Tonight I went to Filmstreams and checked Annie Hall off the Trocadero Intern Required Movie list. The brillant Woody Allen film that is often thought of as setting the standard for modern romantic comedies, was fun to pick apart. I took notes during the entire thing, writing down outfits and funny sayings. I originally thought that I had never seen a Woody Allen film before, but I did see Match Point, which was darker, but equally good. Even though I have only seen these two movies, I can tell Woody Allen's style has matured over the decades.
I thought Diane Keaton (Annie Hall) rocked the menswear look, with little vests, scarves, and men's pants. I also noticed that sometimes she and Woody Allen's character (Alvy (Max?!) Singer) would be matching so closely that they could have switched outfits in the middle of the scene and each character would have still given off the same vibes. This was especially apparent during the scene when Keaton was wearing dark thick glasses (like Allen's) with a gray wool suit and a red and yellow plaid scarf tied around her neck, while he was wearing a gray wool vest with red accents.
By the end of the film when Annie was living in LA, her style had become so much more flowy and colorful, really epitomizing the LA laidback style while Alvy did New York proud in one of his signature plaid ensembles [hipsters take note].
The tennis scene and the characters' immaculate tennis whites made me want to pick up my neglected racket, pop my collar and channel my inner suppressed preppiness...I might just have to arrange a tennis match soon.
My favorite part was when Alvy gave Annie a black and red negligee as a present just to see her disgust, and then presented her with a watch that he knew she wanted. That's love right there, a man buying a woman accessories that she actually likes!
I usually feel that romantic comedies are too predictable...boy meets girl, they date/have sex, something goes wrong/they break up...and oh my God they still end up together in the end. That just doesn't really do much for me. Annie and Alvy don't end up together in the end, but the last line of the movie Alvy is talking about relationships, "they're totally irrational and crazy and absurd and - but uh, I guess we keep going through it...because...most of us need the eggs." Cue credits without music. This last line was so honest and optimisic. It just kind of spoke to me now that I'm a single girl and getting used to this new phase in my life. The breaking up process can be optimistic because at least you're facing the music, not afraid to move on or try something new (hopefully not getting screwed over in LA).
Oh and I definitely learned a new acronym : VPL (visible panty line) that I'm going to drop as soon as I see it, which will be soon.
