Manhattan (film)
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| Manhattan | |
|---|---|
 original movie poster |
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| Directed by | Woody Allen |
| Produced by | Charles H. Joffe |
| Written by | Woody Allen Marshall Brickman |
| Starring | Woody Allen Diane Keaton Michael Murphy Mariel Hemingway Meryl Streep Anne Byrne |
| Cinematography | Gordon Willis |
| Editing by | Susan E. Morse |
| Distributed by | United Artists |
| Release date(s) | March 14, 1979 (USA) |
| Running time | 96 min. |
| Language | English |
| IMDb profile | |
Manhattan is a 1979 romantic comedy film. The movie was written by Woody Allen and Marshall Brickman, and directed by Allen, as with their previous successful collaboration, Annie Hall. Manhattan is filmed in black and white. The film was nominated for two Academy Awards for Best Actress in a Supporting Role (Mariel Hemingway) and Best Writing, Screenplay Written Directly for the Screen. It also won the BAFTA Award for Best Film.
The film is consistently on the Internet Movie Database's list of top 250 films and was #46 on American Film Institute's "100 Years, 100 Laughs". This film is number 63 on Bravo's "100 Funniest Movies." In 2001 the United States Library of Congress deemed the film "culturally significant" and selected it for preservation in the National Film Registry.
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[edit] Synopsis
The film opens with a montage of images of Manhattan accompanied by George Gershwin's Rhapsody in Blue. Isaac Davis, played by Allen, is introduced as a man who loves New York City.
Isaac is a twice-divorced forty-something comedy writer dealing with the women in his life. He is dating Tracy (Mariel Hemingway), a 17-year old high school girl. However, he falls in love with his best friend's mistress, Mary Wilkie (Diane Keaton). Also, his lesbian ex-wife, Jill (Meryl Streep), is writing a tell-all book about their relationship. Over the course of the movie, Isaac tries to figure out who he ultimately wants to be with: Tracy or Mary?
[edit] Filming locations
The scene in which Isaac romances Mary at an art exhibition opening was filmed at the Museum of Modern Art. The sculpture garden and Pablo Picasso's She-Goat are featured.[1] The iconic shot of Diane Keaton and Woody Allen on the bench was shot just south of the 59th Street Bridge by the East River.
[edit] Style
In an interview with London-based arts critic John Fordham, Allen said that Manhattan was "like a mixture of what I was trying to do with Annie Hall and Interiors."[2] He told Time that his film deals with the problem of people trying to live a decent existence in an essential junk-obsessed contemporary culture without selling out but admitted that "it's impossible not to be a sellout unless you give away all your physical possessions and live like a hermit."[citation needed]
The film is shot in black and white by cinematographer Gordon Willis, who had also filmed The Godfather and its sequels, as well as Allen's Annie Hall. According to an inteview with Marc Didden in the New Musical Express from the time of the film's release, Allen decided to shoot his film in black and white
"because that's how I remember it from when I was small. Maybe it's a reminiscence from old photographs, films, books and all that. But that's how I remember New York. I always heard Gershwin music with it, too. In Manhattan I really think that we — that's me and cinematographer Gordon Willis — succeeded in showing the city. When you see it there on that big screen it's really decadent."[citation needed]
The film is notable for its extensive use of music composed by George Gershwin and Ira Gershwin.
The film was shot in the Cinemascope aspect ratio, 2.35:1. Allen wanted to preserve Willis's compositions, and insisted that the aspect ratio be preserved when the film was released on video (an unusual request in a time when widescreen films were normally panned and scanned for TV and video release). As a result, all copies of the movie on video were letterboxed. Allen even sued a Swiss TV channel that broadcast a pan and scan version of the movie.[citation needed] However, a pan and scan version has since been aired on UK television.[citation needed]
[edit] Reception
Manhattan opened in North America on April 25, 1979 in 29 theatres. It grossed $485,734 ($16,749 per screen) in its opening weekend, and earned a robust $39,946,780 in its entire run.[3]
The film was nominated for Academy Awards for Best Actress in a Supporting Role (Mariel Hemingway) and Best Writing, Screenplay Written Directly for the Screen. It also won the BAFTA Award for Best Film.
The film is consistently on the Internet Movie Database's list of top 250 films and was #46 on American Film Institute's "100 Years, 100 Laughs". This film is number 63 on Bravo's "100 Funniest Movies." In 2001 the United States Library of Congress deemed the film "culturally significant" and selected it for preservation in the National Film Registry.
Auteurist film critic Andrew Sarris notably praised Manhattan as "the only truly great American movie of the 1970s."[4] Time film critic Frank Rich wrote at the time that Allen's film is "tightly constructed, clearly focused intellectually, it is a prismatic portrait of a time and place that may be studied decades hence to see what kind of people we were."[citation needed]
[edit] References
- ^ Made in NY, Museum of Modern Art, New York City, USA, 2006.
- ^ "Manhattan." BestPrices.com. 15 November 2006.
- ^ http://www.boxofficemojo.com/movies/?id=manhattan.htm
- ^ moviediva. "Manhattan." moviediva. January 2003. 15 November 2006.
[edit] External links
Julia (1977) • The Deer Hunter (1978) • Kramer vs. Kramer (1979) • Manhattan (1979) • The French Lieutenant's Woman (1981) • Sophie's Choice (1982) • Silkwood (1983) • Falling in Love (1984) • Out of Africa (1985) • Plenty (1985) • Heartburn (1986) • Ironweed (1987) • A Cry in the Dark (1988) • She-Devil (1989) • Postcards from the Edge (1993) • The Bridges of Madison County (1995) • Marvin's Room (1996) • Music of the Heart (1999) • The Hours (2002) • Adaptation. (2002) • The Manchurian Candidate (2004) • Prime (2005) • A Prairie Home Companion (2006) • The Devil Wears Prada (2006)
| Preceded by Julia |
BAFTA Award for Best Film 1981 |
Succeeded by The Elephant Man |
Categories: Articles lacking sources from November 2006 | All articles lacking sources | Articles with unsourced statements since February 2007 | All articles with unsourced statements | 1979 films | Black and white films | 1970s Romantic comedy films | United States National Film Registry | Films directed by Woody Allen | English-language films | Films featuring museums
