by Chris Marshall:
I went into this expecting to like Annie Hall. I really did. But while it had its moments, I wasn’t
the biggest fan. I think that most of the problem is my aversion to Woody Allen
himself. I’m willing to give him a chance—when my Director of the Week project
starts, I’ll devote a week to him—but there’s just something about his
on-screen persona that grates on me.
And I do think it’s just a persona. While there are
undoubtedly similarities between Allen the human being and the characters he
plays, here and elsewhere, I’ve heard that he’s not quite as crazy in real life. Then again, there was all that
unpleasantness with his adopted daughter Soon-Yi, so there are still plenty of
doubts about how nice of a guy he really is.
But I’m not in the business of criticizing a film based on
the director/ac tor’s personal life[1].
There are plenty of examples of people who are infinitely more stupid in real
life than their work is. My main problem with Annie Hall is that I just didn’t like any of the characters. I
found both Alfie and Annie to be
pretty annoying.
