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ANNIE
HALL
10/10
USA
1977
director
: Woody Allen
script : Allen, Marshall Brickman
cinematography : Gordon Willis
editing : Ralph Rosenblum
lead actors : Woody Allen, Diane Keaton, Tony Roberts
93 minutes
25
years on, it seems ever more remarkable that Annie Hall managed
to beat cash-cow Star Wars at the 1977 Oscars. Woody Allen, with
his legendary indifference to Academy Awards, still boasts that, of all
Best Picture winners, his made the least money. It’s also the shortest
- and, arguably, the best. None, certainly, comes close in terms of experimentation
– this is his fifth film as director, and Allen risks a freewheeling,
try-anything structure, relentlessly bending the rules of cinema just
to see what happens.
And
so very much of it comes off, even if repeated viewings do reveal how
little actually happens in the brief but intense comic romance between
comedian Alvy Singer (Allen) and aspiring singer Annie Hall (Keaton),
and how much the film concentrates on Alvy, no matter what the title might
suggest – this remains Allen’s only ‘Best Actor’ nomination, and he should
have won. But familiarity doesn’t sap the freshness: individual scenes
and lines are no less impressive (and funny) for having passed so securely
into the popular consciousness. Among films, perhaps only Psycho and
Casablanca have managed the same feat.
Too
many people only know Annie Hall from its heavy TV rotation – on
the big screen, Gordon Willis’s cinematography comes to the fore, rivalling
even Ralph Rosenblum’s crucial work in the editing suite (Allen’s editors
are often described as the ‘real’ directors of his work, chopping down
the huge spools of footage into these economic bite-sizes). This is the
most geographically energetic of all Allen’s films, and Willis does remarkable
things with the drizzly greys of Manhattan, the garish brightness of Los
Angeles. But no matter how big the screen, Sigourney Weaver, who allegedly
pops up at the very end, remains a tall, tiny speck in the far distance.
7th
January, 2001
(seen
Dec-30-01, Tyneside Cinema, Newcastle)
by Neil
Young
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