Annie Hall - d/Woodie Allen ( 1977)

 I became aware of the movie, Annie Hall, quite recently, upon seeing a meme in which Alvy Singer ( Woodie), compares existential motifs in Russian literature to mental masturbation, only for his girl, Annie, to cut him in a  witty response. The text of that piece dialogue, the culture, ideology and the humour in it was sufficient, for me to look up on the movie, and today I had the chance to watch it. Given my inclination to favour big award winners, that this was an Academy award winner ( beating the original "Star Wars" back in '77) was added reason enough, not to postpone watching this.

And, it is now one of my favourite movies, ever! It has every thing - The Wit, the humour, the ideological debates, the existential strain  on the main  character - and of course the wit. ( Did I mention, Wit ?) Here's just a few dialogues captured to register my point.

 "Alvy: Here. You look like a very happy couple. Are you?"
The Girl of the couple:"Yeah."
Alvy: "So how do you account for it?"
The Girl of the couple: "Uh... I'm very shallow and empty...and I have no ideas
and nothing interesting to say.
The Guy: " And I'm exactly the same way.
Alvy:  "I see. Well, that's very interesting. So you've managed
to work out something, huh? Well, thanks very much for talking to me."

 

“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.” 

         "In California, they don't throw their garbage away. They make it into TV shows."

Pam: Did you catch Dylan?

Alvy Singer: No, I couldn't make it-- my raccoon had hepatitis.

Pam: You have a raccoon?

Alvy Singer: Few.

 

Alvy Singer: Hey, don't knock masturbation! It's sex with someone I love.

Alvy's Psychiatrist: [Alvy and Annie are seeing their therapists at the same time on a split screen] How often do you sleep together?

Annie's Psychiatrist: Do you have sex often?

Alvy Singer: [lamenting] Hardly ever. Maybe three times a week.

Annie Hall: [annoyed] Constantly. I'd say three times a week.

You know what am sayin' here ? 

And the psychological and the philosophical topics, visited during the 93 minute journey ( albeit, some in passing ) ? It has to be long list, as the neurotic Alvy has a great difficulty enjoying life. Alvy has been visiting a shrink for 15 years. The themes visited in the movie vary from penis envy to interpretation of dreams.

As the movie progresses we realise that Annie Hall is becoming a more complete person, better at expressing herself, a successful singer, and her visits to a psycho-analyst actually helps her - this,  in contrast to the totally confused girl, whom Alvy meets at a tennis game. Alvy appears to have subconsciously invested in Annie, to make her an ideal partner. But the independence that she soon achieves, ensures that she outgrows  her neurotic lover, while Alvy doesn't know to appreciate a good thing.

 I am discovering Woody Allen rather late - but I have an excuse - am not a movie buff - and, I like to keep it that way, to minimise the effect of my ignorance of this area - say, as against a music enthusiast who feels he "must have on CD" the better part of the discographies of  Bowie, Prince, Radiohead, Pink Floyd, Genesis, Depeche Mode, Pearl Jam .... the list goes on - but you do get the drift.  Speaking of artistes - Paul Simon has a role to play - the man Annie leaves Alvy for. It was a treat to see a rather self conscious Simon - a record label man.

I just looked up what are considered the best Woodie Allen movies, and I plan to watch most of them!

I always thought of Philadelphia and Forrest Gump as my all time favourite movies. Now "Annie Hall" joins those two - no doubt about it.

Rating - *****