Hollywood Ending

How this film uses it

The job comes from Val's former wife Ellie and her boyfriend Hal, the studio head who took her from him. Allen plays a director who has fallen to shooting commercials, so the film pokes at an industry where a name and a budget count for more than vision. The movie Val makes while blind flops in the United States and is a hit in France. Read one way, the joke is on how little anyone can tell.

Where to see it

The ending. Val's blind-directed blockbuster bombs at home, then France loves it, and he says the line "Thank God the French exist."

How this film uses it

Val has to keep acting like a director in front of the cast and crew while he cannot see anything. His agent Al helps him cover it up. Every scene on set becomes a test of whether he will be found out, which is where the laughs come from.

Where to see it

The shoot. Val hides his blindness from the cast, the crew and Hal while production goes on around him.

How this film uses it

Val goes blind right before production starts, when the pressure of the job is highest. When he wins back Ellie and reconnects with his son, he regains his sight. You can read the blindness as his fear of failing made physical.

Where to see it

Just before shooting. Val is struck blind as the big film is about to begin, with no medical reason.

How this film uses it

The soundtrack leans on jazz and popular recordings from between 1916 and 1955, with no newly written score. The old songs give the film a nostalgic feel. They sit easily beside Val's neurotic spiral.

Where to see it

Throughout the film. Old jazz and standards play under Val's scenes in the city while his problems pile up.