Annie Hall

I totally get why it's one of Woody Allen's most popular movies, this is one movie you'd like even if you weren't a Woody Allen fan.

While it's got all his usual quirks and complexities in relationships, it still feels like a fresh breeze; maybe the pace, maybe the acting, maybe the chemistry....it feels more like a voyeuristic experience, like watching someone you know go through the pains and joys of an intense relationship.

It's sheer dexterity of conversation backed by gut honesty. Not conversation in the normal sense....he uses so many parallel modes. There's him talking to the audience, then the thoughts brought out through sub titles or animations or parallel talk, and then there's narratives through past and present. It's kind of psychedelic.

The story itself;  a passionate relationship between Singer and Annie, two highly emotional and spontaneous people, with their need for each other and their questions, doubts and wanings of interest through the process. There's a couple of scenes which bring out the different perspectives and needs so visually well; one where in the middle of making love you see her ghost or mind or whatever get up and go sit on a chair, and his saying it felt like making love to a corpse.  Another where they are both talking to their respective shrinks in the same frame about the same thing but giving diametrically opposing perspectives. It's about the flow of a volatile relationship searching for spaces to meander through.

It's funny and it's heartbreaking, witty and intelligent....... the very same lines can make you laugh and also feel sad. It's so about the attractions, mysteries and quirks of love, that you can laugh at it and call it absurd, or you can identify and feel the poignancy, or likely do both.

Strong recommendation, in fact I'm definitely doing a re watch soon.