Cinema
Annie Hall
Woody Allen · 1977
Synopsis
Alvy Singer, a New York comedian who has just turned forty and has two failed marriages behind him, looks back on his affair with Annie Hall, who has just left him. He met her after a game of mixed doubles at tennis: a young woman from Wisconsin and an aspiring singer, she drove him home. He gave her books about death, pushed her to take adult education classes and go into therapy, and encouraged her to sing in clubs; the narrative moves back and forth in time, as far as childhood memories in Brooklyn.
Context
The working title was Anhedonia, the inability to feel pleasure, and the first cut, ready after almost six weeks, ran two hours and twenty minutes: a ramble in which the couple was only one thread among others, with a crime plot that was abandoned and taken up again later. The co-writer Marshall Brickman judged the opening disastrous, and the film was re-edited around the couple. A scene shot in Times Square on the last day displeased its author so much that he destroyed the reels.
Who it is for
A film of one hour thirty-three minutes, built on speech more than on action, in which the voice-over and adult characters entering memories signal the jumps in time.
Prizes and reception
Four Oscars in 1978, including Best Picture, which its author did not come to collect, and five British awards.
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