FT Top 100 Films
50: ANNIE HALL
I love Annie Hall. There you go, not much more for me to say on that subject really. It completely invented a type of romantic comedy, and laid the template for the standard Woody Allen film that he would flop back to when his experiments went too wild. Striaght to camera narration, snappy one liners and the kooky girl (Diane Keaton). Its all there.
Except for the animated sequence. I remember the first time I saw the film in the cinema my jaw dropping at the ineptitude of the animation. I have the script to Annie Hall where it clearly states that the sequence should be a Disney interlude. Yowsa – Walt would be turning in his grave to take a look at this. It is about one hundred times worse that the worst animation in a Disney film*. My teeth still grit when I see it now, and oddly is a reason I have often cited why Annie Hall never quite makes the cut for me. If I make the cut in Annie Hall, I can get back to loving it.
Anyway: here is a quick list of Woody Allen’s Annie Hall remakes, and the twist, perhaps it is worth seeing them as a season to try and build the uber-Annie Hall.
(Proto Annie Hall’s : Sleeper/ Love and Death for the relationship with Keaton.
Play It Again Sam for the romance).
Annie Hall – the classic model
Manhattan – Posh Annie Hall, in black and white and everything.
Hannah And Her Sisters – Annie Hall all growed up
Bullets Over Broadway – Annie Hall with gangsters
Manhattan Murder Mystery – Annie Hall with its origianl plot (true – and fun to boot)
Mighty Aphrodite – Annie Hall with the other woman
Celebrity – A grumpy Annie Hall post divorce
Anything Else – Annie Hall for the kids, and a grumpy get on the side.
So that’s a good sixteen hours of Annie Hall action. And only one of them has a really crappy animated bit in it. Bah!
*Pete’s Dragon.