Woody Allen

Woody Allen has been called the greatest comedic filmmaker of the 1970s and 1980s. The most original and brilliant screen conic since Charlie Chaplin, Allen has achieved success and notoriety in a relatively short period of time (Sinyard 8). Film critics and film buffs have tracked his growth as a writer, actor, and director and have seen him become more proficient and clever with the medium while constantly changing and surprising them with a variety of stories. The purpose of this research will be to compare two of his 1970 films, Bananas, 1971, and the Academy Award-winner Annie Hall, 1977. The comparison will center on the main characters, their neuroses, relationships and sexual attitudes and actions. In undertaking this analysis, however, a look at Woody Allen himself, his background and point of view, are necessary for understanding his films. In addition, a look at Allen's other filmmaking as relates to both Bananas and Annie Hall and his developing sophistication and style will be included.

Born Allen Stewart Konigsberg in Brooklyn, New York, in 1935, into a Jewish family, Allen didn't have it easy growing up. He was short with red hair and a big nose, but he was also a fighter who loved baseball and basketball. He now jokes, "When I vas playing baseball, I could run real fast. But I had a conscience. I used to steal second base and then feel so ashamed I'd run back to first" (Zolotow 96).

Allen first fell in love with comedy when he saw Bob Hope in The

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lm quotation. An example is the pram careening down some steps in the manner of the Odessa Steps sequence in Eisenstein's revolutionary movie, Battleship Potemkin (1925) (Sinyard 23). In addition, the eating/seduction scene with junk food is a spin-off of the now famous scene from Tom Jones (1963). Further, there are scenes where Allen exploits a convention or idea to its illogical absurdity, such as when Fielding orders a take-out meal for a thousand rebels at a small little cafe; or his lyrical reverie when he is invited to dinner with the President, cut short when he discovers that the mood-setting harpist is not simply on the soundtrack but in his hotel cupboard (Sinyard 23). But the darkest joke is the pre-credit scene where a political assassination taking place is designed as a television sporting event. Though it is comparable to Stanley Kubrick's Dr. Strangelove (1963), Allen is also making a comment on America's 1960s--political assassination as sport for live, prime-time television (23). Bananas makes a point of playing on the politics of the times: the Bay of Pigs fiasco, CIA activities, shady alliances and judicial farce as well as the disguise he wears upon returning to America as a rebel leader being a cros

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