Annie Hall's Birthday
On March 27, 1977, Woody Allen's movie "Annie Hall" premiered at the Filmex festival. Allen's film closed the program of the festival.
Many film critics and cinema experts consider the film "Annie Hall" autobiographical, since much in its plot echoes the details of the biographies of both Woody Allen himself (the period when he worked as a stand-up comedian), and the performer of the title role Diane Keaton (the period when she worked singer in nightclubs). Moreover, Hall is the real last name of the actress, and Annie is her nickname. But Woody Allen has always categorically denied the autobiographicality of the picture.
However, the name of the film - "Annie Hall" - was not born immediately. The originally conceived name - "Anhedonia" - the inability to experience pleasure. But this name was opposed by the United Artists film company because they could not come up with an advertising campaign explaining the meaning of the word. Other titles have been suggested: "It Had to Be Jew", "A Rollercoaster Named Desire", and "Me and My Goy". In the end, three weeks before the premiere, Woody Allen compromised by naming the film after the title character.
In early 1978, "Annie Hall" received 5 Golden Globe nominations, but won only one - Best Actress in a Motion Picture - Comedy or Musical (Diane Keaton). Woody Allen lost the Best Director - Motion Picture nomination to Herbert Ross, who directed "The Turning Point". In the nomination for Best Motion Picture - Comedy or Musical, the film "Annie Hall" lost to the film "The Goodbye Girl" by the same Herbert Ross.
Then the film "Annie Hall" received 5 Oscar nominations, and here it has already won 4 nominations, including the most important - Best Picture and Best Director (as well as Best Actress in a Leading Role and Best Writing, Screenplay Written Directly for the Screen).
The participation of Woody Allen's film in film forums on the European continent was very successful. "Annie Hall" received 6 British BAFTA nominations, of which it won 5, including the most important: Best Film and Best Direction. In both of these nominations, "Annie Hall" and Woody Allen bypassed, respectively, the picture "Network" and its director Sidney Lumet. "Annie Hall" was subsequently awarded the Danish Bodil Film Award for Best Non-European Film. Woody Allen's film then received a French CĂ©sar Awards nomination for Best Foreign Film, but the French film academics preferred, and rightly so, to Italian film "Una giornata particolare (A Special Day)" by Ettore Scola.
The overwhelming majority of reviews from professional film critics were enthusiastic. Only the Washington Post film columnist Gary Arnold named the film "superficial chronicle of a would-be bittersweet love affair". The guru of American film critic Roger Ebert devoted two reviews to Woody Allen's film. In the first of them, written immediately after the release of the film, Ebert rated the film three and a half stars out of 4 possible. However, in a second review, written in 2002, Ebert gave the film a maximum 4 stars and included it on his list of "Great Movies". In this review, Ebert noted that
"Annie Hall" contains more intellectual wit and cultural references than any other movie ever to win the Oscar for best picture".
According to Ebert, the fact that in 1977 Woody Allen's film in the contest for the Oscars bypassed George Lucas's "Star Wars: Episode IV - A New Hope" would have been impossible in the 2000s. And this, according to Ebert, signals the end of the "golden age" of American cinema.
The following figures indicate the success of the film "Annie Hall" with moviegoers. With a budget of $ 4 million, the film grossed nearly $ 40 million. The modern moviegoer appreciated Woody Allen's picture no less highly. 68% of IMDB and Kinopoisk users gave the film ratings from 8 to 10. With that said, FilmGourmand rated Woody Allen's "Annie Hall" at 9,861, placing it 54th in the Golden Thousand.
