Short Take: Annie Hall

With Annie Hall, writer-director Woody Allen moved away from the fanciful, parodistic mode of his earlier films. He embraced a far more naturalistic approach, with the humor becoming richer, and the material taking on a far greater gravitas. But as strong as the best of his subsequent work was, it was all in the shadow of this pivotal effort. It is probably best described as a comic romance. A New York stand-up comedian (played by Allen) reflects on his life. He touches on his childhood, his Jewish upbringing, and his two failed marriages. But what preoccupies him the most is his up-and-down relationship with the title character (Diane Keaton), an aspiring singer from the Midwest. The story of their affair is a lovely showcase for some of Allen's best observational humor and incidental jokes. The mundane, even homely aspects of a romantic relationship have never been made funnier. Allen's onscreen persona, a nebbishy urban neurotic, is realized with such wit that the portrayal seems like a template for the similar characters in his other films, which can only hope to approximate it. And then there's Diane Keaton. She's charming and hilarious when the relationship begins, but she also lets one see the ditsy, self-deprecating behavior is a mask the character uses to put others at ease. There's a willful, at times cynical woman underneath. It's a rich, rounded characterization, and deservedly Keaton's signature role. The cast also includes Tony Roberts, Paul Simon, and Carol Kane. Allen cowrote the screenplay with Marshall Brickman. There's speculation, sometimes assumed as fact, that the film is a semi-autobiographical treatment of Allen and Keaton's real-life romantic relationship in the early 1970s. Allen denies this, and the known facts of the two's lives bear him out.