Annie Hall is one of Woody Allen’s most popular and critically acclaimed films. Its coverage of Alvy’s relationships is what people generally see in it. But there are a few things I think are usually missed. Some of these things are strange.
Very strange. Look at the scene where Annie tells Alvy about her past boyfriends. She describes the second one as creepy. But the scene transitions before she completes that sentence, so it’s over the next scene that we hear the word creepy.
And what are we looking at then? A large body of water with lights shimmering in the horizon at such distance as to be unrecognizable. So whaddaya do here? Crop ’em & blow ’em up.
Damn if they don’t look just like the mysterious lights over Phoenix in 1997. Now that’s creepy. These lights were seen over Phoenix in 1997 and comprise a mystery whose significance is still debated today. Well, their appearance in Woody Allen’s film twenty years before they happened may have some place in that debate. For now, I’m just reviewing a few mysteries in Annie Hall. That’s one.
Another mystery is the actors playing Annie’s father. Yes, actors. Why would there be more than one person playing that role? That’s mystery number two. But basically, just juxtapose a frame of her dad at the dinner table with a frame of dad in the living room saying he can’t drive Annie and Alvy to the airport cuz he hasn’t finished his drink. Comparing those two images clearly indicates two different people. Mind you, the second “Dad Hall” isn’t listed in the credits. That’s two.
Yet another mystery occurs when Annie asks Alvy whether there was someone else in his apartment when she called at 3 AM. She said she thought she heard someone talking. But nobody else was talking. Pam (played by Shelley Duvall) was there, but not saying anything. So why did Alvy say he had the radio on? And why did he quickly correct himself and say, “no, the television”? Did he screw up the line and didn’t feel like redoing it? That’s three.
Then, in a continuation of that scene in Annie’s apartment is the fourth mystery of this film. They are in bed, talking about never breaking up again, but there is a strange sound in the background — almost inaudible. It’s the sound of a clock ticking. Why? They’re not timing anything. There’s no visible clock, say, a grandfather clock. There’s no clock ticking in any other scene. WTF?
These four mysteries and other discoveries in Annie Hall will be the subject of a big blog post here, in a review of what I believe to be the film fraught with the most hidden meaning of any I’ve seen. These four mysteries are very much connected, comprising a dimension of interpretation with profound ramifications for this country’s hidden history.
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