What filmmaking techniques does Annie Hall use?

CineCode breaks down 4 techniques in Annie Hall (1977): Direct Address, Non-Linear Narrative, Deadpan Absurdism and Circular Structure.

Who directed Annie Hall?

Woody Allen directed Annie Hall, released in 1977. CineCode also covers Take the Money and Run (1969), Bananas (1971), Everything You Always Wanted to Know About Sex *But Were Afraid to Ask (1972), Sleeper (1973), Love and Death (1975), Manhattan (1979).

What films are similar to Annie Hall?

Films that share techniques with Annie Hall include Network (1976), Monty Python and the Holy Grail (1975), Shallow Grave (1994), Anything Else (2003).

Comedy · Drama · Romance

Annie Hall

Woody Allen, 1977

A neurotic New York comedian tries to understand why his relationship with Annie Hall ended by examining the relationship itself. He talks directly to the audience, jumps around in time and refuses the conventions of romantic comedy. This is the film that made the breakup movie serious.

4 Narrative

At a glance

Annie Hall is a 1977 comedy, drama and romance film directed by Woody Allen. This breakdown covers 4 techniques (4 narrative), each with the scene where you can see it. If you like how it is made, Network uses several of the same techniques.

Narrative

Direct Address

Having a character look into the camera and speak to the audience, also called breaking the fourth wall. It makes you feel like their confidant and reminds you this is a film.

How this film uses it

Alvy Singer talks to the camera constantly. He does it from the opening joke about not wanting to belong to any club, through his corrections and asides, to his final summary of the relationship. Speaking to you directly makes you his analyst, his therapist and his jury at the same time. The film is structured as a monologue delivered to you.

Where to see it

The opening. Alvy speaks straight to camera before any part of the story has been set up. The fourth wall, the invisible barrier between film and audience, is gone from the first frame.

Narrative

Non-Linear Narrative

Telling the story out of order by jumping between time periods. The order you see events in changes how you understand them.

How this film uses it

Allen moves freely through Alvy's past and present. He revisits scenes, interrupts them and sometimes drops adult Alvy into childhood memories. The structure acts out the film's argument. We experience relationships as memory, present feeling and looking back all at once, and never in order.

Where to see it

Alvy revisiting his childhood classroom. The adult Alvy is placed inside his own past, so you can literally see the film jumping out of time order.

Narrative

Deadpan Absurdism

Showing extreme, violent or surreal events while the characters react as if nothing unusual is happening. That mismatch is funny and unsettling at the same time.

How this film uses it

Subtitles translate what characters are 'really' saying during a conversation. Marshall McLuhan appears to settle an argument about his own work. A split screen shows 2 families at the same time. Allen uses these devices with no change in tone and treats the absurdity as ordinary. That makes the film's emotional honesty all the more surprising when it arrives.

Where to see it

The Marshall McLuhan appearance. Allen pulls the theorist out from behind a display to win an argument, and the film presents it as if this were entirely possible.

Narrative

Circular Structure

Ending the film where it started, or with a scene that echoes the opening. The repeat shows what has changed, or suggests the cycle will keep going.

How this film uses it

The film ends with a joke about needing the eggs, which echoes the jokes Alvy told at the beginning. Things have changed by then. Because the film circles back, the conclusion he stated at the start has now been earned over the whole film. The circle works as confirmation. That is, he returns to the same insight from experience this time, where before it was only theory.

Where to see it

The final joke about needing the eggs. It calls back to the opening jokes and turns a punchline into a sincere emotional statement.

Questions

Annie Hall: quick answers

What filmmaking techniques does Annie Hall use?: CineCode breaks down 4 techniques in Annie Hall (1977): Direct Address, Non-Linear Narrative, Deadpan Absurdism and Circular Structure.
Who directed Annie Hall?: Woody Allen directed Annie Hall, released in 1977. CineCode also covers Take the Money and Run (1969), Bananas (1971), Everything You Always Wanted to Know About Sex *But Were Afraid to Ask (1972), Sleeper (1973), Love and Death (1975), Manhattan (1979).
What films are similar to Annie Hall?: Films that share techniques with Annie Hall include Network (1976), Monty Python and the Holy Grail (1975), Shallow Grave (1994), Anything Else (2003).

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