Annie Hall

Woody Allen's Annie Hall is a witty and almost dream-like film. Filled with fantasy, reality and humor Allen makes so much out of a film where people mostly walk and talk. In fact, Roger Ebert wrote in his Great Movies column that the character of Alvy Singer, "lives in order to talk about living", which I think is exactly right.


But this is so movie is so much more than talking, as wonderful and hilarious as the dialogue is! One of Annie Hall's great strengths is that its structure is varied and engaging. From the first three scenes it is obvious that Allen's film is taking a unique approach to storytelling. The opening titles (which, I'm counting as the first scene) are completely silent with no flashy graphics, only a simple black background and white text. Then Alvy looks straight at the viewer, much like in his stand up performances, and begins to talk.

This spare beginning sets up what the film will consistently deliver, talking about relationships. This uncomplicated premise leaves room for creativity in the way the film is presented. Many of the scenes are flashbacks and most have atypical framing, such as the first scene where Alvy and his friend are walking down the street in a conversation. At first, they are barely visible, if at all, and slowly they come into the frame. Here, the camera is waiting for the actors to catch up and it creates a confusing experience of the viewer trying to find who is speaking. This puts the emphasis on what is being said rather than on what is seen. Annie Hall's dialogue is perhaps more important than some of the imagery. The viewer is taught by this framing to roll with the punches of Annie Hall's unconventionality.

I particularly enjoyed Annie Hall's confidence in directly addressing the viewer in scenes like the line in the movie theater, where Alvy looks right at us and says, "Boy, if life were only like this!"At another point, characters argue whether the story they are telling is correct and speak as if they are actively concerned with what the viewer is hearing. These breaks give the movie a kind of spark and humor. It is almost as if we are also engaged in the making of this movie and the film is not complete without those who see it, otherwise Alvy speaks to no one in more ways that one.

The failure of a traditional love story between Alvy and Annie is explored thoroughly in the film. Alvy and Annie break up and get back together but by the end of the film the two of them decide to share their memories over coffee and go their separate ways. I first thought Annie Hall would be a film about "what went wrong" in their love life but I saw it more as the stories Alvy and Annie were sharing with each other at the end of the film. They show the good times, the bad times and their sense of humor through it all. In fact, in one scene Alvy and Annie are walking through their memories and commenting on what they think of themselves now. The whole of Annie Hall is like this one scene.

As Ebert wrote about dialogue in Annie Hall in the same article previously mentioned, "This is not merely dialogue, it is a double act in the process of discovering itself" This is essentially the reality of the relationship between the viewer and the film. The art is created in order to exist in the interpretation of an outside source.

Amicably returning to their memories shows how although they lost their love for one another, they simply turned into friends....or just two people with a lot of history together! (if they never spend time together again) For all of Alvy's reminders of death and the misery of life, this view of relationships is quite positive. There is no hate for one another, just differences to talk about.

-Claudia

Petrel Hotel Blue is a surreal crime film by Koji Wakamatsu. It is a tale of revenge. The beginnings of the film point to a more conventional story of criminals sent to jail for robbery. Some of the cohorts abandon the plan before it even starts. There are elements of greed, loyalty and revenge all which point the main character to the Cordon Bleu café where his unreliable former partner in crime works.

            There he meets Rika, a silent chain smoker, sitting at the bar of the Cordon Bleu in all of her mysterious glory. Men in the film are attracted to her inexplicably. Perhaps this is a supernatural talent of hers, as she seems to be a ghost. She is in fact the owner of the Cordon Bleu’s reason for staying away from the crime his friends were planning.

            The criminal’s motivations disappear after he deals with his disloyal friend.  Rika’s spell is cast over him and he becomes docile and hard working at the café. Only when suspicions by other men arise, does trouble come back to him. Men fight and kill over the beautiful Rika and her answer to this is that they are fools.

           

            I believe one central theme of the film is control. The film begins with a main character who holds incredible power over his followers so much so that one might give away their month’s earnings to him. The man who owns the Cordon Bleu would rather keep control over a respectable life and at the same time he is held captive by the desire he has for Rika and her otherworldly power over him.

            Wakamatsu's earlier works follow the theme of women being controlled by men. For example, in his film The Embryo Hunts in Secret from 1966 a man rapes and tortures his girlfriend until she breaks free from his captivity and kills him. As Wakamatsu himself explains, "...violence, the body and sex are an integral part of life" These ideas are explored in Petrel Hotel Blue as well. Rika is treated as simply a body and an object of sexual desire. She inspires a kind of hardworking ethic in the men she hypnotizes. They will do anything to keep her, even kill for her sake. Perhaps the funniest moment of the film is when a police officer shoots and kills a man for spying on Rika swimming naked. His reasoning is that "peeping is a crime" even though he himself was doing the same moments earlier.

             This kind of convenient morality and switching of character types is an interesting aspect of this film. The main criminal goes from the tough as nails type to a bartender diligently sweeping up his café. Rika creates a submissive character out of a once dominate force. Perhaps this extreme control she has over men is a reflection of her past.
             Although it is never explicitly explained, one can assume Rika is a ghost. Also, from the two separate instances when men approach an old woman on the road leading to the Cordon Bleu, Rika's form is confusingly cut between shots of the old woman. She explains that she was brought to the area as a girl and has been there ever since. Perhaps this is Rika's story. As she disappears into a gravestone at the end of the film one can assume from her clues that she might have been murdered or forced to live in the area, by men?, until her death.
             Despite the fact that the film beings with a criminal's revenge story, I believe that the main act of revenge is perpetrated by Rika. Somehow she haunts the area where she died and captivates men, leading them to their deaths. Men fall for her sexual charms and mysterious nature and she punishes them for this blind desire.