We are now almost half a century on from the imperial phase of writer-director Woody Allen’s career. Though fifty years has passed, Allen’s work continues to prove extremely influential to the world of film and television. From the long running sitcoms of Larry David to the comedy dramas of Noah Baumbach, the man’s influence is everywhere.
His enduring relevance is no doubt, in part, due to his unique ability to capture the beauty and ennui of cosmopolitan living. No other artist before or since has quite so successfully portrayed the melancholic superficiality of middle class American life, nor the intensely tempestuous throes of big city romance. Regardless of what may be said for the man himself, he is indispensably important to the history of cinema.
Whilst there are at least a dozen films throughout this career that could be chosen to exemplify his cultural importance, the crown jewel of his decades-long filmography is undoubtedly the 1979 classic Manhattan.
The film is unashamedly effusive in its praise of the eponymous New York borough, with Allen lovingly presenting his hometown as the world’s centre of art, civilisation and culture.
Though the city itself is venerated, the film wastes no time in lampooning it’s shallow and materialistic inhabitants. Allen himself, as usual, plays the stuffy middle class intellectual, satirizing his own public image and providing a scathing critique of the modern liberal man. The film’s satire is a riotous success and speaks to Allen’s screenwriting abilities. It is with this film that he truly establishes himself as one of the great social satirists of American cinema.
Though clearly a product of unrivalled auteurship, one would be amiss to fail to recognise the film’s other contributors. Diane Keaton provides a career-defining performance as Mary, which is often overshadowed by her more famous, though less impressive role in Allen’s earlier Annie Hall, Marshall Brickman contributes significantly as a co-writer on the film’s Oscar-winning screenplay, and the great Gordon Willis offers some of the most beautiful black-and-white cinematography ever put to film.
It is an unbelievable feat to be able to crystallise the essence of a town in just over ninety minutes, but this is exactly what Allen, and his collaborators, are able to do here. The film is an inescapably important contribution to the romantic comedy genre and an unparalleled landmark in the history of great American cinema.
5/5
IMAGE CREDITS: TMDB
