Manhattan (film)

Manhattan

Theatrical release poster
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
Music by George Gershwin
played by the New York Philharmonic, Zubin Mehta and the Buffalo Philharmonic, Michael Tilson Thomas
Cinematography Gordon Willis
Edited by Susan E. Morse
Distributed by United Artists
Release dates
  • April 25, 1979 (1979-04-25)
Running time
 96 minutes
Country United States
Language English
Budget $9 million[1]
Box office $39,946,780[2]

Manhattan is a 1979 American romantic comedy-drama film directed by Woody Allen and produced by Charles H. Joffe. The screenplay was written by Allen and Marshall Brickman. Allen co-stars as a twice-divorced 42-year-old comedy writer who dates a 17-year-old girl (Mariel Hemingway) but falls in love with his best friend's (Michael Murphy) mistress (Diane Keaton). Meryl Streep and Anne Byrne also star.

Manhattan was filmed in black-and-white and 2.35:1 widescreen. The film features music composed by George Gershwin, including Rhapsody in Blue, which inspired the idea behind the film. Allen described the film as a combination of his previous two films, Annie Hall and Interiors.[3]

The film was met with widespread critical acclaim and was nominated for two Academy Awards: Best Supporting Actress for Hemingway and Best Writing, Screenplay Written Directly for the Screen for Allen and Brickman. Its North American box office receipts of $39.9 million made it Allen's second biggest box office hit (after adjusting for inflation). Often considered one of Allen's best films,[4][5] it ranks 46th on AFI's 100 Years...100 Laughs list and 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.

Plot

The film opens with a montage of images of Manhattan and other parts of New York City accompanied by George Gershwin's Rhapsody in Blue, with Isaac Mortimer[6] Davis (Woody Allen) narrating drafts of an introduction to a book about a man who loves the city. Isaac is a twice-divorced, 42-year-old television comedy writer dealing with the women in his life who quits his unfulfilling job. He is dating Tracy (Mariel Hemingway), a 17-year-old girl attending the Dalton School. His best friend, college professor Yale Pollack (Michael Murphy), married to Emily (Anne Byrne), is having an affair with Mary Wilkie (Diane Keaton). Mary's ex-husband and former teacher, Jeremiah (Wallace Shawn), also appears. Isaac's ex-wife Jill Davis (Meryl Streep) is writing a confessional book about their marriage. Jill has also since come out of the closet as a lesbian and lives with her partner, Connie (Karen Ludwig).

When Isaac meets Mary, her cultural snobbery rubs him the wrong way. Isaac runs into her again at an Equal Rights Amendment fund-raising event at the Museum of Modern Art hosted by Bella Abzug (who is played by herself) and accompanies her on a cab ride home. They chat until sunrise in a sequence that culminates in the iconic shot of the Queensboro Bridge. In spite of a growing attraction to Mary, Isaac continues his relationship with Tracy but emphasizes that theirs cannot be a serious relationship and encourages her to go to London to study acting. In another iconic scene, at Tracy's request, they go on a carriage ride through Central Park.

After Yale breaks up with Mary, he suggests that Isaac ask her out. Isaac does, always having felt that Tracy was too young for him. Isaac breaks up with Tracy, much to her dismay, and before long, Mary has virtually moved into his apartment. Emily is curious about Isaac's new girlfriend, and after several meetings between the two couples, including one where Emily reads out portions of Jill's new book about her marriage with Isaac, Yale leaves Emily to resume his relationship with Mary. A betrayed Isaac confronts Yale at the college where he teaches, and Yale argues that he found Mary first. Isaac responds by discussing Yale's extramarital affairs with Emily, but Yale told her that Isaac introduced Mary to him. In the denouement, Isaac lies on his sofa, musing into a tape recorder about the things that make "life worth living". When he finds himself saying "Tracy's face", he sets down the microphone.

He leaves his apartment and sets out on foot for Tracy's. He arrives at the lobby of her family's apartment just as she is leaving for London. He says that she does not have to go and that he does not want "that thing about [her] that [he] like[s]" to change. She replies that the plans have already been made and reassures him that "not everybody gets corrupted" before saying "you have to have a little faith in people." He gives her a slight smile with a final coy look to the camera then segueing into final shots of the skyline with some bars of Rhapsody in Blue playing again. An instrumental version of "Embraceable You" plays over the credits.

Cast

Production

Development

According to Allen, the idea for Manhattan originated from his love of George Gershwin's music. He was listening to one of the composer's albums of overtures and thought, "this would be a beautiful thing to make ... a movie in black and white ... a romantic movie".[9] Allen has said that Manhattan was "like a mixture of what I was trying to do with Annie Hall and Interiors."[3] He also said that his film deals with the problem of people trying to live a decent existence in an essentially junk-obsessed contemporary culture without selling out, admitting that he himself could conceive of giving away all of his "possessions to charity and living in much more modest circumstances," and adding that he has "rationalized [his] way out of it so far, but [he] could conceive of doing it."[10]

According to actress Stacey Nelkin, Manhattan was based on her romantic relationship with Woody Allen. Her bit part in Annie Hall ended up on the cutting room floor, and their relationship started when she was 17 years old and a student at New York’s Stuyvesant High School.[11] Allen did not publicly acknowledge the relationship until 2014.[12]

Filming

Allen talked to cinematographer Gordon Willis about how fun it would be to shoot the film in black and white, Panavision aspect ratio (2.35:1) because it would give "a great look at New York City, which is sort of one of the characters in the film".[13] Allen decided to shoot his film in black and white because that's how he remembers it from when he was small. "Maybe it's a reminiscence from old photographs, films, books and all that. But that's how I remember New York." He always heard Gershwin music with it, too. In Manhattan he really thinks that he and Willis succeeded in showing the city. "When seeing it there on that big screen, it's really decadent".[14] The picture was shot on location with the exception of some of the scenes in the planetarium which were filmed on a set.[15]

The bridge shot

The famous bridge shot was done at five in the morning.[16] The production had to bring their own bench as there were no park benches at the location.[17] The bridge had two sets of necklace lights on a timer controlled by the city. When the sun came up, the bridge lights went off. Willis made arrangements with the city to leave the lights on and that he would let them know when they got the shot. Afterwards, they could be turned off. As they started to shoot the scene, one string of bridge lights went out, and Allen was forced to use that take.[16]

After finishing the film, Allen was very unhappy with it and asked United Artists not to release it. He offered to make a film for free instead.[18] He later said, "I just thought to myself, 'At this point in my life, if this is the best I can do, they shouldn't give me money to make movies.'"[17]

Music

All titles of the soundtrack were compositions by George Gershwin. They were performed by the New York Philharmonic under Zubin Mehta and the Buffalo Philharmonic under Michael Tilson Thomas.

A part of the first movement of Mozart's Symphony No. 40 is heard in a concert scene.

Reaction

Box office

Manhattan opened in 29 North American theaters on April 25, 1979. It grossed $485,734 ($16,749 per screen) in its opening weekend and earned $39.9 million in its entire run,[19] making the film the 17th highest-grossing picture of the year. The film was shown out of competition at the 1979 Cannes Film Festival in May.[20] Adjusted for inflation, it grossed $127,638,700, making it Allen's second biggest box office hit, following Annie Hall.[21]

Critical response

The film received largely positive reviews and currently holds a rating of 98% "Certified Fresh" on Rotten Tomatoes.[22] Gary Arnold, in The Washington Post, wrote, "Manhattan has comic integrity in part because Allen is now making jokes at the expense of his own parochialism. There's no opportunity to heap condescending abuse on the phonies and sellouts decorating the Hollywood landscape. The result appears to be a more authentic and magnanimous comic perception of human vanity and foolhardiness".[23] In his review for Newsweek magazine, Jack Kroll wrote, "Allen's growth in every department is lovely to behold. He gets excellent performances from his cast. The increasing visual beauty of his films is part of their grace and sweetness, their balance between Allen's yearning romanticism and his tough eye for the fatuous and sentimental – a balance also expressed in his best screen play [sic] yet".[24] In his review for the Chicago Sun-Times, Roger Ebert, who gave the film three-and-a-half stars out of four, wrote, "Diane Keaton gives us a fresh and nicely edged New York intellectual. And Mariel Hemingway deserves some kind of special award for what's in some ways the most difficult role in the film."[25] Ebert includes the film in his list of The Great Movies.[26]

Alexander Walker of the London Evening Standard wrote, "So precisely nuanced is the speech, so subtle the behaviour of a group of friends, lovers, mistresses and cuckolds who keep splitting up and pairing off like unstable molecules".[27] Recently, J. Hoberman wrote in The Village Voice, "The New York City that Woody so tediously defended in Annie Hall was in crisis. And so he imagined an improved version. More than that, he cast this shining city in the form of those movies that he might have seen as a child in Coney Island—freeing the visions that he sensed to be locked up in the silver screen."[28]

In October 2013, readers of the Guardian newspaper voted it the best film directed by Woody Allen.[29]

Accolades

New York Film Critics Circle named Allen best director for Manhattan.[30] The National Society of Film Critics also named Allen best director along with Robert Benton who directed Kramer vs. Kramer.[31] The film was nominated for Academy Awards for Best Supporting Actress (Mariel Hemingway) and Best Original Screenplay (Allen and Marshall Brickman).[32] It also won the BAFTA Award for Best Film. In Empire magazine's poll of the 500 greatest movies ever made, Manhattan was ranked number 76.[33]

The film was number 63 on Bravo's "100 Funniest Movies". In 2001, the United States Library of Congress deemed it "culturally significant" and selected it for preservation in the National Film Registry. It is also ranked #4 on Rotten Tomatoes' 25 Best Romantic Comedies.[34]

American Film Institute recognition

Manhattan inspired the song "Remember Manhattan" written by Richard Marx and Fee Waybill from Marx's debut album.

Home release

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 film on video (and most television broadcasts) were letterboxed, originally with a gray border.[9]

Manhattan was first released on Blu-ray on January 24, 2012 alongside Allen's 1977 film Annie Hall.[35] Both releases included the films' original theatrical trailer.[35]

Legacy

Manhattan's screenplay was performed in front of a live audience at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art on November 15, 2012, as part of Jason Reitman's Live Read series. Actors read the script, narrowed to six speaking parts, and still photographs from the movie were projected behind them.[36] The cast included:[37][38]

In keeping with the project's focus on impermanence and spontaneity, there were no rehearsals, shows were announced only days prior, and the names of some cast members were withheld entirely; performances were not recorded.[39]

References

  1. ↑ Box Office Information for Manhattan. The Wrap. Retrieved April 4, 2013.
  2. ↑ "Box Office Information for Manhattan". Box Office Mojo. Retrieved January 28, 2012.
  3. 1 2 Brode 1987
  4. ↑ Woody Allen – Biography by Jason Ankeny (Rovi), in The New York Times
  5. ↑ Article in New York by Bilge Ebiri on AFI Top 100
  6. ↑ "Actually, my middle name is Mortimer."
  7. ↑ http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0126117/bio
  8. ↑ http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0525023/
  9. 1 2 Fox 1996
  10. ↑ Rich, Frank (April 30, 1979). "An Interview with Woody". Time.
  11. ↑ "Stacey Nelkin: Actress, Sexpert – The Howard Stern Show for April 7, 2011". April 7, 2011.
  12. ↑ Allen, Woody (Feb 7, 2014). "Woody Allen Speaks Out". New York Times. Retrieved Feb 13, 2014.
  13. ↑ Bjorkman 1995, p. 108
  14. ↑ Palmer 1980, p. 112
  15. ↑ Bjorkman 1995, p. 112
  16. 1 2 Willis, Gordon (April 6, 2004). "Made in Manhattan". Moviemaker. Retrieved December 5, 2014.
  17. 1 2 Weide, Robert B. (Director) (2011). Woody Allen: A Documentary (Television). PBS.
  18. ↑ Bjorkman 1995, p. 126
  19. ↑ "Manhattan". Box Office Mojo. May 2, 1979. Retrieved January 11, 2007.
  20. ↑ "Festival de Cannes: Manhattan". festival-cannes.com. Retrieved May 25, 2009.
  21. ↑ "Woody Allen Movie Box Office Results". Box Office Mojo. Retrieved 2012-07-20.
  22. ↑ "Manhattan". Rotten Tomatoes. May 2, 1979. Retrieved May 27, 2009.
  23. ↑ Arnold, Gary (May 2, 1979). "Woody Allen's Comic High: A Delightful and Deluxe Rhapsody of Wry Romance". The Washington Post.
  24. ↑ Kroll, Jack (April 30, 1979). "Woody's Big Apple". Newsweek.
  25. ↑ Ebert, Roger (January 1, 1979). "Manhattan". Chicago Sun-Times. Retrieved January 11, 2008.
  26. ↑ Ebert, Roger (March 18, 2001). "Great Movies". Sun-Times.
  27. ↑ Palmer 1980, p. 114
  28. ↑ Hoberman, J (July 10, 2007). "Defending Manhattan". The Village Voice. Retrieved July 11, 2007.
  29. ↑ "The 10 best Woody Allen films". The Guardian. October 4, 2013. Retrieved November 22, 2014.
  30. ↑ "Kramer vs. Kramer selected best film". The Globe and Mail. December 21, 1979.
  31. ↑ Arnold, Gary (January 3, 1980). "Film Critics' Pick of the Year". The Washington Post.
  32. ↑ Arnold, Gary (February 26, 1980). "Kramer, Jazz Lead Nominees". The Washington Post.
  33. ↑ http://www.empireonline.com/500/84.asp
  34. ↑ "25 Best Romantic Comedies". Rotten Tomatoes. 2009. Retrieved February 12, 2009.
  35. 1 2 Nashawaty, Chris (January 24, 2012). "Annie Hall Review". Entertainment Weekly. Retrieved July 19, 2012.
  36. ↑ "Jason Reitman to re-create Woody Allen's Manhattan in live-read event" by Anthony Breznican, Entertainment Weekly, November 9, 2012. Retrieved August 31, 2013.
  37. ↑ Jason Reitman to Live Read Manhattan in L.A", The Woody Allen Pages, November 10, 2012. Retrieved August 31, 2013.
  38. ↑ "Stephen Merchant and Olivia Munn Starred in Jason Reitman's Manhattan Live Read", The Woody Allen Pages, November 18, 2012. Retrieved August 31, 2013.
  39. ↑ "Jason Reitman Brings Memorable Movies to Life at LACMA", by Katherine Tulich. The Los Angeles Times, January 19, 2012. Retrieved August 31, 2013.

Bibliography

External links

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