Annie Hall, Neurosis And Comedy
Annie Hall hit screens in 1977. At that time, we still lived without technology. Despite the passage of time, it seems that this Woody Allen classic has never aged: it has adjusted perfectly to our era and, even today, we smile at his ingenious dialogues and monologues.
Because Annie Hall directly appeals to the viewer. Allen bursts into our lives looking at the camera, involving us; he plays with us by presenting us digressions, back and forth in time, subtitles to express the thoughts of the characters… And he even includes a fragment of a cartoon parodying Snow White and the seven dwarfs.
In addition to being a true cinematographic delight with an interesting and innovative aesthetic, Annie Hall brings to the comedy a very realistic psychological component which draws very well the problems of the contemporary man. Fears and neurosis are still very much in our daily life, even if our times have changed.
Awarded with several Oscars, recognized as one of the best screenplays in the history of cinema and as the best romantic comedy, the film Annie Hall is indispensable. It is about “the romantic comedy”, about contemporary life. Completely brilliant, spontaneous and thoughtful, it represents a real delight for our senses and is also likely to be analyzed and studied by fields such as philosophy or psychology.
Who is Annie Hall?
Before we ask who this person is, we should ask ourselves how they came to be. At first, the love story between Alvy Singer and Annie Hall was part of another storyline that evolved into a movie, Anhedonia. Anhedonia is nothing more than the inability to experience pleasure, which gives rise to a feeling of permanent dissatisfaction. However, this is precisely what we find in the character of Alvy Singer.
This original idea did not seem to have much coherence. It sounded more like an internal Woody Allen monologue than the comedy we know today. However, it did eventually take shape and the result was exceptional. Annie Hall is a character comedy, a comedy that observes reality and standardizes visits to the psychologist.
Annie Hall and Diane Keaton
Now we can answer the question: who is Annie Hall? Well, Annie Hall is none other than Diane Keaton. Allen did not imagine any fictional characters. He did not look very far either when drawing his very special protagonists. On the contrary: he was inspired by his own person and by the one who was his companion, Diane Keaton.
Keaton’s birth name was Hall. In her family, we knew her as Annie. But, beyond the name, we see other similarities between the character and the performer: Both have worked as singers in nightclubs and the film is seen as a reflection of Allen and Keaton’s sentimental relationship. , as well as their subsequent rupture. This invites us to reflect on contemporary relationships.
Annie Hall didn’t just create a trend in the film industry, she also did so in the fashion world. Keaton always wore male clothes, loose clothes, sleeveless jackets, ties, etc. This contrasted greatly with the typical costumes of women in the world of cinema. This way of dressing created a trend, shattered molds, established a new fashion, and endowed the character with a big personality. What was the result ? A comedy with a strong identity.
Psychology and laughter
Can psychology and laughter go hand in hand? Laughter has been talked about a lot throughout history. In the beginning, there was a tendency to associate the comic with popular culture and the serious with a more refined culture.
In Antiquity, laughter was studied by different authors such as Democritus, Aristophanes or Hippocrates. Authors like Cicero or Quintillion have taken an interest in the rhetoric of laughter; there were rhetoric manuals that referred to jokes or the kind of laughter used to keep the audience’s attention.
Laughter was provoked by clumsiness. It is therefore normal that it is frequently associated with the figure of the idiot or the madman. At first, there was no great distinction between the two; this one appeared with Cervantes and Don Quixote , a work in which two well differentiated figures appear: the idiot, Sancho, and the madman, Don Quixote.
At the time of humanism, the figure of Laurent Joubert stands out. With his Treatise on Laughter , he brings this point closer to psychology. From this moment, we find various authors who establish theories on this subject, like Freud, Bergson or Koestler.
Bergson has assembled a series of articles in a work called Laughter . In the latter, he comes to the conclusion that laughter is caused by the shock between two shots. Koestler, on the other hand, goes a step further and says that laughter occurs because of a “bissociation”, that is, a double association.
Laughter in Annie Hall
Some studies have delved into the concept of laughter from a psychological point of view. In the case of Annie Hall, we find an association between contemporary psychological problems and hilarity. Daily situations are taken to extremes, a lot of narrative resources are used, the plot is broken to introduce characters known to the public, like the philosopher Marshall McLuhan, and the anagnorisis with the character of Alvy Singer takes place.
Alvy Singer is a comic who knows endless psychological problems. He consults a specialist, questions everything and analyzes things too much. Anagnorisis consists in endowing a character with elements that produce recognition. In the case of Alvy Singer, we have the impression that we are psychoanalyzing Woody Allen and also psychoanalyzing ourselves personally.
Laughing at ourselves, our phobias, the problems of a world in which we lack nothing but we feel totally unhappy: this is what Allen pushes us to do. It achieves an exceptional cinematographic and humorous exercise, offering us one of the best scenarios in the history of cinema. A scenario where psychology and laughter become one.
What is happiness ?
Alvy Singer has spent his entire life searching for happiness, but nothing has allowed him to find it. Not even his love for Annie Hall. He will only look for imperfections. Alvy Singer is the Pygmalion of his era, who tries to mold Annie to be perfect.
Currently, we associate happiness with possession (it can be having a couple relationship, social status or material goods). In Annie Hall , we see that these relationships are not always perfect: they can be irrational and drive us to madness.
In her tireless struggle to figure out what happiness is and how to achieve it, Alvy asks a seemingly happy couple to deliver the key to their happiness. This couple is made up of two people who are indeed totally happy. However, they do not ask questions, do not think, and are completely empty and superficial. Allen therefore gives us one of his keys to happiness: not to think too much and to live in ignorance.
In a world as hectic as ours, there is no room for thought. Alvy represents the neurotic city dweller who has a totally pessimistic vision and who parodies our contemporaneity. Annie Hall invites us to analyze, but also to laugh. If we continue to take the world too seriously, we could become the next Alvy Singer.
Our thoughts Woody Allen is a famous filmmaker who also gave us many humorous quotes. Discover them quickly!
