Annie+Hall+Analysis

//Annie Hall// is a romantic comedy directed by and starring Woody Allen. The story follows Alvy Singer (Woody Allen) and his girlfriend, Annie Hall's (Diane Keaton) romantic relationship. The theme of the film is that the main character (Alvy Singer) needs to change the way he looks at the world in order for his relationships to work. Time after time, the audience sees the flaws in Annie and Alvy's relationship and Alvy again and again looked at the world negatively. One of the reasons for this could be that Alvy's mother didn't show much love and affection, and he had a pretty rough childhood. No one really understood him when he was a child, and to some extend there isn't anyone that can understand him as an adult. The lack of love in his childhood could have something to do with the fact that he can't make his relationships work, and therefore has a very pessimistic view of the world.

Throughout the film there are a lot of non-diegetic elements. Within the first minute of the movie, Alvy Singer talks about his failed relationship with Annie Hall. He talks directly to the audience, and therefore breaks the fourth wall. This is one of Woody Allen's trademarks. By doing this, the audience knows what Alvy is thinking. There are also a lot of instances where Alvy "goes back in time" and even communicates with people from his past. For example, when he was talking about his childhood and school. Alvy's younger-version was there, and Alvy's adult-version came into his younger-version's defense. Woody Allen therefore breaks another typical convention by jumping through time and communicating with people from his past. Furthermore, there were a few instances where there were subtitles that showed what the character was thinking in contrast to what he or she was saying. An example would be when Annie and Alvy were flying back to New York from Los Angeles, and they were thinking about how their relationship is no longer working, but neither wanted to say anything (at first). These non-diegetic elements play into the theme by showing the audience what Alvy is thinking at a point of time. Alvy, just like anyone else, often doesn't say everything he wants to.

Aside from the non-diegetic elements, Woody Allen also used a lot of eye level shots. There wasn't much variety in the shots, and therefore that brings more attention to the dialogue and the actions by the actors. He also doesn't use much variety in lighting. One part that stood out for its lighting was the end scenes. The lighting and color was a lot brighter, which gave the scenes a more up-lifting tone, in contrast to the beginning of the movie where the lighting and the color was comparatively dull. This contrast in lighting is to hint that even though Annie has moved on, Alvy has changed for the better.

With these choices, Woody Allen portrays the theme of the film. He puts his own style into this movie, and uses it to add on to the theme of the film. He does so by giving the audience an insight of his inner thoughts by using non-diegetic elements.