“It reminds me of that old joke- you know, a guy walks into a psychiatrist’s office and says, hey doc, my brother’s crazy! He thinks he’s a chicken. Then the doc says, why don’t you turn him in? Then the guy says, I would but I need the eggs. I guess that’s how I feel about relationships. They’re totally crazy, irrational, and absurd, but we keep going through it because we need the eggs.”-Woody Allen, Annie Hall
It’s finally here. The most polarizing, yet celebrated holiday; universally known throughout our society as the day that separates those whom have found love from those that love has yet to find. Valentine’s Day. Thankfully, Woody Allen gave audiences who are lost when it comes to love a story about love and loss that makes audiences feel amazing on this most mysterious of Hallmark holidays. This film allows both men and women to celebrate personal relationship statuses, whatever they may be.
From its original premiere during the Los Angeles Film Festival almost 40 years ago, Annie Hall has proven intrepid against the test of time. Starring Diane Keaton as Annie Hall (a role written specifically for her) and Woody Allen as Alvy Singer, Annie Hall will forever speak truly to generation after generation of romances, making it one of the most timeless and amazingly relevant movies in the history of film. In the spirit of Valentines Day, it’s important to remember not just who we are and the relationships we have with our own selves, but more importantly, what it is that we ultimately desire out of a relationship with another person, no matter how often that changes. Thanks to the unique directing style and storyline provided by Woody Allen and Marshall Brickman, Annie Hall will illuminate those very questions for audiences and allow us all the understanding that we’re not crazy-cuckoo-bananas when it comes to love. We’re just human.
There are many elements to Annie Hall that make it an extraordinary film. The storyline alone is one that will resonate with anyone that has ever tried to think back on a relationship in an attempt to understand where it all went wrong, or what they could have done differently. This need to understand allows us closure, so that we can move on.
Annie Hall is brilliantly depicted in Woody Allen’s classic linear narrative style. The entire storyline is Allen’s character Alvy’s internal thought process as he reflects on his faded past love with Annie. From the very beginning of the film, Allen introduces the audience directly into the story by making contact with them, immediately “breaking the fourth wall.” This is one of many fascinating editing techniques that Allen and Brickman contribute to the film that make it one of a kind. Split-screen method is utilized to illustrate the duality of both Annie and Alvy’s hilarious internal struggles with intimacy as they both attend therapy sessions. While engaging in a glass of wine after first meeting on Annie’s balcony, the two are attempting mature conversation about photography, but “mental subtitles” are reflected as the two talk, which unlocks another door of relatability for audiences towards Annie and Alvy.
The most brilliant editing technique present in Annie Hall is when the camera cuts back and forth between past and present, featuring scenes with Annie’s family and Alvy’s, both detailed in split screen method as well as in overshadowing effect. Annie, Alvy, and Alvy’s best friend Max (played by Tony Roberts) narrate scenes of the past in both Annie and Alvy’s lives by being in the room, but being invisible to those in the moment depicted, keeping the internal narrative linear while still moving the story along.
Keaton’s brilliant depiction of Annie, from her iconic style to her character’s ditzy personality, is quintessential to the 70’s era. Her performance is second only to Allen’s perfect execution of Alvy, as he deals with his neurosis over the struggles of love and the people in his life as they struggle with him. Both Allen and Keaton have gone on to address various rumors that Annie Hall was not only autobiographical of Allen’s own life, but of his relationship with Keaton. Regardless of the measure of truth to the backstory, for Woody Allen, Annie Hall was more than a “maybe” interpretation of his own life. It was a new avenue of expression for the director. It turned away from the mainline comedic angles Allen was known for early on to feature more serious content, such as gender roles, stereotypes of New York and Los Angeles culture, Jewish identity, and detailed analyses of the human psyche, intimacy, and the modern society.
The dialogue in this film is what opens the door for so many to feel invited into how Woody and Diane’s characters feel and think when they are together, as well as when they are apart. The unfiltered and unabashed way the two characters connect is reflected in every aspect of a relationship between two people who truly, deeply care for each other. So many angles are presented between Annie and Alvy that reflect everyday conversations, arguments, private moments (both awkwardly hilarious while still beautiful), and ultimate truths and realities that become too difficult to ignore when both want what’s best for the other–especially when both realize that what’s best for one is no longer best for the other.
So much of this film is difficult to put into words. Annie Hall is more emotion, laughter, and feeling than mere entertainment. Upon its box office release, the film was met with widespread acclaim for its ability to guide the audience towards a universal truth. In the words of Alvy himself, that truth is that love is “irrational and crazy and absurd,” but ultimately necessary. Annie Hall won four Academy Awards, including Best Picture and Best Actress. It has also received several Golden Globes and BAFTA Awards. In 1992, the United States Library of Congress selected the film for preservation in The National Film Registry. Diane Keaton still reflects on her role as Annie as her most favorite role in her career to date. Many others maintain that Annie Hall is Woody Allen’s best film ever. Annie Hall is so undeniably the best romantic comedy of all time because it is the perfect representation of the memories of love. The “eggs,” if you will. Single or coupled, Annie Hall will do for you what it’s always been cherished for: it will help us laugh, love, understand, finally accept what is, and be better off in the end. Happy Valentine’s Day.
