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Annie Hall
1977
Woody Allen cowrote, directed, and stars in this award-winning film as a kvetchy Brooklyn comedian wistfully recalling his bygone relationship with flighty, adorable, and irrepressibly midwestern (read: not Jewish) Annie Hall. The film marked a transition from Allen's earlier absurdist comedies to a richer vein of thoughtful .. Read more
| Starring | Woody Allen, Diane Keaton, Tony Roberts, Carol Kane |
|---|---|
| Director | Woody Allen |
| Genres | Comedy, Romance |
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Annie Hall
Woody Allen cowrote, directed, and stars in this award-winning film as a kvetchy Brooklyn comedian wistfully recalling his bygone relationship with flighty, adorable, and irrepressibly midwestern (read: not Jewish) Annie Hall. The film marked a transition from Allen's earlier absurdist comedies to a richer vein of thoughtful consideration of relationships. The gentle narrative revolutionized the urban romantic-comedy genre, while Keaton's hip, man-tailored wardrobe set the 1977 fashion standard. The film is filled with memorable scenes and oft-quoted lines and features Allen talking right into the camera, a technique that was not commonplace at the time. Allen, playing comedian Alvy Singer, uses many of his stand-up comedy routines in the film as he woos the wonderful Diane Keaton, playing the title character, Annie Hall. As Alvy helps Annie mature, she grows apart from him, choosing to live in Southern California, which is the antithesis of his deep love for New York. The film features fabulous visual and verbal gags, a propensity for food scenes, and memorable cameos by the likes of Marshall McLuhan, Paul Simon, Christopher Walken, Truman Capote, Shelley Duvall, and others.
| Starring | Woody Allen, Diane Keaton, Tony Roberts, Carol Kane, Paul Simon, Shelley Duvall, Janet Margolin, Colleen Dewhurst, Christopher Walken |
|---|---|
| Director | Woody Allen |
| Studio | MGM ENTERTAINMENT |
| Run time | DVD: 1 hr 29 mins |
| Certificate | |
| Collections | 100 must-see movies, 100 Rom-Coms |
| Genres | Comedy, Romance |
| Language | English |
| Dubbed | French, German, Italian, Spanish |
| Hearing-impaired | English, German |
| Released | DVD: 10 Jul 2000 Production year: 1977 |
| Format | DVD |
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Critics' reviews (4)
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Although Woody Allen had still to acquire great technical strength as a film-maker, this was the movie where he found his own singular voice, a voice that echoes across events with a mixture of exuberance and introspection. Peppered with hilarious, snappy insights into the meaning of life, love, psychiatry, ambition, art and New York, this comic delight also gains considerably from the spirited playing of Diane Keaton as the kooky innocent from the Midwest, and Woody himself as the fumbling New York neurotic. The narrative runs parallel to the real-life relationship between the two leads (Keaton's father's name was Hall), and the film scooped four Oscars, including best film and screenplay (co-written with Marshall Brickman) for Allen, and best actress for Keaton.
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Semi-serious collage of jokes and bits of technique, some of the former very funny and some of the latter very successful. For no very good reason it hit the box-office spot and turned its creator, of whom it is very typical, from a minority performer to
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Most helpful member's review
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22 out of 22 people found this review helpful
Woody Allens finest hour (and a half)
For anyone who's ever hated himself, and wondered why ... watch Annie Hall.
Let's face it, regardless of flaws and inconsistencies, it's worth watching pretty much any Woody Allen movie just for the few classic one-liners that are bound to be in there. With Woody playing basically himself here, he delves into past loves, metaphysics and lobsters with more of those classic lines than you can shake a stick at.
Although I think generally Woody is infinitely more talented as a stand-up comedian than as a filmmaker, I admit that I do have something of a soft spot for 'Annie Hall'. Mostly it's just the sheer simplicity of the storyline that just allows Woody to go ahead and revel in his trademark self-deprecative, depressive humour -- constantly self-referencing, coming out with witty remarks and amusing sketches as only he can. Also, it's just so INVENTIVE. You get a real sense of a director who is simply improvising, almost like watching Woody himself on stage in front of a live audience. It's a quality that very few of his movies I've seen have possessed, and that's why I think this is easily his best work. -
Most recent members' review
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2 out of 3 people found this review helpful
Neurotics of the World Unite
By the time Annie Hall hit the silver screen Allen had developed his Jewish neurotic persona which was to dominate his style and his films for many years.
His long collaboration with Dianne Keaton works well here, and she has certainly caught a fair dose of his depressive agnst. The story is like many of his films. A failure meets another failure, and they fail to develop the relationship along normal lines. That said it has some delightful moments, and gives a fair hint at was to come in his later works.
Recommended for a depressed night in on the sofa! -
News and features
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Hall: 'Allen stories are a myth'
- 07 Feb 2009
Actress Rebecca Hall was delighted to work with legendary filmmaker Woody Allen - because stories of his eccentric behaviour are "all nonsense". The star was wary of filming Allen's new movie Vicky Cristina Barcelona after hearing tales of his bizarre antics onset. And her fears were apparently confirmed when she was told she would be assigned a minder to guard her script during the shoot - but quickly learned that the Annie Hall director is often the victim of his own legend. She tells GQ... Read more
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