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Hannah King

Humanities 168

Paper #4

04/01/2013

Annie Hall

AnnieHallis the ultimate romantic-comedy, featuring Woody Allen at the top of his

game as a neurotic stand-up comedian who ventures into a relationship with an aloof, shy

woman, played by Diane Keaton, who shares his insecurities. This is a Realistic Narrative film

(Humanities March 20, 2013). What makes this film so special is Allens ability to break the

fourth wall of the classic three-act structure with such skill, which in turn involves his audience

more and makes us sympathize with his grating character a bit more.

The movie begins with Alvy speaking directly to the camera. Why, because Alvy is the

narrator of the entire movie? Alvy is an extreme pessimist that obsesses over dying and has very

sarcastic and cynical views about the world and people around him. Annie is a ditsy and clumsy

talented singer and photographer. When they meet for the very first time, it was love at first

sight. Their conversations always seem awkward. The film takes you through their relationship

before and after. Alvy often takes a break out of a scene to talk directly to the audience about his

views or whatever situation he is in (IMDB).

Things seemed to get tense between them when they moved in together. It did not help

things that she had a Jew hating grandmother. Finding her armin arm with her professor, Alvy

is enraged with jealousy and she explains, it is the flexibility they talked about. They eventually

break up, and Alvy spends all his time searching for the truth in relationships, asking strangers

about love, life, and anything that has to do with relationships, questioning his formative years.

Out of the blue Annie calls Alvy, he rushes over and it was to just kill a spider (Wikipedia). They

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get back together, but after talking to their therapists they decide they are too different. They end

up breaking up on the way home from L.A. Annie ends up running off with her record producer,

played by the wonderful Paul Simon. Alvy tries to save their relationship by proposing, but it

doesnt work. He then makes a play all about their relationship, only it has a happy ending. She

says yes. In real life that did not happen. They both moved on to other people (AnnieHallDVD).

This is so hard to explain because the movie flashes forward and back, then before the

relationship and then when he was nine. It unfolds out of chronological order. Boy meets girl.

Boy falls in love with girl instantly. Girl feels the same. They date for a while. They break up.

Girl moves on. Boy seems to never move on. Boy writes a play about boy and girls relationship.

Boy and girl run into each other years later. Girl is with someone else. They go to lunch as

friends and reminisce about their relationship. When it is purely sexual, it will never work. They

communicate a lot, but they never seem to agree and the conversations are very neurotic (Annie

Hall, DVD).

The classic three-act structure includes conflict, plus tension, plus structural balance,

equals structured emotion.AnnieHallis a perfect example, beneath memorable characters,

memorable dialogue, and memorable scenes. There is an invisible hand at work guiding us

through a cinematic masterpiece (Humanities March 20, 2013). Allen goes further by having a

memorable structure, hence the fourth wall. The only reason this works is because it is a story

about remembering an event. As soon as Alvy is on camera, he tells us how the memories of his

relationship with Annie Hall flash through his mind. This gives us structure, but we can also

adapt this structure without confusing the audience. Flashbacks are a great way not to confuse

the three-act structure.

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AnnieHallis an epic film. I found out by researching this movie, this was written kind of

about their real life relationship, Woody Allen and Diane Keaton. Diane Keatons birth name is

Diane Hall. She actually has a grandma Hall. They broke up a few years before this film. Woody

Allen has a brilliant perspective on relationships and how different men and women perceive

them. This makes the film downright hilarious. My favorite part of the movie was the firt time

they made love. Alvy was a wreck, while Annie relaxes with a joint(AnnieHallDVD). That is

what I loved about her, a free spirit and the fact that she hooked up with Paul Simon.

This film is exactly what I think the real life Woody Allen is like. It seems more like an

autobiography. The way he narrates the film is beautiful, it also makes us as the audience, feel

like we are part of the film. The moral of this story is: Love is essential, especially if it is

neurotic (Wikipedia). Annie Hall contains more intellectual wit and cultural references than any

other movie. It is a movie about a man who is always looking for the loopholes in perfection.

Who can turn everything into a joke, and wishes he couldnt (Ebert).