Manhattan (1979) - IMDb IMDb There was an error trying to load your rating for this title. Some parts of this page won't work property. Please reload or try later. X Beta I'm Watching This! Keep track of everything you watch; tell your friends. Error The life of a divorced television writer dating a teenage girl is further complicated when he falls in love with his best friend's mistress. Director: From $2.99 (SD) on Amazon Video ON DISC a list of 22 titles created 21 Jan 2013 a list of 23 images created 24 Jan 2014 a list of 46 titles created 01 Jan 2015 a list of 47 titles created 05 Apr 2015 a list of 25 titles created 25 Apr 2015 Search for " Manhattan " on Amazon.com Connect with IMDb Want to share IMDb's rating on your own site? Use the HTML below. You must be a registered user to use the IMDb rating plugin. Nominated for 2 Oscars. Another 15 wins & 21 nominations.

See more awards » Videos Neurotic New York comedian Alvy Singer falls in love with the ditzy Annie Hall. Director: Woody Allen Between two Thanksgivings two years apart, Hannah's husband falls in love with her sister Lee, while her hypochondriac ex-husband rekindles his relationship with her sister Holly. Director: Woody Allen While on a trip to Paris with his fiancée's family, a nostalgic screenwriter finds himself mysteriously going back to the 1920s everyday at midnight. Director: Woody Allen In New Jersey in 1935, a movie character walks off the screen and into the real world. Director: Woody Allen A middle-aged couple suspects foul play when their neighbor's wife suddenly drops dead. Director: Woody Allen At a turning point in his life, a former tennis pro falls for an actress who happens to be dating his friend and soon-to-be brother-in-law. Director: Woody Allen An ophthalmologist's mistress threatens to reveal their affair to his wife, while a married documentary filmmaker is infatuated by another woman. Director: Woody Allen In czarist Russia, a neurotic soldier and his distant cousin formulate a plot to assassinate Napoleon.

Director: Woody Allen A New York socialite, deeply troubled and in denial, arrives in San Francisco to impose upon her sister. She looks a million, but isn't bringing money, peace, or love... Director: Woody Allen Two girlfriends on a summer holiday in Spain become enamored with the same painter, unaware that his ex-wife, with whom he has a tempestuous relationship, is about to re-enter the picture. Director: Woody Allen "Documentary" about a man who can look and act like whoever he's around, and meets various famous people. Director: Woody Allen Suffering from writer's block and eagerly awaiting his writing award, Harry Block remembers events from his past and scenes from his best-selling books as characters, real and fictional, come back to haunt him. Director: Woody Allen Edit Storyline Forty-two year old Isaac Davis has a romanticized view of his hometown, New York City, most specifically Manhattan, as channeled through the lead character in the first book he is writing, despite his own Manhattan-based life being more of a tragicomedy.

He has just quit his job as a hack writer for a bad television comedy, he, beyond the ten second rush of endorphins during the actual act of quitting, now regretting the decision, especially as he isn't sure he can live off his book writing career. He is paying two alimonies, his second ex-wife, Jill Davis, a lesbian, who is writing her own tell-all book of their acrimonious split. The one somewhat positive aspect of his life is that he is dating a young woman named Tracy, although she is only seventeen and still in high school. Largely because of their differences a big part of which is due to their ages, he does not see a long term future with her. His life has the potential to be even more tragicomical when he meets journalist Mary... Written by Huggo Woody Allen's New Comedy Hit Genres: 25 April 1979 (USA) See more » Also Known As: Did You Know? Trivia Mariel Hemingway was Oscar nominated for Best Supporting Actress for her role as Tracy in this movie but lost to Meryl Streep for Kramer vs.

Kramer (1979) who ironically also appeared in Manhattan (1979) as Isaac ( Woody Allen )'s ex-wife Jill. See more » Goofs Mary (Diane Keaton) is supposed to be an intellectual, but when she says the name Diane Arbus, she mispronounces it, saying "Diane" the same way you would say Diane Keaton . Diane Arbus' first name is pronounced "Dee-Ann". See more » Quotes [first lines] [music: the opening of Gershwin's Rhapsody in Blue. Voiceover] Isaac Davis : Chapter One. He adored New York City. He idolized it all out of proportion. Eh uh, no, make that he, he romanticized it all out of proportion. Better. To him, no matter what the season was, this was still a town that existed in black and white and pulsated to the great tunes of George Gershwin. Uh, no, let me start this over. Isaac Davis : Chapter One: He was too romantic about Manhattan, as he was about everything else. He thrived on...

[...] See more » Crazy Credits There are no opening credits, save the production company bumper and the film's title, which appears as part of a flashing neon sign in New York City. See more » Connections (Rio de Janeiro, Brazil) – See all my reviews In Manhattan, Isac Davis (Woody Allen) is a divorced writer of TV shows unhappy with his job. His ex-wife left him to live with another woman and is writing a book about her relationship with Isac. He presently dates a seventeen years old high-school student, Tracy (Mariel Hemingway), who is in love with him, but he does not like her. When he meets Mary Wilkie (Diane Keaton), the mistress of his married best friend Yale (Michael Murphy), he has a crush on her. He finishes with Tracy and has an affair with Mary, affecting the lives of many persons including his own. "Manhattan" is, in my opinion, the best film by Woody Allen, of whom I am a big fan. I have all Woody Allen movies in my collection, but "Manhattan" is my favorite one, a masterpiece about relationship in a cold huge city.

There are many fantastic lines along the witty story, with right doses of his typical bitter humor and romance. The black and white cinematography by Gordon Willis is one of the most beautiful I have ever seen in a film. There is a specific scene, used on the cover of the DVD and the poster of this movie, that is amazingly wonderful. Mariel Hemingway certainly has her best performance in the fantastic and very touching character Tracy. The music score, with Gershwin, completes this magnificent movie. I do not have enough adjectives in English to eulogize this masterpiece. My vote is ten. Title (Brazil): "Manhattan" Note: On 22 Nov 2016, I saw this film again. 32 of 59 people found this review helpful. Was this review helpful to you? Yes Manhattan Movie Review & Film Summary (1979) | Roger Ebert Tweet I had forgotten what perfect pitch Woody Allen brought to ''Manhattan"-- how its tone and timing slip so gracefully between comedy and romance. I hadn't seen it in years, and remembered mostly the broad outlines, the one-liners, the romance between a middle-aged man and a high school girl.

Seeing it again I realize it's more subtle, more complex, and not about love, but loss. There are a lot of songs on the soundtrack, but the one that speaks for the hero says ''they're playing songs of love, but not for me.'' Advertisement The movie's May-November romance was criticized because Isaac (Woody Allen) and Tracy ( Mariel Hemingway ) seem to have so little in common. But she at least has what lovers need, an ability to idealize the other person, and that's his fatal lack in the relationship: He doesn't feel she's special enough, and he doesn't see a future for them. Urging her to go to London on a scholarship, he consoles her, ''you'll think of me as a fond memory.'' He spends half of their time together trying to break up, and finally succeeds, taking her to a soda fountain after school--a location with perfect irony, given her age--to tell her he loves another woman, which is not exactly true. ''Now I don't feel so good,'' she says, in one of several lines that Hemingway makes both simple and heartbreaking.

Only later, too much later, does Isaac confess to a friend, ''I think I really missed a good bet when I let Tracy go.'' Well, maybe he did, or maybe he was right and there was no plausible future between a 42-year-old (however immature) and a 17-year-old. The movie isn't about that. It's about the cynicism and superficiality of the modern mating dance, and how all Isaac's glib sophistication can't save him from true feelings, when they come. His character is surrounded by other adults who inhabit the wreckage of relationships. Isaac's former wife ( Meryl Streep ) left him to live with a woman, and writes a best seller ridiculing their marriage and love life; we doubt her new relationship is sound if it leaves her so obsessed with the previous one. Yale ( Michael Murphy ), has been happily married for years, but is having an affair with Mary ( Diane Keaton ). Both men have the tactic of trying to escape from relationships by telling the woman it's for her own good. Allen has Mary tell Yale they have no future, right after Isaac has told Tracy the same thing.

Yale even more or less gives Mary to Isaac, to get her off his hands (''You'd be great for her''), and they have a little fling before Yale realizes he loves her after all. Advertisement Neither man can deal with affection. Both hide behind words, but are powerless in the face of emotional truth. The movie is not really about love in the present, but love in the past--about the wistful pain when we realize we had a beautiful thing, and screwed it up. In a more conventional movie, Yale and Mary would be the central couple, and Isaac and Tracy would be their best friends; authors since Shakespeare have mirrored their heroic lovers with comedic counterpoints, but Allen's whole career is based on making the secondary characters heroic. The relationship of Isaac and Mary is not a romantic comedy, then, but complex and tricky, and unforgiving in the way it sees Isaac running in place because he doesn't know whether to run toward Mary or away from her. It is at the same time a breathtaking hymn to the idea of being in love in Manhattan, a place Allen loves.

The opening shot is a stunner, looking West across Central Park at dawn while Gershwin's ''Rhapsody in Blue'' does what it always does--makes us feel transcendent. The locations are like an anthology of Manhattan shrines: The characters visit the Guggenheim, Elaine's, Zabar's deli. They sit on a park bench at dawn beneath a towering bridge, and ride a carriage through Central Park, and row boats in the lagoon. They go to art movies and concerts and eat Chinese food in bed and play racquetball. Allen knows that songs are the soundtracks of our lives, and gives us not only ''But Not for Me'' but ''Sweet and Lowdown,'' ''I Got a Crush on You,'' ''Do Do Do,'' ''Lady Be Good,'' ''Embraceable You,'' ''Someone to Watch Over Me'' and, when Isaac runs and runs to the girl he finally realizes he loves, ''Strike Up the Band.'' All of these locations and all of these songs would not have the effect they do without the widescreen black and white cinematography of Gordon Willis .

This is one of the best-photographed movies ever made, and a compelling argument for letterboxing on home video, since many of the compositions exploit the full width of the screen. Consider, for example, the sweet little conversation Isaac and Tracy have in his apartment, in a pool of light in the lower left corner of the screen, while the empty apartment stretches out toward a spiral staircase on the right: How better to show Tracy bringing life into this vast but lonely home? Advertisement Some of the scenes are famous just because of Willis' lighting. For example, the way Isaac and Mary walk through the observatory as if they're strolling among the stars or on the surface of the moon. Later, as their conversation gets a little lost, Willis daringly lets them disappear into darkness, and then finds them again with just a sliver of side-lighting. Keaton, of course, was famous after " The Godfather " (1972), but she became a star and won an Oscar in Allen's " Annie Hall " (1977). ''Manhattan,'' made two years later, has echoes of Annie in Mary, but they're more a case of Keaton's personal mannerisms than of a similarity in the characters.

Mary is less flighty, less a deliberate eccentric, more a woman who uses her bright intelligence as a shield against loneliness. She's too smart to cause trouble and too careless to stay out of it; she tells the married Yale she doesn't want him to leave his wife, she doesn't want to be a homebreaker, yet she loves him--and she's stuck on Sunday afternoons with no one to talk to or play with. ''It's just bad timing,'' she finally says. Her fling with Isaac is really based on their mutual isolation; they don't have anyone else to call. This was Mariel Hemingway's first substantial role, and it won her an Oscar nomination. Like her character, she was just turning 18. Her performance is so direct, so artless, so without affect, that it goes straight to the heart of the matter. And her size plays an interesting role in the movie. She is, of course, taller than Allen, but the meaning of that difference is not as simple as the tall girl-short guy syndrome.

Seeing them together on the screen, I was struck by how unconcealable she is, how her presence is such an inescapable fact; in social situations, Isaac tends to take cover, to hide behind his wit, to make guerrilla raids on conversations, and this girl at his side makes him so visible. She attracts enemy fire. Watch Isaac's face when Mary asks, ''And what do you do, Tracy?'' and she replies, ''I go to high school.'' Advertisement Woody Allen, it is said, always plays the same character in his movies. This is unfair. He often has the same verbal facility, yes, and some of the same mannerisms, but Isaac here is seen very specifically as a man whose yearnings and insecurities are founded on a deep immaturity. He wants, but doesn't know what he wants. He quits his job in an attack of ethics, but has no back-up plan. Look at Allen's face in Isaac's final scene with Tracy, as he pleads with her to stay with him, to not go to London, even while he realizes he is simply being selfish. A lesser actor would have gone over the top in the pleading, and then overdone the disappointment.

Allen finds the difficult, precise tone of a man who desires and regrets and yet actually does like this young woman enough to know she's doing the right thing. He had her but he lost her, and now they both know their time has passed. He isn't planning the future, but trying to rewrite the past. She'll think of him as a fond memory. Popular Blog Posts Movie Review - - The Screen: Woody Allen's 'Manhattan' - NYTimes.com The Screen: Woody Allen's 'Manhattan' By VINCENT CANBY Published: April 25, 1979 AS California is our idealized future, a place where there is no downtown because the suburbs have moved in instead of out, hip Manhattan represents our idealized present. Existence in Manhattan is so fleeting that one sometimes wishes one could postdate oneself, as do the weekly magazines, in this way to avoid life's litter basket, for a few days, anyway. "Manhattan," Woody Allen's extraordinarily fine and funny new film, is about many things, including a time and place where fashion probably blights more lives, more quickly, than any amounts of booze, drugs, radioactive fallout and saturated animal fats.

In this Manhattan, it's no longer a question of keeping up, but of staying ahead. The person on this week's cover is a leading candidate for next year's feature story that asks, "Whatever happened to . . . ?" To survive in alien landscapes, animals develop bizarre defense mechanisms, often at a certain cost. Ostriches can run fast, but they are unable to fly. Sharks have teeth like the slicing blade in a Cuisinart, yet if they take a stationary snooze, their lungs fill with water and they drown. They must always keep moving. This is pretty much the fate of a number of people who move through and around the Manhattan of Isaac Davis (Mr. Allen), a successful comedy writer who quits his television job to write a novel. As Isaac Davis is Mr. Allen's most fully realized, most achingly besieged male character, so is "Manhattan" his most moving and expansive work to date. It's as serious as "Interiors" — if one must use that often foolish word — but far less constricted and self-conscious. In "Manhattan," Mr. Allen is working in a milieu he knows well and with characters he understands and appreciates, especially when they are drowning.

In addition to being the director and co-author — with Marshall Brickman — of the film, Mr. Allen is its most important presence. He gives "Manhattan" a point of reference just as he did 10 years ago when the character he played was named Virgil Starkwell in "Take the Money and Run." How Virgil and Woody have grown! "Manhattan" moves on from both "Interiors" and "Annie Hall," being more effectively critical and more compassionate than the first and more witty and clear-eyed than the second. There is a sense of applied romance here, especially in the soundtrack use of some of the lushest melodies ever written by George Gershwin, as well as in Mr. Allen's decision to have Gordon Willis photograph "Manhattan" in the kind of velvety black-and-white I associate with old M-G-M films like "East Side, West Side" and "The Bad and the Beautiful." The movie looks so good that it looks unreal, which, in this day and age of film and fashion, is to go so far out that you're back in. "Manhattan" is, of course, about love, or, more accurately, about relationships.

Among those who are attempting to relate to Isaac Davis are Mary Wilke (Diane Keaton), a journalist who carries on like an Annie Hall who has been analyzed out of her shyness into the shape of an aggressively neurotic woman doomed to make a mess of things, and Tracy (Mariel Hemingway), a beautiful. 17-year-old nymphet with a turned-down mouth and a trust in her 42-year-old lover, Isaac, that is also doomed. In addition, there is Yale (Michael Murphy), Isaac's best friend, who hands Mary over to Isaac for as long as it suits his (Yale's) purposes.

On the fringe of the film, observing the events with the grim determination of someone who has made a decision that must be stuck by, is Isaac's former wife, Jill (Meryl Streep), who left Isaac and, with their small son, moved in with her feamle lover, in such circumstances to write a best-selling book about her life titled "Marriage, Divorce and Selfhood." "Manhattan," which opens today at the Baronet and other theaters, is mostly about Isaac's efforts to get some purchase on his life after he initiates a breakup with his illegal, teenage mistress — a marvelous scene set at a soda fountain, with Tracy slurping down a large malted while her life goes smash — and his attempt to forge a relationship with the deeply troubled Mary Wilke. Unlike all of his friends except the still-learning Tracy, Isaac believes in monogamy. "I think people should mate for life," he says, "like pigeons and Catholics." What happens is not the substance of "Manhattan" as much as how it happens. The movie is full of moments that are uproariously funny and others that are sometimes shattering for the degree in which they evoke civilized desolation.

The screenplay is so vivid you may feel as if you've met characters who are only references in the dialogue. One of these is Mary Wilke's psychiatrist, Donny, who calls her up at 3 A.M. and weeps. The on-screen characters are beautifully played by, among others, Mr. Murphy and Miss Streep. Miss Keaton and Miss Hemingway are superb — the effect of Miss Hemingway's performance being directly responsible for the unexpected impact of Mr. Allen's penultimate moment in the film, which should not be described here. I suspect there will be much more to say about "Manhattan" in the future. Mr. Allen's progress as one of our major film makers is proceeding so rapidly that we who watch him have to pause occasionally to catch our breath. Slice of the Big Apple MANHATTAN, directed by Woody Allen; written by Mr. Allen and Marshall Brickman; director of photography, Gordon Willis; film editor. Susan E. Morse; music by George Gershwin; performed by the New York Philharmonic; conducted by Zubin Mehta; produced by Charles H. Joffe.

At the Baronet, 993 Third Avenue; Little Carnegie, 57th Street east of Seventh Avenue; 34th Street East, near Second Avenue, and other theaters. Running time: 93 minutes. This film is rated R. Isaac Davis . . . . . Woody Allen Simply Streep - Career - Films - Manhattan Original Release: April 25, 1979 (USA) Directed by: Woody Allen Written by: Woody Allen, Marshall Brickman Produced by: Robert Greenhut, Charles H. Joffe, Jack Rollins Running Time: 96 minutes Box Office: $39,900,000 (USA) 42-year-old Manhattan native Isaac (Allen) has a job he hates, a seventeen-year-old girlfriend, Tracy (Mariel Hemingway), he doesn't love and a lesbian ex-wife, Jill (Meryl Streep), who's writing a tell-all book about their marriage and whom he'd like to strangle. But when he meets his best friend's sexy intellectual mistress, Mary (Diane Keaton), Isaac falls head over heels in lust!

Leaving Tracy, bedding Mary and quitting his job are just the beginning of Isaac's quest for romance and fulfillment in a city where sex is as intimate as a handshake and the gateway to true love is a revolving door. Cast & Characters Woody Allen (Isaac Davis), Diane Keaton (Mary Wilke), Mariel Hemmingway (Tracey), Michael Murphy (Yale), Meryl Streep (Jill Davis), Anne Byrne (Emily) Photo Gallery Production Notes Universally praised by critics and a favorite among Woody Allen fans, Manhattan (1979) remains one of the key films of the seventies, one that is still relevant and astute in its observations of life in Gotham. In Woody Allen's own words, it is about 'the problems of trying to live a decent life amidst the junk of contemporary culture - the temptations, the seductions.' It is also uncharacteristically romantic for an Allen movie with its "May-December" affair between Isaac Davis (Allen), a twice-divorced 42-year-old comedy writer, and Tracy (Mariel Hemingway), a 17-year-old high school student. Equally important is the city of New York which plays a central role in the film.

"Manhattan" is an idealized view of the city which travels from the Central Park to the Russian Tea Room to the Hayden Planetarium with stops at the Guggenheim, the Whitney, and other cultural landmarks. Allen said, "I presented a view of the city as I'd like it to be and as it can be today, if you take the trouble to walk on the right streets." In a conversation with Silvio Bizio, the director revealed that the idea for Manhattan "evolved from the music. I was listening to a record album of overtures from famous George Gershwin shows, and I thought 'This would be a beautiful thing to make a movie in black-and-white, you know, and make a romantic movie." United Artists initially had some reservations about allowing Allen to shoot in monochrome due to commercial considerations but eventually gave in to his demands. Allen promptly hired cinematographer Gordon Willis who decided the best way to capture New York City was in the wide-screen Panavision process.

It proved to be an inspired creative decision which is evident from the exhilarating opening montage set to Gershwin's "Rhapsody in Blue." When Manhattan was first released, there was some criticism leveled at the film for its depiction of a romance between a teenager and a 42-year-old man. Cast in the role of Tracy, Mariel Hemingway surprised critics with her appealing, unself-conscious performance. It was only her second film and she received an Oscar nomination for Best Supporting Actress. Coincidentally, she lost to Meryl Streep for Kramer vs. Kramer who the former wife of Isaac Davis, a bisexual feminist, writing a book about her relationship with Iscaac. "I didn't get to know Woody Allen, really. I had two days on the film. maybe three. He was very firm. I was very surprised because his films have, to the outsider, such an improvised feel - that's how he deals with whomever in his primary character, you know, like Diane. That all feels very improvised, but, man, on the lower echelon, we had to stick to what we were saying! I think he just hated my character. I played the wife writing the tell-all.

He didn't take anything out on me. He would just ask me to say the line how it was written (laughs). I think it's a fair request. Harold Pinter did the same thing in 'The French Lieutenant's Woman'" (Meryl Streep, Premiere Magazine, March 1997) Manhattan is also notable as Diane Keaton's last appearance in an Allen film until Manhattan Murder Mystery (1993) and some of the more interesting cameos include US Congresswoman Bella Abzug as herself, New York Magazine critic Judith Crist, Anne Byrne, ex-wife of Dustin Hoffman, Karen Allen as a TV actress, and Tisa Farrow, the sister of Mia. Although it's hard to believe now, Allen admitted he was so appalled by Manhattan after completing it that he had his agent Sam Cohn offer United Artists another film for nothing if they would not release it. Luckily, he changed his mind shortly thereafter but Allen has always been his own worst critic. The majority view of the film is perhaps best expressed by critic Tom Milne who wrote "it's funny and sad in exactly the right proportions.

Allen could well strive vainly ever to better this film." Simply Streep's Review I have a hard time reviewing "Manhattan", for the simple reason that I've never really enjoyed Woody Allen's films. I think his best work has been "Match Point", because it was fairly an unusual film for him. But other than that, I've never got his sense of humor, this endless talk, the neurosis. Sure he's been a great director for actors, especially women - Diane Keaton has her place in film history because of him. And don't forget about the great Dianne Wiest, who won two Academy Awards for performances in Woody Allen films - "Hannah and her Sisters" and "Bullets over Broadway". If there's one thing that you'll find in all of his work (at least the ones I've seen) it's teriffic acting. Every time again I'm entertained by the actors and bored by the story. Same goes for "Manhattan". The leading ladies here are Keaton and Mariel Hemingway as Allen's young girlfriend. Meryl Streep, in the part of his ex-wife, isn't having much to do.

Her supporting role is limited to three smaller scenes - somehow she mentions in every one of these scenes that her book is just "an honest account of their marriage". Maybe it's a running gag, but her the circle closes - I just don't get Allen's humor or dialogue much. Still, "Manhattan" has done an important thing for Meryl's late seventies career. It has defined the look - long blonde hair, icy cool look - that has been used so often to describe her on-screen persona and mystery. If you like Woody Allen's film, you'll love "Manhattan". For me, not so much.

Awards & Nominations 1979 Winner - Los Angeles Film Critics Award - Best Supporting Actress 1979 Winner - National Board of Review - Best Supporting Actress 1979 Winner - National Society of Film Critics Award - Best Supporting Actress 1980 Nomination - British Academy Award - Best Supporting Actress Manhattan Reviews & Ratings - IMDb IMDb 115 out of 138 people found the following review useful: Magical film about the city and those looking for love from London, England 5 January 2005 Woody Allen once said that, whereas Scorsese had generated a host of imitators, he had generated none. This may be true; films like Manhattan certainly come along far too infrequently. That this is such a gorgeous film may strike those following the formulaic, Hollywood approach to cinema as strange and heretical.

The story is unexciting (restless male in love triangle), most of the characters are unsympathetic, at least on the surface (particularly Isaac), Allen leaves lose ends lying around all over the place, and there's certainly no action (unless you count the car-chase-without-a-chase-scene involving Diane Keaton, Woody Allen and a VW Beetle). So why should any self-respecting member of the MTV generation spend time on this film? Well, here are a few reasons. The script is wit of the highest order. This is not gag-a-minute humour like Friends, but an altogether more acute art form stemming from character, some wonderful dialogue and a fair amount of darkness (I love the bit about Isaac trying to run over his ex-wife's lover). Allen is also prepared to turn his biting satire to personal issues, such as being Jewish. Just don't expect someone to look shrug their shoulders, slap their forehead and with mid-rising intonation say d'uh! It's not that kind of comedy. Then there is the gorgeous cinematography. Woody loves Manhattan and you can certainly tell.

If there is one criticism of the film, it is that it leaves a rather picture postcard impression of the city, but I suppose if it's love, then it's love. Much of the film appears to have been shot at either sunrise or sunset to soften the light, and there are spectacular views of the towers, bridges and waterways of America's finest metropolis. Then, I suppose, there is the fact that Manhattan is probably the archetypal Woody Allen film. Other films may be better, like Annie Hall or Hannah and Her Sisters but, in Manhattan, all the elements of Allen's style are in perfect balance. There's the jazz, the neurotic, unsympathetic lead, the choice between stable and highly-strung women, the self-mocking humour (hilariously done in the opening voice-over), the railing against intellectual snobbery, the deep unease with popular culture. And there are great performances. Allen is at his most difficult  and in some ways his least likable. As Isaac, he's trying to do the right thing, but is rarely selfless enough to follow through with it.

Diane Keaton is great as Mary, the lynchpin between the two love triangles  vain, pretentious and yet you can see why Isaac falls for her. Well, all the actors are great, and very believable, but special mention must go to Meryl Streep, who manages to steal the show with her tiny cameo as Isaac's ex-wife, writing a book about their break-up and living with their son and her lover. She is magnificent. Of course, the film will also do nothing to dispel the popular rumour that New Yorkers are neurotic, self-obsessed and self-indulgent  at least that narrow social circle Allen so often writes about. If you don't mind that, though (and I'm English, so what do I care) you're in for a treat. As with the city itself, the memories of this film will stay with you forever. Was the above review useful to you?

81 out of 105 people found the following review useful: Rhapsody in NYC from hiding under my seat 25 January 2003 Manhattan is an exhilarating American romance set against the backdrop of New York of the late 70's: my favorite New York, the New York of painters, poets, punks, and Pauline Kael. Three great, very American talents -- Woody Allen, Gordon Willis, and George Gershwin -- intertwine their respective gifts to create a comedy that manages to satisfy both the brain and the heart, and even, perhaps, the lower regions. Allen is so brainy and such a nebbish that he can get away with gestures that would be painfully sentimental in the hands of any other director: when he begins the movie with fireworks cut to Gershwin, it isn't to soften you up for a soap opera, but to remind you that however much his neuroses may seem to drive the scenes, its the love of New York that drives the movie.

The entire cast is note perfect: Meryl Streep as his caustic bisexual ex-wife, Diane Keaton as a nervous journalist from Philadelphia, and especially Mariel Hemingway, whose performance as Allen's 17-year old girlfriend is charming, heartbreaking, and wise. Allen's comedy here is at its absolute finest. The fact that it is interwoven with a genuinely moving love story told with a subtlety and indirection that is unheard of in today's mainstream cinema only makes the laughs that much richer. Gordon Willis' cinematography is good enough for the Museum of Modern Art. Scene after scene leaves a grin on your face as his moving (in both senses) black and white photography floats across the screen. And finally underlying everything is the music of George Gershwin, whose exubertant melodies propel the movie forward at every turn. This is Woody Allen's best movie, a great movie, and an American movie in the best sense. As an homage to the city of New York it will surely remain unsurpassed. Was the above review useful to you? 55 out of 87 people found the following review useful: For anyone who's been in love, or anyone who loves New York.

from Little Italy 3 January 1999 No-one can question Woody Allen's status as one of America's premier film directors, and anyone well-versed with his works should not hesitate before nominating 'Manhattan' as his finest film. This movie is a masterpiece; visually and intellectually, it shows Woody Allen at the absolute peak of his art. Shot in a stylistic black and white widescreen format, the cinematography of 'Manhattan' is breathtaking, and Allen's dialogue and command of situation are even better than usual, if that is possible. The heartfelt angst and bittersweet hopelessness of the characters are uncamouflaged even by the sleek cinematographic style of the movie. This movie is Woody Allen's valentine to the city he has such a symbiotic relationship with, and nowhere have I seen New York filmed as artistically as here. Mariel Hemmingway and Diane Keaton give inspired performances around Woody's perfectly played character resulting in what can only be considered a modern masterpiece. Was the above review useful to you?

54 out of 87 people found the following review useful: A love song to Manhattan disguised as romantic comedy from Vancouver 14 May 1999 I won't rework the thorough comments which preceded mine here, because all the accolades I would give this film are stated quite eloquently. It is his best film; it does contain brilliant insights into human nature; it is visually breathtaking. I just want to mention a few aspects from my point of view. It has been on my list of the five best movies ever made ever since I saw it in 1979, chiefly for its realistic dialogue and probing commentary on the desperate nature of human beings in search of love, but I had never seen New York with my own eyes, so I could only try to accept but not fully understand Woody's love for Manhattan, which is firmly stated in the introductory narration. After my recent 4 day trip there, I have a new perspective - the city itself is so charmingly and compactly laid out, so full of history and culture and everything famous, that you can't go to New York without falling in love with it. After only 3 days I felt I wanted to live there.

It is the city of not only Woody Allen but Bob Dylan, Tennessee Williams, Edgar Allan Poe, George Washington, Paul Newman, Jacqueline Onassis, and hundreds of other illustrious and creative people of the past and present. The tour guides can't possibly squeeze in the whole story of every district and every building; the air just vibrates with this knowledge that you are in the greatest city in the world. The beauty of Manhattan that Woody conveys so perfectly in every camera shot and through the music of Gershwin has new meaning for me because I was there. It's not so much a physical beauty but a feeling that all is right with the city, that this is what a city is supposed to be. It puts other cities to shame. All I can say is he fully succeeded in conveying what New York City is like. Not to mention that I now understand the obsession with delis; they have the best food in the world. I would also like to add my new perspective on the story itself - a very 70's plot of several people switching romantic partners back and forth at the drop of a hat.

Diane Keaton's Mary remains the most perfect of the characterizations as the neurotic free spirit who despite her total self-absorption inspires our sympathy and affection. The 17 year old played by Mariel Hemingway is more irritating with the passage of 20 years, not because Woody's real-life obsession with young girls came to light, but because Mariel is a truly vapid non-actress with no ability to convey any depth or feeling. The constant commentary about her stunning beauty falls flat because she merely has a strikingly angular face, no personality and really possesses nothing except the bloom of youth and shiny hair. Mary rightly tells Isaac that his first wife becoming a lesbian "explains the little girl." The denouement seems more unsatisfactory now than in previous viewings, and I want to shake the characters awake. But it was the seventies, and this is how people acted. It captures the times perfectly. I can't discuss who ends up with whom without spoiling the end for those who haven't seen it, but the problem for me is that the characters seem to live for the moment and if they can't have the one they want, they simply change partners without much strain.

This attitude does not play quite so charmingly at the end of the 90's when fidelity is valued more highly than it was in the 70's. Nevertheless the beauty of the city stands alone no matter what the characters' desperate machinations. And as a hilarious commentary on the human instinct to find someone to love no matter what the consequences, there is nothing finer. Though I might not approve of Isaac's final choice, his almost religious experience which brings him to that conclusion is a stunning climax to the film. Whether he changes his mind about who is the right one for him, he has learned something crucial about what really is important to him in life. The true stars of the movie are Manhattan, never more beautiful, and Diane Keaton, never more brilliant. Was the above review useful to you? 26 out of 36 people found the following review useful: "Chapter One. He was as tough and romantic as the city he loved.

Beneath his black-rimmed glasses was the coiled sexual power of a jungle cat." from Australia 11 May 2007 After the phenomenal success of 'Annie Hall,' the hilarious Oscar-winning comedy detailing the romantic exploits of neurotic Jewish comedian Alvey Singer, Woody Allen had become of America's most respected filmmakers. In 1979, he released what is generally accepted as his second great masterpiece, 'Manhattan,' a poignant tribute to the city that Allen loves so dearly. Written by Allen and his 'Annie Hall'-collaborator Marshall Brickman, 'Manhattan' stars Allen as Isaac Davis, a twice-divorced, 42-year-old comedy writer who is intimately involved with a 17-year-old high school student, Tracy (an Oscar-nominated Mariel Hemingway). Meanwhile, Isaac begins to fall for Mary (Diane Keaton), who is the secret mistress of his best friend (Michael Murphy). Adding to all of Isaac's troubles, his former second wife, Jill (Meryl Streep), who had originally left him for another woman, has plans to write a tell-all book on their failed marriage. If this all seems very confusing to you, then you're not alone.

Just as in 'Annie Hall,' Allen plays the hopeless romantic who is struggling desperately to understand the maddening complexity of human relationships. Though Tracy is only seventeen years old, she is arguably the most honest and mature of the women in Isaac's life; nonetheless, he doesn't treat her seriously. In his mind, anything that she says is quite obviously influenced by the naivety and downright ignorance of the young. Their relationship was never meant to be anything more than a brief "fling," and so he feels no guilt for seeing another woman behind his back, an act that makes him livid when it ultimately happens to him. 'Manhattan' was shot in beautiful crisp black-and-white by Gordon Willis, who has also worked on, among countless other films, 'Annie Hall' and the three installments of 'The Godfather.' The cinematography offers New York City a romantic 1940s feel, reminiscent of how Allen claims to remember the city as a child: "Maybe it's a reminiscence from old photographs, films, books and all that. But that's how I remember New York. I always heard Gershwin music with it, too.

In 'Manhattan' I really think that we  that's me and cinematographer Gordon Willis  succeeded in showing the city. When you see it there on that big screen it's really decadent." Mysteriously, this film remains the least-liked by the director himself, though, at the same time, it was also his most commercially successful. As you've no doubt already noticed from this review, 'Manhattan' is often likened to 1977's 'Annie Hall,' perhaps due to the repeated casting of Allen and Keaton (a not uncommon occurrence) or its similar attempt to uncover the elusive secrets behind love and relationships. In terms of film-making style, however, the films are quite dissimilar. Unlike the highly-energetic 'Annie Hall'  which cut back and forward in time, visited old memories, broke the fourth wall and made conversations with passing extras  'Manhattan' boasts a more classical approach  quiet, softly-spoken and accompanied by a wistfully slow jazzy soundtrack, also relying heavily on the works of George Gershwin. Was the above review useful to you?

33 out of 50 people found the following review useful: Allen's best from The Hague, Netherlands 12 April 2003 'Manhattan' looks beautiful in black and white. It is definitely Woody Allen's best. Two years after 'Annie Hall' we have Woody Allen and Diane Keaton together again. Allen plays Isaac who is dating the 17-year old Tracy (Mariel Hemingway). He has a friend, the married Yale (Michael Murphy), who is having an affair with Mary (Diane Keaton). Isaac falls in love with Mary and stops seeing Tracy to start things with Mary. In a sub-plot we have the ex-wife of Isaac publishing a book about their sex-life. Now she is living with a woman. The ex-wife Jill is played by Meryl Streep. Her appearances are short and not very often but she is more than great in her scenes. 'Manhattan' is even better than the great 'Annie Hall'. The black and white cinematograpy, done with a good reason, gives a little extra to the movie. Like I said Streep is terrific and so are Allen, Keaton and especially Hemingway (she was nominated for an Oscar).

The monologues Allen had in 'Annie Hall' are still present, smart, interesting and funny. A great story, very intelligent, of course written (and directed) by Woody Allen himself. Was the above review useful to you? 26 out of 38 people found the following review useful: Neurotic in NYC from United States 4 February 2008 Woody Allen has been churning out mediocre films for so long now that it's easy to forget how good some of his older films were. "Manhattan" is the product of Allen's "mature" 1970s phase, the phase that also produced "Annie Hall" and "Interiors," and it's a wonderful film. It's not the plot that makes it singular -- it's typical upper-crust New York Allen, full of neurotic people in therapy cheating on one another and making mistake after mistake in their pursuit of what they think will make them happy. No, what makes "Manhattan" so effective is its style.

Filmed in black and white (because, as Allen's character says in an opening voice over, New York is a city that has always and will always exist in black and white), the film is a love letter to NYC, and it suggests that the neuroses that fill its denizens are as much a part of the city's character as its architecture, culture and diversity. I would instantly be annoyed by the people that populate Allen's films if I met them in any other context. As it is, I can't imagine any Allen film (at least not one set in New York) without them. Grade: A from United States 17 February 2003 On the basis of one viewing about 20 years ago, I always considered this my favorite Woody Allen film. Upon further review, I am not so impressed. The cinematography is wonderful (I'm a sucker for New York, too), the acting is ok (Mariel Hemingway better than ok), and there are some good one liners, but, overall I found it boring and self-indulgent, especially in the directing. This film has no real reason for being...it's ultimately inconsequential.

That makes me sad and now I have to watch my other favorites to see if they hold up. I still have hopes for Hannah, Misdemeanors, Purple Rose, & Love & Death. This one isn't in the pantheon anymore. Was the above review useful to you? 12 out of 17 people found the following review useful: Girls mature faster than guys... The growing pains of a man and a woman in the heart of metropolis. from Oldham, Gtr Manchester, England. 11 February 2008 *** This review may contain spoilers *** Woody puts on film how he learned about how callous relationships can be. He did it the hard way. He sees in his young companion that she is a beautiful 17 year old, when he is 42. It's the vanity of kidding yourself that you can still be physically appealing to such a fresh beauty; plus he got to parade her in front of his friends, as a token of imagined success. If a gorgeous young girl of that age really showed interest in an older man, he's going to think long and hard about not passing up the opportunity, because you don't get those lost years back.

It also panders to his lustier instincts, as well. She probably would be lifeless, unenthusiastic, bored and boring to a middle-aged man who was not undergoing a life-crisis, but her youth was what fooled Ike into sometimes temporarily thinking he had it good in his life. She gave him a sense of relevance about himself as he fancied he could somehow pull off being a mentor and a lover all rolled into one. I think the point was that he deliberately chose a passive youngster that he could impose his tastes onto, because at the end when she starts to assert her independence, he isn't happy about it. The contradiction within those circumstances is that he can only wholly fall for someone who challenges him; that person in this case is the older Diane Keaton character. Maybe I'm wrong... but I hated Woody's character from almost immediately into this, and the last scenes made it all worthwhile to me and justified my caring about what happens to him, because it's such a turnaround.

All through the movie he is using her and telling her that their relationship will only ever be a rest-stop on the path of her life, so when she finally assimilates that attitude, the hapless man can only tell her that his previous philosophising was hollow. He pretends to base his decisions on what's best for both of them, but really his choices are dictated only to afford himself an easier escape route, in the future. I'm a guy, I've had this done to me by a woman in the past, and to see naivete parlayed as a tactic again, by either sex, was painful. Thus I was gratified to see that the tables are swiftly turned at the resolution, and he is the member of the pair that is now suddenly finding themselves craving reassurance. It's a note of admittance to end on that will maybe help change his attitude to relationships in the future, and it inspires a kind of hope in the watching audience by suggesting that perhaps we can all learn from our mistakes, no matter how harsh they have to get. If I'm right, it was very brave of Woody to have his character be left so vulnerable in the end by his own narcissism.

Granted it's not your typical overblown finish, but it was at least more illuminating to me. Even if I am the only one... Was the above review useful to you? 26 out of 45 people found the following review useful: Embarrassing 16 December 2006 *** This review may contain spoilers *** A movie in which a 42year old Woody Allen dates a 17 year old (who actually sounds about 12)...is that tacky or what? Even without knowing about Woody Allen's subsequent real life involvement with his step daughter it just seems inappropriate (and that's putting it mildly). If it had been a movie about a gay older man having a relationship with a teenage boy i'm sure that it would have caused outrage and i can't see why it should be much different just because its a heterosexual relationship. And then to realize at the end of his movie that the 17 year old is really the love of his life..i mean..ewwwwwwwwwwwh...pass me the sick bag. Diane Keaton we're meant to believe is some sort of really intellectual but just seems a moronic insult to women with her vacuous prognostications.

I'll give it a few stars for the cinematography and music score and another star for a few throwaway woody allen one-liners but really this movie is just an embarrassment. Was the above review useful to you? Page 1 of 24:

Question: Who played Woody Allen's ex-wife in the 1979 film Manhattan?
Answer: Meryl Streep