Annie Hall (Diane Keaton) is Avi's (Woody Allen's) love interest and the movie essentially traces their relationship. They were actually together in real life, and broke up in 1970. Keaton's birthname was Diane Hall and her nickname was Annie. Not so surprisingly the movie is semi-autobiographical. It was made in 1977. The humor is classy and cutting. The movie has the greatest number of quotable one-liners that I have ever come across. It is to American comedy what the Yes Minister series has been to British comedy.
The movie starts off with Woody Allen commenting about his life to no one in particular.
Two elderly women are at a Catskill Mountain resort. And one of 'em says: 'Boy, the food in this place is really terrible.' The other one says: 'Yeah, I know. And such small portions.' Well, that's essentially how I feel about life. Full of loneliness and misery and suffering and unhappiness, and it's all over much too quickly.
The other important joke for me is one that's usually attributed to Groucho Marx but I think it appears originally in Freud's Wit and Its Relation to the Unconscious - and it goes like this. I'm paraphrasing. I would never want to belong to any club that would have someone like me for a member. That's the key joke of my adult life, in terms of my relationships with women.
There is one scene from Woody's childhood, where he is in kindergarten class. He irritates one of the girls, and she complains to the teacher, who starts castigating him. Suddenly, this 10 year old kid is replaced by the adult Woody Allen (still sitting in the tiny desk), who responds :
Alvy (young): What did I do?
Teacher: You should be ashamed of yourself.
Alvy (adult): Why, I was just expressing a healthy sexual curiosity.
Teacher: Six year old boys don't have girls on their minds.
Alvy (adult): I did.
Girl: For god's sakes, Alvy, even Freud speaks of a latency period.
Alvy (adult): Well I never had a latency period. I can't help it.
Teacher: Why couldn't you have been more like Donald? Now there was a model boy.
The camera then moves on to the other children into the class, who go on to comment on their adult persona.
Boy 1- "I run a profitable dress company."
Boy 2- "I'm president of the Pinkus Plumbing Company."
Boy 3- "I sell tallises."
A normal-looking kid: "I used to be a heroin addict. Now I'm a methadone addict."
A mousey-looking girl: "I'm into leather."
Another brilliant scene, Woody grew up in a house under a roller-coaster in Brooklyn. He was very depressed, so his mother took him to see a psychiatrist.
Alvy's mother: He's been depressed. All of a sudden, he can't do anything.
Doctor: Why are you depressed, Alvy?
Alvy's mother: Tell Dr. Flicker. (To the doctor) It's something he read.
Doctor: Something he read, huh?
Alvy: The universe is expanding...Well, the universe is everything, and if it's expanding, some day it will break apart and that will be the end of everything.
Alvy's mother: What is that your business? (To the doctor) He stopped doing his homework.
Alvy: What's the point?
Alvy's mother: What has the universe got to do with it? You're here in Brooklyn. Brooklyn is not expanding.
Doctor: It won't be expanding for billions of years, yet Alvy. And we've got to try to enjoy ourselves while we're here, huh, huh? Ha, ha, ha. (He gives an artificial laugh before taking another drag on his cigarette)
The movie has a lot of semi-autobiographical elements. You cannot make out which is fact and which is fiction.
Alvy: Jesus, what did ya do? Come by way of the Panama Canal?
Annie: I'm in a bad mood, OK?
Alvy: Bad mood? I'm standing with the cast of The Godfather.
Annie: You're gonna have to learn to deal with it.
Alvy: I'm dealin' with two guys named Cheech.
Diane Keaton did play the role of Michael Corleone's (Al Pacino) wife in the Godfather!
One of the most striking features of the movie is this digression where one of the characters starts recollecting a scene from the past, and the movie rolls into re-enacting the scene, then there is a pause and the character from the present walks into the past and casually comments on it. It captures what each and every one of us do - look back on the past from the perspective of the present. Such scenes make it very easy to relate to the movie. Avi's cynicism is endearing and it is not too hard to see a little bit of yourself in many of the things that he says. It is the kind of comedy a professor of theatre might make - intelligent, articulate and very tastefully done. One of the best movies I have seen in recent times. I suggest you see it! To end, another great bunch of lines.
Avi's (later ex)wife(at a party ) : X is a Chair of History at Famous College 1, Y is a Chair of Art at Famous College 2, you should talk to them.
Avi: 2 more chairs and we can have a dining set.
The movie starts off with Woody Allen commenting about his life to no one in particular.
Two elderly women are at a Catskill Mountain resort. And one of 'em says: 'Boy, the food in this place is really terrible.' The other one says: 'Yeah, I know. And such small portions.' Well, that's essentially how I feel about life. Full of loneliness and misery and suffering and unhappiness, and it's all over much too quickly.
The other important joke for me is one that's usually attributed to Groucho Marx but I think it appears originally in Freud's Wit and Its Relation to the Unconscious - and it goes like this. I'm paraphrasing. I would never want to belong to any club that would have someone like me for a member. That's the key joke of my adult life, in terms of my relationships with women.
There is one scene from Woody's childhood, where he is in kindergarten class. He irritates one of the girls, and she complains to the teacher, who starts castigating him. Suddenly, this 10 year old kid is replaced by the adult Woody Allen (still sitting in the tiny desk), who responds :
Alvy (young): What did I do?
Teacher: You should be ashamed of yourself.
Alvy (adult): Why, I was just expressing a healthy sexual curiosity.
Teacher: Six year old boys don't have girls on their minds.
Alvy (adult): I did.
Girl: For god's sakes, Alvy, even Freud speaks of a latency period.
Alvy (adult): Well I never had a latency period. I can't help it.
Teacher: Why couldn't you have been more like Donald? Now there was a model boy.
The camera then moves on to the other children into the class, who go on to comment on their adult persona.
Boy 1- "I run a profitable dress company."
Boy 2- "I'm president of the Pinkus Plumbing Company."
Boy 3- "I sell tallises."
A normal-looking kid: "I used to be a heroin addict. Now I'm a methadone addict."
A mousey-looking girl: "I'm into leather."
Another brilliant scene, Woody grew up in a house under a roller-coaster in Brooklyn. He was very depressed, so his mother took him to see a psychiatrist.
Alvy's mother: He's been depressed. All of a sudden, he can't do anything.
Doctor: Why are you depressed, Alvy?
Alvy's mother: Tell Dr. Flicker. (To the doctor) It's something he read.
Doctor: Something he read, huh?
Alvy: The universe is expanding...Well, the universe is everything, and if it's expanding, some day it will break apart and that will be the end of everything.
Alvy's mother: What is that your business? (To the doctor) He stopped doing his homework.
Alvy: What's the point?
Alvy's mother: What has the universe got to do with it? You're here in Brooklyn. Brooklyn is not expanding.
Doctor: It won't be expanding for billions of years, yet Alvy. And we've got to try to enjoy ourselves while we're here, huh, huh? Ha, ha, ha. (He gives an artificial laugh before taking another drag on his cigarette)
The movie has a lot of semi-autobiographical elements. You cannot make out which is fact and which is fiction.
Alvy: Jesus, what did ya do? Come by way of the Panama Canal?
Annie: I'm in a bad mood, OK?
Alvy: Bad mood? I'm standing with the cast of The Godfather.
Annie: You're gonna have to learn to deal with it.
Alvy: I'm dealin' with two guys named Cheech.
Diane Keaton did play the role of Michael Corleone's (Al Pacino) wife in the Godfather!
One of the most striking features of the movie is this digression where one of the characters starts recollecting a scene from the past, and the movie rolls into re-enacting the scene, then there is a pause and the character from the present walks into the past and casually comments on it. It captures what each and every one of us do - look back on the past from the perspective of the present. Such scenes make it very easy to relate to the movie. Avi's cynicism is endearing and it is not too hard to see a little bit of yourself in many of the things that he says. It is the kind of comedy a professor of theatre might make - intelligent, articulate and very tastefully done. One of the best movies I have seen in recent times. I suggest you see it! To end, another great bunch of lines.
Avi's (later ex)wife(at a party ) : X is a Chair of History at Famous College 1, Y is a Chair of Art at Famous College 2, you should talk to them.
Avi: 2 more chairs and we can have a dining set.
8 comments:
I just saw
"Midsummer Nights Sex Comedy"...
hilarious...but not as classy as Woody Allen...
His irreverant takes on everything are amazing :D...
not as classy as Annie Hall I mean..has Mia Farrow..instead of Diane Keaton..but her role is kind of similar
I've never gotten what the big deal is with Mr. Allen. I've seen three or four of his movies-though not Annie Hall-and hardly smiled. It's not that I think his movies are boring, I just don't find him very funny. I have to admit, though that he is an excellent screenplay writer and his direction is impeccable. But the stories and many of characters are not things with which I can identify. I'll have to rent Annie Hall this weekend. I've heard of it, of course, but I only have two friends who are into Woody Allen.
[intern] yes i do find him. i like his humor. irreverant, silly and cynical. it's a break from the in-your-face type comedy that you see on tv everyday.
Annie Hall IS amazing. Midsummer Night's Sex Comedy was good but couldn't match Annie Hall. Plan to see the rest of his movies over the next few days :D.
[hero] hmm..depends...I think it's a highly subjective thing..I had a friend see Annie Hall and he couldn't get a thing...depends on what you like...for I have some friends who don't find P. G. Wodehouse funny..I find him hilarious...the humor is more in the language and the situations..not so much in-your-face punchline type..
[our hero] I have just seen Annie Hall. And I found it incredibly funny. Its not "laugh-out-loud" funny, like most of the sitcoms thrown at us. But most of the humour is implicit. It has to be experienced rather than expounded. From my point of view, I could completely empathize with Alvie Singer and so, in a sense, all the quirky people he encounters are funny to me, because it bears such an uncanny resemblance to people I have met. Further there are a lot of gibes and snide remarks about american culture and human nature in general. If I had to compare Woody Allen to some modern day comedian, I'd say Larry David. In Seinfeld and Curb your Enthusiasm, you dont really end up in splits. But all the characters are obtuse caricatures of people you meet in real life. So when you are turning over the episode in your mind, you laugh quietly because you realise its such a terrific observation about people in general.
Obligatory scene quote from Annie Hall
[Annie's bro] You know alvie, sometimes, when I'm driving and I see a car approaching from the opposite direction, I have this impulse to collide head on with the approaching car.
[Alvie, looking strangely and desperately on] Yeah...... right.... I am sorry I've got to go. I'm due back on Planet Earth.
[ramani] your friends dont find P.G.Wodehouse funny??? Tell 'em to go get a life!!
[doppel] i think you kind of made my point..the humor isn't in the jokes per se..but how all the silly stuff he says ties in so well with your personal experience....it's like an exagerration of basic human traits..that's what humor is...in some weird way you can relate with him...with people who you have met..situations you have been in and so on...
about some of my friends..they need to get an education first :D..he he...
I don't find Wodehouse funny. Now where do I get a life? Pls advice ;)
[prashanth] By reading Wodehouse and finding it funny! He he ;)
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