Manhattan (1979) - Directed by Woody Allen

 Upon watching my third Woody Allen movie, I come to realise that this Rom-Com from 1979, casting the grand daughter of Earnest Hemingway, Mariel, as a 17 year old who is in love with a 42 year old unemployed TV producer, Issac ( Allen), was much spoken of as recent as 2018/2019, with the #MeToo movement, and the controversy regarding him. ( Read this to find out how his once friends, and admirers have since disowned him: https://www.nytimes.com/2018/03/01/style/woody-allen-manhattan.html ). It too is an eye opener on how matters that didn't bother us nearly as much back then, are a big embarrassment to have associated with now. We have another in the cricketing fields, on the subject of racism, in England that has been going on for some time with fresh allegation cropping up almost daily - and such acts were almost the norm back then, the old timers say. The following dialogue between Tracy and Issac, ( Issac tells this to his friends, Yale and Emily, who sit at the same dinner table), tells us how it troubles him, despite the good time he's having.

Tracy: We oughta go

       cos I've got an exam tomorrow.
            
Issac: Oh, do you? The kid's gotta get up...

       She's got homework.

       I'm dating a girl who does homework.
and in another scene:
 
Mary:  What do you do, Tracy?

Tracy: I go to high school.

Mary: Oh, really. Really. Somewhere Nabokov is smiling, if you know what I mean.
On another scene, Issac mentions his troubles to Yale upon his unemployment - the battle 
of living in New York as it were. New York, which Issac loves !

"Yeah, plus I got two alimonies and child support. You know, I gotta cut down.  
I'll have to give up my apartment. 
I'm not gonna be able to play tennis, pick checks up at dinner,
or take the Southampton house.
Plus I'll probably have to give my parents less money. It'll kill my father.
He's not gonna be able to get as good a seat in the synagogue.
He'll be in the back, away from God, far from the action."One of the attractive things about the movie is, how while these people try to be genuine to each other,
it doesn't necessary work that way all the time. How Issac for all his preaching about Tracy needing to
find a life away from him, attempts to sabotage her future plans - yet, they don't want to mislead the 
other too, as multiple situations in the movie show. Yet Issac doesn't spill the beans on Yale, even when Emily, 
Yale's wife faults Issac for Yale's affair with Mary.

One of the scenes that really caught my eye was the look of disdain, as his friends read parts of Allen's 
ex wife's memoir, much to their amusement - gossip is the new porn, Yale says at the dinner table mentioned above.


As a movie, it was a treat. The monochrome 
experience actually somehow added up to the 
pleasure. The great camera work, the wonderful 
dialogues so much an expectation from an Allen 
movie, all contribute to serve the ultimate package.
The mix here is terrific - pseudo-intellectualism, 
sexual humiliation, satire, digs at masculinity
( how a Dachshund is a "penis substitute" over a 
great Dane for Mary- and then Issac meets Jeremiah, Mary's ex-husband ).  Coming right after Annie Hall, this, if it was released before that,
could've well earned him the Oscar, I felt (It was nominated for two).

Rating: *****



   

                   






   

                   

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