Annie Hall likes to get high when they have sex and Woody Allen -- or Alvy Singer -- doesn't like that. That's the most character development there is in the movie.
December 20, 2005
Character development in the movie "Annie Hall."
John -- my son John Althouse Cohen -- opines:
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18 comments:
He's pretty much right about that. I'm a little baffled by how people so revere Annie Hall. Maybe it's that the surrealist sketch comedy interludes were ahead of their time? Watching it now, though, it doesn't really stack up as a romantic story or as a comedy. Sort of like how The Exorcist and Psycho aren't scary at all anymore.
That said, is a lack of character development a shortcoming in a movie? I don't think so, and I'm wary of people who insist upon it.
How does John define character development? Is it any part of a film that tells us new things about a character? By that definition the film is chock full of character development. For instance, think of all the things we learn about both Alvy and Annie by their visit to Annie's family home. Another: the scene in which they make flirtatious chitchat and we see their thoughts in subtitles. Think about the scene of Annie driving. Or the sequence in which Alvy goes to L.A. and rants and raves about California. All of these scenes tell us something interesting about one or more characters.
Perhaps John means characters changing over time? Annie changes in various ways over the course of the film as she falls in and out of love with Alvy. Alvy grows up and goes through a series of relationships with women. He learns something about himself and his need for love.
I disagree that lack of character development is a "fact" about Annie Hall. I need more of an argument to convince me of this.
I guess I should see Annie Hall if I'm going to read Althouse. It comes up a lot, doesn't it? I feel left out.
I've seen many (most?) Woody Allen movies (Interiors is my favorite; in fact, I own it on DVD), but I've never seen Annie Hall.
I even dressed up as Annie Hall with my English teacher in high school on "twins day". It was her idea. I said "sure!" There's a picture of me in the yearbook dressed as Annie Hall.
This is my Annie Hall comment on a blog called Althouse.
It is not one of his best. It lacks a cohesive structure. You know, you get the feeling that he's not absolutely sure what it is he wants to say. Of course, I've always felt he was essentially a technical film maker. Granted, Manhattan was a great film. Great in its use of negative energy more than anything else. But that simple cohesive core ... Like all that Shadows and Fog or Crimes and Misdemeanors, I found it incredibly ... indulgent. You know, he really is. He's one of the most indulgent film makers. He really is...
'Annie Hall' is sort of 'When Harry Met Sally' without the happy ending.
My suspicion is that Allen and Keaton played exaggerated versions of themselves and their relationship. That, of course, is like what is done with characters that appear in sketch comedy, whether the characters being spoofed are the actors themselves or others.
Favorite moment in the movie: When Marshall McLuhan, standing in line at a theater, I think, corrects some fathead who misrepresents his theories. Allen looks into the camera and asks if the viewer didn't wish that happened in real life.
It's been at least a decade since I've seen 'Annie Hall' and I'm sure that was the only time since first seeing it in theatrical release. But I liked it both times. I doubt that had much to do with its surrealism, as one commenter has suggested. That touch was fairly old hat by then...remember, 'A Hard Day's Night,' filled with delightful surrealistic moments, came out a decade before 'Annie Hall.' My guess is that, at least among males my age back in the days of its release, its appeal was (and perhaps remains) all about Diane Keaton and her winsome quirkiness.
Mark Daniels
I enjoyed the movie when I first saw it, many years ago.
However, I have chosen to boycott Woody Allen as my way of protesting the way he treated Mia Farrow (a classy lady if ever there was one) and his own daughter (he's lucky she was just past her eighteenth birthday when he began their 'affair,' --or maybe it was more than luck).
Comment that creeped me out: chuck b:I even dressed up as Annie Hall with my English teacher in high school on "twins day". It was her idea. I said "sure!"
It was her idea.
Not meant to cast aspersions or rumors towards Chuck b., just pointing out what I found so creepy.
michael h: One was a highly original collage of sophisticated comedic scraps that somehow adds up to more than the sum of its parts.
The other was ripped off from a Kurosawa movie.
Bill: You made me splatter a mouthfull of twea all over the papers on my desk.
I'm glad I peeked back into the comments on this post... I don't always do that.
It's so funny to imagine that particular high school teacher propositioning me sexually I can't even begin to tell you. And I won't.
Very funny!
John - I agree with you. I think that Annie is developed a little bit more than you do, but I agree that she's less developed than most people seem to give the movie credit for.
Annie Hall is one of my favorite movies; it was the second VHS tape I bought and the first DVD I ever bought. Its hilarious, the cinematography and overall look of the movie are gorgeous, and the episodic nature of the movie really works to its benefit, and it has one of the best bittersweet endings I've ever seen.
Allen intended to make a different movie entirely, named after a psychological condition, I forget its name, in which its impossible to feel happiness. It was a movie about Alvy Singer. After watching it, Allen and his editor tore it apart and reassembled it in a totally different way, made it more about Annie than about Alvy, re-shot a couple of scenes to make it flow better, and released it. That, in part, explains why its so episodic, but I'm amazed at what they were able to put together.
Reading these comments .... I wish I had a large sock filled with horse manure.
John: If you've stopped listening to Mozart because he cheated on his wife, you shouldn't watch Duck Soup; back in the '20's the lads had an abortion fund amongst themselves rather than try and figure out who got whom pregnant...which included married women.
"after a psychological condition, I forget its name"
Anhedonia.
I just find I can't enjoy it if I think someone, somewhere is saying "Chippewaw Falls, Wesconsin."
I love the movie.
"You don't want to leave out Mozart, while you're trashing people"
Nice "Manhattan" reference!
Ann - yup, that's it!
In Annie Hall, Alvy says that he can't be happy as long as he knows that somebody, somewhere is suffering, and yet when Annie's brother, the Christopher Walken character, reveals to Alvy that he's in real psychological pain, Alvy just makes fun of him and leaves the room. I don't know how much that scene reveals about Allen himself . . . but the scene where he's crining in the passenger seat is hilarious! That's why I love Annie Hall; it has a lot of comedy about serious subjects, but avoids easy laughs.
Personally, I'm sad about the development of the character Woody Allen plays in his movies. That character started out as a neurotic, very funny intellectual who was very amusing in describing life in New York CIty. The character has developed into nothing more than a totally self-absorbed whiner who thinks he's better ("artists don't have to live by the same rules everyone else does") than the rest of us.
Very disappointing.
Happy New Year to you!
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