Annie Hall

The great thing about a Woody Allen movie is that it probes deep into life and yet it manages to remain light and easy with marvellous humour. "Annie Hall" (1977) is often considered Allen's best film, it excels in everything we love a Woody Allen movie for, from its vivid depiction of a relationship to its neurotic as well as romantic humour. Maybe Allen is the director to whom we can say that humour is romance with him, because it manages to mix the two together so that they strengthen rather than extinguish each other. Annie Hall is a stream-of-consciousness tale of a relationship, and how life is formed from these temporary building blocks that yet have such long term effects on the final construction. We jump from one memory to another, often the scenes are just connected by one minor detail that may often play a completely different role in the different contexts of subsequent scenes. Characters enter the thoughts and memories of their own and other characters, stay there and observe, and guide the viewers of the movie in the cavalcade of their personal world. All in all, we end up observing the lifespan of a relationship from different points of view, often breaking the fours wall while characters address viewers inviting them to join in. In many ways, Allen's work is Avant garde, as he extends reality to express himself, and does so in a very smooth and continuous manner. An example is a much quoted scene from the movie below; if I had to give a title to it, that would be "If life were only like this"...