotic,
death-obsessed comedian who seems unlucky in love and life. That is until
he meets Annie, brilliantly played by Diane Keaton, who is beautiful,
fashion-savvy, carefree (she likes using expressions like `la di da'), and
a
terrible driver.
Annie and Alvy's relationship is an unlikely one. She's a Midwestern
girl,
straight out of white-bread Wisconsin; he's a life-long New York Jew who
grew up (literally) under the Coney Island roller coaster. He's been
seeing
a therapist for the past 16 years; she only `needs' one once she meets
him.
She's an extroverted aspiring singer; he's an introverted, world-despising
imp. Yet Allen and Keaton are so perfect in their roles, they improbably
make this couple one of the most memorable ever.
The plot revolves around Alvy's chronicles of loves lost and a
retrospective
on his relationship with Annie, with whom he has since parted ways. At
the
end of the film, we see Alvy try his hand at stage-writing-he writes a
play
about his relationship with Annie, but gives it a happy ending. Yes,
Annie
and Alvy don't have a fairy tale ending to their relationship, but Alvy
certainly wishes they had, even though he learns to live with the
acknowledgment it has failed.
The best part of Annie Hall is its incredible screenplay-the best ever to
be
written. Not a word is wasted nor a line unquotable. Except here, while
Allen's early films had thrived on streams of one-liners, Allen doesn't go
for cheap laughs-each line is simultaneously hilarious and poignant.
Everything is part of a greater whole. We laugh because it's funny, but
there's a greater dynamic at work in Annie Hall. This is a story not
exclusively about a relationship between two people, but also a musing on
70's politics, drugs, East Coast/West Coast rivalry, narcissism, religion,
celebrity, and several other topics with which Allen deals with
extraordinary ease.
Yet Annie Hall would not be among my favorite films of all-time if it were
just Woody Allen ranting and raving about what he likes and dislikes.
There
are other Allen films that serve that purpose, i.e. Deconstructing Harry,
and they're not nearly as good. What separates Annie Hall is its grace,
the
believable chemistry between Keaton and Allen, the unique direction
(ranging
from split-screens to cartoon imagery to on-screen subtitles of what the
actors are thinking), but mostly because it's the rare film to find a
perfect balance between sheer entertainment, humor, and poignancy.
When the dust had settled, Diane Keaton deservedly won an Academy Award
for
her performance, Allen took home Oscars for direction and writing, and the
film beat out Star Wars for Best Picture, which most people consider a
complete sham. Evidently, those people didn't see Annie Hall, for if they
had, they'd recognize that the acting, writing, and even the direction in
Star Wars can't hold a candle to Annie Hall, one of the best films ever
made.
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