Word: allene
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Dates: during 1970-1979
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...Annie Hall, Allen combines the zaniness of the cut-and-paste technique he used in Love and Death with an integrated story line, as in Sleeper and Play It Again, Sam. The film works through a double set of flashbacks. Beginning with Allen monologuing about his view of life, it jumps back and forth between scenes of Singer's childhood and immaturity, and the depiction of his relationship with Annie. Annie Hall has its share of typical Woody Allen humor--of New York, psychoanalysis and sex jokes--but between laughs, it contains his most complete statement so far about what...
There have always been two sides to the Allen persona. One is the neurotic self-pity, echoed in the perpetual plaint, "I would never belong to any club that has me for a member." The other is a neurotic self-indulgence, which expresses itself in fantasy. An element of fantasy has consistently pervaded Allen's films, beginning with the premise that svelte Diane Keaton could ever fall for such a patent loser. Often, the fantasy backfires; but in Annie Hall--as in real life, where Keaton and Allen are living together--fantasy has a way of coming true...
...that the screen romance ends happily; the film is, on the contrary, an attempt to dissect its failure. But within the context of loss, Allen exhibits an enviable ability to do and say the things the rest of us only dream of. On the simplest level, that means cutting through the polite dishonesty that garbs social interchange. When Annie admits she's not busy either Friday or Saturday night, Allen asks her, "How come you're so popular? What have you got--the plague?" And when they go out for the first time, he requests a kiss smack...
There are moments in Annie Hall when whole world seems responsive to Allen`s deniand for total candor, if only through directorial manipulation. Early in the movie, Allen has his elementary school classmates reveal, in childish lisps, their future careers--from businessman to dope pusher. At another point, subtitles disclose what Annie and he are really thinking underneath their pretentious banter about aesthetics. Best of all is Allen's accosting of passersby on the street to ask them about his troubles. One contented couple straightfacedly admit that their content stems from the fact that they are silly, boring and vacuous...
Many of these fantasies--in fact, much of the film's humor--depends on the use of technical gimmickry. Allen's fascination with the split-screen, voice overs and the like is occasionally the most part, it serves to underline it's concern with the contrast between life as it is and life as it should be. This divide is exploited in one of the film's closing sequences, in which Allen watches two actors perform a scene similar to the one which has just taken place between Annie and him. The only difference is that in the play...