Matt's Big Oscar Challenge Day 432: An American Neurotic in France

It's been a while since we've met up with Woody Allen as his last Best Picture nominee was 1986's Hannah and Her Sisters. In the twenty-five years since Woody's Oscar presence had been confined to the performances from his films with three wins in the Best Supporting Actress categories. However, he returned to the Best Picture contender's race at the 2012 ceremony for a film which also saw him pick up a screenwriting honour. 

The film in question was Midnight in Paris, Woody's homage to the 1920s and also served as a commentary on nostalgia. Woody didn't feature in the film and instead his cipher in the movie was Owen Wilson's maudlin writer Gill. Just like the roles we've seen Allen play in the past, Gill is somebody who is unhappy with his lot in life. He sees himself as a Hollywood hack and is attempting to write a novel if only to satisfy his own literary aspirations. It's quite clear that Gill isn't suited to his fiancée Inez who has joined him in Paris along with her ghastly parents. Whilst Gill is somebody who loves the romantic idea of walking through the streets of Paris in the rain, Inez could never see herself getting wet. Inez is instead drawn to her friend's partner Paul, a pedantic man who thinks he is more intellectual than anyone around him. The film properly gets going when Gill finds himself transported into Paris of the 1920s and soon comes into contact with prominent literary figures such as Hemmingway, Fitzgerald and Gertrude Stein. Gill also finds himself falling for Adriana, the initial love of Picasso who cools off him when she discovers he's engaged. Although I'm not sure Woody Allen is the sort of director who should be engaging in fantastical elements such as the ones in the film I think they sort of work. It's also an interesting look at the theory of nostalgia as Gill finds he suits the 1920s better while Adriana longs to be part of the 1890s crowd. The end of the film was a little bit weak but it made sense in terms of the character of Gill who is presented as somewhat of a dreamer. 

I think Gill's likeability is heightened due to the fact that he's portrayed here by Owen Wilson who is primarily a fine screen presence. He is able to pull off Gill's need to be taken seriously as well as the more fantastical parts of the character. It helps that Gill is surrounded by awful characters in the present such as Rachel McAdams' pompous Inez and Michael Sheen's bore Paul. Allen seems to have had a hoot recreating the famous literary characters such as a drunken Hemmingway and a brusque Getrude Stein. Alison Pill was a particular joy to watch as Zelda Fitzgerald whilst Adrien Brody put in a memorable cameo as Dali. Additionally I think that Wilson shared a great spark with Marion Cotillard who played the adorable Adriana. I'll personally watch Cotillard in most things and I felt she played Adriana beautifully.  Allen's direction also makes the character of Paris a character in and of itself with a three minute opening shot presenting all the different aspects of the city. The problem I had with Midnight in Paris was that it was almost too lightweight and the story itself was very slight. That being said there are so few comedies being nominated for Oscars that one has to applaud the Academy for taking a risk on such an enjoyable film. Ultimately I found Midnight in Paris a breeze to get through and I think it was the right film to reintroduce Woody into the Best Picture category. Although he personally hasn't featured since, his films are still regularly winning Oscars with Cate Blanchett's performance in Blue Jasmine being the most recent example. 

Next time we change pace with two big budget epics that heralded the blockbuster's return to the Best Picture field. 

Matt's Big Oscar Challenge Day 262: Sibling Rivalry

Continuing our look at stars of the 1970s progression into the new decade, we come to the man who won Best Director at the 1978 ceremony. Nine years later he was nominated in the same category again whilst winning Best Original Screenplay as well as a further two awards going to his fellow cast members. The man in question is Woody Allen and the film is Hannah and her Sisters, which starred his then wife Mia Farrow in the titular role and Allen as her ex-husband. When the film begins, Hannah is seemingly in a happy marriage to second husband Elliot but he is secretly harbouring feelings for her younger sister Lee. The film plots the course of their lives over two years in which Elliot and Lee begin an affair before ending it when he can't seem to end his marriage. Hannah's other sister Holly is the most flighty of the trio; a former drug addict she can't seem to hold down any type of career. At times an actress, caterer and finally a writer, Holly's story is one of failed relationships and doomed business ventures. Allen's Mickey also has his own story in which he fears he may have a brain tumour after losing hearing in one hear. Mickey feels that he should have religion in his life but struggles to make sense of anything. Eventually he relents and tries to enjoy life, or as much as any character that Allen plays can. Oddly, for a Woody Allen film, everybody has a fairly happy ending with all three sisters finding love and marriage in some way or another. 

Whilst Annie Hall was definitely Woody Allen's most-respected work I think that Hannah and Her Sisters is a lot more disciplined. I did find Annie Hall to work like a sketch show at times as it was a number of disjointed scenes thrown together with a loose narrative. Hannah and Her Sisters is much more solid and the stories involving the three sisters were incredibly compelling. The love triangle between Hannah, Elliot and Lee was very well-written and all of the twists and turns along the way made sense. Similarly, Holly's struggles to find something to occupy her time and her difficulty to find a man provided a different sort of story to the romantic complications of the main plot. The scenes between the three sisters, in particular one in which they all set down to dine at a restaurant, rang the most true for me as their feelings for each other finally came out. In fact the only part of the plot that I wasn't a fan of was the story involving Mickey, which for the most part acted completely outside of what was happening to Holly, Hannah and Lee. I did seem that Mickey's troubles were just an excuse for Allen to work in some of his material about religion and existence and it wasn't until the last twenty minutes that the character really became part of the plot. In fact, up to this point, I didn't feel the film particularly needed Mickey and would've worked a lot better without him. 

The tradition of the academy awarding actors for starring in Woody Allen films is a long-standing tradition that still exists today, as we saw with Cate Blanchett's win at the weekend. In terms of Hannah and Her Sisters, Dianne Wiest won Best Supporting Actress for her dazzling turn as the ditzy and unhappy Holly. Similarly impressive was fellow Oscar winner Michael Caine as the depressed Elliot who realised that the grass wasn't greener on the other side. Mia Farrow and Barbara Hershey, as Hannah and Lee, added their own energy to proceedings and the chemistry between the three sisters was perfectly realised. Although I didn't think much of his performance, Allen's script for Hannah and Her Sisters was well-constructed and well-paced. I particularly enjoyed the fact that we heard the inner thoughts of the main players and this narrative structure meant that we learnt more about them than we would have done had their thoughts solely been expressed through dialogue. Allen's win for Best Screenplay would be his last for twenty-five years and Hannah and Her Sisters would be his last appearance in the Best Picture category for the same amount of time. But performers in his films would be more successful even though Allen himself often refused to appear at the ceremony preferring instead to play jazz music at a local bar. 

Changing pace, the next two posts will focus on a newcomer who appeared in no less than five Best Picture nominees over the 1980s and garnered three Best Actor nods during that time. 

Matt's Big Oscar Challenge Day 237: The Last Laughs

In the last couple of posts I've discussed the dying days of comedies being nominated for Oscars and in this year's nominations I'll be surprised to see at least one broad comedy. Comedies now have to either have an indie vibe to them or be some sort of riotous romp in the fashion of this year's American Hustle. It's sad that in an era where we know exactly what an 'Oscar Film' is there's very little room for the comedy. In fact the last time a comedy film won the Best Picture was over thirty-five years ago.

That film was Woody Allen's Annie Hall, a film that I've previously watched on a number of occasions, which also won a Best Actress Award for Diane Keaton's portrayal of the titular protagonist. The majority of the film centres round the relationship between Annie and Allen's stand-up comedian Alvy Singer. The narrative structure of the film is such that it starts midway through the relationship before taking us back to the time when Alvy and Annie first met. As Annie Hall is a proper romantic comedy it explores the differences between the uptight Alvy and the more free and easy Annie. He overthinks everything while she'd rather go with the flow and this obviously puts a strain on their relationship. Alvy's comic asides also looks back at the character's past whether it be stealing a kiss as a child or his previous marriage everything is put under the microscope. Inevitably, the relationship begins to crumble as Annie begins to look elsewhere for love and finds it briefly with Paul Simon's record producer Tony Lacey. Though this comedy doesn't have a traditional happy ending, it does give you hope for the two characters, that you are more than invested in thanks to Allen's brilliant script.

Annie Hall is often held up as Woody Allen's masterpiece, but in my opinion he's made better films. Obviously part of the reason for the film's success lies with Allen's semi-autobiographical script which oozes with honesty throughout. Despite him creating a fictional character for himself, smarter audience members obviously can draw parallels between Alvy and Allen. Similarly, Diane Keaton has claimed that Annie Hall is incredibly similar to her own personality that Woody got to know on previous films that they worked together on. Due to this fact both Allen and Keaton are superb throughout and add an awkward chemistry to their relationship which makes it utterly realistic. In addition there are some fantastic supporting roles most notably from Tony Roberts as Alvy's friend Rob and then unknown Christopher Walken as Annie's brother Duane. Annie Hall is the perfect length for a comedy film as it's only just over ninety minutes long and the story fits perfectly into this time frame. With most of the character being instantly identifiable, the script being full of pithy one-liners and the cast being unanimously brilliant there's no denying that Annie Hall is a great film. Even though I do think some comedy films since 1977 have possibly deserved the Best Picture award, I'd be happy if Annie Hall got to held up the legacy for what a great comedy film should be.

Next time we look at two nostalgic films that deal with the dying days of adolescence