Annie Hall, 2014

Woody as Orthodox in “Annie Hall”

The other night “Annie Hall” was on cable. I’d forgotten in all the Woody Allen pedophilia and incest allegations in the news in the last year that I really loved some of his early movies, including this one from 1977. I’m pretty sure I saw this movie in the mid-1980s in Eau Claire, Wisconsin. I either watched it at the university film society or rented the VHS with my high school boyfriend, who also treated me to my first Mel Brooks and campier Woody Allen movies like “Sleeper” and “Everything You Always Wanted to Know About Sex (But Were Afraid to Ask).”

“Annie Hall” was probably one of my first introductions to the idea of New York, and having seen it before going to Vassar College gave me some context for all of the neurosis, intellectual culture, and beauty I would soon encounter at college and in my visits to the city. Telling new friends that I was sort of from Chippewa Falls, Wisconsin, Annie’s hometown in the movie, was an amusing anecdote that both placed me as from “somewhere” and as a person who was not hick enough to be unfamiliar with Woody Allen. But watching it again a couple of nights ago, a few things stood out in the time capsule.

Gender relations! It was actually my husband who pointed out how wildly dated the film’s portrayal of male-female courtship was. The idea that a somewhat successful man (Alvy Singer) would begin dating a woman (a singer, sort of) like Annie Hall and then proceed to tell her that she should take college classes and read more. I can’t imagine that going over very well among any semi-bohemian artistic women I know these days. Also, Alvy suggested she go to analysis/therapy, and presumably paid for it.

And speaking of gender relations, sex! Every woman Alvy goes out with, no matter how weird or unpleasant the date, he sleeps with. (Digression: I had the same wide-eyed reaction to “When Harry Met Sally.” Seriously, was/is this a thing in adult, straight dating? Or is this male screenwriter wish fulfillment? Because, back in ancient times, when I went on dates, if I wasn’t having fun to begin with, there was none of that.)

Aside from the gender/sex stuff, I took another look at the Chippewa Falls scenes in the movie, and I had to laugh. Back when the movie was new-ish to me, the way that Alvy imagines Annie’s Wisconsin family see him, as an unassimilated Orthodox man with a long beard and black hat rather than as he is, provided a visual template for every instance of blatant anti-Semitism that I observed. A very young Christopher Walken* plays Annie’s brother and deadpans a hilarious and disturbing monologue about his homocidal tendencies. But this time I noticed how fancy and patrician Annie’s family is supposed to be, and the fact that Walken drives a Porsche! All of that is very un-Chippewa Falls (a place where the local gentry mostly drive American, for one thing).

Ever since the re-emergence of the incest allegations against Woody Allen earlier this year, watching his movies is not the pure, brainy escapist joy that it once was. It’s tainted for me, unfortunately, because I can’t go back to a state before I had read anything about the accusations. Still, it was a wonderful surprise to catch “Annie Hall” and be reminded of what a great piece of art it is.

* I’m one of those people who would pay to listen to Christophen Walken read from the dictionary