A masterpiece, when you think about it

Rating: 10/10 (27 December 2005)

Sometimes I wish Woody Allen was cool and self confident, and not always nervous, unsure and geeky all the time. But you can't deny that he's a very intelligent person. His best film, the quiet and understated masterpiece "Annie Hall", is so full of jokes and inventive style it can make your head spin. Actually, this is one film I wish I had a script of so I could slowly read all those dialogs which are being said too fast. In 1978 "Annie Hall" beat "Star Wars" and won 4 Oscars ( Best picture, director, screenplay, actress Diane Keaton ) and one Golden Globe ( Best actress Diane Keaton ).
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The simple comedy about a romance between the New York comedian Alvy and Annie is enriched by tons of emotions and inventive film techniques which even Jean-Luc Godard would be jealous of. In one scene Alvy is talking to Annie about art while the subtitles are presenting his *real* words, about how he wants to take her out! In the other they are having intercourse in bed while Annie's ghost/mind is absent and sitting on a chair! Alvy is walking down the street and saying how he watched the animated movie "Snow White and the seven dwarfs" and fell in love with the witch and presto, in the next scene he is drawn in animation in the middle of that film, having an argument with his lover, the witch. The list goes on and on.
I remember that I couldn't watch this film when I was a kid. I found it to be too boring. But today I completely understand it. You just have to think about it. Like when Alvy is so happy he says to Annie that he doesn't just love her, but that he "luurves her, loaves her and luuf's her." Also, some of the gags are simply quietly hilarious, like when the hero is narrating his society as a child, commenting on everything ( "Those who don't know nothing, teach. Those who don't know how to teach, teach gym. And those don't know even that, teach at our school." ).
Grade: 10/10