ANNIE HALL (1977) - ♦♦♦♦♦

Directed by - Woody Allen

Written by - Woody Allen, Marshall Brickman

Starring - Woody Allen, Diane Keaton, Tony Roberts, Carol Kane, Paul Simon, Janet Margolin, Shelley Duvall Christopher Walken, Colleen Dewhurst

"It's hard to find enough words to praise Annie Hall, the shell shockingly honest comedy about relationships in which a melancholic Alvy Singer immediately starts by trying to examine why his love story with his titular girl failed. 

Simply put, this film is a masterpiece. Aside from it being universally insightful and as rewarding as a therapy session for both filmmaker and audience, this production also marked the first collaboration between Woody and celebrated cinematographer Gordon Willis, whom he often cited as being a "technical wizard" and who certainly more than anyone else helped him achieve that advancement on a technical level. 

Annie Hall won all the major Oscars that year, including one for one of his muses Diane Keaton - the two were very close and certainly romantically involved for a year around the time of the making of Bananas and Sleeper. Woody missed out on his award for best actor (not that it mattered, as he didn't even show up to accept his award for best director). 

Most importantly however, it marked the beginning of the new, more in depth and psychoanalytical infleunced and driven streak of works that elevated him to cinema Olympus and kickstarted an impressive run of universally acclaimed features.

Romantic Comedy, USA