ISP Blog #3: Annie Hall

Woody Allen is a renowned screenwriter, famous for such movies as Manhattan and Sleeper. He also stars in many of the screenplays that he writes. Annie Hall is one such screenplay, and is arguably one of Allen's most popular films. The film follows the unusual relationship between comedian Alvy Singer and aspiring nightclub-singer Annie Hall. The screenplay is primarily an examination of Alvy and Annie's unique personalities and both the differences and similarities between them. Each step of their relationship is covered, from the moment they meet to their inevitable break up. This is done through the use of numerous flashbacks. While many critics accuse flashbacks of being a hallmark of weak screenwriting, they are used to great effect in Annie Hall. The flashbacks in the screenplay incorporate the present-day characters into the flashbacks themselves, where they observe and comment on the scene that they are observing along with the audience. This is an interesting and different way of using flashbacks in a screenplay, and it helps to attract the audience's attention. It also makes them feel more involved in the screenplay, since the characters are observing their own past actions with the audience members, and are sharing similar observations.
While I enjoyed the movie, I found that the screenplay of Annie Hall was much less engaging. The screenplay is so focused on character that it is difficult to connect to the characters without an actor portraying them onscreen. The dialogue is similarly dry without an engaging delivery from the actors. It was simply too difficult to care what happened to the characters after only reading the screenplay. Certain screenplays seem to jump off the page when you read them, but Annie Hall was not one of these, making the screenplay quite tedious to read through.