Annie Hall 1977

The Film:
  Apparently elephants are not kosher (they do have cloven hooves, but they don't chew the cud!). However there is a great big one in the room when we discuss this film (just like there will be a few more times still to come) - this time in the shape of Woody Allen. I like Woody Allen's work and I'm not going to suddenly not like it because he has at the very least an unsavoury sex-life and has possibly done things that are far more sinister. If I was in the business I probably wouldn't work with him - but, the fact remains, I like a lot of his films. Including this one.

The Academy also liked this one rather a lot - it liked it a lot better than Star Wars. And I'm inclined to agree.....

It's a while since I've seen it so I'm looking forward to seeing it again. It's also one of the original templates for so many New York romcoms, sitcoms and dramas that I spend far too much of my time watching (and re-watching) so I'm expecting to be spotting things left right and centre!

The Ceremony:

It's Oscar's 50th birthday - and a very glitzy affair it was too! April 3rd 1978 at the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion, with a running time of three and a half hours and ratings of just short of 40 million. Most notably, this was the nineteenth and last time that Bob Hope hosted the ceremony - very much the end of an era!

The ceremony was also notable for two main controversies. Firstly, Vanessa Redgrave used her acceptance speech to speak out against ultra-Zionists and Paddy Chayefsky then used his turn at the mic to have a go back. The saddest thing about this is that the same arguments are still going on today.....

Secondly, the live performance of the Best Song was accompanied by (supposedly) deaf children from a local school signing the lyrics. When several members of the public complained that the signing was nonsense rather than actual ASL, the organisers came clean and admitted that the children weren't deaf and they had been taught the signing very quickly for the performance.

Other Notable Winners That Night:

Star Wars won the most awards (six), but they were mainly technical awards (plus one for John Williams' score). Seven of the big eight awards went to either Annie Hall or Julia (which won the other screenplay and both Supporting awards). The other one went to Richard Dreyfuss for Best Actor in The Goodbye Girl - the youngest actor, at the time, to win it - although more people saw him that year in Close Encounters OTTK (which won one award for cinematography).

Jason Robards won Best Supporting Actor for the second year in a row, a feat only managed by a small number of actors.

Surprisingly (to me, at least) the Jean Hersholt Humanitarian Award was given to Charlton Heston. My first thought was that Hollywood doesn't really have a track record of recognising right-wing gun-toting conservatives as humanitarians - but then I worked out that Heston was probably still (just about) a left-wing liberal civil rights activist at this point.....

 Best Song:

Seriously? This beat the best Bond Theme ever??? Oh dear!

What We Could/Should Have Been Watching:

The force was not quite strong enough in this one.....

The choice was between Neil Simon's The Goodbye Girl (possibly splitting the Jewish New York comedy vote?), ballet drama The Turning Point (another contemporary NYC-set drama) and holocaust drama Julia. Oh, and Star Wars. It's no real surprise that Star Wars didn't win. Firstly, at the time it was just the one film, not the three, or six, or eight, or ten, or more - depending on what constitutes a true Star Wars film - that we have now. We didn't even know who Luke's father was at this point in time. Secondly, it was a big, effects-laden, sci-fi fantasy film. With very few exceptions (all in the 21st Century) the Academy has only rewarded realism for Best Picture. In fact, it's daring enough that there are a couple of sequences in Annie Hall that mess with reality, even only slightly. With hindsight, Star Wars was probably, objectively, the best film that year. It probably should have won, but rather than bemoaning the injustice of it all, we should be really impressed that it even got nominated!

Our Verdict:

As with Rocky, there's been a bit of a gap between watching Annie Hall and writing up this review. In this case, that's probably not a good thing. I've seen Annie Hall at least four or five times now. It's always an enjoyable experience but the finer details of the plot never really stick in my brain for long after watching it. As I said above, I really like Woody Allen films, including his more recent ones (although the recurring older man / younger woman storylines are a tad problematic). I'm not sure Annie Hall necessarily reflects his best writing, or his best directing, or his best acting - but it is where all three work together at their best. The film captures a particular time, place and community really well and it does so with great heart, great humour and a light enough touch that it can get away with several ideas and set pieces that really shouldn't have worked. 

Just a little comedy about two people

Some "firsts" in this film have become so well used
that you hardly notice them....

One of the first of many conversations about nothing in one
of many queues in many romcoms/sitcoms set in New York

The story is very slight. Alvy is a forty year old neurotic Jewish writer (funnily enough!) who meets similarly insecure midwestern WASP Annie. Their relationship plays out through the course of the film in a variety of set-piece scenes that allow them both (but mainly Alvy) to explore their insecurities in witty (and sometimes hilarious) dialogue. It is funny, it's well written and above all it has heart (something lacking in some of Allen's later films). I like Alvy and Annie and I want them to be ok - and that makes all the difference.

Anyone seen a Mantra lying around anywhere?

I am a big fan of New York and of New York sitcoms - particularly Seinfeld. On our only visit to New York - so far - we spent an afternoon with the real Kramer, buying soup from the Soup Nazi and having a big salad in Tom's (aka Monks) Diner. It's extremely unlikely that there would have been Seinfeld (as we know it) without Annie Hall. The scene where they are queuing and Alvy has a whole rant about queues is a classic example of a whole scene that is basically "about nothing", as Seinfeld was. (And, of course, Larry David has since played the Allen-esque character in a Woody Allen film - a perfect match). Annie Hall is also one of the first modern Romcoms - and, imho, is probably only matched by When Harry Met Sally. Although there are now several thousand to choose from! It's also only the second winner to break the fourth wall (the less said about the first one the better, although it was one of the only fairly good things about Tom Jones) and it's done so well. Add into that one short line from an unknown Jeff Goldblum and a blink-and-you'll-miss-it distance shot of pre-fame Sigourney Weaver and Annie Hall manages to pave the way for a lot of 80s and 90s New York comedies whilst remaining quintessentially 70s. It almost certainly wasn't the best film of 1977, but I'm very glad that it won!