Could not possibly start off this blog without a word from Woody.
For all of those who have never seen Annie Hall, there's a reason it won the Academy Award for Best Picture, Best Director, Best Screenplay, Best Actress in 1978.
This is the Romantic Comedy at its best.
Alvy Singer: Yeah, why not, because we're just gonna go home later, right, and then there's gonna be all that tension, we've never kissed before and I'll never know when to make the right move or anything. So we'll kiss now and get it over with, and then we'll go eat. We'll digest our food better.
Instead of taking itself too seriously, the film, through its witty yet intellectual dialogue, is incredibly self-aware, which might be part of the appeal to me as it similarly evokes that same feel as the 1950's-60's New Wave genre that took over France (but we'll get to that later.) The way Woody Allen talks directly to us, the audience, stares dead on at the camera is part of the genius.
Now a question to all of you ponderers out there...what do YOU think the ending quote of this love fest means? I think to truly understand, you have to be in that same Annie/Alvy dynamic or have been in it before.
So here goes.
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.
And just for kicks, one of my favorite scenes...
[Annie wants to smoke marijuana before sex]
Alvy Singer: Yeah, grass, right? The illusion that it will make a white woman more like Billie Holiday.
Annie Hall: Well, have you ever made love high?
Alvy Singer: Me? No. I - I, you know, If I have grass or alcohol or anything, I get unbearably wonderful. I get too, too wonderful for words. I don't know why you have to get high every time we make love.
Annie Hall: It relaxes me.
Alvy Singer: You have to be artificially relaxed before we can go to bed?
Annie Hall: Well, what's the difference anyway?
Alvy Singer: Well, I'll give you a shot of sodium pentathol. You can sleep through it.
Annie Hall: Oh come on. Look who's talking. You've been seeing a psychiatrist for 15 years. You should smoke some of this. You'd be off the couch in no time.
...totally reminiscent of the 70's free spirit incarnated by Annie (Diane Keaton.) The look is back, might I add, with her masculine approach to styling women. The ties, bow ties, trousers, top hats, vests and now oxfords are intriguingly sexy and give Keaton that mystique that made her career.
I want a pair of these myself...
