Word: humorously
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Dates: during 1970-1979
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Pompan, who is a dead ringer for Starsky the TV detective, often uses his clownishness at appropriate moments. On the spring trip, at a time when intra-squad rivalry for positions on the varsity ladder was particularly tense. Pompan established a "humor ladder" and arbitrarily moved teammates up and down the ladder according to how funny he thought their jokes were...
ALLEN'S TROUBLE with writing serious dialogue does not totally overwhelm Manhattan because much of his intellectual humor remains, and his cinematic direction--with the work of Gordon's Willis's camera--continues to develop in exciting ways. Manhattan is shot entirely in black and white. Along with careful application of gushy George Gershwin music at critical moments, the black and white suggests nothing more than Capra and corniness...
WITH MANHATTAN, the media tell us, Allen enters a new phase of his career--intertwining the consummation of his humor in Annie Hall with the depth and seriousness of Interiors. If so, the Interiors strand nearly strangles Manhattan. Why are so many critics deaf to the poverty of the language in Interiors and parts of Manhattan? The direct study of personality in a society of encounter sessions and "meaningful relationships" threatens to scour all metaphors and imagery from both critics and artists...
Allen remains potent only when he weds his old instinct for incongruous humor to his new skill as a director. Several times in Manhattan he accomplishes this, points to promising possibilities in his use of language and the camera, and creates memorable images. Allen and Keaton wandering across the lunar surface in the planetarium, discussing their affair, hold our attention, but not the same couple silhouetted before an empty screen a la Bergman...
USUALLY, ONLY the photographs are true. Usually, the words and numbers--telling us of the hundreds of millions who would die, and of the smoking, charred rubble and flesh that would remain--seem more like lurid black humor than objective reporting. Or worse, the truth of nuclear war gets omitted completely--it is a truth too sensational to be believed, too obscene to be printed...