my favorite movie of all time

Rating: 10/10 (16 September 2001)

Perhaps not the best movie ever made, but "Annie Hall" is my favorite film. I watch it once a month, and every time I do I find something else I like about it. Man, this is the hardest critique I've ever had to write. How can I describe the joy and satisfaction I get from watching Woody Allen's masterpiece? To me, "Annie Hall" is more than a movie. It is an event, and experience. From the very seconds the black-and-white credits roll, I feel an overwhelming sense of pleasure wipe over me.
Every joke is brimming with creativity. In fact, "Annie Hall" is the only film I've seen where not one joke misfires. The script must have taken many meticulous hours to perfect. How Marshall Brickman and Woody Allen finished it I'll never know.
The love story between Diane Hall (sorry, I mean Annie Hall) and Alvy Singer is so true and so human that it has always touched my heart. There are so many scenes that stick in my mind: the lobsters, I lurve you, the subtitles of the odd first date, the sneeze, the two dinners, Marshall McLuan, stopping to talk to strangers about his problems, let's kiss now, etc., etc., etc., etc.....
As always, Gordon Willis does a splendid job. Each shot is spare and simple. Gordon Willis was one of the few guys who could make simplicity into art. The film is very beautiful. It presents New York very well.
And of course, there are the fantastic actors. Diane Keaton and Woody Allen give the performances of their lives. Diane Keaton is great as a giggly neurotic who slowly, gradually realizes herself. And Woody is fantastic as the Woodman. The neurotic Everyman. Those glasses, that devilish grin. His appearance is as funny as Charlie Chaplin. In fact, you could call him the verbal, modern version of the Tramp.
This paragraph shall be about the greatest scene in the entire movie and in cinema history: the ending. Woody Allen gives a humorous voice-over as we see him and Annie saying good-bye to each other from far off. They walk off. Then we see about one minute of traffic. For some reason, I almost start to cry about the beauty of this scene. Meanwhile, Woody Allen gives a very poignant speech about why we need love although it's silly and ridiculous.
After that I let the credits roll and sit in my chair still and silent and think for about ten minutes. Then I eat some Pringles.