Annie Hall

Annie Hall (1977)

Runtime: 93 minutes

Directed by: Woody Allen

Starring: Woody Allen, Diane Keaton, Tony Robbins, Paul Simon, Christopher Walken

From: United Artists

Someone else whose career I need to see more work from is Woody Allen, who’s been in the film business since the 60’s and still directing and acting in flicks. Sure, you can carp about his personal life or the fact that he married the adopted daughter of his then love interest Mia Farrow, but his films, while uneven at times are his own and he’s one of a kind. Of the films I’ve seen from him, I haven’t watched them in awhile so I’ll wait until I can find them in a videostore or see them on a channel like TCM or AMC to talk about them on here. But, if you’re a “serious” fan of cinema then of course you should watch at least a few of his flicks, as they’re not too difficult to acquire and he’s done several different genres, from vulgar comedies to comedies relying on wordplay to dramas to mysteries to blends of various types.

This film, Annie Hall, is the flick that many says is Woody’s best, and indeed it’s the only one of his films that has won an Academy Award for Best Picture (and it’s second-shortest movie ever to win that award), but I only take the Oscars a little more seriously than Woody does, so the film’s high rating on IMDb may be a better judge of how the public at least thinks of it.

The movie is about the up and down romantic relationship between the flighty title character (Keaton) and Alvy Singer (Allen), a neurotic comedian (but of course for Woody) through the years. It’s done in an interesting way; it starts off with them being a bickering couple and then we go back and forth in time to examine Singer’s life from childhood to the present and also look at Annie’s past life and sometimes the present characters comment on what’s happening in the flashbacks and even talk to their past selves. Like I said, interesting, and Lord knows, Tarantino’s not the first one to play around with the narrative like that!

Also, Woody talks to his pal (Robbins, who looks like a young Will Ferrell, no kidding, which may be why he cast Ferrell in the movie Melinda and Melinda; Robbins recently had a health scare but I hear he's doing fine now) about living in NYC, and the town also gets some love. Robbins wishes for them to move to LA, and that ends up being an important plot point also.

I don’t want to give anything else away but it’s a movie that-while maybe best for “intellectual” types as you get to hear Allen’s opinions on many topics, some of which are heady, such as references to Fellini and the documentary The Sorrow & The Pity-I think you’ll enjoy even if you don’t get all the references as it’s a nice realistic love story (even though the characters are rich successful types) told in a way that is fresh even in 2009 even though some of its style has been used in TV shows and movies since 1977.

Check back here by the end of the week, where I'll post at least two new reviews.