Background
Manhattan (1979)
was an acclaimed, mature, B/W masterpiece enhanced by a George Gershwin
score (performed by the New York Philharmonic conducted by Zubin
Mehta), telling about infidelity, entangling romances and situations,
and the comings-and-goings of self-absorbed, mostly-dishonest, glib,
intellectual Manhattanites. The film's main focus was a quadrangular
love story between unequals: a conflicted 42 year-old divorced TV
comedy writer, an optimistic 17 year-old prep-school sweetheart,
a flighty, vascillating and intellectually-neurotic and cynical divorced
female journalist, and a university literature teacher and cheating
husband.
The evocative, much-loved film was
formulated as a stylish rom-com drama (known as 'dramedy'), with
liberal and verbose doses of neurotic ("nebbish"), self-defeating,
and self-ironic humor. Allen described the film's plot as a combination
of his previous two films, Interiors
(1978) and Annie Hall (1977).
The various haphazard romantic choices, "neurotic problems," and
cynical statements made by the characters in the film were actually
efforts to avoid their own emotional depths. It was a way to escape
from the existential questions of human imperfection, frailty and
insignificance in the cosmos (the "more
unsolvable, terrifying problems about the universe"). With
his unique sense of humor, Allen surveyed the downfall of society
and the decay of culture, including the ubiquitous shallowness
of television, wrecked relationships, difficulties with marriage,
and the lack of control in people's lives. Trying to make sense
of things, almost all of the principal characters were working
on a book (or aspiring to do so).
The highly-respected film had a straight-forward romantic
narrative (with no tricks or gimmicks such as the voice-overs or
dream/fantasy sequences in Annie
Hall (1977) or the fast-cutting in earlier slapstick genre
parodies). In tribute to director Allen's favorite city,
it was set in his beloved urban NYC, lovingly shot and portrayed
by the black and white cinematography. The famous scene of the Queensboro
Bridge (the 59th Street Bridge, spanning over the East River connecting
the boroughs of Queens and Manhattan) captured the essence of the
city's stunning beauty, and was the iconic centerpiece of the film's
marketing and posters. However, one of the film's main points was
that city life could be very fragmented, isolating and empty.
The
non-diagetic use of New York composer Gershwin's music was deliberately
placed throughout the film to metaphorically extend the character
of the main protagonist, to serve as a counterpoint to the hero’s
life, and to provide more meaning to the scenes.
There were a number of notables for the 96-minute film:
- It was
Allen's first directed black and white film, and his ninth feature
film (his previous films were, in chronological order: What's
Up, Tiger Lily? (1966), Take the Money and
Run (1969), Bananas
(1971), Everything You Always Wanted to Know About Sex, But Were
Afraid to Ask (1972), Sleeper (1973), Love and Death (1975), Annie
Hall (1977), and Interiors (1978).
- It was Allen's least-favorite directed film.
- The film resulted in the first soundtrack for a Woody Allen film,
featuring the music of George Gershwin.
- It was the first Woody Allen film
to be shown at the Cannes Film Festival (the 32nd annual event,
in May 1979).
- It was the 16th highest-grossing (domestic) film
of its year, 1979 (the #1 film was Kramer vs. Kramer (1979)).
- It was the third most-commercially successful
film of Allen's entire career, grossing $39.9 million (domestic),
just behind Midnight in Paris (2011) at $56.8 million (domestic),
and Hannah and Her Sisters (1986) at $40 million (domestic).
If adjusted for inflation, it was Allen's second-highest
grossing film at $145.8 million, just behind Annie
Hall (1977) at $157.1 million.
- It was Allen's first 2.35:1 anamorphic widescreen
(or Cinemascopic) release; it was specified that it would only
be released in its original "letter-boxed" format
(rather than pan-and-scan) for
early TV broadcasts and video versions.
- As a result of the film, Woody Allen appeared on
the cover of TIME Magazine's April 30th, 1979 issue, titled:
"A COMIC GENIUS: Woody Allen Comes of Age".
- It featured gorgeous B/W cinematography from Gordon
Willis.
- The opening title sequence was one of the very few
Woody Allen films that lacked traditional opening credits, except
for the image of a bright, flashing "Manhattan" neon
sign at the same time as the film's first narrated line of dialogue
(see below).
- The opening sequence was parodied at least twice:
(1) Neil DeGrasse Tyson's Cosmos science series,
that used Gershwin music and the Manhattan skyline, and (2) the
UK's Channel 4, low-budget, cult sit-com Spaced (1999-2001)
(in Season 2, Episode 1). As a point of reference, it rivaled
the scene of the monolith's emergence to the strains of composer
Richard Strauss' "Thus Spake Zarathustra" in Kubrick's 2001:
A Space Odyssey (1968).
There were some eerie auto-biographical parallels in
this R-rated film regarding Allen's May-December romances, and his
own film's relationship between the 42 year-old main protagonist
(Allen) and his young 17 year-old dating partner (Mariel Hemingway)
- a 25 year gap. When Manhattan was
released in the US, Allen was 43 and Hemingway was 17. [In
real life, there were two other striking parallels:
(1)
Allen experienced a two-year romantic relationship with actress Stacey
Nelkin, whom he first met as a 16 year-old extra on the set of Annie
Hall (1977). Their dating relationship allegedly began
shortly later, starting when she was a 17 year-old high school
student (Allen was 42), and continuing until she was 19.
(2) Allen's current wife, Soon-Yi Previn was
roughly 35 years his younger. (At the age of 8 in the year 1978,
Soon-Yi became the adopted Korean daughter of Mia Farrow and her
then-husband Andre Previn, before they divorced in 1979. Then, Allen
became the romantic partner of Mia Farrow for about 12 years, from
1980 until 1992. Denying any scandal, he asserted that
he had inherited Soon-Yi
from Farrow's previous marriage. Five years
after Mia Farrow's breakup with Allen, Woody and Soon-Yi wed in 1997.)
Further allegations claimed that Allen sexually abused another of Farrow's
adopted daughters, Dylan Farrow when she was 7 years old in 1992. She
had been adopted in mid-1985.]
The film was one of eight collaborations between Woody
Allen and Diane Keaton, and their only black and white film. Allen
co-starred in six of them, and directed seven:
- Play It Again, Sam (1972), director: Herbert Ross,
star: Woody Allen
- Sleeper (1973), director
and star: Woody Allen
- Love and Death (1975), director and star: Woody
Allen
- Annie Hall (1977),
director and star: Woody Allen
- Interiors (1978), director: Woody Allen
- Manhattan (1979), director and star: Woody Allen
- Radio Days (1987), director: Woody Allen
- Manhattan Murder Mystery (1993), director and star: Woody Allen
There were two Academy Award Nominations (with no wins):
Best Supporting Actress (Mariel Hemingway, in her sole Oscar-nominated
performance), and Best Original Screenplay (Woody Allen and Marshall
Brickman). Streep won the Best Supporting Actress award for her role
in Kramer vs. Kramer (1979) (being shot at the same time),
stealing it away from her Manhattan co-star Hemingway.
The Story
42 year-old, neurotically-obsessed, Jewish Isaac "Ike"
Davis (Woody Allen), a Manhattanite, narrated about his failed attempts
at writing (he had turned from writing frivolous TV sit-coms to
composing a serious novel). He struggled to find the
properly-stated, appropriate viewpoint about Manhattan, and the
perfect beginning for his new novel, to the tune of George Gershwin's
glorious Rhapsody
in Blue. The long opening note
was played by a clarinet - director Allen's own instrument. [Note:
It could be naturally assumed that Ike's new book became the
film Manhattan!]
The voice-over dialogue, divided into five parts in
the opening, began with exquisite distant postcard
shots of the NYC skyline and then closer, more typical scenes of
urban life (bulleted below). These were the starts of five different
openings (in voice-over) for Isaac's unwritten book, as if he was
reading aloud from his writings, or verbalizing his thoughts. However,
it was probably the least well-articulated and worthwhile bit of "serious" writing
that he could produce. All of the aspects about
the city and its inhabitants in Isaac's five dictated descriptions
were basically illustrated in the subsequent film ("the hustle-bustle," "lack
of individual integrity," "the easy way out," "a
society desensitized by drugs, loud music, television, crime, garbage" and
more).
There
were five different, increasingly over-heated prose styles for his
first chapter that he characterized as Romantic, Corny, Profound,
Angry, and Sexual. It appeared that the fifth opening was the one
that he would choose ("Behind his black-rimmed glasses was the
coiled sexual power of a jungle cat"), combining both main aspects
of his persona (intellectual and sexual).
In fact, Allen's character
Isaac would go on to critique urban living as morally shallow,
self-absorbed, and compromised although he clearly adored an idealistic
view of the city.
- a distant view of Manhattan's eastern skyline at
dawn, showing the Chrysler Building and the Empire State Building
[Note: The film ended with a book-ending view of Manhattan at sunset]
- a view of Long Island City from Manhattan's East
Side
- high-rise buildings
- the neon "PARKING" (static) and "MANHATTAN" (blinking)
signs (positioned vertically on the side of buildings)
ROMANTIC
'Chapter One. He adored New York City.
He idolized it all out of proportion.' Uh, no, make that: 'He-he
romanticized it all out of proportion.' Better. 'To him, no matter
what the season was, this was still a town that existed in black
and white and pulsated to the great tunes of George Gershwin.'
Uh, no, let me start this over...
- an industrial area in Chelsea, with a footbridge
over a busy city street (an unused railway line)
- the Queensboro Bridge
- the EMPIRE DINER (on Tenth Avenue in Chelsea)
- the snow-covered and lamp-lit
streets of Park Avenue
- trucks on the West Side (with the World Trade Center
in the background)
- crowded streets and a streetside fruit market
- people waiting to cross a street at an intersection
(with a "DON'T WALK" sign)
CORNY
'Chapter One: He was too romantic about Manhattan, as he was about
everything else. He thrived on the hustle bustle of the crowds and
the traffic. To him, New York meant beautiful women and street smart
guys who seemed to know all the angles.' Ah, corny, too corny for,
you know, my taste. Let me, let me try and make it more profound...
- a slum tenement with clothes hanging on a line
- traffic lined up at the Queensboro Bridge next
to the Roosevelt Island Tramway
- a demonstration downtown (a gay pride march?)
in front of Village Cigars shop on 7th Avenue
- stylish females and well-dressed
males outside upscale Henri Bendel's on 5th Avenue
- construction site on the street, as workers oogled
a busty female pedestrian
- the Whitehall dock area with the Staten Island
ferry arriving and moving into port
PROFOUND
'Chapter One: He adored New York City. To him it was a metaphor for
the decay of contemporary culture. The same lack of individual integrity
that caused so many people to take the easy way out was rapidly turning
the town of his dreams in..' No, it's gonna be too preachy, I mean,
you know, let's face it, I wanna sell some books here.
- another snowy, wintry view of a NYC street, probably
5th Avenue
- the Washington Square archway
- a clothes and shoes market in the garment district
- a reprise of the Staten Island ferry (Brooklyn in
the background)
- a
fish market, presided over by men in white aprons
- children exiting down steps of
a private school at the close of the day
- a playground court with basketball hoop viewed through
a chain-link fence
- a snowy park (Central Park possibly)
ANGRY
'Chapter One: He adored New York City. Although to him it was a metaphor
for the decay of contemporary culture. How hard it was to exist in
a society desensitized by drugs, loud music, television, crime, garbage...'
Too angry. I don't wanna be angry.
- two elderly women, bundled in winter coats near
a sidewalk fruit stand
- a billboard sign for Peter Pan Cleaners and a Schlitz
beer advertisement (in Italian, translated, "If you have
no Schlitz, You Have No Taste.")
- a dark tunnel
- a sidewalk scene on the Upper East Side, with
steam blowing through the air
- a city bus turning a corner on a heavily-trafficked
intersection
- three unkempt men loitering on a street
corner
- garbage piled up on the streets
SEXUALLY POWERFUL
'Chapter One. He was as tough and romantic as the city he
loved. Behind his black-rimmed glasses was the coiled sexual power
of a jungle cat.' Oh, I love this! 'New York was his town, and it
always would be.'
- the building front of the landmark Parke
Bernet Galleries, a Sotheby's auction house on Madison Ave.
- the interior of the circular Guggenheim
Museum on 5th Avenue
- the front of Gucci's on Fifth Avenue
- a horse-drawn carriage awaiting riders to ride through
Central Park, outside the ritzy Plaza Hotel on 5th Avenue
- two contrasting buildings (a skyscraper and a smaller
ornate structure)
- a crane next to a construction site for new apartments,
next to the GW commercial building
- more blocky skyscrapers (Wall Street?)
- a view across Central Park, with the sun setting
behind the Manhattan skyline - silhouetting the buildings
- more skyline views, and another view of the park
- a man and a woman kissing on a balcony
- a reprise of snowy view of Park Avenue
- lights illuminating inside city buildings as darkness
fell
- neon signs advertising various theatres
(Majestic, St. James) or hotels (Globe) on West 44th St.
- Lincoln Center
- more theatre signs advertising Broadway musicals
or plays
- a flashing "Broadway" sign
- Radio City Musical Hall
- Times Square with a gigantic Coca-Cola sign
- a bank of public phone booths near a Gyro food stand
(Souvla King) in Times Square
- a car entering the city by crossing a bridge
- rows and rows of lighted offices inside a building
- two
actors performing during "Shakespeare in the Park" in Central Park
- the Metropolitan Museum of Art on Fifth Avenue (the
current exhibit was of The Temple of Dendur)
- a dramatic aerial view of Yankee Stadium at night,
its lights illuminating the crowds
- a crescendo of firecrackers flashing and bursting
over Central Park before a darkened sky, with various buildings
forming the skyline's backdrop
|