Directed by: Woody Allen
Starring: Woody Allen, Diane Keaton, Tony Roberts, Shelley Duvall, Paul Simon, Christopher Walken
Annie Hall is Woody Allen's tribute to a relationship that started, stopped, started again, and stopped for good. Does it mirror his real-life relationship with Diane Keaton, his co-star whom he dated in the early 1970s? Here's a tidbit. Diane Keaton's real name is Diane Hall and Woody called her by the nickname Annie during their time together. Did their relationship run its course in the same fashion as in this movie? And with such touching truths, neuroses, and both moving in opposite directions? Actually, it was more like Allen standing still while Keaton grew, learned, and asserted her independence. Annie Hall is Allen's best film. It is a romantic comedy with Allen's observations on life and relationships peppered in. He wonders how the relationship went wrong. Perhaps it's his use of Groucho Marx's quote, "I would not want to be belong to a club that would have someone like me for a member," that sets the table for what lies ahead. He uses it twice in the film. It is very telling about his self-esteem when it comes to women. It's as if he enters a relationship wondering when, not if, it will fall apart.
The romance blossoms between Annie and Alvy (Allen), a stand-up comic and TV personality who is sometimes accosted by neanderthals on the street who swear they know him from somewhere...just not sure where. They meet playing tennis and soon she offers to share a cab with him, even though she owns a car. She drives like it is the Indy 500 on New York City streets. Both are intelligent and neurotic. They know they are perfect for each other but they can't always get out of their own way and just be happy. Annie is a fledgling singer who catches the eye of famed record producer Tony Lacey (Simon), which inspires jealousy within Alvy not just because of Annie, but because Tony wants her to come to California to record and Alvy detests the Left Coast. His pointed satire of California lifestyles is particularly biting and amusing. His best friend Rob (Roberts) moved there to write situation comedies and check out the plethora of available young women. Alvy travels to California, orders mashed yeast from a health food restaurant, and falls ill. Or so he thinks he does. Hypochondria is part of the package with Alvy.
Annie Hall is full of unique visuals and truly inspired humor. A loud blabbermouth stands behind Alvy on line for a movie pontificating on Marshall McLuhan. Alvy gains his revenge by producing the actual Marshall McLuhan to chastise the loudmouth. It doesn't even matter if anyone in the audience knows who Marshall McLuhan was, the gag works. We see glimpses of Alvy's childhood where he lived in a Brooklyn house situated right under a rollercoaster. Dinners are frequently interrupted when the house shakes. There is one segment where Annie and Alvy appear as animated characters from a fairy tale discussing their relationship issues. Alvy also laments what he perceives as anti-Semitism because someone says to him, "Did you eat?" and pronounced it "Jew eat?" We also meet Annie's Wisconsin family, including a grandmother who looks at Alvy and pictures a Hasidic Jew, while her brother Duane (Walken) steals a scene by telling Alvy he sometimes wants to intentionally cause a head-on collision while driving. The payoff to this is wonderful non-verbal comedy. Rob and Alvy call each other "Max" for no other reason except that it just sounds good to them and is part of their verbal byplay.
We feel genuine affection for Alvy and Annie. Keaton won a Best Actress Oscar for her role and she plumbs it for all of its lovable ditziness. She also grows enough to know Alvy no longer suits her as a mate. The scatterbrained girl who says, "La dee da" in the beginning is more mature woman by the end. Alvy misses Annie when she leaves, but probably misses the early Annie who was more neurotic than even he is. In that sense, or at least in his mind, he was the mature one and enjoyed the fact that Annie depended on him so much.
Allen was nominated for his only Best Actor Oscar to date for this film and it is a version of what would become his inimitable screen persona. Lovable, overthinking, overanalyzing, easily miffed by the foibles of others, and forever in awe of the power the opposite sex has over him. Women drive him crazy but, like he says in a story that closes the film, "I would commit my brother who thinks he's a chicken, but I need the eggs." No writer, director, or actor quite sees the world like Woody Allen does. Annie Hall is perhaps the prime example of why he is so endearing to us and how unique he is in the history of cinema. As he ages, (he is approaching 81), I understand each work of his now is a treasure. How many more will be left? I don't know, but I hope we continue to see Woody Allen for a long time to come.
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