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20 things you may not know as ‘ Annie Hall’ marks 40 years
Love is too weak a word for what we feel about Annie Hall. Woody Allen’s timeless ode to love, lobsters and life in New York redefined the romantic comedy with its story of neurotic comedian Alvy ( Allen), who tries to understand why his relationship with the original “manic pixie dream girl” Annie ( Diane Keaton) disintegrated. Forty years after Annie Hall arrived in theaters ( on April 20, 1977), we take a look at 20 things you may not know about the movie. 1 Anhedonia,The film’s original title was meaning the “inability to experience pleasure.” 2Other titles AnxietyAllen considered included and Alvy and Me, while co- writer Marshall Brickman jokingly suggested Me and 3At My Goy and It Had to Be Jew. the studio’s urging, Allen went with Annie Hall. The title is a play on actress Diane Keaton’s real name, Diane Hall. 4At 93 minutes, Annie Hall is the second- shortest winner of the best picture Academy Award. Marty ( 1955) is the shortest at 91 minutes. The movie won four Oscars, including actress ( Keaton), director ( Allen) and original screenplay. 5 In what was considered a major upset, Annie Hall beat Star Wars for best picture. 6 Allen didn’t attend the Oscars because he considered the awards meaningless. He read about Annie Hall’s wins in The New York Times the next morning. 7 The earliest version of the movie was less focused on Alvy and Annie’s relationship, which Allen preferred. “The film was supposed to be what happens in a guy’s mind,” but “it was completely incoherent,” he said in a Q& A in 2012. “Nobody understood anything that went on. The relationship between myself and Diane Keaton was all anyone cared about.” 8 The film initially was going to include a scene in which Alvy and Annie witness a murder. The plot line was later used in Allen’s Manhattan Murder Mystery ( 1993), which co- starred Keaton as his wife. 9
Other axed sequences include a fantasy New York Knicks game with Franz Kafka and Friedrich Nietzsche and a tour through hell with Satan and Richard Nixon. 10 Brooke Shields appeared film as in youngan early Alvy’s version girlfriend,of the but her scenes were cut. 11Sigourney Weaver made her big- screen debut in Annie Hall as Alvy’s date toward the end of the film. Her non- speaking appearance is a mere six seconds. 12 The jokes in Alvy’s standup comedy scenes were recycled from Allen’s stand- up days. 13Kay Lenz ( Breezy) was offered the title role but AP turned it down at the suggestion of then- boyfriend David Cassidy. 14Much of Annie’s eccentric, androgynous wardrobe belonged to Keaton. 15 Walking in the park, Alvy points to a man and jokes to Annie, “There’s the winner of the Truman Capote lookalike contest.” That man actually is Capote. 16 In a notable early use of split screen, cinematographer Gordon Willis erected a thin wall between Annie and Alvy talking to their therapists so they could be shot simultaneously. 17The beloved lobster dinner — in which Alvy and Annie try to cook the rogue crustaceans — was the first scene shot. 18 In the memorable scene where Alvy is offered cocaine at a party, his sneeze that ends in a cloud of cocaine was actually unscripted. The accident got so much laughter from test audiences that Allen decided to keep it. The scene was later parodied in an episode of Gilmore
Girls, when Lorelai ( Lauren Graham) sneezes near a chalkboard and causes a billow of chalk dust. 19Annie Hall originally ended with an awkward run- in between Alvy and Annie. It was only during a cab ride to an early screening of the film that Allen came up with the “Most of us need the eggs” speech that’s heard as a voiceover in the last scene. 20 Annie Hall is Allen’s fourth- highest grossing movie, behind Midnight in Paris, Hannah and Her Sisters and Manhattan. Adjusted for inflation, it is his highest earner, with an estimated gross of $ 148 million.