Manhattan (1979 film)

According to Allen, the idea for Manhattan originated from his love of 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"[4] and that it 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," adding that he has "rationalized [his] way out of it so far, but [he] could conceive of doing it."[10]

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".[11] Allen decided to shoot his film in black and white because that was how he remembered 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".[12] The picture was shot on location with the exception of some of the scenes in the planetarium which were filmed on a set.[13]

The bridge shot

The famous bridge shot was done at five in the morning.[14] The production had to bring their own bench as there were no park benches at the location.[15] 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. Afterward, 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.[14]

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 no fee instead.[16] 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.'"[15]

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.[17]

• New York Philharmonic
  • Rhapsody in Blue
  • "Love is Sweeping the Country"
  • "Land of the Gay Caballero"
  • "Sweet and Low Down"
  • "I've Got a Crush on You"
  • "Do-Do-Do"
  • "'S Wonderful"
  • "Oh, Lady Be Good!"
  • "Strike Up the Band"
  • "Embraceable You"
• Buffalo Philharmonic
  • "Someone to Watch Over Me"
  • "He Loves and She Loves"
  • "But Not for Me"

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

The film grossed $485,734 ($16,749 per screen) in its opening weekend[20] and after expanding nationwide, it had grossed $3.5 million after 13 days.[18] It grossed $39.9 million in its entire run in the United States and Canada,[20] making the film the 17th highest-grossing picture of the year. Adjusted for ticket price inflation (as of 2017), Manhattan grossed $141,484,800, making it Allen's second biggest box-office hit, following 1977's Annie Hall.[21]

The film received largely positive reviews and currently holds a rating of 96% "Certified Fresh" on Rotten Tomatoes based on reviews from 67 critics, with an average rating of 8.48/10. The website's consensus reads, "One of Woody Allen's early classics, Manhattan combines modern, bittersweet humor and timeless romanticism with unerring grace."[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 sell-outs 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 included the film in his list of The Great Movies.[26] Gene Siskel of the Chicago Tribune awarded a full four out of four stars, calling it "a remarkable motion picture. 'Manhattan' may turn out to be the year's best comedy and drama."[27] Vincent Canby of The New York Times called the film "extraordinarily fine and funny" with "superb" performances from Keaton and Hemingway.[28] Charles Champlin of the Los Angeles Times called it "harder, harsher, crueler, deeper-going, more assertive but in the end no less life-affirming than 'Annie Hall,'" and declared Manhattan "even better" than that film.[29]

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".[30] In 2007 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."[31]

In October 2013, readers of The Guardian newspaper voted it the best film directed by Woody Allen.[32]

New York Film Critics Circle named Allen best director for Manhattan.[33] The National Society of Film Critics also named Allen best director along with Robert Benton, who directed Kramer vs. Kramer.[34] The film was nominated for Academy Awards for Best Supporting Actress (Mariel Hemingway) and Best Original Screenplay (Allen and Marshall Brickman).[35] It also won the BAFTA Award for Best Film and the César Award for Best Foreign Film.[36]

In Empire magazine's 2008 poll of the 500 greatest movies ever made, Manhattan was ranked number 76.[37] The New York Times placed the film on its Best 1000 Movies Ever list.[38] 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 No. 4 on Rotten Tomatoes' 25 Best Romantic Comedies.[39]

The film is recognized by American Film Institute in these lists:

• 1998: AFI's 100 Years...100 Movies – Nominated[40]
• 2000: AFI's 100 Years...100 Laughs – #46[41]
• 2002: AFI's 100 Years...100 Passions – #66[42]
• 2005: AFI's 100 Years...100 Movie Quotes:
  • Isaac Davis: "I think people should mate for life, like pigeons or Catholics." – Nominated[43]
• 2007: AFI's 100 Years...100 Movies (10th Anniversary Edition) – Nominated[44]