A bittersweet poignant movie.Supposedly the best from Woody Allen.
A perfect example of a dedicated artist's semi-autobiographical work.(apparently lead actress Diane Keaton and Woody Allen were together for a few years in New York city and broke up in the early 70s right before she moved to LA, just like in the movie which came out in 1977)
I still can't get the last scene of the movie out of my mind. The monologue from Woody Allen goes something like this-
"And then I realized what a terrific person Annie was and how much fun it was just to know her; and then I remembered this old joke 'A guy goes to the psychiatrist and says doc my brother is a chicken. The doc says well then why don't you turn him in.The guy says- well I would but I still need the eggs! Thats the way I feel about relationships now I guess.They are irrational and crazy and absurd.But we still go through them, because most of us still need the eggs".
Creating art out of one's own life is an interesting experience.(someone might argue isn't ALL art autobiographical in nature? But let's not go there for the moment!)
I remember a conversation with one of my ex-s, she asked a strange question (about half a year after our break-up) "Do you have any feelings for me still?" and I said "Well , honestly, no" She didn't expect that from me, the kind of guy I am.The I said- "Well I wrote a couple of songs.And after I wrote them I felt like all the emotions that I had for you now belonged to those songs." Creating art out of your own life could be strangely therapeutic.
Don't know if Woody Allen had this intention. But really a certain amount of equanimity is needed to create art in this fashion as is apparent from this movie. To me thats the best of art/poetry as William Wordsworth says of poetry "Poetry is nothing but a flow of powerful feelings, collected in tranquility".
