Manhattan

Manhattan

Manhattan, Woody Allen's follow-up to the Academy award-winning Annie Hall is far less well known than its predecessor, though, in the end, it's probably far more interesting. You see,in Annie Hall, we have 2 lovers, thrown together by Fate, unquestionably bad for each other...but with great chemistry and enough good in each of them for us to want see them make it.

Of course, after a couple of hours of on-screen angst we get the feeling that Annie & Woody (actually, Albie) have to break up, it's inevitable and we feel a bit sad... but also pretty happy because the world keeps turning and aren't we all just a little bit like them?

Manhattan, though, is considerably more abstract. It's Annie Hall again and again and again in a city that's blighted by the curse of emotional dissatisfaction, where "Love" is seldom memorable, mired in selfishness, a mere itch that need scratching.

And while Annie Hall seduced you into feeling some afffinity for the characters, Manhattan begs you, almost bludgeons you into feeling distant from them. Not everyone of course, but in the end, the 3 good guys don't really do that well:

• Woody's hurt wife who turns lesbian and writes a tell-all expose of his misanthropy
• Woody's sweet and childishly wise teenage girlfriend who gets dumped at a milkbar for screwy high-maintenance Diane Keaton
• the hurt wife who turns a blind eye to her husband's (Woody's best friend) second affair with Diane Keaton, having reclaimed her from Woody (who he's passed her onto)

So, if that all sounds pretty grim, it isn't, because its counterpointed by some great Woody Allen stand-up gags, some romantic Gershwin toons from yesteryear, an apocryphal "better time"...and, of course, Manhattan, itself, its landmarks dominating so  many of the memorable scenes.

Manhattan soundtrack

"...When I originally saw the fim, "Manhattan", back in 1979, I not only viewed, what would be one of Woody Allen's finest films, but I was introduced to the genius of George Gershwin.

Until then I was your average kid hooked on rock n'roll.The marvelous tunes that accompanied Allen's tribute to New York City (and some of it's more neurotic inhabitants) truely moved me and made me realize there was something very special about this music. Allen used the music of George Gershwin almost as a secondary character (giving) us a sense of New York City's expanse and beauty..." Amazon reviewer Kenneth M Gelwasser

Manhattan presents Allen, almost as a David Attenborough-like character, pointing out the grand Manhattan anthill, intricately designed and built, taking his camera in to see the drudgery and pointlessness of the Ants.

N.B. This is done with considerably more optimism in the 1998 Dreamworks movie, Antz (review coming soon).

So, there we have it. Manhattan, a slice of the elite's pointless and self-involved lives circa the late 1970s.

Is Manhattan still relevant?

• Well, in some ways, probably not. The intellectual questioning that was so fashionable in the the Sixties & the Seventies has now become terribly unfashionable. The 2000s are a time for body obsession and financial consolidation, not with the expanding of minds or creating social change
• Diane Keaton's "groupie"-type of hankering for strong males might now seem a little silly
• Mariel Heminways innocence is that of a contemporary 10 year old, not that of a 17 year old
• The well-adjusted lesbian "marriage" is now far less confronting than it would have been then, making Woody's character now seems even more of a jerk &
• after 9/11, even Woody would realise that Manhattan's structures aren't permanent

Relevancy aside, though, Manhattan is still interesting and often agonisingly beautiful. The problem though, is that Woody's loving but angry harangue seems to go nowhere, as if Manhattan forgives its inhabitants their indulgences...and Woody, for all his whining, wouldn't have it any other way.  However, that is surely the key to Woody Allen's art.

Manhattan DVD

"...Truly a timeless masterpiece..." Amazon reviewer Steve Finnie

"...There's poetry in Manhattan, the poetry of Opposites. As Gershwin's Rhapsody in Blue plays over lusciously composed black and white images of an idyllic Manhattan, we see picture postcards shots of Broadway, 42nd Street, Central Park, the skyline and fireworks. Fireworks we almost wish would burst the film into color. It won't. This is a film about opposites, black and white or at least inconsistencies..." Amazon reviewer Christopher J. Jarmick

"...Woody Allen said in an Interview once that Manhattan was never the film he intended to write, the end result turning out, in fact, completely different to the intial vision he had, and that he was actually very surprised at the popularity and accolades it earned by audiences and critics alike...

...Last year I was finally lucky enough to have my dream of visiting New York City become a reality and I was not disappointed. Every so often as I strolled through Central Park, or Greenwich village, I half expected to catch a glimpse of Woody in the street, hearing Gershwin and Cole Porter tunes as I gazed at the Brooklyn Bridge or the Russian Tea room. New York is certainly very much his 'Town'." Amazon reviewer MJ Dirou

see also:

• wikipedia Manhattan movie