Annie Hall is the both acclaimed and criticized film
that beat out Star
Wars for the 1977 Best Picture Oscar. It is based on part of Woody Allen’s
own life. They say it’s best if you write about what you know about, and
apparently it’s true, because Annie Hall is Allen’s best film. Neurotic (What,
Woody Allen? Neurotic?) Allen’s character in the film is named Alvy Singer, and
his love affair with Hall/Keaton is chronicled as an episodic, witty comedy
commenting on family, communication, love, loneliness, driving, city life,
careers, etc.!
Jeff Goldblum appears in a very brief role as
he delivers his one lone over the phone while talking to his guru: “I forgot my
mantra.” Christopher Walken appears as in a slightly larger role as the
disturbed Duane Hall, who attempts to describe his feelings about driving to
Alvy:
“Sometimes when I'm driving...on the road at night... I see two
headlights coming toward me. Fast. I have this sudden impulse to turn the wheel
quickly, head-on into the oncoming car. I can anticipate the explosion. The
sound of shattering glass. The...flames rising out of the flowing gasoline.”
Walken won Best Supporting Actor the following year for his
portrayal of Nick in The Deer Hunter.
Related Links:
Quotes from Annie Hall:
Alvy Singer: 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
us that way sometimes and I live here.
Alvy: My grammy never gave gifts. She was too busy getting raped by
Cossacks.
In California.
Annie: It's so clean out here!
Alvy: That's because they don't throw their garbage away, they turn it
into television shows.
Annie Hall: So you wanna go into the movie or what?
Alvy Singer: No, I can't go into a movie that's already started,
because I'm anal.
Annie Hall: That's a polite word for what you are.
Duane: Can I confess something? I tell you this as an artist; I think
you'll understand. Sometimes when I'm driving... on the road at night... I see
two headlights coming toward me. Fast. I have this sudden impulse to turn the
wheel quickly, head-on into the oncoming car. I can anticipate the explosion.
The sound of shattering glass. The... flames rising out of the flowing
gasoline.
Alvy: Right. Well, I have to--I have to go now, Duane, because I, I'm
due back on the planet Earth.
On the phone with his guru.
Party guest: I forgot my mantra.
Alvy: What's with all these awards? They're always giving out awards!
Best Fascist Dictator: Adolf Hitler!
Alvy addresses a pair of strangers on the street.
Alvy Singer: Here, you look like a very happy couple, um, are you?
Stranger: Yeah.
Alvy Singer: Yeah? So, so, how do you account for it?
Stranger: Uh, I'm very shallow and empty and I have no ideas and nothing
interesting to say.
Stranger: And I'm exactly the same way.
Alvy Singer: I see! Wow! That's very interesting. So you've managed to
work out something?
Alvy: There's an old joke. Uh, two elderly women are at a Catskills
mountain resort, and one of 'em says, "Boy, the food at this place is
really terrible." The other one says, "Yeah, I know, and such small
portions." Well, that's essentially how I feel about life. Full of
loneliness and misery and suffering and unhappiness, and it's all over much too
quickly.
Alvy Singer: I don't want to move to a city where the only cultural
advantage is being able to make a right turn on a red light.
After Annie parks the car.
Alvy Singer: Don't worry. We can walk to the curb from here.
Annie Hall: Sometimes I ask myself how I'd stand up under torture.
Alvy Singer: You? You kiddin'? If the Gestapo would take away your Bloomingdale's charge card, you'd tell 'em everything.
Alvy Singer: Annie, there's a big lobster behind the refrigerator. I
can't get it out. This thing's heavy. Maybe if I put a little dish of butter
sauce here with a nutcracker, it will run out the other side.
Annie Hall: Oh, you see an analyst?
Alvy Singer: Yeah, just for fifteen years.
Annie Hall: Fifteen years?
Alvy Singer: Yeah, I'm gonna give him one more year, and then I'm goin'
to Lourdes.
Alvy Singer: Hey, don't knock masturbation! It's sex with someone I
love.
Alvy Singer: A relationship, I think, is like a shark. You know? It has
to constantly move forward or it dies. And I think what we got on our hands is
a dead shark.
Trivia about Annie
Hall:
Cast
overview, first billed only:
Woody Allen .... Alvy Singer
Diane Keaton .... Annie Hall
Tony Roberts
.... Rob
Carol Kane .... Allison
Paul Simon
.... Tony Lacey
Shelley Duvall ....
Pam
Janet Margolin ....
Robin
Colleen Dewhurst ....
Mom
Hall
Christopher Walken ....
Duane
Hall
Donald Symington ....
Dad
Hall
Helen Ludlam .... Grammy Hall
Mordecai Lawner ....
Alvy's
Dad
Joan Newman .... Alvy's Mom
Jonathan Munk .... Alvy at 9
Ruth Volner .... Alvy's Aunt
