Hey don't knock masturbation,it's sex with someone I love

Rating: Null/10 (2 June 2001)

Woody Allen has admitted himself in interview that the films of his that the public most adore are the ones that he has been most happy with.Manhattan being one and Annie Hall the other.It's also worth mentioning that Woody refuses to watch his films after they have been completed, and so he has not seen a single frame of Annie Hall since 1977.If he did watch it he would more than likely love as much as we do.It's a sublimely funny dissection of relationships,coming complete with Woodys New York Jewish neuroses,the stammering intellectual that has become his most instantly recognisible routine.Bespectacled and suited,spouting stuttering pratfalls and lightning quick one-liners,Allen has that remarkable quality where it seems as if he is making up the dialogue on the spot.It seems there is no allowance for middle ground with Allen.You either love him unconditionally,reeling off lines of his at every possible moment,or you hate him with just as much passion, scared witless by the paranoid,wittering person he always seems to be.Annie Hall though,is his most accesible film,even to the unconverted,it has some priceless moments,like the annoying guy in the cinema line,spouting pseudo-intellectual philosophies,making Alvy wish for a sock filled with horse manure,and the scene where Alvy sneezes a plate full of cocaine onto the floor.Annie Hall is a deliciously funny film,but filled with Allens usual worries about life,the universe and above all ,black spots on x-rays.