11/24/10 Week Nine Agenda Discuss Annie Hall Collect Homework Assign Final Writing Prompt Clips from other 1970s films A Clockwork Orange Taxi Driver Godfather I & II ANNIE HALL Two 10 minute Breaks (at ~5:30 & ~6:30) and other classics of the 1970s 1965 through 1985 Early “Funnier” Comedies (‘65-75) Increasing Seriousness (1977-85) What’s New, Pussycat Annie Hall What’s Up, Tiger Lily Interiors Take the Money & Run Manhattan Bananas Stardust Memories Everything You Always Midsummer Night’s Sex Wanted to Know about Sex But … Afraid to Ask Comedy Through the Years Zelig Sleeper Purple Rose of Cairo Woody Allen’s Career: Stages & Development Love and Death 1986 through 1998 1999-present Sweet and Lowdown Cassandra’s Dream Intellectual Deepening (1980s) Mid-1990s Decline Small Time Crooks (2007) Hannah & Her Sisters Shadows and Fog Hollywood Ending Vicky Cristina Radio Days Husbands and Wives Barcelona (2008) Anything Else (2003) September Manhattan Murder Whatever Works (‘09) Melinda and Melinda Another Woman Mystery (2004) You Will Meet a Tall New York Stories Mighty Aphrodite Dark Stranger (2010) Match Point (2005) Crimes and Deconstructing Harry Midnight in Paris Misdemeaners Scoop (2006) (2011) 1 11/24/10 From New York to Europe Life-sized statue of “In the United States things have Allen in Oviedo, Spain changed a lot, and it’s hard to Annie Hall make good small films now. “A Nervous Comedy” “The avaricious studios couldn’t care less about good films – if they get a good film they’re twice as happy but money-making films are their goal. They only want these $100 million pictures that make $500 million.” -- Allen in 2004 Allen on Annie Hall Backgrounds & Contexts “I had the courage to Original Title = Anhedonia abandon … just clowning around and the safety of Inability to feel pleasure complete broad comedy. Studio couldn’t figure out how to I said to myself, ‘I think I promote the film and also define will try and make some the title deeper film and not be Re-cut as romantic comedy as funny in the same way. Title changed 3 weeks before And maybe there will be other values that will emerge, premiere that will be interesting or nourishing for the audience.’ Earlier murder mystery plot didn’t And it worked out very very well.” work and was cut -- Woody Allen on Woody Allen (1995) Autobiographical Bits Reputation Diane Keaton’s real name is Academy Awards, 1977 Diane Hall Best Picture (beating Star Wars) Her nickname was “Annie” Best Actress, Lead She and Allen dated prior Best Director to making the film Best Screenplay During a flashback scene, Nominated, Best Actor, Lead a teacher writes Dec. 1 on the blackboard. American Film Institute Allen’s birthday … he also would have been 7 at the #35 on 100 Best Movies time of that scene, like the character #4 on 100 Best Comedies 2 11/24/10 Fun Trivia Trivia, continued Sneezing into the Famous young actors in the film include: pretend-cocaine was Jeff Goldblum accidental but too Christopher Walken funny to cut Sigourney Weaver House under the rollercoaster was the Shelley Duvall Kensington Hotel in Coney Island, NY. Carol Kane Both were demolished in 2000 A joking alternate title was “Rollercoaster Named Desire” Famous People, continued Famous cultural figures include: Did You Like it? Truman Capote (uncredited) “there’s the winner of the Your Reactions … Truman Capote look-alike contest” Marshall McLuhan “You know nothing of my work! … How you got to teach a course in anything is totally amazing!” Paul Simon Dick Cavett Thematic Oppositions Themes & Meaning “Heart” “Head” Laughter Serious-ness What are the major themes of Annie Hall? Genuine-ness Pretention, Affectation Physicality/Body Intellectualism/Mind Life Death Love & Lust Resistance Consciousness Altered consciousness New York? Los Angeles? 3 11/24/10 Life and Death Two Brilliant Riffs on Death Why is this film – a Opening Monologue Night-chat with Duane comedy, a “nervous comedy” – so fascinated with death? How does death – the fear of it, the lurking presence of it – affect the characters? What, if anything, is suggested as an antidote to YouTube: www.youtube.com/ death? YouTube: www.youtube.com/ watch?v=rrxlfvI17oY watch?v=PSRm_X3BLPU Death, continued Death, continued “There's an old joke – two elderly women are at a “Can I confess something? I tell you this as an artist, I Catskill mountain resort, and one of 'em says, ‘Boy, think you'll understand. Sometimes when I'm driving the food at this place is really terrible.’ The other on the road at night … I see two headlights coming one says, ‘Yeah, I know; and such small portions.’ toward me. Fast. I have this sudden impulse to turn Well, that's essentially how I feel about life – full of the wheel quickly, head-on into the oncoming car. I loneliness and misery can anticipate the and suffering and un- explosion. The sound of happiness – and it’s all shattering glass. The over much too quickly.” flames rising out of the flowing gasoline…” Love and Sex Love and Sex, continued How does love function for the characters? “The the other important joke, for me, is one that's Is it redemptive? Does it free one from the self? usually attributed to Groucho Marx,… and it goes Or does it function differently – a confusion or like this … ‘I would never want to belong to any scattering of the self? club that would have someone like me for a member.’ Does sex operate differently from love in the film? How so? That's the key joke of my adult life, in terms Like Kane, do any of of my relationships these characters do “everything for love”? with women.” 4 11/24/10 Love and Sex, continued Love & Sex, continued Alvy's analyst: How often do you sleep together? Both as always in permanent crisis Annie's analyst: Do you have sex often? “Hold on” mentality/ Alvy (lamenting): message Hardly ever, maybe Renounce Perfectionism three times a week. Perhaps “muddling along” is really all you can Annie (complaining): do – but it’s not a failure; it’s the norm Constantly, I'd say three times a week. Subtitled balcony scene & “Love fades” scene Theme of Performance Theme of Performance Why are so many characters Different roles/faces … involved with performing? “Prepare a face to meet the faces that you’ll meet” Alvy is a stand up comedian (T.S. Eliot, “Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock”) Best friend in is TV “Success in life is being able to merge your private with your public self (Aldous Huxley) Annie becomes a musician Paul Simon’s character What is your “true” self? What relationship exists between performing and Acting naturally vs. identity? faking it Alvy Singer Did you like Woody Allen’s character? What defines him? Is he a sympathetic narrator? What makes him so? Why “Annie Hall”? Would you view him differently if the film’s point of view was not his? Or … why not “Alvy Singer”? Is he an Everyman character? Why/why not? 5 11/24/10 Alvy as Everyman? Annie Hall Chief characteristics: Did you like Diane Bumbling dweeb Keaton’s character? Sympathetic loser What defines her? Egotistical & hostile yet also self-effacing Is she sympathetic? Quintessential American What makes her so? type: loveable underdog What characteristics does Crucial that the point of view be his she share with Alvy? Not a traditional leading man – because hopelessly flawed – but very realistic Is she an Every(wo)man character? Why/why not? Annie Hall as Every(wo)man Everyman/Every(wo)man … Similar Characteristics Quotation "It would be a book accounting for the from Martin decline in the status and virtue of literary Also sympathetic loser Amis, The Information, protagonists. Awkward yet natural 1995 Self-effacing yet self-aware First gods, then demigods, then kings, then Seemingly lost but constantly great warriors, great lovers, then burghers searching and merchants and vicars and doctors and Quintessential American type: loveable underdog lawyers. Then social realism: you. Then Crucial that the point of view not be hers irony: me. Then maniacs and murderers, Her loveable quirkiness requires mystery & distance tramps, mobs, rabble, flotsam, vermin.” … continued Family "And what would account for it?” Everyone’s family is dysfunctional “They f… you up, your mom and “The history of astronomy. The history of astronomy dad” (Philip Larkin) is the history of increasing humiliation. First the House under the roller coaster geocentric universe, then the heliocentric universe. Father’s job with bumper cars Then the eccentric universe – the one we're living in. Every century we get smaller. Kant figured it all Annie’s brother (C. Walken) out, sitting in his armchair. What's the phrase? The Siblings always seem poised to principle of terrestrial mediocrity." take each other down Easter dinner scene 6 11/24/10 New York, New York Metonymic of modern world Noise, confusion, uncertainty Teeming metropolis thwarts confidence Vibrant street life plays into comic scenes “Don't you see the rest of What’s the big deal with New York? the country looks upon New York like we're left- wing, communist, Jewish, homosexual porno- graphers? I think of us that way sometimes and I live here.” New York, continued “Being Lost Together” New York eludes categorization & understanding – Whether in New York or in like the self and also like relationships relationships, we’re all lost – or Allen’s utopia and dystopia wrapped into one trying to find our way That’s okay, though, if universally