Annie Hall, great comedy

How to write about one of the most influential filmmakers in history, Woody Allen, and about the film that is considered to be his turning point, it is hard to know where to begin.

Annie Hall is the film where Woody Allen made the turning point from comedian to incredible filmmaker. His experimental style of comedy is just truly brilliant and very poignant. It is truly no the usual style that we are used to seeing, he uses peculiar strategic style choices that include, text on screen, animation, and split screen, to show the neurotic and innermost thoughts of the main characters, to create this amazing romantic comedy.

His style of comedy works perfectly because is so different, for example when he uses the split screen to show the contrast between characters and situations, when he first uses it, we see Alvy having dinner with the Halls in a well lit, and decorated scene, everyone is sitting evenly spaced and everyone is at ease of course except for Alvy. In the contrast screen, we see Alvy’s family having dinner, the family is all crammed together, and it’s a low-lit, crowded frame. The respective mothers begin to talk to one another through the split screen discussing the differences in their homes. This is absolutely brilliant, because we get to see two different sides of why the main characters are who they are; it’s a different way to give us a background story of sorts by taking a look at these two families simultaneously. Also when they are both in therapy and we get to see them discussing their problems with their respective shrinks. They talk about very similar things, but their points off view are completely different. Also the scenes themselves are contrasting, her side is lit, while his is stark and feel crowded, also when the shrinks ask about their sexual lives, Alvy says that they hardly have sex only three times a week, while Annie answers with “constantly” with the same number of times, this shows how different they are, and it is a way of smart banter. We get to enjoy this style of comedy because it does not need to be dumbed down for it to be funny. He utilized perfect timing to deliver the dialog, and this would have not been possible without the split-screen, the characters interacting in this particular scene is like a perfect choreography of expertly timed banter with one another.

Woody Allen is undoubtedly an iconic filmmaker, his films have touched me deeply, movies such as Annie Hall, Blue Jasmine, and my particular favorite Midnight in Paris. His movies are interesting and certainly beautiful, they are creative and incredibly interesting, it is impossible to dislike his movies and his style.