This could well be the Woodmeister's finest hour

Rating: 10/10 (6 May 2007)

When I first saw "Annie Hall" back in 1977 I voted it the most over-rated film of the year. As Alvy and Annie would say, 'God, what a schmuck'. What I didn't realize then was that I was watching a masterpiece and one of the funniest films ever made. Time has been kind to "Annie Hall" and I guess I must have been suffering from anhedonia, that inability to experience pleasure and the title Woody was originally planning to use. Seeing it today, the jokes not only seem funnier but legendary with it, (hindsight is a great thing). Perhaps they have passed into our sub-conscious and it takes very little to bring them to the fore. But then, in 1977, we didn't really have a yardstick to compare it with. We knew Woody could write good comedy; "Love and Death" showed he wasn't just very funny but clever and sophisticated as well but none of his films before "Annie Hall" showed this kind of cinematic sensibility. "Annie Hall" is great, not just because it is a great comedy but because it shows a great film-maker hitting pay-dirt and in hindsight it may be safe to say he never again quite achieved that miraculous blend of comic timing and filmic brilliance, at least not on this level. The Academy voted it the Best Picture of its year and gave Woody their director's prize, (and another for writing it), as well as giving Diane Keaton the prize for Best Actress; it was to their credit and among their finest hours.