Annie Hall (1977)

Director:

Woody Allen

Writers:

Woody Allen (written by) and
Marshall Brickman (written by)

Release Date:

20 April 1977 (USA)

Genre:

Comedy | Drama | Romance

Tagline:

A nervous romance.

Plot:

Neurotic New York comedian Alvy Singer falls in love with the ditsy Annie Hall.

Plot Keywords:

Comedian | Singer | Love | 1970s | Young Version Of Character

Awards:

Won 4 Oscars. Another 26 wins & 7 nominations

Cast

Woody Allen	...	Alvy
Diane Keaton	...	Annie Hall
Tony Roberts	...	Rob
Carol Kane	...	Allison
Paul Simon	...	Tony Lacey
Shelley Duvall	...	Pam
Janet Margolin	...	Robin
Colleen Dewhurst	...	Mom Hall
Christopher Walken	...	Duane Hall (as Christopher Wlaken)
Donald Symington	...	Dad Hall
Helen Ludlam	...	Grammy Hall
Mordecai Lawner	...	Alvy's Dad
Joan Neuman	...	Alvy's Mom (as Joan Newman)
Jonathan Munk	...	Alvy - Age 9
Ruth Volner	...	Alvy's Aunt
Martin Rosenblatt	...	Alvy's Uncle
Hy Anzell	...	Joey Nichols (as Hy Ansel)
Rashel Novikoff	...	Aunt Tessie
Russell Horton	...	Man in Theatre Line
Marshall McLuhan	...	Himself
Christine Jones	...	Dorrie
Mary Boylan	...	Miss Reed
Wendy Girard	...	Janet
John Doumanian	...	Coke Fiend
Bob Maroff	...	Man #1 Outside Theatre
Rick Petrucelli	...	Man #2 Outside Theatre
Lee Callahan	...	Ticket Seller at Theatre
Chris Gampel	...	Doctor
Dick Cavett	...	Himself
Mark Lenard	...	Navy Officer
Dan Ruskin	...	Comedian at Rally
John Glover	...	Actor Boy Friend
Bernie Styles	...	Comic's Agent
Johnny Haymer	...	Comic
Ved Bandhu	...	Maharishi
John Dennis Johnston	...	L.A. Policeman
Laurie Bird	...	Tony Lacey's Girlfriend (as Lauri Bird)
Jim McKrell	...	Lacey Party Guest
Jeff Goldblum	...	Lacey Party Guest
William Callaway	...	Lacey Party Guest
Roger Newman	...	Lacey Party Guest
Alan Landers	...	Lacey Party Guest
Jean Sarah Frost	...	Lacey Party Guest
Vince O'Brien	...	Hotel Doctor
Humphrey Davis	...	Alvy's Psychiatrist
Veronica Radburn	...	Annie's Psychiatrist
Robin Mary Paris	...	Actress in Rehearsal
Charles Levin	...	Actor in Rehearsal
Wayne Carson	...	Rehearsal Stage Manager
Michael Karm	...	Rehearsal Director
Petronia Johnson	...	Tony's Date at Nightclub
Shaun Casey	...	Tony's Date at Nightclub
Ricardo Bertoni	...	Waiter #1 at Nightclub
Michael Aronin	...	Waiter #2 at Nightclub
Lou Picetti	...	Street Stranger
Loretta Tupper	...	Street Stranger
James Burge	...	Street Stranger
Shelley Hack	...	Street Stranger (as Shelly Hack)
Albert Ottenheimer	...	Street Stranger
Paula Trueman	...	Street Stranger
Beverly D'Angelo	...	Actress in Rob's T.V. Show
Tracey Walter	...	Actor in Rob's T.V. Show
David Wier	...	Alvy's Classmate
Keith Dentice	...	Alvy's Classmate
Susan Mellinger	...	Alvy's Classmate
Hamit Perezic	...	Alvy's Classmate
James Balter	...	Alvy's Classmate
Eric Gould	...	Alvy's Classmate
Amy Levitan	...	Alvy's Classmate
Gary Allen	...	School Teacher
Frank Vohs	...	School Teacher
Sybil Bowan	...	School Teacher
Margaretta Warwick	...	School Teacher
Lucy Lee Flippin	...	Waitress at Health Food Restaurant (as Lucy Lee Flippen)
Gary Mule Deer	...	Man at Health Food Restaurant (as Gary Muledeer)
Sigourney Weaver	...	Alvy's Date Outside Theatre
Walter Bernstein	...	Annie's Date Outside Theatre
rest of cast listed alphabetically:
Truman Capote	...	Truman Capote Look-Alike (uncredited)
Scott Crawford	...	Peter (uncredited)
Gregory Doucette	...	Usher (uncredited)

Directed by
Woody Allen

Writing credits
Woody Allen		(written by) and
Marshall Brickman		(written by)

Produced by
Fred T. Gallo	....	associate producer
Robert Greenhut	....	executive producer
Jack Rollins	....	producer
Charles H. Joffe	....	producer (uncredited)

Cinematography by
Gordon Willis		(director of photography)

Film Editing by
Wendy Greene Bricmont
Ralph Rosenblum

Casting by
Juliet Taylor

Art Direction by
Mel Bourne

Set Decoration by
Robert Drumheller
Justin Scoppa Jr.

Costume Design by
Ruth Morley

Makeup Department
Fern Buchner	....	makeup artist
Romaine Greene	....	hair stylist (as Romaine Green)
John Inzerella	....	makeup artist: Los Angeles
Vivienne Walker	....	hair stylist: Los Angeles

Production Management
Robert Greenhut	....	production manager

Second Unit Director or Assistant Director
Frederic B. Blankfein	....	second assistant director (as Fred Blankfein)
C. Tad Devlin	....	dga trainee (as Tad Devlin)
Fred T. Gallo	....	first assistant director

Art Department
Joseph Badalucco Jr.	....	carpenter (as Joseph Badalucco)
Barbara Krieger	....	set decorator: Los Angeles
Pat O'Connor	....	propmaster: Los Angeles
Thomas Saccio	....	propmaster
Cosmo Sorice	....	scenic artist
Joe Williams Sr.	....	construction grip (as Joseph Williams)

Sound Department
Jack Higgins	....	sound re-recording mixer
James Pilcher	....	sound mixer: Los Angeles
James Sabat	....	sound mixer
Dan Sable	....	sound editor: Magnofex
Leslie Gaulin	....	assistant sound editor (uncredited)
William S. Scharf	....	sound editor (uncredited)

Camera and Electrical Department
Carl Gibson	....	key grip: Los Angeles
Brian Hamill	....	still photographer
Larry D. Howard	....	gaffer: Los Angeles (as Larry Howard)
Tom Priestley Jr.	....	first assistant cameraman (as Thomas Priestley)
Fred Schuler	....	camera operator
Donald E. Thorin	....	camera operator: Los Angeles (as Don Thorin)
Dusty Wallace	....	gaffer
Robert Ward	....	key grip
Gary Muller	....	second assistant camera (uncredited)

Animation Department
Chris K. Ishii	....	sequence animator (as Chris Ishii)

Casting Department
Aaron Beckwith	....	extra casting
Riccardo Bertoni	....	extras casting (uncredited)

Costume and Wardrobe Department
Ralph Lauren	....	clothing designs
Nancy McArdle	....	wardrobe supervisor: Los Angeles
George Newman	....	wardrobe supervisor
Marilyn Putnam	....	wardrobe supervisor

Editorial Department
Susan E. Morse	....	assistant film editor
Sonya Polonsky	....	assistant film editor (as Sonya Polanski)
Steve Johnson	....	colorist (uncredited)

Music Department
Artie Butler	....	accompanist: Miss Keaton

Transportation Department
William Curry	....	transportation captain
James E. Foote	....	transportation captain: Los Angeles (as James Foote)

Other crew
Kay Chapin	....	script supervisor
Christopher Cronyn	....	production assistant (as Chris Cronyn)
Patricia Crown	....	assistant: Mr. Allen
Martin Danzig	....	location manager
Daisy Gerber	....	location manager: Los Angeles
Sam Goldrich	....	location auditor
Lois Kramer Hartwick	....	production office coordinator (as Lois Kramer)
Scott MacDonough	....	unit publicist
Beth Rudin	....	production assistant
Stuart Smiley	....	production assistant
Douglas Dean III	....	production assistant (uncredited)
Jeff Kanew	....	trailer (uncredited) (unconfirmed)
Dennis Kear	....	stand-in: Woody Allen (uncredited)
David Sussan	....	production assistant (uncredited)

Thanks
Marcel Ophüls	....	the producers gratefully acknowledge the cooperation given by (as Marcel Ophuls)
Donald S. Rugoff	....	the producers gratefully acknowledge the cooperation given by

Production Companies

• Rollins-Joffe Productions (as A Jack Rollins-Charles H. Joffe Production)

Distributors

• United Artists (1977) (USA) (theatrical)
• United Artists (1978) (Sweden) (theatrical)
• American Broadcasting Company (ABC) (1979) (USA) (TV) (original airing)
• 20th Century Fox Home Entertainment (2007) (USA) (DVD)
• Asociace Ceských Filmových Klubu (ACFK) (2004) (Czech Republic) (theatrical)
• Asociácia slovenských filmových klubov (ASFK) (2004) (Slovakia) (theatrical)
• Chapel Distribution (1997) (Australia) (theatrical)
• New Star (2008) (Greece) (theatrical) (re-issue)
• United Artists (1977) (Argentina) (theatrical)
• Blu Shine (2009) (Argentina) (DVD)
• Criterion Collection, The (1990) (USA) (laserdisc)
• Gativideo (2002) (Argentina) (DVD)
• Gativideo (2002) (Argentina) (VHS) (re-edited)
• MGM Home Entertainment (2007) (USA) (DVD)
• MGM/UA Communications Co. (????) (USA) (TV)
• MGM/UA Home Entertainment (1994) (USA) (VHS)
• MGM/UA Home Entertainment (1994) (USA) (laserdisc)
• MGM/UA Home Entertainment (2002) (USA) (DVD)

Other Companies

• Magnofex  sound editing
• E.U.E. Opticals  video services (as E.U.E.)
• Screen Gems  video services
• Computer Opticals  titles
• Télévision Rencontre  the producers gratefully acknowledge the cooperation given by (as Productions Television Rencontre)
• Budget Rent-a-Car  the producers gratefully acknowledge the cooperation given by
• City of New York, The  the producers gratefully acknowledge the cooperation given by

Also Known As:

Runtime:

93 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English | German

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.37 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono

Certification:

Argentina:13 | Australia:M | Chile:14 | Finland:S | France:U | Iceland:L | Netherlands:AL | Norway:16 (original rating) | Singapore:PG | Sweden:11 | UK:15 (re-rating) (2001) | UK:15 (video rating) (1986) | UK:AA (original rating) | USA:PG (PCA #24806) | West Germany:6 | Canada:A (Nova Scotia) | Canada:AA (Ontario) | Canada:G (Quebec) | Canada:PG (Manitoba) | Brazil:14 | South Korea:12 | Spain:13

Filming Locations:

2nd Avenue, Manhattan, New York City, New York, USA

Company:

Rollins-Joffe Productions

Trivia:

The first rough cut ran 2 hours and 20 minutes. Among the scenes later eliminated were: segments showing Alvy's former classmates in the present day; Alvy as a teenager; a scene in a junk-food restaurant (featuring Danny Aiello); extensive additional scenes featuring Carol Kane, Janet Margolin, Colleen Dewhurst and Shelley Duvall; and a fantasy segment at Madison Square Garden featuring the New York Knicks competing against a team of five great philosophers. Christopher Walken's driving scene was also cut, but was restored a week before the film was completed. New material for the ending was filmed on three occasions, but most was discarded. The final montage was a late addition.

Goofs:

Revealing mistakes: When Annie is driving on the freeway with Alvy, a police cruiser can be seen in the background holding back traffic.

Quotes:

[first lines]
Alvy Singer:[addressing the camera] There's an old joke - um... two elderly women are at a Catskill mountain resort, and one of 'em says, "Boy, the food at this place is really terrible." The other one says, "Yeah, I know; and such small portions." Well, that's essentially how I feel about life - full of loneliness, and misery, and suffering, and unhappiness, and it's all over much too quickly. The...

Movie Connections:

Referenced in "Ebert Presents: At the Movies: Episode #2.1" (2011)

Soundtrack:

Symphony No.41 in C Major K.551, Molto Allegro

The Story about the Story

Woody is an intelligent man who worries about the issues of film-making. The primary concern, the very first problem, is always to decide what the relationships are among the audience, the camera, the narrator if any, and the characters.

Woody was on his way to making a murder mystery, which is the purest form of messing about with these relationships. In a much studied decision, they decided to cut out all the mystery and just focus on the context. In this case, that context is a richly layered evocation of a relationship. I really wish I could see the original film to discover the mysteries Woody intended to hide in the folds.

And the folds are as numerous and complex as they can get. We have a framing device where Woody speaks to us partly as a conversation which blends into a standup, which is mirrored as a part of the story. We have timeshifting where we move back and forth in time in a simple 'Tarantino' way; but we go way past: characters from the 'present' enter the past as Dickensian ghosts, then they talk to characters in the past. we have characters in different pasts talking to each other via split screen. We have a layering of Woody and Diane's relationship in real life, then the film, then TWO films within: a play which is part of the action and a cartoon which is the action itself.

More: we have Woody talking to the audience as if we were shifted into the play -- early in that play we are introduced to Bergman and Fellini: in both cases while they are waiting outside. These are the two inventors of folded narrative. Even more: while some bozo perfessor spouts off about Fellini and McLuhan, Woody enlists the audience to challenge him and drags out McLuhan himself! The joke of course is that McLuhan himself was a vapid weaver of lowbrow theories.

And more and more with the constant weaving of 'analysis' and other film-like activities: singers, photographers, TeeVee stars, models...

This period was when he was first exposed to Wallace Shawn who was hanging out with Terrence Malick, two other innovators in narrative folding. All the 'New Yorker' stuff means more when you know Shawn's father was the long-time editor of that publication and defined the self-absorbed reflection that characterizes the city and this film.

Keaton's manner was essential to pulling this off, someone who could pull off the story about her uncle dying while waiting for a Turkey. Watch her.. she is clued in to simultaneously being in herself (Keaton), herself (Hall), inside the story she is telling and inside the story Woody is telling. She shifts and guffaws just as if she were stoned and moving among realities, just as her character.

Just amazing and intelligent. Will we ever see this the way it was written and shot? Or is that mystery too intelligent for us, who prefer to think of this as a funny, endearing love story.