Cinema Experts

“This is really fascinating, what's going on at this table. Let's take you and Erica. You've been around the block a few times. What are you, around 60? 63. Fantastic! Never married, which as we know, if you were a woman, would be a curse. You'd be an old maid, a spinster. Blah, blah, blah. So instead of pitying you, they write an article about you. Celebrate your never marrying. You're elusive and ungetable, a real catch. Then, there's my gorgeous sister here. Look at her. She is so accomplished. Most successful female playwright since who? Lillian Hellmann? She's over 50, divorced, and she sits in night after night after night because available guys her age want something-forgive me, they want somebody that looks like Marin. The over-50 dating scene is geared towards men leaving older women out. And as a result, the women become more and more productive and therefore, more and more interesting. Which, in turn, makes them even less desirable because as we all know, men - especially older men - are threatened and afraid of productive, interesting women. It is just so clear! Single older women as a demographic are about as fucked a group as can ever exist.”
Something's Gotta Give is writer/director Nancy Meyers' smart and savvy take on middle-age romance. Diane Keaton plays Erica Barry, a 50-something playwright living on her own in a swanky beach house in the Hamptons. Although she has achieved enormous success in her career, her personal life leaves much to be desired. Erica, though brilliant and attractive, has pretty much shut herself off from the dating scene since her divorce a number of years ago. Erica's life runs like a well-oiled machine, with each element - both personal and professional - fitted neatly into place, with no room left over for spontaneity or passion.
One fateful day, Erica stumbles upon a strange man rummaging through her refrigerator, a 63 year-old professional bachelor named Harry Sanborn who, Erica discovers to her horror, is dating her 30 year-old daughter, Marin. Even though Erica is disgusted by the situation, she is forced to take care of Harry after he suffers a heart attack while staying at her place. Despite their diametrically opposed outlooks on love and romance, Erica and Harry spend quality time together, discover their ultimate compatibility, and eventually fall in love.
Meyers has written a witty, sophisticated screenplay that offers insights into any number of 'battle of the sexes' issues. She has outrageous fun exploring the phenomenon of middle-aged men cavorting with women half their age. Jack Nicholson, known in real life for doing just that, has a great time poking fun at his own public image while, at the same time, providing a richly textured portrait of a man who may not be quite as shallow as his persona would suggest. When he so unexpectedly finds his head turned by a vibrant, attractive and intelligent woman in her 50's, Harry, a middle-aged Lothario who finds he needs Viagra to help him keep pace with his youthful 'conquests,' is forced to re-evaluate what has hitherto been the defining philosophy of his personality and lifestyle. Nicholson is magnificent at showing us the profound confusion his character undergoes as he takes those much belated but faltering steps into adult maturity.
Nicholson is, however, only one half of this extraordinary couple. As the other half, Keaton, has never seemed so natural and self-assured on screen. She makes of the character a capable, no-nonsense woman who has allowed her passions to lie dormant far too long. Though, on the surface, she appears confident and in control of her life, Erica is, underneath it all, a woman wounded by past experience and intimidated by a culture that expects women to be put out to pasture the moment they reach middle age. It is this combination of strength and vulnerability that makes Erica such a complex, recognizable individual - and it is the very quality that Keaton captures so exquisitely in her performance. The chemistry generated between Keaton and Nicholson in this film is so glowing and palpable one wonders why no filmmaker ever saw the potential of this dynamic duo until now.
In addition to these two outstanding performers, the film boasts excellent supporting work from Frances McDormand as Erica's pragmatic, clear-headed sister; Amanda Peet as Erica's level-headed daughter; and Keanu Reeves as Harry's handsome young doctor who finds himself smitten by Erica's mature beauty and charm.'Something's Gotta Give' is that rare romantic comedy that not only acknowledges the romantic inclinations of people over forty, but also recognizes the emotional complexities of their relationships. Because both Erica and Harry have been around the block a few times, they bring a lifetime of baggage to their burgeoning attachment. Thus, unlike in the vast majority of romantic comedies, which are clearly geared to the younger generation, the lovers here have a depth not often encountered when the focus is on two inexperienced neophytes. It takes the experience that comes from living to make a person interesting, after all… 8/10

“I'm sorry, I would sign, but I don't know the language.”
Meredith Morton is not the kind of woman you would call relaxed in social settings. She gets the case of the dry-throats which can result in her trying to clear it, and any attempt to alleviate her awkwardness results in her digging an even bigger hole for herself. And to top it all, she is the fiancée of Everett Stone, and he is about to do the criminal: introduce her to his family.
The Stones are the kind of family anyone would want to be a part of. Liberal minded almost to idealistic extremes, nothing is sacred with them, not the sexual escapades of youngest daughter Amy by one Brad Stevenson which mother Sybil casually makes a reference to (as if this were the latest recipe for apple crumb cake), not brother Ben's fondness for pot and nudity, and certainly not Thad's gayness and interracial lover Patrick and their intentions to adopt.
So why the hostility towards Meredith? Because, as Amy points out and they all come to witness, she's just wrong in more ways than one and Everett, whom they all love, is about to make a grave mistake in marrying her. Meredith lacks the warmth and spontaneity that makes for a complete human being and is a complete control freak who is as incapable of letting loose as they are incapable of being stuffed shirts. Matters get complicated when Meredith calls on her sister Julie and she reveals to be as different from Meredith as day is to night: she's the real deal. And something barely mentioned among the Stones, simmering below the surface has Sybil vehemently opposed to even the thought of Meredith becoming a part of her family.
The Family Stone certainly has moments of hilarity and is being marketed as a romantic comedy, but it really has a little too much emotional gravitas to be considered as such.
Maybe a drama/comedy should fit it better. It's a very poignant film that manages to touch sensitive issues such as terminal disease and gay parenting without ever hammering it in. If the time frame weren't so fixed where the story lines must be solved come Christmas it is possible that it were a shade more believable, but in the tradition of Christmas movies, it's all about the magic and wonder and situations finding closure.Despite a sizable cast, there isn't a role that feels underwritten. Sarah Jessica Parker, in her first starring role since Sex and the City, plays against her girlish type and becomes Meredith Morton - a woman too severe for her own good, too shrill for a family so lax.
Diane Keaton also plays somewhat against her intellectual type and shows what a mother's anger can do when a nasty comment is made. Keaton's interaction with Craig T. Nelson is so heartfelt one could think they have been married in real life for over thirty years. Rachel MacAdams has a field day playing a character whose messiness and blunt nature clashes in every aspect with Meredith's uptightness.
Claire Danes has a role reminiscent of Donna Reed - natural, girlish, wholesome - again a total opposite to Parker, and necessary to make Parker stand out as a sore thumb.
Dermot Mulroney and Luke Wilson also find the right notes in their characters: one wanting to make something of himself and believing that marrying an anal woman will grant him that, the other a sensitive man hiding under an apparent facade of neo-hippiness.
The Family Stone is a genuine, heartfelt movie and despite its political correctness it manages to be nicely subversive while also reviving Christmas films from the 40s, such as Meet Me in St. Louis (“Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas) and The Man Who Came to Dinner… 9/10

“Chapter One. He was as tough and romantic as the city he loved. Beneath his black-rimmed glasses was the coiled sexual power of a jungle cat. I love this. New York was his town, and it always would be...”
“Manhattan” does not fit the normal template for a successful film. In 1979, black-and-white photography had been out of favour in the cinema for over a decade. The film has little in the way of action, with more attention paid to dialogue and character development. Although there is humour, and the plot concerns the emotional entanglements of a group of friends, it is not a romantic comedy in the normal sense of the term. All the above points might seem to be weaknesses, and in some films they would have been. In Woody Allen's hands, however, what might have been weaknesses become strengths.
The central character in the film is Isaac Davis, a writer, played by Woody Allen himself. Isaac is divorced from his bisexual wife Jill, who is now involved in a lesbian relationship, and is dating Tracy, a seventeen-year-old schoolgirl. Isaac, however, is also finding himself drawn to Mary, the mistress of his best friend Yale. Yale is married and conducting a secret affair with Mary, who is becoming dissatisfied with the relationship because Yale seems reluctant to leave his wife Emily.
The above outline of the plot might give the impression that it is all very much standard Woody Allen stuff; the emotional difficulties of a bunch of self-centred, neurotic middle-class New Yorkers. Such an impression would be, at most, a half-truth. Although Woody has dealt with similar material in a number of other films (most recently in "Melinda and Melinda"), "Manhattan" represents one of his greatest accomplishments, rising above even his own normal high standards. The main reasons for this are the quality of the acting and the quality of the script. All six of the main roles are played very well. Emily and Jill may be minor characters in terms of on-screen time, but both are important in terms of their contributions to the plot. Anne Byrne's Emily is attractive, but we can sense a certain coolness and reserve about her and understand how her husband might have been drawn to another, more vivacious, woman. Jill (Meryl Streep in one of her earliest film roles) hides her bitterness and vindictiveness beneath a veneer of honesty and truthfulness. She publishes a book which she claims is an honest account of her marriage and divorce but which in reality is merely a device for revenging herself on her ex-husband.
The other four main characters form a sort of eternal quadrilateral instead of the more usual triangle. Isaac is a nervous, insecure intellectual who uses a sort of self-deprecating humour as a cover for his insecurities. This is the sort of part that we have come to associate with Woody Allen, but he has seldom played it as well as he does here. There is perhaps less concentration on humour than in some Allen films, but even so Isaac still manages to deliver some classic lines. ("I think people should mate for life, like pigeons or Catholics"). Diane Keaton's Mary is outgoing and lively but also conceited, self-centred and something of a pseudo-intellectual. She and Yale, another self-centred character, probably deserve each other. For me, however, the best and most perfectly-judged contribution came from Mariel Hemingway as Tracy, played here not as a precociously seductive Lolita or as a spoilt brat but as a charming but vulnerable girl next door. Perhaps more important, however, than any individual performance is the way in which the characters relate to one another; it is a film where the whole is greater than the sum of the parts. A musical analogy might be with a quartet, where a small group play together in harmony, rather than with a concerto which is dominated by one bravura performance.
Like many other lovers of this film, I was particularly impressed by the striking black-and-white photography of New York locations, particularly in the opening scenes. As one might expect from a director who is himself a talented musician, Woody normally pays a lot of attention to his musical scores; here the music of George Gershwin, particularly his "Rhapsody in Blue", seems very appropriate to the mood of the film. These factors contribute greatly to the success of this film, but for me it is perhaps most memorable as Woody's most penetrating analysis of human relationships. It is a film that I find more in every time I see it… 10/10

"I think that people who are famous tend to be underdeveloped in their humanity skills."
After being nominated for a Tony Award for Play It Again, Sam, Keaton made her film debut in 1970s Lovers and Other Strangers. She followed with guest roles on the television series Love, American Style and Night Gallery. Between films, Keaton appeared in a series of deodorant commercials.
Keaton's breakthrough role came when she was cast as Kay Adams, the girlfriend of Michael Corleone (played by Al Pacino) in Francis Ford Coppola's 1972 blockbuster The Godfather. Coppola noted that he first noticed Keaton in Lovers and Other Strangers, and cast her because of her reputation for eccentricity that he wanted her to bring to the role (Keaton claims that at the time she was commonly referred to as "the kooky actress" of the film industry). Her performance in the film was loosely based on her real life experience of making the film, both of which she has described as being "the woman in a world of men". The Godfather was an unparalleled critical and financial success, and won the Best Picture Oscar of 1972.
Two years later she reprised her role in The Godfather, Part II. She was initially reluctant to reprise her role, stating that, "At first, I was skeptical about playing Kay again in the Godfather sequel. But when I read the script, the character seemed much more substantial than in the first movie." In Part II her character had changed dramatically, becoming more embittered about her husband's activities. Even though Keaton received widespread exposure from the films, her character's importance was minimal. Time wrote that she was "invisible in The Godfather and pallid in The Godfather, Part II."
Keaton's other notable films of the 1970s included many collaborations with Woody Allen. Although by the time they made films together their romantic involvement had ended, she played many eccentric characters in several of his comic and dramatic films including Sleeper, Love and Death, Interiors, Manhattan, and the film version of Play It Again, Sam, directed by Herbert Ross. Allen has gone on to credit Keaton as his muse during his early film career.
In 1977, Keaton starred with Allen in the romantic comedy Annie Hall, in which she played one of her most famous roles. Annie Hall was written and directed by Allen, her paramour at the time, and the film was believed to be autobiographical of his relationship with Keaton. Allen based the character of Annie Hall loosely on Keaton ("Annie" is a nickname of hers, and "Hall" is her original surname). Many of Keaton's mannerisms and her self-deprecating sense of humor were added into the role by Allen. (Director Nancy Meyers has claimed "Diane's the most self-deprecating person alive").
Keaton has also said that Allen wrote the character as an "idealized version" of herself. The two starred as a frequently on-again, off-again couple living in New York City. Her acting was later summed up by CNN as "awkward, self-deprecating, speaking in endearing little whirlwinds of semi-logic", and by Allen as a "nervous breakdown in slow motion." The film was both a major financial and critical success, and won the Academy Award for Best Picture. Keaton's performance also won the Academy Award for Best Actress. In 2006, Premiere magazine ranked Keaton in Annie Hall as 60th on their list of the "100 Greatest Performances of All Time":
Keaton's eccentric wardrobe in Annie Hall, which consisted mainly of vintage men's clothing, including neckties, vests, baggy pants, and fedora hats, made her an unlikely fashion icon of the late 1970s. Most of the clothing seen in the film came from Keaton herself, who was already known for her tomboyish clothing style years before Annie Hall, though Ruth Morley and Ralph Lauren reportedly worked on the movie's costume.
Soon after the film's release, men's clothing and pantsuits became popular attire for women. She is known to favor men's vintage clothing, and usually appears in public wearing gloves and conservative attire. (A 2005 profile in the San Francisco Chronicle described her as "easy to find. Look for the only woman in sight dressed in a turtleneck. On a 90-degree afternoon in Pasadena.") Keaton would later reprise her Annie Hall appearance when she attended the 2003 Academy Awards presentation in a men's tuxedo and a bowler hat. Keaton also became a frequent target of fashion critic Mr. Blackwell, having made his annual "Worst Dressed List" on five occasions.
Her photo by Douglas Kirkland appeared on the cover of the September 26, 1977, issue Time magazine with the story dubbing her "the funniest woman now working in films."
Later that year, she departed from her usual lighthearted comic roles when she accepted a role in the drama Looking for Mr. Goodbar, based on the novel by Judith Rossner. In the film she played a Catholic schoolteacher for deaf children who lives a double life, spending nights frequenting singles bars and engaging in promiscuous sex. Keaton became interested in the role after seeing it as a "psychological case history."
In addition to acting, Keaton has stated that "(I) had a lifelong ambition to be a singer." She had a brief, unrealized career as a recording artist in the 1970s. Her first record was an original cast recording of Hair, in 1971. In 1977 she began recording tracks for a solo album, but the finished record never materialized.
Keaton met with more success in the medium of still photography. Like her character in Annie Hall, Keaton had long relished photography as a favorite hobby, an interest she picked up as a teenager from her mother. While traveling in the late 70s she began exploring her avocation more seriously. "Rolling Stone had asked me to take photographs for them, and I thought, 'Wait a minute, what I'm really interested in is these lobbies, and these strange ballrooms in these old hotels.' So I began shooting them," she explained in 2003. "These places were deserted, and I could just sneak in anytime and nobody cared. It was so easy and I could do it myself. It was an adventure for me." Reservations, her collection of photos of hotel interiors, was published in book form in 1980.
After Manhattan in 1979, Keaton and Woody Allen ended their long working relationship, and the film would be their last major collaboration until 1993. In 1978 Keaton became romantically involved with Warren Beatty, and two years later he cast her to play opposite of him in Reds. In the film she played Louise Bryant, a journalist and repressed housewife in 1917, who flees from her husband to work with radical journalist John Reed (Beatty), and later enters Russia to locate him as he chronicles the Russian Civil War. The New York Times wrote that Keaton was, "nothing less than splendid as Louise Bryant - beautiful, selfish, funny and driven. It's the best work she has done to date." Keaton received her second Academy Award nomination for the film.
Beatty cast Keaton after seeing her in Annie Hall, as he wanted to bring her natural nervousness and insecure attitude to the role. The production of Reds was delayed several times since its conception in 1977, and Keaton almost left the project when she believed it would never be produced. Filming finally began two years later. In a 2006 Vanity Fair story, Keaton described her role as "the everyman of that piece, as someone who wanted to be extraordinary but was probably more ordinary ... I knew what it felt like to be extremely insecure." Assistant director Simon Relph later stated that Louise Bryant was one of her most difficult roles, and that "(she) almost got broken."
In 1984, The Little Drummer Girl, Keaton's unsuccessful first excursion into the thriller and action genre. The Little Drummer Girl was both a financial and critical failure, with critics claiming that Keaton was miscast for the genre, such as one review from The New Republic claiming that "the title role, the pivotal role, is played by Diane Keaton, and around her the picture collapses in tatters. She is so feeble, so inappropriate." Two years later she starred with Jessica Lange and Sissy Spacek in Crimes of the Heart, adapted from Beth Henley's Pulitzer Prize-winning play into a moderately successful screen comedy. She starred in her first commercial vehicle with 1987's Baby Boom, her first of four collaborations with writer-producer Nancy Meyers. In Baby Boom Keaton starred as a Manhattan career woman who is suddenly forced to care for a toddler. That same year she made a cameo in Allen's film Radio Days as a nightclub singer. 1988's The Good Mother was a misstep for Keaton. The film was a financial disappointment (According to Keaton, the film was "a Big Failure. Like, BIG failure"), and some critics panned her performance, such was one review from The Washington Post: "her acting degenerates into hype - as if she's trying to sell an idea she can't fully believe in."
In 1987, Keaton directed and edited her first feature film, a documentary named Heaven about the possibility of an afterlife. Heaven met with mixed critical reaction, with The New York Times likening it to "a conceit imposed on its subjects." Over the next four years, Keaton went on to direct music videos for artists such as Belinda Carlisle, two television films starring Patricia Arquette, and episodes of the series China Beach and Twin Peaks.
By the 1990s, Keaton had established herself as one of the most popular and versatile actresses in Hollywood. Now middle-aged, she shifted to more mature roles, frequently playing matriarchs of middle-class families. Of her role choices and avoidance of becoming typecast, she said: "Most often a particular role does you some good and Bang! You have loads of offers, all of them for similar roles ... I have tried to break away from the usual roles and have tried my hand at several things."
She began the decade with The Lemon Sisters, a poorly received comedy/drama that she starred in and produced, which was shelved for a year after its completion. In 1991, Keaton starred with Steve Martin in the 1991 family comedy Father of the Bride. She was almost not cast in the film, as the commercial failure of The Good Mother had strained her relationship with Walt Disney Pictures, the studio of both films. Father of the Bride was Keaton's first major hit after four years of commercial disappointments.
Keaton reprised her role four years later in the sequel, as a woman who becomes pregnant in middle age at the same time as her daughter. A review of the film for the San Francisco Examiner was one of many in which Keaton once again received comparison to Katharine Hepburn: "No longer relying on that stuttering uncertainty that seeped into all her characterizations of the 1970s, she has somehow become Katharine Hepburn with a deep maternal instinct, that is, she is a fine and intelligent actress who doesn't need to be tough and edgy in order to prove her feminism."
Keaton reprised her role of Kay Adams in 1990s The Godfather, Part III. Set 21 years after the events of The Godfather, Part II, Keaton's part had evolved into the estranged ex-wife of Michael Corleone. Criticism of the film and Keaton again centered on her character's unimportance in the film. The Washington Post wrote: "Even though she is authoritative in the role, Keaton suffers tremendously from having no real function except to nag Michael for his past sins." In 1993 Keaton starred in Manhattan Murder Mystery, her first film with Woody Allen since 1979. Her part was intended for Mia Farrow, but Farrow dropped out of the project after her notorious separation from Allen.
In 1995, Keaton directed Unstrung Heroes, her first theatrically released narrative film. The movie, adapted from Franz Lidz's memoir, starred Nathan Watt as a boy in 1960s whose mother (Andie MacDowell) becomes ill with cancer. As her sickness advances and his inventor father (John Turturro) grows increasingly distant, the boy is sent to live with his two eccentric uncles (Maury Chaykin and Michael Richards). In a geographic switch, Keaton shifted the story's setting from the New York of Lidz's book to the Southern California of her own childhood. Though it played in a relatively limited release and made little impression at the box office, the film and its direction were well-received critically.
Keaton's most successful film of the decade was the 1996 comedy The First Wives Club. She starred with Goldie Hawn and Bette Midler as a trio of "first wives": middle-aged women who had been divorced by their husbands in favor of younger women. Keaton claimed that making the film "saved [her] life." The film was a major success grossing US$105 million at the North American box office, and even developed a cult following among middle-aged women. Reviews of the film were generally positive for Keaton and her co-stars, and she was even referred to by The San Francisco Chronicle as "probably [one of the] the best comic film actresses alive."
Also in 1996, Keaton starred as a woman with leukemia in Marvin's Room, an adaptation of the play by Scott McPherson. Meryl Streep played her estranged sister. Roger Ebert stated that "Streep and Keaton, in their different styles, find ways to make Lee and Bessie into much more than the expression of their problems." Keaton earned her third Academy Award nomination for the film. Although critically acclaimed, the film was not released on a wide scale, possibly costing Keaton the Oscar. Keaton said that the biggest challenge of the role was understanding the mentality of a person with terminal illness.
Keaton's first film of 2000 was Hanging Up with Meg Ryan and Lisa Kudrow. Keaton also directed the film, despite claiming in a 1996 interview that she would never direct herself in a film, saying "[as a director] you automatically have different goals. I can't think about directing when I'm acting." The film was a drama about three sisters coping with the senility and eventual death of their elderly father. Hanging Up rated poorly with critics, and grossed a modest US$36 million at the North American box office.
In 2001 Keaton co-starred with Warren Beatty once again in Town & Country, a critical and financial fiasco. Budgeted at an estimated US$90 million, the film opened to little notice and grossed only $7 million in its North American theatrical run. Peter Travers of Rolling Stone claimed that Town & Country was, "less deserving of a review than it is an obituary ... The corpse took with it the reputations of its starry cast, including Warren Beatty [and] Diane Keaton".
In 2001 and 2002 Keaton starred in four low-budget television films. She played a fanatical nun in the religious drama Sister Mary Explains It All, an impoverished mother in the drama On Thin Ice, and a bookkeeper in the mob comedy Plan B. In Crossed Over she played Beverly Lowry, a woman who forms an unusual friendship with the first and only woman executed while on death row in Texas, Karla Faye Tucker.
Keaton's first major hit since 1996 came in 2003's Something's Gotta Give, directed by Nancy Meyers and co-starring Jack Nicholson. Nicholson and Keaton, aged 66 and 57 respectively, were seen as bold casting choices for leads in a romantic comedy. Twentieth Century Fox, the film's original studio, reportedly declined to produce the film, fearing that the lead characters were too old to be bankable. Keaton commented about the situation in Ladies' Home Journal: "Let's face it, people my age and Jack's age are much deeper, much more soulful, because they've seen a lot of life. They have a great deal of passion and hope- why shouldn't they fall in love? Why shouldn't movies show that?" Keaton played a middle-aged playwright who falls in love with her daughter's much older boyfriend. The film was a major success at the box office, grossing US$125 million in North America. Roger Ebert wrote that "[Nicholson and Keaton] bring so much experience, knowledge and humor to their characters that the film works in ways the screenplay might not have even hoped for." The following year, Keaton received her fourth Academy Award nomination for her role in the film.
Most recently, Keaton starred in the moderately successful 2005 comedy The Family Stone with Sarah Jessica Parker. Her latest film, Because I Said So, co-starring Mandy Moore, opened on February 2, 2007 to poor reviews.
Keaton has also served as a producer on films and television series. She produced the FOX series Pasadena, which was cancelled after airing only four episodes in 2001 but later completed its run on cable in 2005. In 2003 she produced the Gus Van Sant drama Elephant, about a school shooting. On why she produced the film, she said: "It really makes me think about my responsibilities as an adult to try and understand what's going on with young people."
Outside of the film industry, Keaton has continued to pursue her interest in photography. As a collector, she told Vanity Fair in 1987: "I have amassed a huge library of images - kissing scenes from movies, pictures I like. Visual things are really key for me." She has published several more collections of her own photographs, and has also served as an editor for collections of vintage photography. Works she has edited in the last decade include a book of photographs by paparazzo Ron Galella, an anthology of reproductions of clown paintings, and a collection of photos of California's Spanish Colonial and Mission-style houses.
Keaton has also established herself as a real estate developer. She has resold several mansions in Southern California after renovating and redesigning them. One of her clients is Madonna, who purchased a US$6.5 million Beverly Hills mansion from Keaton in 2003. She will receive the Film Society of Lincoln Center's Gala Tribute in 2007.

“After that it got pretty late, and we both had to go, but it was great seeing Annie again. I... I realized what a terrific person she was, and... and how much fun it was just knowing her; and I... I, I thought of that old joke, y'know, the, this... this guy goes to a psychiatrist and says, "Doc, uh, my brother's crazy; he thinks he's a chicken." And, uh, the doctor says, "Well, why don't you turn him in?" The guy says, "I would, but I need the eggs." Well, I guess that's pretty much now how I feel about relationships; y'know, they're totally irrational, and crazy, and absurd, and... but, uh, I guess we keep goin' through it because, uh, most of us... need the eggs.”
The film that bested Star Wars for the 1977 Best Picture Oscar, Annie Hall is a remarkable achievement in filmmaking that transcends its simple, romantic premise to create a stunning portrait of not only 70's pop culture, but of human nature cumulative. Directed and co-written by Woody Allen, who has since directed other gems such as Hannah and Her Sisters and The Purple Rose of Cairo, Annie Hall also stars Allen as Alvy Singer, a neurotic, death-obsessed comedian who seems unlucky in love and life. That is until he meets Annie, brilliantly played by Diane Keaton, who is beautiful, fashion-savvy, carefree (she likes using expressions like `la di da'), and a terrible driver.
Annie and Alvy's relationship is an unlikely one. She's a Midwestern girl, straight out of white-bread Wisconsin; he's a life-long New York Jew who grew up (literally) under the Coney Island roller coaster. He's been seeing a therapist for the past 15 years; she only `needs' one once she meets him. She's an extroverted aspiring singer; he's an introverted, world-despising imp. Yet Allen and Keaton are so perfect in their roles, they improbably make this couple one of the most memorable ever.
The plot revolves around Alvy's chronicles of loves lost and a retrospective on his relationship with Annie, with whom he has since parted ways. At the end of the film, we see Alvy try his hand at stage-writing - he writes a play about his relationship with Annie, but gives it a happy ending. Yes, Annie and Alvy don't have a fairy tale ending to their relationship, but Alvy certainly wishes they had, even though he learns to live with the acknowledgment it has failed.
The best part of Annie Hall is its incredible screenplay – one of the best ever to be written. Not a word is wasted nor a line unquotable. Except here, while Allen's early films had thrived on streams of one-liners, Allen doesn't go for cheap laughs - each line is simultaneously hilarious and poignant. Everything is part of a greater whole. We laugh because it's funny, but there's a greater dynamic at work in Annie Hall. This is a story not exclusively about a relationship between two people, but also a musing on 70's politics, drugs, East Coast/West Coast rivalry, narcissism, religion, celebrity, and several other topics with which Allen deals with extraordinary ease.
Yet Annie Hall would not be among my favorite films of all-time if it were just Woody Allen ranting and raving about what he likes and dislikes. There are other Allen films that serve that purpose. What separates Annie Hall is its grace, the believable chemistry between Keaton and Allen, the unique direction (ranging from split-screens to cartoon imagery to on-screen subtitles of what the actors are thinking), but mostly because it's the rare film to find a perfect balance between sheer entertainment, humor, and poignancy.When the dust had settled, Diane Keaton deservedly won an Academy Award for her performance, Allen took home Oscars for direction and writing, and the film beat out Star Wars for Best Picture, which most people consider a complete sham. Evidently, those people didn't see Annie Hall … 10/10

“I'm gonna make him an offer he can't refuse.”
The Godfather is a 1972 crime film based on the novel of the same name by Mario Puzo and directed by Francis Ford Coppola, with screenplay by Puzo and Coppola. The story spans ten years from late 1945 to 1955 and chronicles the life of the Corleone crime family.
The Godfather was initially ranked as the third greatest film in American cinematic history (behind Citizen Kane and Casablanca) on AFI's 100 Years... 100 Movies list by the American Film Institute. It has now been re-ranked number two under Citizen Kane, with number three being Casablanca. It is also the top movie on Internet Movie Database's Top 250 list, as well as Metacritic's top 100 list and Rotten Tomatoes' all-time best list. Two sequels followed, The Godfather Part II in 1974 and The Godfather Part III in 1990.
The film begins at the wedding of Don Vito Corleone's daughter Connie to Carlo Rizzi in New York City in late summer of 1945. Because "no Sicilian can refuse a request on his daughter's wedding day". Corleone, known to his friends and associates as "Godfather", and Tom Hagen (the Corleone family consigliere, or counselor) are preoccupied with hearing requests from friends and associates. Meanwhile, the Don's youngest son Michael, who has returned from World War II service as a highly decorated war hero, tells his girlfriend Kay Adams anecdotes about his father's criminal life, reassuring her that he is not like his family.
Among the guests at the celebration is the famous singer Johnny Fontane, Corleone's godson, who has come from Hollywood to petition the Godfather's help in landing a movie role that will revitalize his flagging career. Jack Woltz, the head of the studio, will not give Fontane the part, but Don Corleone explains to Johnny: "I'll make him an offer he can't refuse". Hagen is dispatched to California to fix the problem, but Woltz angrily tells him that he will never cast Fontane in the role, for which he is perfect, because Fontane seduced and "ruined" a starlet that Woltz favored. The next morning, Woltz wakes up to find the bloody severed head of his prize stud horse in the bed with him.
Upon Hagen's return, the family meets with heroin dealer Virgil "The Turk" Sollozzo, who is being backed by the rival Tattaglia family. He asks Don Corleone for political and legal protection, as well as financing to start the mass importation and distribution of heroin, but despite the huge amount of money to be made, Corleone refuses, explaining that his political influence would be jeopardized by a move into the narcotics trade. The Don's oldest son, hotheaded Sonny, who had earlier expressed to the Don his support of the family entering into the narcotics trade, breaks rank during the meeting and questions Sollozzo's assurances as to the Corleone Family's investment being guaranteed by the Tattaglia Family. His father, angry at Sonny's dissention in front of a non-family member, later privately rebukes him. Don Corleone then dispatches his aide, Luca Brasi, to infiltrate Sollozzo's organization and report back with information.
Soon after Don Corleone's refusal, he is shot several times in an assassination attempt at a local market. It is not publicly known whether he survived. Meanwhile, Sollozzo and the Tattaglias kill Luca Brasi. Sollozzo then abducts and persuades Tom Hagen to offer Sonny the deal previously offered to his father. Sollozzo reasons that Sonny is more amenable to the deal than was his father, and that with Don Corleone out of the way, Sonny will accept the deal. Enraged, Sonny refuses to consider the deal, promising a war with the Tattaglias and Sollozzo.
Michael, who is considered a "civilian" (not involved in the mob business) by the other mafia families and therefore able to live a more normal life, visits his father in the hospital. He is immediately shocked to find that there are no police officers or Corleone Family men guarding him. Realizing that his father is again being set up to be killed, he calls Sonny with a report, then moves his father to another room. He then goes outside to watch the door. With the help of an overwhelmed Enzo (the baker), who feels indebted to the Don, he bluffs away Sollozzo's men. Police cars soon arrive with the corrupt Captain McCluskey, who breaks Michael's jaw after he insinuates that McCluskey is being paid by Sollozzo to set up his father. Just then, Hagen shows up with "private detectives" licensed to carry guns to protect Don Corleone, and takes Michael home.
Following the attempt on the Don's life at the hospital, Sollozzo and Captain McCluskey, who is acting as Sollozzo's bodyguard, request a meeting with Michael under the auspices of ameliorating their differences. Michael volunteers to kill both men during the meeting, which initially amuses Sonny and the other senior members of the Corleone family, with Sonny admonishing him for reacting too personally and emotionally. However, Michael convinces them that killing Sollozo and McCluskey is in the family's interest ("It's not personal. It's strictly business."). The meeting between Michael and Sollozzo, with McCluskey attending, is arranged at a quiet, local restaurant, as requested by Michael so he will "feel safe". Michael excuses himself to go to the restroom, retrieves a planted revolver, and assassinates Sollozzo and McCluskey with near-point-blank-range shots to the head. To avoid his arrest for the murders, Michael is sent to Sicily while the Corleone family prepares for all-out warfare with the rest of the Five Families, who unite against the Corleones, as well as a general clampdown on the mob by the police and government authorities.
While in Sicily, Michael lives under the protection of Don Tommasino, an old friend of the family. While there, he falls in love with and marries a local girl, Apollonia, who is subsequently murdered during an attempt on Michael's life.
Meanwhile, back in New York, Don Corleone returns home from the hospital and is distraught to learn that Michael was the one who killed Sollozzo and McCluskey. Some months later, in 1948, Sonny severely beats Carlo for brutalizing the expecting Connie, and threatens to kill Carlo the next time he abuses her. The next time Carlo beats her, Sonny drives off alone to fulfill his threat. On the way, he is ambushed and Tommy-gunned to death at the causeway tollbooth.
Instead of seeking revenge for Sonny's killing, Don Corleone meets with the heads of the Five Families to arrange an end to the war. Not only is it draining all of their assets and threatening their survival, but ending the conflict is the only way that Michael can return home safely. Reversing his previous decision, Vito agrees that the Corleone family will provide political protection for Philip Tattaglia's traffic in heroin. At the meeting, Don Corleone realizes that Don Barzini, not Tattaglia, was responsible for the mob war and Sonny's death.
With his safety guaranteed, Michael returns from Sicily. More than a year later, he reunites with his former girlfriend, Kay, telling her that he wants to marry her. With the Don semi-retired, Sonny dead and middle brother Fredo considered incapable of running the family business, Michael is now in charge, and he claims that the family business will soon be completely legitimate.
Clemenza and Tessio, two Corleone Family caporegimes (captains) complain that they are being pushed around by the Barzini Family and ask permission to strike back, but Michael refuses. With his father as consigliere, he plans to move the family operations to Nevada and after that, Clemenza and Tessio may break away to go on their own. Michael further promises that Connie's husband, Carlo, is going to be his right hand in Nevada, while Hagen will be the Family's Las Vegas lawyer.
In Las Vegas Michael is greeted by Fredo in the hotel-casino partly financed by the Corleones, and run by Moe Greene. Michael explains to Johnny Fontane that the Family needs his help in persuading Johnny's friends in show business to sign long-term contracts to appear at the casino. In a meeting with Moe Greene, Michael offers to buy out Greene but is rudely rebuffed. Greene believes the Corleones are weak and that he can secure a better deal from Barzini.
Michael returns home. In a private meeting, Vito explains his expectation that the Family's enemies will attempt to kill Michael by using a trusted associate to arrange a meeting as a pretext for assassination. Shortly afterwards, Don Vito dies of a heart attack while playing with his young grandson in his tomato garden.
During the funeral, Tessio conveys a proposal for a meeting with Barzini, which identifies him as the traitor that Vito was expecting. Michael arranges the murders of Moe Greene, Philip Tattaglia, Emilio Barzini, Anthony Stracci, and Carmine Cuneo, all to take place during the baptism of Connie's and Carlo's second son, for whom he will be godfather. After the baptism, Tessio believes he and Michael are on their way to meet with Barzini. But instead, he is taken away by Willie Cicci and other buttonmen to be killed. Michael confronts Carlo about Sonny's murder and tricks him into admitting his role in setting up the ambush. "Today", Michael tells him, "I settle all Family business." Michael informs Carlo that his punishment is to be excluded from the family business and hands him a plane ticket to exile in Nevada. Carlo gets into a car to go to the airport, and is garroted by Clemenza.
Later, Connie confronts Michael, accusing him of Carlo's murder. Kay questions Michael about Connie's accusation, but he refuses to answer. She insists, and Michael lies, assuring his wife that he had no role in Carlo's death. Kay is relieved by his denial. As the film ends, she watches Clemenza and new caporegime Rocco Lampone pay their respects to Michael, kissing his hand and addressing him as "Don Corleone." The door is closed by new capo Al Neri, as she realizes that Michael has become the new Godfather.