Amazon.com Essentials:
Manhattan, Woody Allen's follow-up to Oscar-winning Annie Hall, is a
film of many distinctions: its glorious all-Gershwin score, its
breathtakingly elegant black-and-white, widescreen cinematography by
Gordon Willis (best-known for shooting the Godfather movies);
its deeply shaded performances; its witty screenplay that marked a new
level in Allen's artistic maturity; and its catalog of Things that
Make Life Worth Living. But Manhattan is also distinguished in
the realm of home video as the first motion picture to be released
only in a letterboxed version. You wouldn't want to see it any
other way. Allen's "Rhapsody in Gray" concerns, as his own character
puts it, "people in Manhattan who are constantly creating these real,
unnecessary, neurotic problems for themselves, because it keeps them
from dealing with more unsolvable, terrifying problems about the
universe." It's a romantic comedy about infidelity and betrayal, the
rules of love and friendship, young girls (a radiant and sweet Mariel
Hemingway) and older men (Allen), innocence, and sophistication. (a
favorite phrase is used to describe a piece of sculpture at the
Guggenheim: "It has a marvelous kind of negative capability.") The
movie's themes can be summed up in two key lines: "I can't believe you
met somebody you like better than me," and "It's very important to
have some kind of personal integrity." OK, so they may not sound like
such sparkling snatches of brilliant dialogue, but Manhattan
puts those ideas across with such emotion that you feel an ache in
your heart. --Jim Emerson
Amazon.com video review:
Starting with 1971's Bananas, Woody Allen's second film as
director,
this set of eight movies includes all of Allen's work as a director up to
1980, when he wrestled with his own popularity in the Fellini-esque
Stardust Memories, showcasing the distinctive arc of a filmmaker who
moved from lighthearted movies to more serious fare that still remains
breathtaking after 20 years. In between those two movies, there are
wonderful trips of comedy, tragedy and romance to be had. Everything You
Always Wanted to Know About Sex but Were Afraid to Ask is a hilarious
set of vignettes based on the popular instructional manual, the most
notable a segment featuring Gene Wilder's infatuation with a female sheep.
The futuristic Sleeper and the underrated Love and Death
showcase Allen at his funniest, especially the latter, which tackles the
weighty subjects of Russian novels and Bergman films with adroit parody.
Allen's Oscar-winning Annie Hall is one of the most joyous (and
melancholy) romances ever made, with a star-making turn by Diane Keaton and
a witty screenplay (cowritten with Marshall Brickman) that remains one of
Allen's best. Allen did a 180 with the Bergman-esque Interiors, a
sometimes stilted drama that nonetheless presaged the dysfunctional-family
drama of films like Ordinary People and featured outstanding
performances by Geraldine Page and Mary Beth Hurt, as well as unparalleled
cinematography by Gordon Willis. The last two films in the set--the
romantic Manhattan and the acidic Stardust Memories--are
both gorgeously shot in black and white and represent Allen at the peak of
his creative powers, as he wrestles with the meaning of life in terms of
both love and art, albeit from different perspectives. Indispensable to any
film fan, this boxed set represents nothing less than a landmark of
American cinema. --Mark Englehart
