Annie Hall

Annie Hall (1977) is now treated as the film that set the template for romantic comedy, and during production it was something else entirely. It was first called Anhedonia, a psychiatric term for the inability to take pleasure in anything. And it was not a romantic comedy but a murder mystery, running over three hours and including a trip to Hell. The change happened in the edit. Editor Ralph Rosenblum removed the murder plot completely and brought the relationship between Alvy and Annie forward. What emerged was a rearrangement of what was left. The studio also forced the title change, because nobody understood Anhedonia. The name Annie Hall is not accidental either: Hall is Diane Keaton's real surname. What lasted is the formal daring. Alvy turns to the camera and talks to the audience, walks into his own childhood as an adult, and in one scene subtitles tell you what two characters are actually thinking while they speak. At one point it becomes animation. In a mainstream comedy in 1977 none of that was usual. It won Best Picture against Star Wars. Woody Allen did not attend; he was in New York playing clarinet, as he did every week. It runs 93 minutes. Good for: classic comedy, relationship films, and the seventies. Less good for: because of the allegations against Allen many viewers no longer watch his films; decide with that in mind. The dialogue is dense and the New York references are specific.