STARDUST MEMORIES (1980)

Sandy Bates (Allen) is a successful filmmaker who is completely stressed out with burden of success (leeches, pestering fans, strains on relationships, fake people, etc.), but worst of all he's unhappy. He's invited to a weekend film festival of his movies and during the festival he can't get a moments peace from the fans (one gets into his room late at night) and while trying to salvage his relationship with Isobel he finds himself attracted to the damaged Daisy (the wonderful Jessica Harper) but also haunted by memories of his past love Dorrie.

STARDUST MEMORIES is one of those films that gets even better with repeat viewings. I'm most definitely not a Allen expert, but I feel that a lot of people don't really see SM correctly. I have nothing to back up my theory but I believe (and I don't think this is a spoiler) that if you pay attention at the beginning of the film Bates is dreaming about Dorrie when the maid screams. He runs into the kitchen and sees the dead rabbit. At that point he looks at it and he goes into another dream. It immediately cuts to him arriving at the film festival (that he already stated he wasn't going to) and everybody is exaggerated and grotesque. It's all a fantasy. Then later, still in the fantasy, his fondest memory could very well be a scene from one of his movies. We never really get enough information about his relationship with Dorrie to tell whether it's real or not, but I like to think that it is a scene from a movie. Which is sad when you think about it...his fondest memory is a scene from a movie.

If you are a fan of Cinema then you owe it to yourself to watch STARDUST MEMORIES. It's better than I could ever express and a nice stepping stone into the films of Bergman and Fellini. Highly recommended.

Sharon Stone's film debut.

I might be out on a limb here, but is this scene a nod to WISE BLOOD?

ANNIE HALL (1977)

ANNIE HALL was a turning point for Allen. The films before were more joke driven with almost nonstop jokes and gags, but with ANNIE HALL the emphasis is less on the jokes and more on the characters...and it works wonderfully.

Allen talking to the audience while in character is nothing new, he ended his last film LOVE AND DEATH by doing so, but there's something about how he does it at the beginning of ANNIE HALL that's much more personal and intimate. Maybe it's the modern time period or just the subject matter, but within a few seconds of the film starting Allen has already masterfully engaged the audience. After his brief introduction, where he (Alvy Singer) talks about his outlook on life and his relationship with Annie, the audience is granted entrance into Alvy's world and allowed to watch Alvy's life from his childhood days up to his different sexual adventures as an adult, but mainly ANNIE HALL is about his lurve, his loave and his luff for the beautiful Annie.

I wasn't around in 1977 to see ANNIE HALL upon it's initial release, but I can only imagine how fresh and modern it must have felt with Allen talking directly to the audience, the split screens (one of which wasn't a real split screen, but instead just a wall between duel performances), the animation, the conversing with strangers on the street, the literary feel to the whole thing, etc. I watched it again last night (for about the hundredth time) and I was mesmerized. Even thought I know the script by heart I still find myself lost in the story and smiling at the beautiful photography. I really cannot recommend ANNIE HALL enough. It's been copied a million times, but it's still a landmark of Cinema and one of my favorite movies. But don't listen to me, just enjoy and discover it for yourself.

One thing that I like to do whenever I watch ANNIE HALL is to immediately follow it up with MANHATTAN MURDER MYSTERY and imagine that Alvy Singer and Annie got back together, married and that's them 16 years later!  It's like ANNIE HALL 2 that way!

Great inside joke since that is the real Truman Capote.

FACE TO FACE (1976)