Evan D. As a project this year we are taking a trip through time to revisit all of the Best Picture winners in history, Wings to Anora. Annie Hall is the fiftieth film in that series, to see all the other Best Picture reviews, click here. Alvy Singer (Woody Allen) is a New York stand up comedian with an awful lot of thoughts about the world and himself. Constantly breaking the fourth wall, he is more than willing to share those thoughts directly with the audience. More than any other subject, Alvy has relationships on his mind. Specifically, he can’t stop thinking about his entanglement with Annie Hall (Diane Keaton.) As much as it pains me to say this about a Woody Allen movie, Annie Hall is quite tremendous. I’m always partial to a character piece that meanders solely for the purpose of spending time with those characters. And that is much of what this film is. It makes very effective use of a suite of cinematic quirks. There are split screens and animated interludes, winking subtitles and audience involvement. At times it feels like someone making a movie without any sort of preconceptions about what a movie should look and feel like. It doesn’t always work and Allen takes as much blame for that as he gets credit for what does. His Alvy is quite obnoxious and some of his musings play quite creepy in light of all we know about the director now. Having all of our understanding of this film interpreted through the words and thoughts of that character can trivialize the depth in others around him. In such a character driven film that becomes a problem where the supporting roles feel more like props than people. One instance in which that is not the case though, is Kenton’s Annie. The beating heart of the film she is an absolute delight from the very first moment we meet her. Almost the polar opposite of her character in The Godfather films, Annie is free spirited and radiating with charisma. Without that light at its center, Annie Hall would fall apart completely. That it doesn’t speaks to just how wonderful Keaton is but also to a number of other little miracles in the film. The script is incredibly funny and keeps things airy in the face of Ally’s mounting neuroses. A delightful band of brief appearances of future stars litter the film. Carol Kane, Jeff Goldblum, Shelly Duvall and Christopher Walken all make memorable cameos. If you can separate the Woody Allen of it all from the overall picture, Annie Hall is a delight. Not truly experimental but a film willing to bend the rules of what linear storytelling can look like and feel like. Even now, almost 40 years after it was made, the movie feels crisp, fresh and modern in a way that many do not 8/10
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