Review of Annie Hall (1977) by Cameron H — 01 Aug 2015

I am residing in a state of romantic comfort, as of now. Annie Hall tells the story of Alvy Singer (Woody Allen, also writer and director) more than Annie (Diane Keaton), and his history of romantic relationships. In the first scene, Alvy speaks directly to the camera, behind him a blank wall, and confesses that he and Annie broke up. He speaks with such depression over the fact that he is 40-years-old and is single once again. In my circumstances, I feared of entering my phase of introspection, as I observe the rise and fall of Alvy and Annie. How Woody Allen portrays the relationship trumps most romantic comedies is by never exceeding to melodrama. Since Alvy and Annie are supposed to be responsible, though not "fully aged," adults, the relationship, that is the one that the entire film is centered around, simply comes and goes. No close-up shots, no "yes or no" choices, no orchestral bombast. I never rooted, or felt obliged to root, for the relationship to go one way or the other. I only rooted for the personal happiness of Alvy and Annie, whether they were together or separated. There were laughs, and there were tears. It's a relationship. As different as one relationship is from another, they can be quite formulaic, and Alvy sends that message home with his constant narration over certain scenes. His ultimate theme is that relationships are irrational, but they exist because they always have existed. Alvy honours the highs and lows of his relationship with Annie, and simply tries to move on. How many romantic comedies tell that much about love? In contradiction to what Alvy says in the beginning about never wanting to join a club that would take him as a member, I infer that most folk, including Alvy, want to belong, and that's why we continue to have relationships. My state of romantic comfort lies in how relationships seem to come and go. I can view dating like showering, where it is something that I do because it's what people do.

I apologize. I am choking you with the romantic theme. How about the movie? Allen and Keaton are quirky, nerdy, and frankly very cute together. The best scenes of the two together are not blow-milk-out-of-nose funny, but cutely funny. One famous example is when they are trying to cook lobsters, and the shellfish are crawling all over the kitchen floor. Neither of the two want to touch the shellfish, and the scene plays out with them eventually picking up the lobsters and throwing them in the pot. There aren't any jokes in the premise, but the dialogue in the scene brings the two romantically closer and us in stronger interest and fondness for the relationship. Fun fact: Allen and Keaton were actually married in real life at the time. Since Woody Allen is the narrator, the story is more like how he sees the relationship. That is not to say that he is unreliable, but rather he loves to reinterpret originally normal scenes. For example, when Alvy and Annie first hang out and are discussing photography at Annie's place, we see the subtext of the conversation as subtitles. It's a trope now, but in the context of that scene, it still felt fresh and funny. That isn't the only time that Allen strips away the public persona and reveals subtext. After Alvy and Annie have an argument, Alvy approaches complete strangers about love. One couple mutually agrees that they are both shallow people with no good ideas, and that's how their relationship works. I really like these moments. I related to Alvy's sense of humour, at the expense of the misery in everybody's lives. Beyond that, there are some great straightforward jokes, the best with Annie's brother Duane (a young Christopher Walken, so you know it's at least a little twisted). Don't expect too many side-splitting laughs. Annie Hall is not about that. I'm hardly a Woody Allen fan. His earlier films are stylistically more akin to the Marx Brothers than where he is here, and I've never seen any later films. This particular Woody Allen film stood as an anomaly, but I really wanted to watch it because I sensed, and now verified, that Annie Hall would be a romantic comedy that cared as much about the romance as it did about the comedy.