Chosen by Tom & JeaniThe film
This month, a Woody Allen 1977 classic. Iconic images (that hat! that waistcoat! that smile!) wrapped around with Woody Allen's one-liners. The film follows Alvy Singer's on-off and ultimately doomed relationship with Annie Hall.
The response
The iconic nature of the film really got us talking. When and where we'd first watched it. How New York is used as a character (forerunner of 'Manhattan') but also how run-down the city was in the 1970s - nothing like its glittering image today. How Annie was, to some of us, wonderful and strong; to others irritatingly fey. Some of us found the introspection too much, but 'isn't that what we all do - spend all our time thinking about ourselves?' The family scenes (argumentative meals, framed by the shaking of the rollercoaster) seemed particularly resonant and funny.
Of course, the film is by and about Woody Allen. B was unimpressed - he pretty much dismissed the film as no more than a re-run of the stand-up comedian's routines. J thought the director is a genius at illustrating and exploring what really happens in relationships. N admitted he couldn't stand Woody Allen, but confessed to having once sat through an all-nighter of Woody Allen films at the old Leeds Playhouse ...
