Annie Hall Review

Annie Hall is often considered to be Woodie Allen's best work. It revolves around the rocky relationship between Alvy Hall, played by Allen, and Annie Hall, played by Diane Keaton. We see the couple live their day to day life in New York, take a trip to Los Angeles and... not much else, really.

It appears to me that the film was missing a plot. The film feels like a collection of home videos thrown together in chronological order, and although interesting to watch, there is a sense of emptiness about the whole film, especially once the ending is revealed. This lack of story is almost mimicked in Annie Hall's lack of ability to connect with Alvy on an intellectual level. It appears that as we are watching the film, and realising that a good plot is vital in sustaining an audience's attention, Alvy is realising that intellect in a partner is vital in sustaining a relationship and understanding a pessimist such as himself. Perhaps the intellect is in the script of a film, and if so, Allen chose a beautiful way to get across his message, however, as the film was originally intended to be a murder mystery but the idea got dropped last minute, it seems to me that this is not the case.

Don't get me wrong, the film was enjoyable to watch, perhaps due to the fact that it only runs for an hour and a half, and the quirky character of Alvy is hilariously easy to relate to. His exaggerated misanthropist opinions make for great comedy, and nobody I can think of would fit the role of Alvy more than Woody Allen himself. We listen to him and relate to what he is saying, be it through his bluntly honest opinions on Sylvia Plath, and the 'college generation' readers of her poetry, his opinions of the two states of being, the miserable and the horrible,  or his flashback to his school days.

The most interesting feature of the film is the way it shows its awareness of the differences between the film world and the real world. Alvy actually states "If only this was real life" to the camera, and frequently turns, breaking the fourth wall, and showing us his feelings, he is aware that he is only a character in a film, it appears. We see him visit his school class back in the days when he was a student, with him, a fully grown man, sitting at his desk and arguing with the teacher, and also taking Annie and Rob back to his childhood home, in a time where his parents are arguing and there is a party going on. Allen is aware of the possibilities of the film form and uses them interestingly and engagingly.

The camerawork of the film is remniscent of indie cinema. The use of natural lighting, off-screen space and sometimes handheld camerawork allows us to feel that New York is not the concrete jungle that sits thousands of miles away, but a reachable place that contains people just like those from our own towns and cities. Split screens are used for comparisons and superimposition is used to represent Annie's lack of mental interest in sex, the technicalities of the film are done very straight forwardly, which works, I don't think it was Allen's goal to achieve any groundbreaking technical work on this film, he wanted to create memorable characters, and that he did.

I did really like this film, the performances were brilliant and a definite highlight for me. The film collected awards upon awards at the Oscars and the BAFTAs back in 1977, and for a reason, an extremely quirky romantic comedy with laugh out loud scenes, this film is hilarious and a pleasure to watch.