MYST Post #2: Annie Hall

Annie Hall

Diane Keaton and Woody Allen as Annie and Alvy

Bored on a Sunday afternoon, I was scrolling through Facebook and stumbled upon a post about Annie Hall. Interested, I looked it up on IMDb and decided it was a movie that I just had to see, being a fan of romantic comedies, Diane Keaton, and Woody Allen (Midnight in Paris is one of my all time favorite films). 

The movie begins with Alvy (played by Woody Allen) speaking directly into the camera, breaking the fourth wall, talking about how he misses Annie, a woman with whom he was in a relationship for a year. He describes himself and his relationship with Annie, incorporating a few jokes into the monologue and relating them to his life and his time spent with Annie. Right away, I could see that this movie would be unlike any other I had seen - the main character was already narrating the story in first person and present tense. If I had turned the sound on my computer off and just watched the scene, I would have felt that the scene was minimalist and simplistic - just a man in in a suit with in front of a blank wall. But if I had closed my eyes and turned up the volume, I would have felt completely different. Alvy babbles on and on about Annie and about himself. The only breaks he takes while speaking are to clear his throat. The monologue is almost difficult to keep up with (especially considering that at this point, the viewer knows nothing about who Annie is or why he cannot seem to stop talking about her). As I kept watching the movie, it struck me that every scene was like this: seemingly simplistic but in actually fact quite deep. I imagine that if one were to watch the movie only half paying attention, the movie would seem quite mindless and typical of a romcom. But reading deeper into the movie and paying attention to the little things opens up a new side of the movie to the viewer. Every scene has a purpose (and the purpose is not something like "to show their love for each other". Try, "to show the way that Annie has changed throughout the relationship with Alvy, finally looking up from the floor when she sings in front of an audience, and the way Alvy is uncomfortable, proving that he is not ready for changes and is stuck in his old ways").

First scene of Annie Hall

Throughout the rest of the movie, there are little quirks like when Alvy walks into past situations/memories and views them from a third person perspective, or when the subtitles flash up on the screen during a conversation between Alvy and Annie, narrating not what they are saying but what they are thinking. There is also a scene where Alvy goes to Annie's family's house for a meal. In this scene, Allen puts side-by-side shots of his family eating a meal and Annie's family eating a meal, juxtaposing the chaos of his family and the calmness of hers. Through this, we as an audience see why Annie is awkward and almost shy around other people and why Alvy goes a mile a minute; there are actually a few scenes that do this with different scenarios. A lot of romantic comedies are superficial: girl meets boy, girl falls for boy, boy falls for girl, and they live Happily Ever After. But in this movie, the viewer gets a great inside look at what the characters are thinking and past events that shaped them as a person. 

While Annie and Alvy are talking about art, subtitles narrate what they are really thinking.

On the left is Annie and her mother. On the right is Alvy's family.
There is a noticeable difference between both families,
even down to the fact that Alvy's family takes up more space on the screen

The shots in this movie last for a long time. I did a bit of research and the average shot length during a typical 1970s film was between 4 and 7 seconds. The average shot length in this film was 14.7 seconds. This is an interesting juxtaposition against the quick banter between Annie and Alvy that is occurring most of the film - in fact, the majority of this movie is dialogue. There are few scenes in which there is no one talking. The long takes could be a reflection of the way Alvy speaks in long, run-on sentences, barely pausing to take a breath. It could also represent the way Alvy is looking back at the relationship with Annie and makes the reader feel as if they, too, are standing back and viewing a scene from one spot. In many movies, shots that long would not work and the viewer would lose interest. However, because of the interesting, constant dialogue, the viewer doesn't get bored (or at least, I didn't).

Woody Allen included in this film dry humor, unique flashback scenes, a romantic storyline, and dialogue that kept me hooked the whole time. Because of all of those components, I absolutely adored the film. To be honest, I don't think that there was one part of the movie I disliked - right from the beginning I was captivated and I even had to cancel plans with friends because I couldn't bear to put the movie on pause until I got back. I give this film 5 out of 5 stars.