With rich, compelling characters and masterful storytelling,
Woody Allen truly is one of the world’s great filmmakers. The
four movies in this must-own collection represent Woody Allen at
his best.
Annie Hall
Considered to be “Woody Allen’s breakthrough movie” (Time), Annie
Hall won four Os®* including Best Picture and established
Allen as the premier auteur filmmaker. Annie Hall confirmed that
Allen had “completed the journey from comic to humorist, from
comedy writer to wit [and] from inventive moviemaker to creative
artist” (Saturday Review). Alvy Singer (Allen) is one of
Manhattan’s most brilliant comedians, but when it comes to
romance, his delivery needs a little work. When he falls in love
with the ditzy but delightful nightclub singer Annie Hall (Diane
Keaton), his own insecurities sabotage the affair, and Annie is
forced to leave Alvy for a new life--and lover (Paul Simon)--in
Los Angeles. Knowing he may have lost Annie forever, Alvy’s
willing to go to any lengths to recapture the only thing that
ever mattered…true love.
*Annie Hall, 1977: Best Picture; Actress (Diane Keaton);
Directing; Original Screenplay.
Offers Danish, Finnish, Norwegian and Swedish subtitles.
Manhattan
Nominated for two Academy Awards,* and considered “one of [Woody]
Allen’s most enduring accomplishments” (Boxoffice), Manhattan is
a wry, touching and finely rendered portrait of modern
relationships set against the backdrop of urban alienation.
Allen’s triumph is a “prismatic portrait of a time and a place
that may be studied decades hence” (Time). 42-year-old Manhattan
native Isaac Davis (Allen) has a job he hates, a 17-year- old
girlfriend, Tracy (Mariel Hemingway), he doesn’t love and a
lesbian ex-wife, Jill (Meryl Streep), whom he’d like to strangle.
But when he meets his best friend’s sexy intellectual mistress,
Mary (Diane Keaton), Isaac falls head over heels in lust. Leaving
Tracy, bedding Mary and quitting his job is just the beginning of
Isaac’s quest for romance in a city where sex is as as a
handshake--and the gateway to true love…is a revolving door.
*Manhattan, 1979: Supporting Actress (Mariel Hemingway); Original
Screenplay.
Offers Danish, Finnish, Norwegian and Swedish subtitles.
Hannah and Her Sisters
Hannah and Her Sisters spins a tale of three unforgettable women
and showcases Woody Allen “at his most emotionally expansive,
working on his broadest canvas with masterly ease” (Newsweek).
The eldest daughter of showbiz parents, Hannah (Mia Farrow) is a
devoted wife, loving mother and successful actress. A loyal
supporter of her two less sisters Lee (Barbara Hershey) and
Holly (Dianne Wiest), she’s also the emotional back of a
family that seems to resent her stability almost as much as they
depend on it. But when Hannah’s world is sabotaged by sibling
rivalry, she finally begins to see that she’s as lost as everyone
else, and in order to find herself, she’ll have to
choose--between the independence her family can’t live with…and
the family she can’t live without.
*Hannah and Her Sisters, 1986: Original Screenplay; Supporting
Actress (Dianne Wiest); Supporting Actor (Michael Caine).
Offers Greek subtitles.
Everything You Wanted to Know About Sex But Were Too Afraid to
Ask
Woody Allen pushes the frontiers of comedy by consolidating his
madcap sensibility and wickedly funny irreverence with his
developing penchant for visually arresting humour. Giving
complete indulgence to the zany eccentricity of his medium, Allen
reveals himself as a filmmaker of “wit, sophistication, and comic
in” (Cue). Allen rises to the occasion with aphrodisiacs
that prove effective for a court jester (Allen) who finds the key
to the Queen’s (Lynn Redgrave) heart. Unnatural acts get wild and
woolly when a good doctor (Gene Wilder) falls for a fickle sheep.
Jack Barry gives fetishism 20 questions on a wacky TV show called
“What’s My Perversion?” Sex research goes under the micro
when a mad scientist (John Carradine) unleashes a marauding
. And the absurdity comes to a frenzied climax with Tony
Randall, Burt Reynolds and Allen as sperm…having second thoughts
about ejaculation.
Offers Danish, Finnish, Norwegian and Swedish subtitles.