I’ve felt guilty about never watching Annie Hall (1977) my entire life. I feel like I’ve never lived a year without someone saying, “You’ve never seen Annie Hall? You’d love it, you’ve got to watch it.” It even arrived at my home via Netflix once, but my husband didn’t have any desire to watch it, so it was returned, unwatched. So when it arrived for a second time I opened it immediately, climbed into bed and hit play. And I will admit, it was pretty fabulous. Definitely a movie I should have seen years ago, or at least last October when Netflix sent it the first time.
Annie Hall also took my Woody Allen virginity, and I’ll say, I’m pretty excited to climb back in the sack with him again.
Annie Hall is the story of a neurotic Jewish comic, Alvy Singer (Woody Allen), who lives in New York City. After two failed marriages, he falls in love with Annie Hall (Diane Keaton). They meet through a mutual friend at a tennis match and Annie invites Alvy up to her apartment for a glass of wine. They couldn’t be more different, he sees a shrink three times a week, she smokes grass before every sexual encounter. He was born and raised in Brooklyn, she’s from rural Wisconsin. He’s obsessed with death and on one of their first dates he purchases her two books on death, she’s an untrained singer that likes to moonlight at Open Mic Nights. You can see where this is going, right? Alvy tells her that she’s not smart and pushes her into taking college classes. She does and begins a relationship with her professor. Alvy and Annie break up. He goes out with another girl (Shelley Duvall, who I recognized from The Shining). Annie calls Alvy one night and he comes to her apartment to kill a spider. Annie begins to cry and tells Alvy she misses him. The couple reunites.
Things are fine between the couple for awhile. But eventually old problems return. Annie begins seeing a therapist and confides in her that things between her and Alvy aren’t working. Alvy confides the same to his therapist. The couple flies to California (a state which Alvy despises) so Alvy can present an award on television. Annie likes L.A., and at a house party she meets up with Tony Lacey, a music producer (played by Paul Simon). Alvy and Annie split up and Annie moves to California. Alvy misses Annie terribly and flies to L.A. to see her. They meet at an organic food restaurant (which Alvy obviously loathes) and sees that Annie is happy in California. He returns to New York, writes a play about their relationship, but edits the ending so the pair end up together. Alvy tells us that he and Annie are now friends, and that even though the relationship was painful, it was worth it all in the end.
The movie is incredibly funny and by far one of the most entertaining Oscar winners I’ve seen. It’s full of great one liners (“My grammy never gave me gifts. She was too busy getting raped by Cossacks.”) and flashback scenes with young Alvy that will crack you up. Also, it’s chocked full of celebrity cameos including Jeff Goldblum and Christopher Walken (what movie isn’t that guy in?). Truman Capote even makes a cameo as a “Truman Capote look-a-like”.
Here's the trailer for Annie Hall. Gotta love the line about "VPL".
Annie Hall was nominated for five Oscars and won four. Woody Allen was nominated for Best Leading Actor, but lost to Mr. Holland (Richard Dreyfuss for those of you who haven’t seen that musical masterpiece) who starred in The Goodbye Girl.
AFI listed Annie Hall as the 31st Best Movie of All Time and the 4th Best Comedy of All Time.
As for me, I happily give this movie five out of five statuettes. I can’t wait to watch it again.
One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest (1976) was the first, what I would deem, modern movies I’ve watched on my quest to view all 82 winners and the first one in color! Additionally, it was the first movie that I watched starring someone that I had grown up watching on the big screen. I’d heard of a lot of the other actors that starred in the films I’ve watched, but for the majority of them their Oscar winner was the first time I’d ever seen them on film. Not so with the great Jack Nicholson, who I’ve seen in just about a million movies. I’ve also heard from lots of people that One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest is a great film. While I enjoyed this movie, I didn’t think it was spectacular. The message was great, the acting was amazing, but it lagged to the point where there were times I wished it was over. You could definitely tell this film was based off a book; at times I felt like I was watching a book on my screen.
Jack Nicholson plays Randle Patrick McMurphy criminal who is a repeat offender. He was sentenced to time in prison for statutory rape and has been transferred to a mental institution for evaluation. It seems like Randle has been faking mental illness to avoid the hard labor sentence of prison. At the mental institution Randle’s floor is run by a hard-ass nurse named Nurse Ratched. She’s pretty much a dictator, which is in direct contrast to Randle’s anti-authoritarian attitude. They are like oil and water from the beginning.
Ratched runs group therapy sessions with the patients on the floor that boarder on humiliating. It seems as if almost everyone on the floor is slightly brainwashed by her which is how she maintains order. Randle finds that the other patients, all male, are more focused on their fear of Ratched than they are on getting better and returning to the outside world.
One of the best parts of the movie is the cast of characters that live in the mental institution. There’s the stuttering Billy, the delusional Martini (played by Danny DeVito), Chief who is an enormously tall Native American, and a few others. Chief and Randle become the closest, as most people think Chief is mute, but Randle talks to him and treats him as an equal.
Randle becomes the de facto leader of the floor, causing as much trouble for Ratched as possible. Power begins to turn towards Ratched though when Randle learns that he cannot leave the mental institution but all of the others are their voluntarily. This news seems to knock him off his feet a bit.
One day Randle helps the other men on the floor escape for a day to go deep sea fishing. Ratched’s reaction is to double down her humiliating sessions and attempt to break Randle. The hospital attempts to give Randle electroconvulsive therapy (ECT) which does not work in settling him down. After his ECT session Chief opens up to Randle and speaks to him, bringing the two of them even closer.
Randle sneaks girls into the hospital one night and throws a party on the floor. Billy (the stutterer) and one of the women spend the night together while the other patients drink themselves to sleep. Nurse Ratched walks into the hospital to see this scene and tries to embarrass Billy by telling him she’ll call his mother. Billy is so distraught that he kills himself. Randle is so upset by Billy’s death he tries to choke Ratched with his bare hands. Randle is taken off the floor.
He returns later that night and it is clear that something has happened to him. Chief sees that he is unresponsive and it becomes clear that the hospital has given him a lobotomy. Chief, who can’t stand to see his friend like this, smothers Randle to death with a pillow. He then breaks a window and escapes from the hospital.
The end is the movie is incredible touching and is truly a testament to the power of friendship. The movie really does make you think about what crazy actually means. My interest was also sparked enough to want to read the book. It’s deep and I wouldn’t watch it if you’ve had a rough day.
Here's the trailer. I don't think it does the movie justice.
One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest won the top five prizes at the Oscars (Best Picture, Actor, Actress, Director, and Screenplay). It was the second movie to ever do so, after It Happened One Night (1934). According to AFI it is the 20th Best Movie of All Time out of 100.
I’ll give this one four out of five statuettes. Definitely on the “Watch Again” list.
