Editing Makes the Film

Rating: 10/10 (13 January 2019)

Re-watching this today I was struck by how this may have suffered the biggest Oscar snub of all time. Famously this film didn't start out as a romantic comedy but was a larger work of three different strands including a murder mystery (?). The first rough cut was over 2 hours and 30 minutes. Allen and Rosenblum than removed more than hour of material to shape it into a Rom. Comedy. It is amazing that the film even works in light of that. Further, one of the main techniques in the storytelling is free association where scenes bounce off of each other as they would occur to Alvy's consciousness and the film's timeline is a complete jumble. But it works. The film is hysterical and touching. It has a beating heart that captures the maddening nature of love. It is singularly a Woody Allen film.
There are other films by Allen which are better but this is everything the man is about. The experimental story structure, the neurotic intellectualized comedy, the self deprecating jabs at himself and film making it is all here. And the film works.
That it also features an absolutely charming Keaton performance is just a bonus.