Annie Hall (1977)

Film: Annie Hall

Director: Woody Allen

Country: USA

Released: March 1977

Runtime: 93 minutes

Genre: Comedy

Studio: Jack Rollins and Charles Joffe / United Artists

Influenced: Jerry Seinfeld, Noah Baumbach, Nora Ephron, Cameron Crowe, Greta Gerwig, Larry David

Misgivings about Woody Allen aside, this film's originality and lasting influence on cinema cannot be denied. It's not for everyone; it's the sort of humour that derives from being smart enough to get the jokes, cerebral and witty not visceral and laugh out loud. Allen initially conceived Annie Hall as a much broader film titled Anhedonia, which focused on the character Alvy Singer (played by Allen) and his various relationships. However, during the editing process, Allen and his co-writer Marshall Brickman realised that the heart of the story lay in Singer's relationship with Annie Hall (Diane Keaton), and they reworked the film and retitled it to reflect this shift in focus. The film's innovative opening monologue scene, in which Allen displays his various neuroses and tells the classic Groucho Marx / Freud joke – he wouldn't want to be part of a club that would want him as a member – and another about life being miserable and short, sets the tone for the film.

Fellini and Freud's psychoanalysis were clearly two big influences on Allen, while the director's Jewishness also permeates the film. An early scene where kids at school reveal their future professions includes one who will grew up to sell "tallits", while Allen also satirises cultural stereotypes like the New York Jewish intellectual who goes on socialist summer camps. Since a young Alvy found out the universe was expanding and would one day break apart, he's felt demotivated and stopped doing his homework at school, and we get the immediate sense of a precocious child who develops into a misanthropic adult. He struggles to relate to Annie, an aspiring singer and actress, and the story is primarily told from his perspective, using an innovative mix of flashbacks, voiceovers and breaking of the fourth wall.

Cinematographer Gordon Willis played a crucial role in shaping the film's visual style and its tone, employing a mix of long takes, handheld camera work and natural lighting to capture a sense of intimacy, while other times using deep focus photography to allow multiple characters to appear in a single frame. The film also has a lovely soundtrack, including old numbers by the likes of Tommy Dorsey (Sleepy Lagoon), evoking the flashback setting of WWII Brooklyn. Often Allen is having a dialogue with us in the audience, not the other characters in the film, using voiceover narration to let us know his thoughts in certain scenes. He even describes himself as "anal" because he can't see a Bergman film if he's missed the first two minutes, while two clips of the classic documentary The Sorrow & The Pity (1969) by Marcel Ophuls also appear in the film (it's a running joke that Alvy would much rather watch such a somber film than go to parties with Annie).

Allen makes clever use of various cameos by Marshall McCluhan, Shelley Duvall, Paul Simon, Christopher Walken and Jeff Goldblum ("I forgot my mantra") and he is also creative in his use of split screens, animations and childhood flashbacks. It is all very funny and smart, but my main criticism is that for a film about love and relationships, it has very little emotional depth. Nevertheless, Annie Hall would revolutionise the genre of romantic comedies, opening the door for more introspective and nuanced portrayals of relationships on screen. Alvy and Annie's relationship ultimately ends, and Alvy delivers a poignant final monologue, reflecting on the nature of love and loss. I particularly like Allen's use of the lobster metaphor, an absurd but recurring motif in the film that emphasises the challenges of maintaining a harmonious connection with another person. Annie Hall was a critical and commercial success, winning four Oscars, including Best Picture and a deserved Best Actress award for Diane Keaton.