Mutant Reviewers from Hell do
"Syliva Plath - interesting poetess whose tragic suicide was misinterpreted as romantic by the college girl mentality."

1977 PG / Comedy Romance Directed by: Woody Allen Starring: Woody Allen, Diane Keaton, Shelley Duvall

Tagline

A nervous romance.

Summary Capsule

Cute little tidbits about how Woody Allen views life, and more importantly, love, in progress.

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Nancy's Rating: Four out of five college kid clichés.
Nancy's Review: The other one is the video game kid. The other is the heavy hippie stoner. And then a blatant nerd, and then a party kid.

"That’s what is loveable about this whole movie — it feels so real and it feels so much like the life you live day in and day out."

But next to all of that, there’s the intellectual. Ohhh, you kooky intellectual.

Woody Allen is a staple for that college kid’s life. To be a college intellectual is to be amazed by his subtle humor. What is so special about Annie Hall, however, is that it transcends this land of ‘college cult deal’ and crosses over into ‘respected love tale for the ages’ land.

Did you catch that? Annie Hall manages to DOUBLE CLICHÉ! Good for it!

I’m surprised by the fact that so many critics think this is one of the greatest love stories of all time. I normally wouldn’t think critics would be smart enough to catch a gem like this. But because of their heresay, I knew I liked Annie Hall before I even watched it. It was just one of those things that I was totally certain I would enjoy, so really, what was the point of ever watching it?

Luckily, I did in fact meet that college intellecual who was obsessed with Annie Hall. And, see, for me, it is so difficult to understand how many critics love this choppy, strange tale of love that doesn’t even end of a happy note. But I think I’m starting to understand it. Annie Hall taps into some idea of life/love where everything is funny, even the realest and the hardest aspects of life. It’s simple and it’s profound, and each character is excessively quirky to the point of being real. And that’s what is loveable about this whole movie — it feels so real and it feels so much like the life you live day in and day out. The conversation Woody Allen immortalizes are what actual conversations are like, short of his rambling neurosis. People are as annoying as he makes them be — we aren’t living in a Gilmore Girl world where even the bad characters are impossibly witty.

So I think that’s maybe why the critics, college kids, lovers of love and me* all agree on this movie. It taps into something that we all feel, and even though it has all the qualities of being hated, there is something legitimately sincere about Annie Hall that not every movie gets.

Love isn’t when you kiss under the moonlight, it’s when you fight the lobsters together. Once you get that, you get Annie Hall.

*Does anyone else feel like I just sang the Rainbow Connection in that line? “The lovers…the dreamers…and me”

Even airplanes were butt ugly in the 70's He is having, er, the buyer's regret Toothpick or man? You decide.

Didja Notice? [some sources: IMDb]

• There is a typo in Christopher Walken’s name in the credits.
• During the lobster-cooking scene Annie runs and retrieves a camera to take pictures of Alvy dealing with the crustaceans. Later, when Alvy runs over to Annie's house to smash a spider, the series of photos Annie took is on the wall in the background.
• Sigourney Weaver's screen debut, in a non-speaking part as Alvy's date near the end of the movie.

Is It Worth Staying Through End Credits?

We have no idea (but we'll let you know soon!)

Intermission! [some sources: IMDb]

Alvy's sneezing into the cocaine was an unscripted accident. When previewed, the audience laughed so loud that director Allen decided to leave it in, and had to add footage to compensate for people missing the next few jokes from laughing too much.

Allen originally envisioned this movie as a murder mystery, with a subplot about a romance. During script revisions, Allen decided to drop the murder plot, which he and Marshall Brickman later revitalized in Manhattan Murder Mystery.

Diane Keaton's real name is Diane Hall and her nickname is Annie.

Annie's outfits, which caused a brief fashion rage, were Diane Keaton's own clothes.

When waiting in front of the movie theater, Alvy Singer says, "I'm standing out here with the cast of the Godfather," to Diane Keaton, who was in the cast of The Godfather. Additionally, one of the men who bothers him for the autograph is played by actor Rick Petrucelli, who had a small role in The Godfather as a thug who protects Michael en route to the hospital.

Woody Allen originally filmed a scene in which a traffic advisory sign "urges" Alvy to go to Annie in California. Editor Ralph Rosenblum wrote that Allen was so disgusted by the scene's cuteness that he took the footage and threw it into the East River. The traffic-sign motif was later used in Steve Martin's "L.A. Story."

Groovy Quotes

Alvy Singer: Don't you see the rest of the country looks upon New York like we're left-wing, communist, Jewish, homosexual pornographers? I think of us that way sometimes and I live here.

Alvy Singer: My grammy never gave gifts. She was too busy getting raped by Cossacks.

[after sex with Annie]
Alvy Singer: That was the most fun I've ever had without laughing.

[In California]
Annie Hall: It's so clean out here.
Alvy Singer: That's because they don't throw their garbage away, they turn it into television shows.

Annie Hall: So you wanna go into the movie or what?
Alvy Singer: No, I can't go into a movie that's already started, because I'm anal.
Annie Hall: That's a polite word for what you are.

Duane: Can I confess something? I tell you this as an artist, I think you'll understand. Sometimes when I'm driving... on the road at night... I see two headlights coming toward me. Fast. I have this sudden impulse to turn the wheel quickly, head-on into the oncoming car. I can anticipate the explosion. The sound of shattering glass. The... flames rising out of the flowing gasoline.
Alvy Singer: Right. Well, I have to - I have to go now, Duane, because I, I'm due back on the planet Earth.

Alvy Singer: [addressing the camera] There's an old joke - um... two elderly women are at a Catskill mountain resort, and one of 'em says, "Boy, the food at this place is really terrible." The other one says, "Yeah, I know; and such small portions." Well, that's essentially how I feel about life - full of loneliness, and misery, and suffering, and unhappiness, and it's all over much too quickly. The... the other important joke, for me, is one that's usually attributed to Groucho Marx; but, I think it appears originally in Freud's "Wit and Its Relation to the Unconscious," and it goes like this - I'm paraphrasing - um, "I would never want to belong to any club that would have someone like me for a member." That's the key joke of my adult life, in terms of my relationships with women.

Alvy Singer: I don't want to move to a city where the only cultural advantage is being able to make a right turn on a red light.

Alvy Singer: Annie, there's a big lobster behind the refrigerator. I can't get it out. This thing's heavy. Maybe if I put a little dish of butter sauce here with a nutcracker, it will run out the other side.

Alvy Singer: A relationship, I think, is like a shark. You know? It has to constantly move forward or it dies. And I think what we got on our hands is a dead shark.

Annie Hall: You've always had hostility towards David, ever since I mentioned him.
Alvy Singer: Dav - you call your teacher David?
Annie Hall: It's his name.
Alvy Singer: It's a Biblical name, right? What does he call you, Bathsheba?

Alvy Singer: Honey, there's a spider in your bathroom the size of a Buick.

Mom Hall: How do you plan to spend the holidays, Mrs. Singer?
Alvy's Mom: We fast.
Dad Hall: Fast?
Alvy's Dad: No food. You know, to atone for our sins.
Mom Hall: What sins? I don't understand.
Alvy's Dad: To tell you the truth, neither do we.

Alvy Singer: Syliva Plath - interesting poetess whose tragic suicide was misinterpreted as romantic by the college girl mentality.

Alvy Singer: I feel that life is divided into the horrible and the miserable. That's the two categories. The horrible are like, I don't know, terminal cases, you know, and blind people, crippled. I don't know how they get through life. It's amazing to me. And the miserable is everyone else. So you should be thankful that you're miserable, because that's very lucky, to be miserable.

Alvy Singer: [narrating] After that it got pretty late, and we both had to go, but it was great seeing Annie again. I... I realized what a terrific person she was, and... and how much fun it was just knowing her; and I... I, I thought of that old joke, y'know, the, this... this guy goes to a psychiatrist and says, "Doc, uh, my brother's crazy; he thinks he's a chicken." And, uh, the doctor says, "Well, why don't you turn him in?" The guy says, "I would, but I need the eggs." Well, I guess that's pretty much now how I feel about relationships; y'know, they're totally irrational, and crazy, and absurd, and... but, uh, I guess we keep goin' through it because, uh, most of us... need the eggs.

If you liked this movie, try these:

• Manhattan
• L.A. Story
• When Harry Met Sally