Woody Allen

Tonight I watched Manhattan. It was fascinating. With Annie Hall and now Manhattan under my belt, I wonder if Woody Allen could get any better. My favorite scene in Annie Hall is the exchange between Alvy and Annie as she leaving the racket club. Without that scene I wonder if she could have been nominated for the Academy Award. That's the part where she says, "well la de da, la de da." The combination of her childish outfit and awkward demeanor make the scene come alive.

But I found Manhattan more interesting from the standpoint of understanding who the real Woody Allen was. In light of his personal life, I wonder if perhaps this movie gives us more insight than any movies he's directed? Though it we see a middle-aged man trying to advocate pseudo-morality while still entertaining a relationship with a young girl. It seems that his attraction to her was a regrettable symptom of his dramatic life. In this relationship he finds himself (the complex, emotion-laden old narcissist) attracted to a girl who is too young to have emotional baggage from past relationships. She doesn't have two ex-husbands, nor does she offer any threat of long-term relationship. In this movie Woody Allen plays himself. Its too late for my thoughts to be coherent, I'll edit this some other time, and in the meantime I'll probably change my mind about Allen. My hypotheses are probably all wrong.