Great Characters: Annie Hall (“Annie Hall”)
In honor of Valentine’s Day, how about a great movie character from a great romantic comedy: Annie Hall from the movie of the same name:
The 1977 movie is written and directed by Woody Allen, and won 4 Academy Awards including Best Writing, Screenplay Written Directly for the Screen. Here is an IMDB plot summary:
Romantic adventures of neurotic New York comedian Alvy Singer and his equally neurotic girlfriend Annie Hall. The film traces the course of their relationship from their first meeting, and serves as an interesting historical document about love in the 1970s.
The movie features Allen’s wit throughout and has an interesting approach to the narrative using flashbacks, flash forwards, breaking the fourth wall, even at one point animation. But at the center of it is this charming, ditzy Attractor character Annie who has a persona all her own. Remember this story she tells when Alvy (Woody Allen) visits her apartment for the first time:
ANNIE
(Pointing)
Yeah, right, Duane-and over there is
Grammy Hall, and that’s Sadie.
ALVY
Well, who’s Sadie?
ANNIE
Sadie? Oh, well, Sadie…
(Laughing)
Sadie met Grammy through, uh, through
Grammy’s brother George. Uh, George
was real sweet, you know, he had
that thing. What is that thing where
you, uh, where you, uh, fall asleep
in the middle of a sentence, you
know-what is it? Uh…
ALVY
Uh, narcolepsy.
ANNIE
Narcolepsy, right, right. Right.
So, anyway, so…
(Laughing)
George, uh, went to the union, see,
to get his free turkey, be-because,
uh, the union always gave George
this big turkey at Christmas time
because he was…
(Annie points her
fingers to each side
of her head,
indicating George
was a little crazy)
shell-shocked, you know what I mean,
in the First World War.
(Laughing hysterically,
she opens a cabinet
door and takes out a
bottle of wine)
Anyway, so, so…
(Laughing through the
speech)
George is standing in line, oh, just
a sec… uh, getting his free turkey,
but the thing is, he falls asleep
and he never wakes up. So, so…
(Laughing)
so, he’s dead …
(Laughing)
he’s dead. Yeah. Oh, dear. Well,
terrible, huh, wouldn’t you say? I
mean, that’s pretty unfortunate.
I just saw Annie Hall over the holidays with my oldest son — I’m indoctrinating him with must-see movies — and the film holds up really well after all these years.
To Annie Hall! A great movie character. Impossible to think of anyone other than Diane Keaton inhabiting that role.
What thoughts do you have about Annie Hall? Where does it rank in your list of favorite films?