Wiody Allen - Annie Hall

Liked how Woody wrapped things up with the making of a movie within a movie - then all the sentimental flashbacks - and finally the joke about the chicken and the egg - voiced over a view of a busy New York street. Though I also liked the fact that the quip-trip into Woody’s depressing, self centered world was over. If seen in a movie theatre, I would have walked out after fifteen minutes. He’s quite upfront about his grim view of life despite his phenomenal success - and such an interior life does not interest me - no matter how clever he can be. 

Sundry observations:

* Never saw it as a satire about people who “think they’re hot shit”. Annie is struggling with low self esteem - while Alvy esteems nothing. He writes/tells jokes - people laugh - so he writes some more. 

 *Alvy meets Annie at a tennis court - as if his physicality was what attracted her. ( and women to Woody Allen as well). And she came on to him immediately with the kind of self deprecation that could be called a submission gesture. Rob had to have told Annie that her tennis partner would be a celebrity. As a struggling performer, that would have been very important. That aspect of the relationship between a struggling singer in her 20’s and a famous comedian in his forties is left out of the script. Alvy is in it for the sex. That’s why Annie leaves her body at one point when he’s humping her. We are left to speculate on what’s in it for her. Saving on the rent? 

 *great performance by Paul Simon. Truly sleezy in his sincerity. 

*did not care for the Marshall McLuhan scene — despite my distance from  academic Liberal Arts.  Pity the students sucked into the anti-aesthetic,  non-spiritual, social justice criticism that has become mainstream in American universities. Can’t see how that would affect movie making that much - but it has hit visual art especially hard because access is more of an issue.

 My problem with the scene is that it’s dumbed down. Nothing that the annoying professor says is necessarily wrong - including the reference to McLuhan. So it’s just Woody/Alvy being anti-intellectual again - like he was when he left a social gathering of his wife’s fellows writers to watch a Knicks game in the bedroom. How boorish.

*Wikipedia tells us that this film was a breakthrough for the artist. Woody went beyond farce to get serious about Jewishness, psychoanalysis, gender differences, and Modernism. I find this assertion more humorous than all the gag lines in the movie

The Apartment - Billy Wilder

Eminently watchable - over and over. Each delicious moment of acting and visuality. The sincere emotion on the face of Shirley MacLaine - the unbearable obnoxiousness of Fred Macmurray - the electric mania of Jack Lemmon - so acrobatic. But is it too silly, too unreal? I can’t imagine a real C.C. Baxter —- I just see Jack Lemmon. 

 Underneath is a negative characterization of the big city. When I first saw bits of this film earlier this year, the normalcy and frequency of furtive, recreational sex astonished me. And it was always high ranking men with low ranking women. It’s also surprising that both romantic leads had attempted suicide. What an awful place for young people to work. Things only look up - and the only true romance can begin - when both have quit their job. With no plan B.

 Their transformation was made possible by Jews. Wilder wants us to know them as compassionate, responsible , generous, competent. None of the adulterous playboys is  identifiable as Jewish - and the very worst has a Christmas tree at home. The landlady is Jewish - and she only raised the rent after installing an air conditioner. One might also note that paintings by distinguished Jewish modernists like Chagall and Rothko are up on the wall. ( Wilder was a serious collector). More significantly, the physician who saved Fran’s life is Jewish- he doesn’t charge a dime - and he’s even named Dreyfuss - in a nod to European anti-semitism. He also instructs Calvin ( his seriously Christian, but never used first name) on being a “mensch”. He is an island of morality in a sea of turpitude. 

 Officially qualified as a Jew myself - I’m partial to this ethnic propaganda - but as a film viewer, I have to say it’s nonsense and diminishes the inner truth of the movie.  Sure some Jews are like Dr. Dreyfus - but some are like Jeffrey Epstein as well.