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Twin Town High (vol. 8) |
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FEATURE at Oak St. Cinema
Friday 22 June @ 14:00:43 |
 
FILM REVIEW
by ERIK McCLANAHAN
The Oak St. Cinema is putting on a week-long double-feature starting today, and those who love Woody Allen will be in for a treat. Perhaps the famed writer-director's two best films—Oscar winner "Annie Hall" (Best Picture, Director, Original Screenplay, Lead Actress 1978) and my personal favorite Allen film, "Manhattan" (which will be shown in a new 35 mm film print)—will be playing back-to-back.
The feature will begin with "Manhattan" playing nightly at 7 p.m. (though a matinee will begin at 5 on Saturday and Sunday), with "Annie Hall" following at 9. Both films sum up beautifully the full range of Allen's filmmaking talents: introspective, nebbish and self-reflective writing that is eaten up by his wonderful casts that seem to revel in his intellectual, often silly, humor and characters.
The new print of "Manhattan" should look stunning projected onto the big screen, showing off Allen's most impressive cinematography to date. The black and white photography, shot by Allen regular Gordon Willis (whose other very notable credits include "The Godfather" trilogy and "All the President's Men"), is nothing short of remarkable, showing off New York in all its beauty, with the highlight coming in a scene where Allen sits on a park bench with Diane Keaton looking at the Brooklyn Bridge ("This really is a great city. I don't care what anybody says, it's really a knockout, you know.")
Throughout the film, Allen's love for Bergman, Fellini and other master European filmmakers is evident (this is the period when he got away from making films like his "earlier, funny ones" beginning with 1978's "Interiors"): For every great piece of quotable dialogue there is a brilliantly staged tracking shot along the streets of the director's favorite city (the film is, above all, a love letter to New York) or a wide shot of the skyline. But the dialogue—both eerily prophetic and hilarious—is what really sticks out for "Manhattan" (On orgasms: "You had the wrong kind? I've never had the wrong kind, ever. My worst one was right on the money." On dating a high school girl: "She's 17. I'm 42 and she's 17. I'm older than her father, can you believe that? I'm dating a girl, wherein, I can beat up her father." Relationships: "I think people should mate for life, like pigeons or Catholics." And the brilliant closing line, spoken by a young Mariel Hemingway as the camera pulls in on Allen's face: "Not everybody gets corrupted. You have to have a little faith in people.").
"Annie Hall" is the film that most people know of or think of when they hear the name Woody Allen. This was the true turning point in his career, when he decided to take on more serious themes and narratives. Not to say that the film isn't hilarious, because it is (I always laugh uncontrollably at the scene when Allen is at a party where some cocaine is being passed around, only to sneeze and blow the stash all over the room), but this is when he stopped making straight up comedies like "Bananas," or the hilarious, Chaplin-inspired slapstick "Sleeper," or the episodic, sketch-comedy style of "Everything You Ever Wanted to Know About Sex * But Were Afraid to Ask."
The double feature runs through June 28. The Oak Street Cinema is located at 309 Oak Street SE in Dinkytown.
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