Annie Hall [VHS]
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DVD Cover Information
Actor: Carol Kane, Colleen Dewhurst, Hy Anzell, Russell Horton, Shelley DuvallAudio: English (Original Language), Analog; English (Unknown), Analog
Format: Color, HiFi Sound, NTSC
Running Time: 93 minutes
DVD Release Date: 2000-07-05
Audience Rating: PG (Parental Guidance Suggested)
Studio: Baker & Taylor Video
Movie Reviews of Annie Hall [VHS]
Movie Review: A major turning point
Summary: 5 Stars
I have been a huge fan of Allen's works for years and I've seen every movie he's made. Strangely, Annie Hall, the most celebrated and universally considered THE Best Woody Allen's movie ever, did not belong to the top list of my favorite Allen's films. It took me three times to watch it and finally I can say yes, it is indeed a marvelous film, one of the best romantic stories told from the screen, the love story that could've only been made by Woody Allen. Its tag line says "A nervous romance", and they never came more nervous than Annie Hall. This is a story of two people who truly loved each their but could not stay together and moved on with their lives. Simple like that but it was told by Woody Allen, what made it not so simple and very enjoyable. This is the film where Diane Keaton had proved a perfect actress for Allen's movies. She brought to the film a lot of herself, her natural nervousness and insecure attitude to the role, even her dressing style that became hugely popular, and she was able to look at herself from the distance. She played Annie with such elegance, bemusement, perfect timing, and sense of humor, that for the whole time I kept asking myself how she did it. The part of the answer is that Allen understood her completely and masterfully used the originality of her persona to write and direct the character of Annie. Keaton recalls, "Of course I recognized myself in the roles Woody Allen wrote. I mean, in Annie Hall (1977) particularly. I was this sort of novice who had lots of feelings but didn't know how to express herself, and I see that in Annie. I think Woody used a kind of essential quality that he found in me at that time, and I'm glad he did because it worked really well in the movie."
For Annie Hall, Allen received his first and only nomination for acting, and he deserved it. You may say that you've seen all his tricks many times but Annie Hall was the first movie where he mixed physical comedy, anxiety, and neurosis with the genuine feelings of love and nostalgia so touchingly and funny. Engaging the audience to the film by talking directly to them may not be used for the first time ever by Allen but it worked perfectly in Annie Hall. Who would forget the scene in the ticket booth in an art house movie cinema where Woody summons up Marshall McLuhan to silence a never stop talking self important movie critic? The flashbacks are smart and funny, the split screen Allen uses, really added to the characters' understanding by comparison two parallel streams of thought. Both, NYC and its antitheses, LA look gorgeous. Even the smallest cameos are memorable (Christopher Walken and Jeff Goldblum, for example).
I think that the fascination and love that the film received upon its release had to do a lot with the fact that it was so different from everything Allen had done before Annie Hall. Checking the list of his earlier movies, one can't help noticing that they were pure slapstick comedies. The only earlier film that can be called Annie Hall's true predecessor is the one that Allen did not direct even though he wrote it, starred in it and for the first time shared the screen with Diane Keaton - Play it Again, Sam. I still believe that Allen has made films better than Annie Hall, at least I love 'Manhattan", "Hanna and Her Sisters', "Zelig", and especially "Crimes and Misdemeanors" more and place them above Annie Hall. But as the first Allen's romantic dramedy, the one that had started the whole genre of independent and sophisticated urban love stories with an unusual, over self-involved and self-obsessed and not always likable lead hero who nevertheless is always ready to be the first to laugh at himself and to look at himself from the distance, Annie Hall has found the high place in the film history.
Critics have compared Annie Hall to Fellini's 8 1/2 but Woody responded in his typical way that "it's more like my 2 1/2". The members of the academy did not think so, and rewarded the film with 5 Oscar nominations, of which it won four, making Annie Hall one of very few comedies to have won Best Picture of the year Oscar and the shortest ever Oscar winner - 93 precious minutes of Woody Allen's genius and Diane Keaton's charm.
Summary of Annie Hall [VHS]
Annie Hall is one of the truest, most bittersweet romances on film. In it, Allen plays a thinly disguised version of himself: Alvy Singer, a successful--if neurotic--television comedian living in Manhattan. Annie (the wholesomely luminous Dianne Keaton) is a Midwestern transplant who dabbles in photography and sings in small clubs. When the two meet, the sparks are immediate--if repressed. Alone in her apartment for the first time, Alvy and Annie navigate a minefield of self-conscious "is-this-person-someone-I'd-want-to-get-involved-with?" conversation. As they speak, subtitles flash their unspoken thoughts: the likes of "I'm not smart enough for him" and "I sound like a jerk." Despite all their caution, they connect, and we're swept up in the flush of their new romance. Allen's antic sensibility shines here in a series of flashbacks to Alvy's childhood, growing up, quite literally, under a rumbling roller coaster. His boisterous Jewish family's dinner table shares a split screen with the WASP-y Hall's tight-lipped holiday table, one Alvy has joined for the first time. His position as outsider is uncontestable he looks down the table and sizes up Annie's "Grammy Hall" as "a classic Jew-hater."The relationship arcs, as does Annie's growing desire for independence. It quickly becomes clear that the two are on separate tracks, as what was once endearing becomes annoying. Annie Hall embraces Allen's central themes--his love affair with New York (and hatred of Los Angeles), how impossible relationships are, and his fear of death. But their balance is just right, the chemistry between Allen's worry-wart Alvy and Keaton's gangly, loopy Annie is one of the screen's best pairings. It couldn't be more engaging. --Susan Benson
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