Annie Hall

Rating: 8/10 (16 February 2009)

Woody Allen's classic, Annie Hall is a masterpiece of the romantic comedy genre. Based around the love story of Alvy Singer (Allen) and Annie Hall (Keaton), we can do nothing but laugh and sympathize with Alvy as he struggles to find and keep love in the city that is New York, his biggest problem being himself as he forces those he loves to change, and than upon doing so, find no need for Alvy any longer.
From the opening moments of Annie Hall we are introduced into Allen's unique style of formalistic story telling, when we learn that Alvy will not be ending up with the woman he loves, Annie Hall. With wish fulfillment lost, our interest becomes just who and how was the relationship destroyed. Furthermore our introduction of the characters breaks all the rules of romantic comedy genre as we had known them. During a date scene at the cinema where we our first introduced to Annie and Alvy, Allen chooses to have Alvy break the fourth wall of cinema in a comical monologue addressed directly at us, the audience, and even goes so far as to pull a character out from behind a billboard to prove a point about philosophy.
Allen's choice of a non linear narrative, culminated with a classic style of realist cinematography adds to the foreword momentum of the story as we learn about the characters through a standard lens coverage, with flashbacks and flash forwards. Allen continues to break the rules with his wardrobe design placing Annie's feminine character in masculine attire and Alvy, a stand up comic, in Ralph Lauren. Allen breaks so many Cinematic rules that we never are kept wonderfully off balance, never knowing where the story will go next. Breaking the rules has never been so much fun.
The idea of Life imitating art is full affect here, as we learn that Alvy and Annie will remain better off friends, and in the end, the two actors Allen and Keaton remain close friends to this very day.