By Todd Garbarini
As
long as there are films, there will always be lively discussions as to what
Woody Allen’s best movie is. Most film
fans tend to argue amongst his four greatest works: Annie Hall (1977), Manhattan
(1979), Hannah and Her Sisters (1986)
and Crimes and Misdemeanors (1989). If I personally had to choose, it would
probably be Hannah, which is perhaps
the finest film that he has ever made. At the same time, I don’t want to neglect the others, so it becomes an
exercise in futility as none of these films suffer from any condition other
than they are great films. Mr. Allen
would probably disagree, insofar as Annie
Hall is concerned. Mercifully
title-changed from Anhedonia (a
condition which characterizes a person’s inability to experience pleasure from
activities usually found to be enjoyable), Annie
Hall is a film full of life, laughs, and, ultimately, ironies. Few comedies have reached the heights that Annie Hall reaches for and easily tops,
and as such it resides on the number four spot of the American Film Institutes’
100 Funniest American Movies of All-Time.
Annie Hall, which opened on Wednesday, April 20,
1977, won the Best Picture award over George Lucas’s Star Wars (1977) in April 1978 at the 50th Annual Academy Awards. I was nine at the time and positively
bewildered that anything would have trumped my favorite science fiction film. Didn’t everyone see and love Star Wars? Who could have voted against it? When I finally did see Woody Allen’s comedy years
later I was broadsided by how different, mature, and outright hilarious it was. The film is a feast of high-brow humor with
its visual and verbal in-jokes, effectively upping the ante from the hilarious
sight-gags that populated Take the Money
and Run (1969), Bananas (1971),
and Everything You Always Wanted to Know
About Sex: But Were Afraid to Ask (1972). What makes this film so remarkable are the performances, the dialogue,
and the brilliant editing. Originally
intended as a dramatic murder mystery with a comedic and romantic subplot (which
Mr. Allen shelved until 1993’s Manhattan
Murder Mystery), Annie Hall revolves
around Alvy Singer (Allen), a neurotic Manhattan comedian, and his relationship
with his girlfriend, the titular Annie Hall (played by Diane Keaton, whose real
name is Diane Hall). Told in flashback
like J.D. Salinger’s The Catcher in the
Rye (which is mentioned in the film), Annie
Hall details their struggles to maintain a relationship in the Big Apple. Alvy meets the awkward Annie, and once their
relationship begins the film soars in its cinematic depiction of how they
relate to one another as well as to the audience. This is the one film of Mr. Allen’s which
begins and ends with no music over the credits, and wherein he talks directly
to the audience in character. Among the
standouts are Alvy’s description of his childhood; Alvy’s harassment by “the
cast of The Godfather†outside the
Beekman Theatre; Alvy introducing Marshall McLuhan to an annoying theatre
patron; Alvy and Annie’s attempts to cook lobster; their first meeting and
first date; making fun of people in Central Park; Alvy meeting Annie’s family; Annie’s
middle-of-the-night call to kill a spider in the bathtub; and Alvy’s
“fish-out-of-water†reaction to Los Angeles.
The
film is about memory and acts also as a great time capsule of what life was
like in 1976 when the film was shot. I
can’t help but notice how dressed up people are at the movie theatres, most of
which specialized in foreign films. It
is hard to believe now that New York City was once a place that was moderately
affordable to live in.
MGM's Annie Hall Blu-ray presentation is a considerable step
up for the previous DVD release which was marred by video noise as well as speckles
and blemishes on the film. The new
Blu-ray is, of course, sharper and is sourced from a film print in considerably
better condition. The disc has subtitles and the theatrical trailer.
If you are a Woody Allen fan, the purchase of this Blu-ray
is a no-brainer.
Click here to order from Amazon