Daily Dialogue — July 30, 2012

ALVY: (pointing toward the apartment after a short pause) So, did you do shoot the photographs in there or what?

ANNIE: (Nodding, her hand on her hip) Yeah, yeah, I sorta dabble around, you know.

Annie’s thoughts pop on the screen as she talks: I dabble? Listen to me-what a jerk!

ALVY: They’re… they’re… they’re wonderful, you know. They have… they have, uh… a… a quality.

As do Alvy’s: You are a great-looking girl.

ANNIE: Well, I-I-I would-I would like to take a serious photography course soon.

Again, Annie’s thoughts pop on: He probably thinks I’m a yo-yo.
 
ALVY: Photography’s interesting, ’cause, you know, it’s-it’s a new art form, and a, uh, a set of aesthetic criteria have not emerged yet.

And Alvy’s: I wonder what she looks like naked?

ANNIE: Aesthetic criteria? You mean, whether it’s, uh, good photo or not?

I’m not smart enough for him. Hang in there.

ALVY: The-the medium enters in as a condition of the art form itself. That’s-

I don’t know what I’m saying-she senses I’m shallow.

ANNIE: Well, well, I… to me-I… I mean, it’s-it’s-it’s all instinctive, you know. I mean, I just try to uh, feel it, you know? I try to get a sense of it and not think about it so much.

God, I hope he doesn’t turn out to be a shmuck like the others.

ALVY: Still, still we- You need a set of aesthetic guidelines to put it in social perspective, I think.

Christ, I sound like FM radio. Relax.

— Alvy (Woody Allen), Annie (Diane Keaton), Annie Hall (1977), written by Woody Allen and Marshall Brickman

The Daily Dialogue theme for the week is subtext suggested by lizswan. Today’s suggestion by Vic Tional.

Trivia: Woody Allen originally envisioned this movie as a murder mystery, with a subplot about a romance. During script revisions, Allen decided to drop the murder plot, which he and Marshall Brickman later revitalized in Manhattan Murder Mystery.

Dialogue On Dialogue: When I introduce the subject of subtext to my college students, I always lead with this. 

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