By Todd Garbarini
After
the dramatic, Ingmar Bergman-esque directorial turn he took with Interiors (1978), on the heels of his Oscar
winner Annie Hall (1977), Woody Allen
turned back to contemporary New York for a daring film that was shot in black-and-white and scored with the music of
George Gershwin. Manhattan
(1979) was the result. Proclaimed as the
only truly great American film of the 1970s by film critic Andrew Sarris, Manhattan
is a joy to behold from start to finish and is quite simply one of the most romantic
films of all-time. Gordon Willis’
beautiful photography married with the sumptuous Gershwin music makes me wish
that filmmakers would make black and white films today. There are some who do, but they appear to
only do it within avant-garde and independent circles.
Manhattan, released on
Wednesday, April 25, 1979, stars Woody Allen as Isaac Davis, a twice-divorced
television writer who is unfulfilled with his life as a comedy writer. His second ex-wife Jill (Meryl Streep) has
left him for another woman and is writing a book about their marriage. Isaac is 42 and is dating Tracy (Mariel
Hemingway) who is 25 years younger than he is and is still in high school. He feels very guilty about this, but
genuinely cares for her (this plot point was reportedly inspired by Mr. Allen’s
affair with actress Stacy Nelkin on the set of Annie Hall in 1976, though her part was eventually cut from that
film). His friend
Yale (Michael Murphy) is writing a book about Eugene O’Neill and is married to
Emily (Anne Byrne) but has started an affair with Mary Wilkie (Diane Keaton)
whom Isaac initially can’t stand but increasingly grows fond of. Throughout the film we are confronted by
these characters that cannot seem to put their finger on what they want and
stick with it. They are not inherently
bad people: they just keep making questionable decisions. By the end of the film, the only person who
seems to have their head on straight is Tracy
and the film ends, like Mr. Allen’s Hannah
and Her Sisters (1986), on a very positive and upbeat note.
The
real star of the film is Manhattan
itself, with its pulsating and bustling people and automobiles. Rarely has the city looked so luminous and
beautiful onscreen. Gordon Willis, the
revered cinematographer of The Godfather
films and Mr. Allen’s Annie Hall and Interiors, captures Gotham
in all its beauty even during an era when the city was beset by social decay. For the first time in his career, Mr. Allen
forgoes the relative constraints of the 1.85:1 flat ratio to the far more
accommodating 2.35:1 anamorphic Panavision vista and the results makes one ache
for further use of this format.
Manhattan was penned by
Mr. Allen and Marshall Brickman, who also co-wrote Annie Hall. The dialogue in
Mr. Allen’s films has always been a strong point, but here it really
shines. Beginning with the style of
long, uninterrupted takes that first surfaced in Annie Hall, onscreen nocturnal walks and chats have rarely been so
fascinating.
Manhattan was also one of
the first movies to appear on home video in the widescreen format, which retained
much (but not all) of the film’s original image. I have owned Manhattan
on letterboxed VHS, the letterboxed laserdisc with the gatefold, the
letterboxed DVD, and I must say that the new letterboxed Blu-ray is the best
presentation of this film thus far.
It
would be wonderful if Mr. Allen would be open to providing commentary tracks on
his older films, specifically this one, which he reportedly was so displeased
with that he imposed on United Artists to shelve it and offered to do another
movie for free.
Thankfully,
they didn’t listen to him.
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