Allen's greatest film? Spend time in its company and you'll find it hard to argue otherwise.
Manhattan (1979)
Tomatometer
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Reviews Counted:42
Fresh:41
Rotten:1
Average Rating:8.6/10
Consensus: One of Woody Allen's early classics, Manhattan combines modern, bittersweet humor and timeless romanticism with unerring grace.
Theatrical Release:08-12-2006
Synopsis: Woody Allen finished his first decade of filmmaking, the 1970s, with one of his greatest and most deliberately artistic films, the love song to his home city MANHATTAN. Allen plays Isaac Davis,... Woody Allen finished his first decade of filmmaking, the 1970s, with one of his greatest and most deliberately artistic films, the love song to his home city MANHATTAN. Allen plays Isaac Davis, another one of his thinly veiled self-portraits, who finds himself suffering from a mid-life crisis. Unhappy in his career as a variety show comedy writer and newly divorced from a woman who has since come out as a lesbian, Isaac waffles between two relationships: that with emotionally honest and open, but far too young, Tracy (Mariel Hemingway in an Academy Award nominated performance) and with pseudo-intellectual, neurotic Mary (Diane Keaton). Allen uses these two women to contrast the naiveté and lack of pretension of youth with the growing cynicism of middle age. Although the acting and writing is some of the sharpest of Allen's filmmaking career, what is truly memorable and endearing about MANHATTAN is its romantic view of New York. Whereas the character relationships in the film are largely dysfunctional and fueled by a vision of perfection, by contrast the city itself is envisioned by Allen as an object of perfection. In order to create aesthetically pleasing images of the city, Allen and his longtime cinematographer Gordon Willis decided to shoot the film in black and white and in the 2.35:1 widescreen ratio, the first time that Allen had used either format. The images are backed by the songs of quintessential New York composer George Gershwin, setting a tone of romanticism and grandeur that underlies Isaac's (and Allen's) inherent dissatisfaction with the mundane aspects of his life. The magnificence of the city of New York is the backdrop to the search for a similar splendor in human relationships in MANHATTAN. [More]
Starring: Woody Allen, Diane Keaton, Mariel Hemingway, Meryl Streep
Starring: Woody Allen, Diane Keaton, Mariel Hemingway, Meryl Streep, Michael Murphy, Anne Byrne, Karen Ludwig, Michael O'Donoghue
Director: Woody Allen
Director: Woody Allen
Producer: Charles H. Joffe
Screenwriter: Woody Allen, Marshall Brickman
Composer: George Gershwin
Reviews for Manhattan
One of Woody's most aesthetically gorgeous films as well as his classic love-hate letter to the city of his soul.
Manhattan is not just Woody Allen's dream movie. Wistful as it is witty, it's his dream of the movies.
Allen has, in black and white, captured the inner beauty that lurks behind the outer layer of dirt and grime in Manhattan.
Woody Allen's great leap forward into character development and dramatic integrity.
This is a deeply self-critical film about immaturity and the gift of real love. Many films can be said to put an epitaph on the decade, but few remain as relevant.
Latest News for Manhattan
August 14, 2008:
Woody Allen Looks Back With EW ![]()
As he prepares to launch his latest feature, Vicky Cristina Barcelona, Woody Allen has taken a few minutes to revisit a dozen of his career highlights with Entertainment Weekly. More...
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