I won't rework the thorough comments which preceded mine here, because all the accolades I would give this film are stated quite eloquently. It is his best film; it does contain brilliant insights into human nature; it is visually breathtaking. I just want to mention a few aspects from my point of view.

 

It has been on my list of the five best movies ever made ever since I saw it in 1979, chiefly for its realistic dialogue and probing commentary on the desperate nature of human beings in search of love, but I had never seen New York with my own eyes, so I could only try to accept but not fully understand Woody's love for Manhattan, which is firmly stated in the introductory narration.

 

After my recent 4 day trip there, I have a new perspective - the city itself is so charmingly and compactly laid out, so full of history and culture and everything famous, that you can't go to New York without falling in love with it. After only 3 days I felt I wanted to live there. It is the city of not only Woody Allen but Bob Dylan, Tennessee Williams, Edgar Allan Poe, George Washington, Paul Newman, Jacqueline Onassis, and hundreds of other illustrious and creative people of the past and present. The tour guides can't possibly squeeze in the whole story of every district and every building; the air just vibrates with this knowledge that you are in the greatest city in the world.

 

The beauty of Manhattan that Woody conveys so perfectly in every camera shot and through the music of Gershwin has new meaning for me because I was there. It's not so much a physical beauty but a feeling that all is right with the city, that this is what a city is supposed to be. It puts other cities to shame.All I can say is he fully succeeded in conveying what New York City is like. Not to mention that I now understand the obsession with delis; they have the best food in the world.

 

I would also like to add my new perspective on the story itself - a very 70's plot of several people switching romantic partners back and forth at the drop of a hat. Diane Keaton's Mary remains the most perfect of the characterizations as the neurotic free spirit who despite her total self-absorption inspires our sympathy and affection. The 17 year old played by Mariel Hemingway is more irritating with the passage of 20 years, not because Woody's real-life obsession with young girls came to light, but because Mariel is a truly vapid non-actress with no ability to convey any depth or feeling. The constant commentary about her stunning beauty falls flat because she merely has a strikingly angular face, no personality and really possesses nothing except the bloom of youth and shiny hair.

 

Mary rightly tells Isaac that his first wife becoming a lesbian "explains the little girl."The denouement seems more unsatisfactory now than in previous viewings, and I want to shake the characters awake. But it was the seventies, and this is how people acted. It captures the times perfectly. I can't discuss who ends up with whom without spoiling the end for those who haven't seen it, but the problem for me is that the characters seem to live for the moment and if they can't have the one they want, they simply change partners without much strain.

 

This attitude does not play quite so charmingly at the end of the 90's when fidelity is valued more highly than it was in the 70's.Nevertheless the beauty of the city stands alone no matter what the characters' desperate machinations.And as a hilarious commentary on the human instinct to find someone to love no matter what the consequences, there is nothing finer.

Though I might not approve of Isaac's final choice, his almost religious experience which brings him to that conclusion is a stunning climax to the film. Whether he changes his mind about who is the right one for him, he has learned something crucial about what really is important to him in life.The true stars of the movie are Manhattan, never more beautiful, and Diane Keaton, never more brilliant.

Neurotic in NYC

 

Author: brocksilvey from United States

4 February 2008

 

Woody Allen has been churning out mediocre films for so long now that it's easy to forget how good some of his older films were."Manhattan" is the product of Allen's"mature" 1970s phase, the phase that also produced "Annie Hall" and "Interiors," and it's a wonderful film. It's not the plot that makes it singular -it's typical upper-crust New York Allen,full of neurotic people in therapy cheating on one another and making mistake after mistake in their pursuit of what they think will make them happy. No, what makes "Manhattan" so effective is its style.

*

Filmed in black and white (because, as Allen's character says in an opening voice over, New York is a city that has always and will always exist in black and white), the film is a love letter to NYC, and it suggests that the neuroses that fill its denizens are as much a part of the city's character as its architecture, culture and diversity. I would instantly be annoyed by the people that populate Allen's films if I met them in any other context. As it is, I can't imagine any Allen film (at least not one set in New York) without them.Grade: A

The Masterpiece of Woody Allen

 

Author: Claudio Carvalho from Rio de Janeiro, Brazil

22 July 2005

 

In Manhattan, Isac Davis (Woody Allen) is a divorced writer of TV shows unhappy with his job. His ex-wife left him to live with another woman and is writing a book about her relationship with Isac. He presently dates a seventeen years old high-school student, Tracy (Mariel Hemingway), who is in love with him, but he does not like her. When he meets Mary Wilkie (Diane Keaton), the mistress of his married best friend Yale (Michael Murphy), he has a crush on her. He finishes with Tracy and has an affair with Mary, affecting the lives of many persons including his own.

 

"Manhattan" is, in my opinion, the best movie of Woody Allen, of whom I am a big fan. I have all Woody Allen movies in my collection, but "Manhattan" is my favorite one, a masterpiece about relationship in a cold huge city. There are many fantastic lines along the story, with right doses of his typical bitter humor and romance. The black and white photography of Gordon Willis is one of the most beautiful I have ever seen in a film. There is a specific scene, used on the cover of the DVD and the poster of this movie, that is amazingly wonderful. Mariel Hemingway certainly has her best performance in the fantastic and very touching character of Tracy. The music score, with Gershwin, completes this magnificent movie. I do not have enough adjectives in English to eulogize this masterpiece. My vote is ten.

 

 

 

We all are fascinated by the cinema scope(CS) vision and what beautiful image it gives us. it is a debatable weather it resembles our normal vision or not but one things for sure we hardly give importance to things too far left and right of our vision. keeping this in mind its really not advisable to make use of it in each and every film. i have spent so much time writing so much about cinema scope is bcoz after watching several films i finally got to see an extremely good use of this sort of aspect ratio, WOODY has definitely made an important decision and has made the most of it. 

 

The introduction of Manhattan in the early scene, the long walk of two friends after dinner, wide roads of the city, woody's apartment, Murphy's phone conversation, all shout out the brilliant use of CS. woody very smartly squeezes the frame by placing something in the foreground, or keeping the actors in a closer frame as and when required. overall it gives us an expression of vastness of city and makes a exuberant locale for the characters to play their part.

Gordon willis' ligting also helps in making the picture look life-like and get the feel of manhattan(check out the use of no light,blackout) well to say the least i have never seen manhattan (with my own eyes) but because of such a detailed work i have a glimpse of it.good work woody (your films have never failed to fascinate me no matter how many times i may see them)

Trivia (Part1)

 

First film shot using the widescreen (2.35:1) anamorphic Panavision process for a film directed by Woody Allen. 

 

Woody Allen disliked his work in this film so much he offered to direct another film for United Artists for free if they kept Manhattan on the shelf for good. Allan later reportedly said: "I 

just thought to myself, 'At this point in my life, if this is the best I can do, they shouldn't give me money to make movies'." 

 

Stacey Nelkin, whom Woody Allen dated while she was at New York's Stuyvesant High School, was reportedly the inspiration for the character of Tracey. 

 

Presentations of this film on television (broadcast, cable or home video) required preservation of the widescreen format. This presented a problem in the U.S. since certain F.C.C. technical regulations did not permit a portion of the screen to be left blank as in letterboxing. The problem was solved by making the area above and below the frame gray. The regulations have since been changed and letterboxing with black borders is now permitted. 

 

This is one of the very few Woody Allen films to not have opening credits. 

 

While this is Woody Allen's least favorite of the movies he has directed, this was the most commercially successful film of his career. He said years later that he was still in disbelief 

that he "got away with it". 

 

Toward the end of the film, when Isaac is haranguing Yale, he mentions Yale someday being before a Senate subcommittee "naming names". In Le prête-nom, Woody Allen's character winds up before a Congressional committee to "name names", including the character played by Michael Murphy. 

 

When released on video, it was the first cassette to be encoded with the letterbox format. 

 

While talking to Mary in the museum, Issac (Woody Allen) says that the brain is the most overrated body part. While in Allen's film Woody et les robots, his character Miles Monroe 

says that it's his second favorite body part. 

 

Woody Allen wanted Jodie Foster for the role of Tracy which in the end went to Mariel Hemingway. 

 

First film in black-and-white directed by Woody Allen. 

 

The film was nominated for two Academy Awards, for Best Supporting Actress (Mariel Hemingway) and Best Writing, Screenplay Written Directly for the Screen (Woody Allen), but 

failed to win either Oscar. 

 

The picture's cinematographer Gordon Willis once said that this film was his favorite of all the movies he had shot. 

 

First of two Woody Allen films with the word "Manhattan" in the title. The second would be Meurtre mystérieux à Manhattan made and first released around fourteen years later in 

1993. 

 

Woody Allen has described the film as being a combination of his previous two films, Intérieurs and Annie Hall. 

 

One of eight cinema movie collaborations of Woody Allen and actress Diane Keaton, Allen co-starring in six of them and directing seven of them. 

 

Debut film of actor Mark Linn-Baker who was billed as Mary Linn-Baker and played a Shakespearian actor. 

 

The only Woody Allen - Diane Keaton film which is in black-and-white. 

 

According to the 'Virgin Film Guide', "The producers petitioned to change the 'R' rating to a 'PG' [for the USA] but were turned down, mostly because of the content concerning the 

older man [Isaac, Woody Allen] and the teenage girl [Tracy, Mariel Hemingway]". 

 

Apparently, there exists a clause in the studio's contract for the film that mandates that the movie must always be shown in letterbox format in any home video release and/or TV/cable broadcast. 

 

The age difference between twice-divorced forty-two year-old comedy writer Isaac (Woody Allen) and seventeen year-old high-school student Tracy (Mariel Hemingway) was twenty-

five years. 

 

The ninth feature film directed by Woody Allen. 

 

First of five movie collaborations that actor Wallace Shawn has made with Woody Allen. The films include Manhattan, Radio Days, Ombres et brouillard, Melinda et Melinda and Le sortilège du scorpion de Jade. 

 

The name of the book that Jill (Meryl Streep) wrote was "Marriage, Divorce and Selfhood". 

 

The film's famous black-and-white movie poster featuring an image of a couple sitting on a park bench next to the Queensboro Bridge has becoming iconic in film history. 

 

The movie is ranked at the No. #63 spot on Bravo's "100 Funniest Movies". 

 

The United States Library of Congress deemed the film "culturally significant" and selected it for preservation in the National Film Registry in 2001. 

 

The picture is ranked at No. #4 on Rotten Tomatoes' "25 Best Romantic Comedies". 

 

The movie inspired the song, "Remember Manhattan", released on Richard Marx's debut album. 

 

Woody Allen plays a TV writer in this movie. In real life, Allen was a television comedy writer during the 1950s. 

 

Final major Woody Allen - Diane Keaton movie until Meurtre mystérieux à Manhattan debuted around fourteen years later. In between, Keaton did a cameo in Allen's Radio Days around eight years after this film. 

 

The picture is ranked at the No. #76 spot on movie magazine Empire's Poll of the 500 Greatest Movies ever made. 

 

The picture is ranked at the No. #46 rank on the AFI's "100 Years...100 Laughs" list. 

 

All music on the movie's soundtrack were pieces of music from composer George Gershwin. The compositions were performed for the film by two orchestras, the Buffalo Philharmonic Orchestra and the New York Philharmonic Orchestra. 

 

The picture is ranked at the No. #66 rank on the AFI's "100 Years...100 Passions" list. 

 

Manhattan and New York is known for its skyscrapers. The movie's "Manhattan" title logo formed such high-rise buildings out all of its letters fit with highlighted lit-up square windows. 

 

Studio United Artists originally had concerns about letting Woody Allen make a black-and-white picture due to the form's lack of commercial potential but UA executives eventually 

relented and allowed Allen to make a B&W film. 

 

Woody Allen was top first billed, Diane Keaton was billed second, Michael Murphy was third billed, Mariel Hemingway was fourth billed, Meryl Streep was billed fifth and Anne Byrne 

Hoffman was sixth billed. 

 

The name of the dog, a Dachshund, was "Waffles". According to website 'Wienerdogs', "In the movie..."Waffles" [is] a standard smooth Doxie belonging to Diane Keaton...Waffles is 

seen in the house, being held during a conversation, and taken for a walk during a date". 

 

Woody Allen has said of this film: "I presented a view of the city as I'd like it to be and as it can be today, if you take the trouble to walk on the right streets".