Annie Hall (1977)
Introduction
Annie Hall is the great modern romantic comedy along with Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind (2004). This film is great not merely for its comedic tone but for its psychedelic templates that evoke a sense of the metaphysical dimensions of human behavior. This is done within the context of urban alienation where humans in this particular setting are forced to compete for space in the cities which are the hub of commerce. In this film the action takes place mainly in New York City. City life promises the possibility of exploring a variety of options and this applies to the concept of romantic relationships. There is also the need to stand out individually in the urban setting for in the sea of humanity that greets you upon your arrival you can be absorbed and be forgotten and there is the urge to reassert your individuality. This is opposed to the countryside where the populations are smaller and everyone is easily identifiable. These two elements of city life feature prominently in this film through the relationship between Alvy Singer (Woody Allen) and Annie Hall (Diane Keaton). The relationship developed in this film is significant from a philosophical point of view because it questions the logical possibility of romantic relationships within this urban setting especially as this need to assert one’s individuality renders the romantic notion that humans can forge a union under god pretentious. There still remains the urge for one to come together with another but in the city this will always be undermined simply because the city promises endless possibilities where one can express a certain idealized notion however futile. The city is the place to shine and it is the place where stars are born as this film so accurately portrays. When one becomes a star you have risen above the multitude suggesting that you have made a considerable impression. There are several transitions in this film suggesting that individuals are more likely to come together before they eventually pursue their own paths of success in the city. The romantic relationship in this film is the basis for this existential theme of urban alienation. In this film we arrive at this conclusion by the techniques utilized by Woody Allen, the director, which involve a constant portrayal of separation or a sense of dichotomy which suggests that one is never at peace in the city simply because it is difficult to unify these various elements that comprise an individual. We are, therefore, sometimes incapable of resolving the many elements that comprise our city experience into a recognizable entity. In Alvy’s case the unifying force for all these distinct elements is the presence of Annie; she represents the one element that Alvy tries to conceive as an idealistic notion. The other elements in his life are too disjointed and chaotic and so he converts these chaotic elements into comedy which is the only way he can understand them. These chaotic elements come in the form of his family, his socialization as a Jew and his inability to resolve the paranoia brought about by urban alienation which says you must stand on your own. This is why the techniques applied in the film, which can be called the deconstruction method, seems to befuddle the average critic. The technique used in this film is essential in getting at the core of the psyche of Alvy Singer. This technique was also employed successfully in Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind (2004). The Deconstruction method simply means laying everything bare and sifting through the pieces. It normally involves a reconstruction at the end where everything fits together. In Alvy’s case the deconstruction reflects his own paranoia for he was in love and had not been before and so he is at odds when trying to find the reason for the end of their relationship. Annie Hall (Diane Keaton) evokes various psychedelic elements which the rational Alvy Singer cannot seem to control. These elements are supposed to run counter to his perception of rational behaviour. The spirituality exuded by Annie will haunt Alvy forever for it is in the plane of city life where spirituality does not seem to exist. Annie’s roots associated with her family in the country suggest that she was not one from the city in the first place..
This film is primarily about Alvy Singer, the jewish comedian, trying to come to grips with the loss of Annie Hall with whom he had a year long relationship. The film traces the origins of the relationship where Annie was an obscure individual from Wisconsin who tries to make it as a singer (the stand out element) to the point where she is able to become a success and moves to California to pursue her dreams. Alvy is unable to reconcile the fact that he was unable to influence her any longer for when they first met he was the star (a comedian) and she broke out of his shadowy obsessions with mortality. The contrast is that Alvy is fascinated by death and Annie is fascinated by Life. It is why they come together and why they separate. After the break up when Annie moves to California Alvy is forced to leave his comfort zone for one last chance at love/redemption. It brilliantly invites you, the viewer, to come to your conclusions about the relationship and this is done as Alvy speaks directly into the camera. The film has become the template for modern romantic films and the techniques used in this film has been famously been used in comedies such as Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind. Annie Hall won 4 Academy Awards including Best Film which was one of the few handed out to a romantic comedy. Examples of other such romantic comedies that won this prize are: It Happened One Night (1934) and Shakespeare in Love (1998). The other awards for Annie Hall include: Best Director (Woody Allen), Best actress (Diane Keaton) and, most importantly, Best Original Screenplay. This film defeated the likes of Star Wars Episode 4: A New Hope, the first entry in one of the most popular franchises in history, which was the highest grossing film of that year and marked a significant cultural shift regarding how movies would be viewed in the future. In 1977 it was seen as a light space opera adventure and films like Annie Hall still had a voice in the mainstream cinema (the age of the blockbuster/epic tales had come). A film like Annie Hall nowadays would be mostly ignored by the mainstream audience although Allen seems to have scored a hit recently with Midnight in Paris (2011). This was the first film where the validity of romantic relationships is challenged. This came about because of urban alienation which renders romantic notions as something absurd. The bittersweet conclusions arrived at in this film was replaced in his later feelings with some sense of optimism. In Manhattan (1979) the protagonist finds hope in a 17 year old girl and in Hannah and her Sisters (1986) where the protagonist by the end is expecting a child. This is Woody Allen’s best film from a philosophical point of view for his later films on relationships have not escaped its influence especially with regard to technical craftsmanship. This is not to say they are not as good from a dramatic point of view. Of all of his films Annie Hall seems to resonate with audiences who encounter Allen’s cynical views on life for the first time and certain expressions still seem to endure having entered the lexicon of Americans and those influenced by American culture. For instance I, here in Jamaica, recently heard a girl say ‘la- de- dah’ (or whatever. It is similar to Scarlett in Gone with the Wind saying fiddle-dee-dee) which is an expression used famously by the character Annie. There are other famous quotes such as ‘Honey there is a spider in your bathtub the size of a Buick.’ The character Annie Hall imbues the film with such life that it is difficult not to be moved by the end considering the morbid views on life offered by Alvy Singer.
In this critique I will discuss Allen’s use of the Deconstruction method which removes the pieces in the hope of putting them together again. This is important for this technique allows the viewer to get to the root of romantic relationships. I will also discuss the relationship between Annie Hall and Alvy singer and the sense of unity and dichotomy that emerges. I will discuss how their personalities contrast: Annie represents the bloom of life whereas Alvy represents the decay and gloom of death. They, not surprisingly, complement each other at first but eventually are forced to separate as a result of these complementary ideals. I will also discuss the struggle of city life and the concept of urban alienations within the context of New York vs. Los Angeles,California as presented in this film.
Life in New York: The Deconstruction Method
I will here discuss the deconstruction method employed by Woody Allen in crafting the film and so will explore the root of relationships in the urban setting of New York which is based on an individualist basis. In the second section I will focus on the reconstruction where Alvy tries to place all the pieces together. These relationships apply not only to the romantic relationship between Annie and Alvy but also to the familial setting of both characters; particularly Alvy’s for he is the protagonist. The action of the film takes place primarily in Alvy’s mind or is based on his own recollections. This would explain why he speaks directly to you the viewer. In his recollections some of the statements of the other characters seem ordained so as to provide some element of humour since Alvy is mocking the individuals in question from a present day perspective. This is discernible because of his opening statements where he basically sums up the premise of the film. Here is what he says:
‘ There’s an old joke. Two elderly women are at a Catskill mountain resort. One of them says , “The food at this place is really terrible.” The other one says, “I know, and such small portions. “ Well that’s essentially how I feel about life: full of loneliness, misery, suffering and unhappiness and it’s all over much too quickly. The other important joke for me is one that is usually attributed to Groucho Marx but I think it appears originally in Freud’s Wit and Its Relation to the Unconscious. It goes like this, I’m paraphrasing, : I would never want to belong to any club that would have someone like me as a member. That’s the key joke of my adult life in terms of my relationships with women. Lately the strangest things have been going through my mind because I turned 40, and I guess I’m going through a life crisis. I’m not worried about aging. I’m not one of those characters. But I’m balding slightly on top. That’s about the worst you can say about me. I think I’m going to get better as I get older. I think I’m going to be the balding virile type as opposed to the distinguished grey. Unless I’m neither of those two. Unless I’m one of those guys with saliva dribbling out of his mouth who wanders into a cafeteria with a shopping bag, screaming about socialism. Annie and I broke up, and I still can’t get my mind around that. I keep sifting the pieces of the relationship through my mind and examining my life and trying to figure out where did the screw up come. A year ago, y’ know, we were in love. It’s funny. I’m not a morose type. I’m not a depressive character. I was a reasonably happy kid. I was brought up in Brooklyn during World War 2.’ (Reasonably happy being brought up in Brooklyn? Really)
There are a few things we can take from this monologue. Firstly it is clear that the sense of urban alienation experienced by Alvy while growing up contributed to his negative outlook on existence. We gather this from the Groucho Marx Joke that he quotes which says ‘’I would never want to be belong to any club that would have someone like me for a member.’ This sense of urban alienation would have certainly influenced the telling of such a joke. This is not to say that the concept of alienation is specific to the industrial age or city life. In the more archaic forms of economic development the individual’s sense of alienation stems from his or her lack of conformity with society’s guidelines. In this case I am not looking only at simple law breaking but at decorum and etiquette. The earlier forms of economic development are communal and so you are forced to tolerate others invading your private space whether it be your family, friends or special guests. You are therefore constantly under scrutiny however in the urban setting the individualist tendencies emerge where people compete for space and selfish urges tend to come to the surface. You are so proud of your own achievement (getting your own space in a great city like New York) that for others to come and share your space seems unthinkable. Sharing your own personal space does not necessarily mean having friends over and then seeing them to the door when the party is over; it simply means that a certain individual will assume your characteristics and become like you simply because they are in your space. For instance if a woman moves in with you she will come to adapt to your lifestyle and eventually what makes you so distinctive becomes lost. In time you are sharing space with someone like you and so you estrange yourself from her so that you can remain distinctive. We will see later why Alvy could not discover the reason for the failure of his relationship with Annie. Secondly it is clear that Alvy is not as upbeat as he appears to sound; his view of life being one that emphasizes the loneliness and despair of it all. This is probably why he became a comedian for comedians are not necessarily happy people; they have developed ways of seeing the world through a misanthropic lens by trivializing the efforts of humanity. This is why this mocking tone can appear offensive to some; a joke is always made at another’s expense. He is a morose, depressive type and is not as reasonably happy as he supposes for he is conditioned by the harsh realities of existence. Some comics try and convert this harsh existence into a comical viewpoint so as to lessen the emotional impact. As we will discover later on there are some things you cannot trivialize in the form of a joke and the pain becomes ever so clear. This is why he is unable to come to terms with the loss of Annie. Lastly, Alvy reveals that he is a conservative ‘getting better as I get older’ therefore as he gets older the values that have become his guiding force become increasingly entrenched. He will be unable to accept change and we shall see how this affects his relationship with Annie.
Following this opening monologue we get a sense of his upbringing in Brooklyn, a borough of New York City. Alvy has always had a negative outlook on life since he was a child we see this in the scene where he is taken to the doctor by his mother because he is depressed after reading something (probably a newspaper or pulp magazine) and it affects his ability to do anything, particularly his homework, with the reason being that the universe is expanding. After his doctor asks him why he is depressed he responds, ‘The universe is expanding. The universe is everything and if it’s expanding someday it will break apart and that will be the end of everything.’ The doctor responds to Alvy positively after his mother briefly interjects, ‘It won’t be expanding for billions of years. We’ve got to try and enjoy ourselves while we’re here uh?’ Alvy continues speaking about his childhood ‘My analyst says I exaggerate my childhood memories but I swear I was brought up underneath the roller coaster in the Coney Island section of Brooklyn. Maybe that accounts for my personality which is a little nervous’ This makes reference to one of the primary concepts of urban alienation where people scramble for a space in the city. In Alvy’s case he was brought up ‘underneath a roller coaster’ and this suggests that many people in the city are negatively affected by this scramble for physical space which induces a sense of loneliness and emptiness. The scramble induces such a sense of desperation that people are willing to settle in any nook and cranny to be a part of the great city life which promises such a wealth of opportunities. In this case even under a roller coaster which is sure to affect your nerves or your grip on reality or induce a sense of paranoia due to the regular tremors as the roller coaster passes over head. It is this sort of situation that has affected Alvy’s upbringing. Alvy’s narration continues: ‘I have a hyperactive imagination. My mind tends to jump around a little. I have some trouble between fantasy and reality. My father ran the bumper-car concession. I used to get my aggression out through those cars.’ When he says that he needed to get his aggression out through those bumper cars that represents an old fashioned symptom of urban alienation where there seems to be a desperate need to connect with others in this great sea of humanity. This individuality isolates everyone despite the overwhelming population numbers and so there is this need to connect with others. It might be expressed through aggression or pitiful expressions to evoke feelings of sympathy (begging etc). Here it is aggression. He continues, ‘I remember the staff at our public school. Y’ know we had a saying, “those who can’t do, teach and those that can’t teach, teach gym” And, of course, those who couldn’t do anything, I think, were assigned to our school.’ This is a pass at the education system in the city where the state of education is poor in public schools and as a result of the division of labour and the decreasing need higher education among the poorer groups for the possibility of earning money is right around the corner. The students therefore are socialized in such a manner that they resist formal education on some level since it is can be dogmatic at times and does not seem interesting since the main drive is money; and if you can get money an education does not necessarily make the grade. The only crucial subject matter that one must learn in city life is arithmetic, proficiency in reading and writing and technology associated with computers etc. You therefore learn the basics and get a move on. This is why Alvy ridicules the intellectuals which we shall see later on. He continues: ‘I must say, I always thought my schoolmates were idiots. Melvyn Greenglass and his fat little face. And Henrietta Farrell, Miss perfect all the time. And Ivan Ackerman, always the wrong answer. Always! “Seven and three is nine”. In 1942 I had already discovered women (young Alvy kisses one of his female classmates)’ the fact that he discovered women suggests a condescending view of people for he suggests here that he has leapt beyond everyone hence why he calls them idiots stuck in the system. After the girl complains that Alvy kisses her we see an older Alvy in the class room defending himself against the accusatory teacher from an adult perspective. This is the deconstruction method here as we journey with Alvy through his mind. After the teacher calls young Alvy (saying What’d I do?) up to the front of the class the adult version steps in and says, after the teacher says he should be ashamed of himself, ‘Why? I was just expressing a healthy sexual curiosity.’ ‘Six year old boys don’t have girls on their minds.’ ‘I did.’ The girl intervenes speaking from a mature perspective and we must bear in mind that this all takes place in Alvy’s mind. ‘For god sakes Alvy, ‘she says, ‘even Freud speaks of a latency period.’ ‘Well I never had a latency period. I can’t help it.’ The fact that he did not have a latency period is a feature of urban alienation where the urge to lash out is ever present (in this case aggression) i.e. strike out on your own. Freud must have been speaking from a middle class perspective where the parents involve the child in a range of activities which is supposed to make it grow gradually. Freud was not at all practical in this scenario. The conversation switches to the fate of Alvy’s classmates after the teacher says that he should have been more like the model student Donald. Donald is asked where he is today and he says, ‘ I run a profitable dress company.’ Alvy says ‘Sometimes I wonder where my classmates are today.’ The students respond accordingly ‘I’m President of Pinkus Plumbing Company.’’ I sell talliths’ ‘I used to be a heroin addict now I’m a methadone addict.’ ‘I’m into leather.’ Alvy continues ‘I lost track of my old school mates but I wound up a comedian.’ It is clear though that Alvy assumed that most of the students ended up in some form of business or in some form of drug addiction which is tied into business based on consumption. It is that urge to be successful regardless how strange it may sound that is at the centre of city life. As his mother says ‘ You always saw the worst in people you never could get along in school. You were always out of step with the world. Even when you got famous you still distrusted the world.’ This is a reference to Alvy’s misanthropic tendencies. Alvy has therefore become paranoid and this is a feature associated with urban alienation since your individualist tendencies drives you to disregard others.
There are other examples of the deconstruction method that take place in Alvy’s mind although not directly related to his upbringing. It relates more to how people interact in New York. When he takes Annie to see The Sorrow and the Pity (again), a documentary about the holocaust, he has to tolerate a critic spewing his views about Federico Fellini, an Italian director who is one of Allen’s influences, Samuel Beckett and Marshall Mcluhan. The critic is speaking of his dissatisfaction with the works of these three directors which he feels are too indulgent or ‘it lacks a cohesive structure’ or ‘it doesn’t hit me on a gut level.’ He also speaks of the influence of television. Alvy speaks directly to the viewer saying ‘what do you do when you get stuck in a movie line with a guy like this?’The man comes forward to debate Alvy ‘Wait. Why can’t I give my own opinion? It’s a free country.’ ‘Do you have to give it so loud? ‘Aren’t you ashamed to pontificate like that? The funny part of it is you don’t know anything about Marshall Mcluhan.’ The man says he qualifies to speak on Mcluhan because he teaches a class at Colombia university called ‘TV , Media and Culture’. Woody Allen draws for Mcluhan who says ‘I heard what you were saying. You know nothing of my work. You mean my whole fallacy is wrong. How you ever got to teach a course in anything is totally amazing!’ Alvy says ‘Boy if life were only like this.’ This exchange highlights that we are still in Alvy’s mind. Allen uses episodes like this to constantly remind the viewer that it is in Alvy’s mind that the action takes place. The critic spews his views regardless of anyone because it is a free country. The individualist mentality of urban life makes it clear that you do things your way for no one has the right to interfere with you unless you are in a fraternity. This is why Alvy would be unable to argue with him in real time for the understanding is that it is a free country and you are free to say what you wish regardless of others. He would have to stomach it. In real time Alvy probably did not say anything but had ideas of how he would shut him up by simply calling on Mcluhan himself to defend his own work. ‘If life were only like this.’
The last element is when Alvy along with his best friend Rob and Annie go to visit the old neighbourhood in Brooklyn. When they do arrive here is what Rob says, after seeing that Alvy’s old house under the rollercoaster has been preserved, ‘You’re lucky Max. Where I used to live is now a pornographic equipment store.’ This suggests the commercial aspects of city life and that you are lucky if you’re able to preserve your personal history as the capitalists continue to seek new avenues of investment. This increases the feeling of alienation amongst individuals. Alvy tries to be cheerful about his memories although it is clear that his mother and father fought all the time over trivial matters such as a black maid who stole. He also recollects the coming home party for his cousin Herbie. It reveals how annoyed Alvy is with his family especially his Uncle Joey Nichols who always used to give Alvy new ways to remember his name such as actual nickels. This need to stand out even within the family is a striking aspect of city life. The fact that Alvy’s life can be so maligned by his upbringing and his dissatisfaction with his family supports the concept of urban alienation. This urge to be far removed from them is a clear sign of his alienation for no matter how comic the memories may seem it belies the melancholy beneath the surface.
‘Old Times’: The relationship between Alvy singer and Annie Hall and the sense of unity and
dichotomy
Here I will focus on the relationship between Alvy and Annie and why the two are irreconcilable. This is established by the sense of dichotomy that pervades the film. This sense of dichotomy reinforces why these two characters are incompatible yet important to one another hence the concept of unity. The only way to establish is this is to assess one of the important elements of urban alienation: the urge to stand out. When Alvy first meets Annie she is a relatively obscure nightclub singer and he actually provides her with a suitable platform where she can branch out and be recognized by the head of a record label. It is when she decides to pursue a career in California that the relationship disintegrates (I will discuss this further in the final section). The character of Annie is full of life and is therefore imbued with a libertine type of personality. She is a pretty casual individual and this is manifest in her style of dress and her resistance to Alvy’s depressing lifestyle. His lifestyle however gave her flighty thoughts a sense of structure. Alvy’s negative outlook acts as a form of restraint to Annie and this is necessary when she lacks confidence in her abilities. In order to determine how unique the relationship between these two is one must contrast them with the other relationships featured in the film. This is necessary to establish why Annie is such a distinct character in Alvy’s life and why he is also a necessary element in her life. The personalities of the two are irreconcilable however and this is brought to the fore in the techniques used in the film to evoke this sense of separation. It seems that it is inevitable that the relationship will end although there are elements that bring them together
Firstly let us look at Alvy’s relationships prior to his meeting with Annie. He does go on a date with another woman while he and Annie are briefly separated. Firstly, Alvy marries Allison Portchnik a grad student doing a Phd. Alvy is one of the comedian acts at a political rally and he greets Allison with his usual paranoid, nervous approach for she is responsible for making sure that all the presenters follow the timetable. He does not want to go on right after the act in progress which is stand up comedy like himself and tries to win her over to his line of reasoning. He asks her name and what she is doing, which is a thesis entitled ‘Political Commitment in 20th century Literature’. Here is what Alvy says, ‘You’re like New York Jewish, left wing, intellectual, Central Park West, Brandeis University, socialist summer camps, and the father of the Ben Shahn drawings, really strike oriented. Stop me before I make a complete imbecile of myself.’ ‘That was wonderful,’ she responds, ‘I like being reduced to a cultural stereotype.’ ‘Right. I’m a bigot but for the left.’ She is entranced by him particularly as his description of her was close to accurate and the fact that Alvy is always on the other side of things i.e. he goes against anything that is established or is known as the set tradition that everyone must abide by. They are both similar individuals with rational inclinations for when we next see them they are married and Alvy is discussing the findings of the Warren Commission whose responsibility it was to investigate the assassination of J.F.K. Allison is trying to make love to him but Alvy makes an excuse by saying that the findings of the Warren Commission are obsessing him. He delves into a conspiracy theory: ‘But it doesn’t make any sense. He drove past the book depository and the police said conclusively that it was an exit wound. So how is it possible for Oswald to have fired from two angles at once? It doesn’t make sense. I’ll tell you this. He was not marksman enough to hit a moving target at that range. But if there was a second assassin…That’s it. They recovered the shells from the rifle.’ ‘What are you saying now that everybody on the warren commission is in on the conspiracy, right?’ ‘Why not?’ Earl Warren?’ ‘Honey I don’t know Earl Warren?’ ‘Lyndon Johnson?’ ‘Lyndon Johnson is a politician. You know the ethics those guys have. It’s a notch above child molester.’ ‘Then everyone is in on the conspiracy? The FBI and the CIA and J. Edgar Hoover, the oil companies and the pentagon, the men’s room attendant at the White House?’ ‘I would leave out the men’s room attendant.’ ‘You’re using this conspiracy theory as an excuse to avoid sex with me.’ Alvy speaks directly to the viewer (reminding us that the action takes place in his mind) ‘Oh my god! She’s right. Why did I turn off Allison Portchnik. She was beautiful. She was willing. She was real intelligent. Is it the old Groucho Marx that I don’t want to belong to any club that would have someone like for a member?’ This is exactly it especially when you look at it from the perspective of urban alienation and the urge to assert one’s individuality. It is clear that Allison was becoming too much like him and so he had to strike out and divorce her. I discussed this element in the previous section.
He next marries Robin a career oriented female who is very ambitious. This ambitious characteristic is shared by Alvy as well who had to break out on his own to be a comedian. We first meet her at a dinner party where she was invited to by her publisher amidst a host of intellectuals with chairs in Princeton and Cornel. There are also several prominent commentators. Alvy says he is uncomfortable because he wants to watch the Knicks game on television. In reality he is being surrounded by people like himself who base their lives on the criticism of others. He is a comedian with a misanthropic attitude and belittles his subjects by trivializing the activities of society. Remember the old Groucho Marx joke. He retreats to an empty room to watch the Knicks game and he is discovered by Robin. After expressing his disgust with the Knicks here is what she says as she belittles the sport of basketball, ‘Alvy what is so fascinating about a group of pituitary cases trying to stuff a ball through a hoop?’ ‘What is fascinating is that it’s physical. That’s one thing about intellectuals: They’ve proved you can be brilliant and have no idea what’s going on (similar to his conspiracy theory regarding J. F.K’s assassination). But on the other hand the body doesn’t lie as we now know.’ He tries to make love to her right there in the room (no latency period. Discussed in the previous section). ‘Stop acting out,’ she says. ‘It’ll be great,’ says Alvy, ‘because all those Ph. D’s are in there discussing modes of alienation and we’ll be in here quietly humping.’ ‘Alvy you’re using sex to express hostility.’ ‘“Why do you always reduce my animal urges to psychoanalytic categories,” (he does the same thing in the subject of his stand up routine where he reduces people to stereotypes) he said as he removed her brassier. We next see them having sex and a siren has denied robin the possibility of having an orgasm. She is upset and obviously uses sex, like Alvy, to express her hostility. She stops the act immediately. ‘Last night it was a guy honking his car horn. The city can’t close down. You want them close the airport so we can have sex?’ ‘I’m too tense. I need a valium. My analyst says I should live in the country and not in New York.’ ‘We can’t have this discussion all the time. The country makes me nervous. You’ve got crickets. It’s quiet. There’s no place to walk after dinner. There’s the screens with the dead moths behind them. You got the Manson Family possibly. You got dick and Perry. ‘She refuses to continue. The old Groucho Marx kicks in again since Robin is just as tense, paranoid and condescending towards certain elements of mankind which are not intellectual in nature. It is the same with Alvy who is a misanthrope who expresses his dislike for the country but that is what he needs as well. It is the city life that has influenced his paranoia since it is always so busy as Robin finds out when trying to have an orgasm. It denies one the possibility of being relaxed. This constant busy pace associated with money making negatively influence some individuals since you always have to be on the move to fight for your space.
Well Annie never had relationships with intellectuals. She associated with the overly emotional, artistic and casual individuals who were more relaxed than the tense intellectual type Alvy would associate with. Alvy asks Annie ‘Am I your first big romance?’ She says no and elaborates, ‘there was Dennis from Chippewa falls high schools.’ There is a cut to Alvy’s belittling interpretation of the individual where he says, ‘ Dennis right. Local kid who’d meet you in front of the movie house on Saturday night?’ ‘you should have seen what I looked like then.’ ‘I can imagine. Probably the wife of an astronaut.’ ‘Then there was Jerry the actor.’ Alvy belittles again as they traverse through his mind and re-imagines Jerry the actor. Alvy says she looks like a clown with the man ‘I look pretty.’ ‘Yeah you always do (he corrects himself). But that guy with you!’ Here is what Jerry says about acting: ‘Acting is like an exploration of the soul. It’s very religious. Like a kind of liberating consciousness. It’s like a visual poem. (‘Is he kidding with that crap?’)’ Annie responds to him in the flashback, ‘Right. I think I know exactly what you mean when you say religious.’ ‘You do?’ asks Alvy ‘Oh come on I was younger,’ says an older Annie. ‘That was last year.’ Jerry the actor continues, ‘It’s like when I think of dying. You know how I’d like to die? I’d like to get torn apart by wild animals.’ ‘Heavy! Eaten by some squirrels,’ says Alvy deridingly. The older Annie defends him by saying, ‘He’s neat looking and he was emotional. I don’t think you like emotion too much.’ Jerry intervenes and says to the young Annie ‘Touch my heart with my foot.’ (If that is not an expression of excessive emotion then what is) ‘I may throw up, says Alvy. Annie finally realizes ‘Yeah he was creepy.’ ‘You’re pretty lucky I came along.’
II
This where the two characters come together: Alvy is interested in intellectual debate whereas Annie is more in tune with emotional expression. If you rely too much on intellectual savvy to carry the relationship it will be a soulless relationship and likewise if there is too much emotion involved in a relationship then it is likely that it will be a bit loose and variable with no set standard of expression. There will be too many leaps of faith. When the two combine there is a balance however there can be conflict. The intellectual rigour of Alvy will place Annie’s life in some perspective which she would not have gotten with Jerry the actor; on the other hand the high level of emotions expressed by Annie will shed some light on the dark recesses of Alvy’s soul (Say ‘Kiss from a Rose’ by Seal). We see examples of this in the film where Annie taunts Alvy with the live lobster thereby encouraging him to loosen up or when she tells him that instead of going to the psychiatrist, which he has been going to for 15 years, he should smoke some marijuana and relax his nerves. There is also a scene where Annie and Alvy's friends encourage him to snort some coke and in Annie's mind this will make him relax. This would get him off the couch in no time. When he first meets Annie she tries to get his attention with several illogical statements which Alvy picks up on immediately. ‘If you have a car why did you say “do you have a car” like you wanted a lift?’ When he drives with Annie it is clear that she is an erratic driver who does not keep her eyes on the road etc. She loves smoking marijuana before she has sex so that it can be a transcendent experience. She also laughs at stories that sound dreadful which shows she looks on the bright side most of the time. This is evident when she tells the tale of her uncle who had narcolepsy and suddenly falls dead. In her mind that is funny; whereas for Alvy it is a serious matter. She likes to go with the feel of things and she is a singer. Singing is supposed to express emotions.
Alvy gives Annie encouragement after she does her first stint as a nightclub singer which does not go down well with noisy atmosphere; the song she sings is ‘It had to be you’. It is a sign that she does not stand out significantly for the audience to take notice. Alvy calms her after the performance where she is getting a bit hysterical and tells her that the crowd was a ‘tad restless’. He makes her know that her performance was great and that eventually the audience in the club will take notice, which they do when she performs the songs ‘Old Times’. He also tries to encourage Annie to sign up for college courses and meet interesting professors; she does this and enrolls doing courses in English Literature (most emotionally driven women take up courses in English Literature). Alvy just makes it clear ‘Don’t do any courses where they make you read Beowulf’. When he just meets her and goes through the books on her shelf and picks one saying ‘Sylvia Plath. Interesting poetess whose tragic suicide was misinterpreted as romantic by the college girl mentality.’ Alvy also tries to correct her girl like expressions when he says ‘This is 1975. “Neat” went out at the turn of the century.’ When Annie uses her famous trademark la-de dah; Alvy says, ‘If anyone had ever told me that I’d be taking out a girl who used expressions like “la-de-dah”’. ‘That’s right you really like those New York girls.’ (the ones devoid of emotion such as Robin). He also surrounds her with his philosophy of life which involves the motif of death. He says, ‘I’m going to buy you these books (books on the death motif in philosophy and literature) because I think you should read them instead of that cat book (mocking her casual interest).’ ‘That’s pretty serious stuff.’ ‘I’m obsessed I with death I think (his conspiracy theory regarding J. F. K). I have a very pessimistic view of life. You should know that about me if we’re going to go out. I feel that life is divided up between the horrible and miserable. The horrible would be the people like terminal cases and blind people, cripples. I don’t know how they get through life. The miserable is everyone else. So when you look at life you should be thankful you’re miserable.’ He also drags her to The Sorrow and the Pity countless times to make her feel guilty.The film speaks about the holocaust during World War 2. This from the man who says he is not a depressive character.Anytime Annie is upset Alvy say's she must be seeing her period. In a clever animated scene he says the same thing to Evil queen from the animated film Snow White and the Dwarves who he dates after he and Annie briefly separate.
A sense of unity appears between the two characters when emotions are evoked. Alvy is a comedian and so he is able to make her laugh and this element is quite important for a character such as Annie who is quite emotional. There is the scene where he comes over at 3 in the morning to kill a spider in her bathtub. They were briefly separated at this point however Annie's vulnerability evokes tender feelings within Alvy and they agree to give the relationship a second chance. We see this when the two are in the park and Alvy discuss the various characters that pass by their bench such as the Italian mafia representative, residents from Miami south beach, a male homosexual couple and a Truman Capote look alike. These are tender moments full of laughter. When they are on Brooklyn Bridge when he makes the joke: ‘You’re exceptional in bed because you get pleasure in every part of your body when I touch it. Like the tip of your nose, and if I stroke your teeth or your knee caps you certainly get excited.’ This implies that she is very sensitive and every touch on reserved areas gets her excited. This is the first time where she admits that she really likes him and he asks if she loves him. She might think it is too soon for that but Alvy so desperately wants to unite with her. She admits under a slight bit of pressure and she asks in turn if he loves her as well. ‘Love is too weak a word for what …,’ says Alvy, ‘I “lurve” you. I “loave” you, I “luff” you, with two “f”s.’ He must ‘luff’ her because her relaxed and sensitive nature contrasts with the tense women he has met before. There is also the element where Annie tries at first to conform to Alvy’s lifestyle as she probably sees it as a means to expand her horizon. When they first meet they have sex constantly until they eventually slow down and it is then alvy starts to complain because no one ever did at that kind of rate with him before. Eventually when she has reached her limit with Alvy she has to move on and expand her (emotional) horizons.
The sense of dichotomy occurs when the two modes of life are irreconcilable i.e. one tries to correct the other. We see this for the first time when the two just meet and they have an insightful conversation at Annie’s apartment on the balcony (It is very clever use of dialogue by Woody Allen). We see that the personalities are quiet distinct. They are discussing the photographs taken by Annie which are hanging on her wall. I will show what they said and contrast them with what they thought of each response in parenthesis. ‘So did you do those photographs in there?’ asks Alvy. ‘Yeah, I sort of dabble around, you know.’ (‘I dabble? Listen to me. What a jerk.’); ‘They’re wonderful. They have a quality.’ (‘You’re a great looking girl’); ‘Well I would like to take a serious photography course.’ (‘He probably thinks I’m a yo-yo’); ‘Photography’s interesting because it’s a new art form. A set of aesthetic criteria have not emerged yet.’ (‘I wonder what she looks like naked’); ‘A set of criteria. You mean whether it’s a good photo or not?’ (‘I’m not smart enough for him, Hang in there.’); ‘The medium enters in as a condition of the art form itself. (‘I don’t know what I’m saying. She senses I’m shallow.’); ‘Well to me-I mean- it’s all instinctive. I just try to feel it, to get a sense of it and not think about it so much.’ (‘God. I hope he does not turn out to be a schmuck like the others (like jerry the actor)); ‘Still you need a set of aesthetic guidelines to put it in social perspective.’ (‘Christ I sound like F.M radio. Relax.’). The conversation ends here. This dichotomy shows the divide between the two despite the fact that each counters and therefore balances the views of the other. The second instance is the idea of making love where Annie must be stimulated by marijuana before she engages and this affects Alvy. The sense of dichotomy as it relates to this particular issue arises when they are out in the Hamptons. Alvy is in the mood to have sex (or make love) however Annie is not and so she has to get high by smoking marijuana. Alvy dissuades her from taking the marijuana and then proceeds to initiate the lovemaking process however he senses that she is going through the motions and seems distant. We see the essence of Annie arise from her body and take a seat and then ask Alvy for the clipboard to do continue drawing. ‘See that is what I call removed.’ ‘Oh you have my body.’ ‘But I want the whole thing!’ ‘Well I need grass.’ ‘It ruins it for me if you have grass. I’m like a comedian, so if I get a laugh from a person who’s high it doesn’t count ‘cause they’re always laughing.’ The rational side of Alvy cannot seem to understand artificial stimulation for when he and Annie separate for the first time because he constantly follows her around he wanders and ask strangers about the nature of relationships. ‘Is it something I did?’ ‘It’s not something you do. That‘s how people are. Love fades,’ says the old lady. Alvy continues to the next person: ‘With your wife, in bed, does she need some kind of artificial stimulation like marijuana?’ ‘We use a large vibrating egg.’ He encounters a couple ‘You seem like a very happy couple. So how do you account for it?’ The lady responds, ‘I’m very shallow and empty and have no ideas and nothing interesting to say.’ ‘I’m exactly the same way,’ says the man. This basically means that they do not have a distinct way of living. Annie needs artificial stimulation because she simply cannot keep up with Alvy who uses sex to express his emotions. Another instance of dichotomy occurs when Alvy resists having Annie give up her apartment for him. ‘You don’t want it to be like we’re married.’ ‘You don’t think I’m smart enough to be serious about,’ says Annie. ‘Don’t be ridiculous.’ ‘Then why are you always pushing me to take college courses like I was dumb or something?’ He is pushing her because he is trying to win her over to his side but he cannot understand that Annie cannot be changed for she is a particular type of emotional character.
There are other instances of dichotomy emphasized by Allen with the use of split screens. We see this when Alvy goes to visit Annie’s family in the country. Alvy tries to contrast the calm personalities of her family at the dinner table with the intense, flippant conversations at his own family’s dinner table. The contrast with families represents the contrast between country and city. City life is very intense whereas country life is more serene. In city life Alvy’s family were never at peace because of the constant need for money whereas Annie’s family is more serene having earned enough money and therefore withdrawing to enjoy the comforts or they simply live off the land like most country folk. Annie country background would also explain why Annie represents such a break for Alvy especially as she is not bound by city life and arrives in New York with the carefree attitude of the country with its more relaxed atmosphere. She is emotional and artistic for country life is not regulated by industry and finance which requires some measure of logic when reasoning with someone. Lastly the psychiatric sessions that Alvy encourages Annie to attend reveals that she feels trapped by him. With her sort of emotional consciousness that requires freedom or continual expansion even if by artificial means such as drugs. Her emotional state does not take well to being trapped. The most important dichotomy occurs between New York and Los Angeles, California. Alvy prefers New York whereas Annie is lured to the prospects in Los Angeles especially as she is offered a recording contract by producer Tony Lacy. I will now speak of this dichotomy in detail for it is the cause for the end of the relationship. The other elements do not necessarily mean that the relationship has to end however when another physical space is involved all of these elements now come to the fore and the separation becomes imminent.
New York vs. California or Conservative vs. Liberal or Death vs. Life
The issues discussed above are not enough to end a relationship for some couples still persist with the relationship despite the differences as is shown in this film however when different physical spaces are involved it is likely that the relationship will dissolve. In Annie Hall these physical spaces are two different cities: Los Angeles, California and New York City. The two cities are representative of a way of life for the two main protagonists in the film. Alvy as a conservative prefers the hustle and bustle of New York City. It is a city getting as old as he and so he has grown accustomed to its habits. Whereas in Los Angeles, California with its open spaces and new opportunities for artistic expression appeals more to Annie. It is also convenient that the two are far apart. Alvy eventually loses Annie for their two different ways of living come to the fore with the New York California situation. It is similar to the theatre in New York and Hollywood in California. I discussed this in my review of All About EVE (1950) where Hollywood represents new opportunities and a greater chance at stardom where New York is home to the old theatre traditions that take place on stage. Hollywood represents new investments in technology that is responsible for the production of movies or moving images. The debate about New York vs. California takes place prior to Alvy meeting Annie. He and his best friend Rob are discussing New York and the argument goes as follows: Alvy says with his usual paranoia that has a grain of truth, ‘The failure of the country to get behind New York City is anti-Semitism.’ ‘Max,’ Rob exclaims, 'The city is terribly run.’ ‘I’m not talking about politics and economics. This is foreskin.’ ‘That’s a convenient way out. When some group disagrees with you, it’s anti Semitism.’ ‘Don’t you see the rest of the country looks upon New York like we’re left wing, communist, Jewish, homosexual pornographers. I think of it that way sometimes and I live here.’ ‘Max, if we lived in California, we could play outdoors everyday in the sun.’ ‘Sun is bad for you. Everything our parents said was good is bad: Sun, milk, red meat, college.’ We next here of the New York/California debate when Annie is approached by music producer Tony Lacy (Paul Simon). He invites her to come out to California to see if she likes it.
Firstly let me say something about Annie and her rise to the top. In New York City she is an obscure nightclub singer. Her first attempt ‘It Had to be you ’ is a near disaster because of the crowd that does not pay attention to her. She continues as a result of Alvy’s insistence and we see that she has grown accustomed to the atmosphere and now has the crowd’s attention when she performs ‘Old Times’. We see that she has finally managed to stand out amongst the hustle and bustle and so command the attention of New York’s denizens but it seems that her growth stagnates in New York because the opportunities for her to showcase her talent on a wider scale seem limited in the city. This all conforms with life in New York where the place has become so crowded that there are probably thousands of females engaged in the same activity. The arts become second nature in New York where it is more of a sideshow rather than a primary interest of the populace. This does not seem to be the case in California where the arts seem to be at the forefront albeit commercialized. When Annie and Alvy do go out to California Rob, who moved out there earlier seems to have made it good as an actor. It is the first time that Alvy sees fake laughs generated on a prompter for television when Rob shows him about. Alvy says to Rob, ‘You’re an actor. You should be doing Shakespeare in the Park.’ ‘I did Shakespeare in the Park And I got mugged. I was playing Richard II. Two guys with leather jackets stole my leotards.’ After he says this he puts on a special type of shades to keep out the alpha rays ‘It’s so you don’t get old.’ This is what California is supposed to represent: perpetual youth/forever young. Allen portrays the individuals in L.A as extremely shallow with no intellectual substance in keeping with the artistic tradition (Annie’s crowd). At Tony Lacey’s party we get his views on New York where he says after convincing them of the wide open space and the luxurious mansion where Annie could cut her album in 6 weeks. After the banter he says 'So you’re still New Yorkers uh?’ ‘Yeah I love it there,’ says Alvy. ‘I used to live there for years but it’s so dirty now.’ ‘I’m into garbage. It’s my thing.’ ‘This is a nice screening room,’ says Annie. ‘That’s another thing about New York,’ says Tony, ‘If you want to see a movie you have to stand on line. It could be freezing it could be raining. And here …’ He does not finish but he means that in California there is such open space you can have your own custom made cinema. This wins Annie over and Alvy misses that she has developed an attraction for Tony when she asks him ‘Do you think his girlfriend is pretty?’ which shows that she is partly jealous.
On the flight back from California they both agree that their relationship is a dead shark and agree to be friends. Listen to how Annie gives a sigh of relief when Alvy takes back his books about death and she keeps her books on poetry; for her a burden has been lifted. Annie now goes to California and leaves Alvy behind in New York. He knows now that he truly loves her for in this case the old Groucho Marx joke does not apply. Annie is distinct from him and he was unable to win her over with his lifestyle and so she was able to always assert her distinct identity. She never became like him. He goes back to L.A. even renting a car and driving (an activity he avoids because he has such pent up hostility associated with his upbringing in Brooklyn ) and meets Annie at a restaurant. He asks her to marry him but she stubbornly refuses saying that she wishes to remain friends. After he asks her if she doesn’t want to go back with him to New York here is what she says ‘what’s so great about New York? It’s a dying city. You read Death in Venice… You’re incapable of enjoying life. You’re like New York City. You’re just this person. You’re like this island unto yourself. He has now lost her for good although she does acknowledge that he was the one responsible for getting her out of her room and instilling the confidence she needed to sing. He goes to jail after their meeting by failing to respond to the queries of a police officer and tearing his license the officer’s presence after creating havoc with his car in a another bumper car scenario from his child hood. He is eventually freed by Rob and that is where they have the conversation about Shakespeare in the park.
Alvy tries to reenact his final meeting with Annie in his first play and here is what he says after it is clear he made the end more positive than it really was. In his play the character modeled off Annie accepts to go back with the character modeled off Alvy, to New York. Here is what he says after the skit: ‘What do you want? It was my first play. You know how you’re always trying to get things to come out perfect in art because it’s real difficult in life. Interestingly however, I did run into Annie again. It was on the upper West side of Manhattan. She had moved back to New York and was living in Soho with some guy. When I met her she was dragging him in to see The Sorrow and the Pity which I counted as a personal triumph. Annie and I we had lunch sometime after that and just kicked around old times (reference to the song sung by Annie playing in the background “Old Times’)’ There is a cut and we are reminded of the good times that Alvy and Annie had. ‘After that, it got pretty late and we both had to go. But it was great seeing Annie again. I realize what a terrific person she was and how much fun it was just knowing her (because she is full of life). And I thought of that old joke. This guy goes to see a psychiatrist and says “Doc, my brother’s crazy. He thinks he’s a chicken.” The doctor says “Why don’t you turn him in?” The guy says “I would, but I need the eggs.” Well, I guess that’s now how I feel about relationships. They’re totally irrational, crazy and absurd. But I guess we keep going through it because we need the eggs.’
The final scene is masterful because while he is speaking about relationships being absurd we can contrast his views with Annie’s evocative song ‘Old times’ being played in the background. This suggests that the irrational side is the emotional outlet offered by the relationship which we continually need to express as human beings. Also while he recalls his final meeting with Annie we see them departing through a window, as would a casual viewer, which suggests how impersonal a relationship can become (hence urban alienation) after it is all over. It is all over when that person can no longer allow you to express your emotions in an endearing way. New York needs characters like Annie to breath some life into it once in awhile.
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