Annie Hall hits Harbourfront tonight, and here’s our crash course for the uninitiated (and those who want a reminder)
“ ‘I would never want to belong to any club that had someone like me as a member.’ That’s the key joke of my adult life in terms of my relationships with women.”
When Woody Allen’s seminal film Annie Hall was released in 1977, it was an instant phenomenon, contributing to our cultural lexicon and even winning the Oscar for Best Picture, a well-deserved prize and a fairly remarkable feat for a romantic comedy. Tonight at the Harbourfront Centre, fans will be reminded and new viewers will have a chance to become diehard fans, since it will be screened (for free) as part of the Longo’s Free Flicks outdoor film series. In the film, Allen plays his usual role of neurotic horn dog—this time as comedian Alvy Singer, who falls for the beautiful and ditzy Annie Hall (played by Diane Keaton) before the complications of love threaten to jeopardize their relationship.
To prime you for tonight’s screening, here are some of our favourite scenes from Annie Hall, after the jump.
“For God’s sake, Alvy. Even Freud speaks of a latency period!” [VIDEO]
When a six-year-old Alvy sneaks a peck on his classmate’s cheek, his teacher reprimands him, leading to one of the funniest scenes in the movie, when his classmates reveal where they are today.
“I lurve you.” [VIDEO]
Annie stops to ask Alvy, “Do you love me?” “Love is too weak a word for how I feel,” he responds. “You know, I lurve you. I loave you. I luff you—two f’s. I have to invent words.” And with that, the word “lurve” officially entered our lexicon, where it remains today.
“Boy, if life were only like this.”
When a man waiting in line at a movie theatre starts prophesizing on Fellini and the changing face of media, an aggravated Alvy complains to the viewer at home (successfully breaking the fourth wall) before bringing out an expert—Marshall McLuhan himself—to set the record straight.
“Well, I have to go now, Dwayne, because I’m due back on planet Earth.” [VIDEO]
Of all the Christopher Walken cameos (and there are seemingly millions), this is easily our favourite. Here Walken, who plays Annie’s brother Dwayne, explains the dark, dark thoughts that enter his mind when he’s behind the wheel, making his drive to the airport with Alvy and Annie later that night, well, interesting.
“You’re here in Brooklyn! Brooklyn is not expanding!”
In this scene, a young Alvy visits a therapist with his mother to find the source of his depression, after reading that the universe is expanding. “If [the universe] is expanding, then some day it will break apart and that will be the end of everything,” he explains. “He won’t do his homework!” his mother tells the creepy doctor. “What’s the point?” asks Alvy.
Annie Hall will be screened at 9 pm. at the Harbourfront Centre (235 Queen’s Quay West).
