How does the film create and challenge typical romantic
comedies?
The
fact that the story is told from Alvy Singer’s (the man’s) point of view is
atypical in itself. Usually you’re following a romantically frustrated woman
who can’t figure out why no one likes her. Instead you’re following a guy
through his memories of past relationships and hearing his narration through
the ups and downs of the relationship with his current significant other.
Additionally, this film also focused on his career, not just his sexual
behavior. It wasn’t as graphic as a typical current romantic comedy probably
because it’s set in the 1970’s, although you’d expect there to be more
raunchiness given the historical significance of the sexual revolution so maybe
that challenges romantic comedies. This film was really honest compared to the
humor of typical romantic comedies where you might see a couple hiding
something from the family or a cheating incident. In this film, you see the
real problems that many real couples encounter (moving in together, getting
married, different interests, decreasing sexual encounters/interest, long
distances…) and how real rational people cope with those problems even if they
are in irrational ways (proposing marriage prematurely, on-again-off-again
relationships…). This film was unique in that it almost gave advice. It wasn’t
meant to be just a comedy. It was meant to be a portrayal of someone’s truth
with some humor added, mostly from the fact that the main character is a
comedian. It criticized the use of therapy in attempts to correct interpersonal
issues which is not very common. That’s sort of an area a lot of movies try not
to touch unless the film is centered around issues dealt with in therapy and
thus therapy becomes a huge part of the film, which is not the case here.
How does the film support and challenge gender roles?
If you
really think about it and analyze what was going on between Alvy and Annie, the
two of them share dominance in the relationship. Alvy plays the man for a
little bit by being more intellectual and the breadwinner with the larger
apartment, a love for watching sports and a lack of interest in long term or
life long commitment while Annie has minimal knowledge on academic subjects,
drives like the stereotypical woman and is terrified of spiders. In these ways,
Alvy and Annie’s relationship supports gender roles. But Alvy is just as
horrible at dealing with unwanted insects and actually shows a submissive role
when Annie calls late at night for him to come kill a spider in her bathroom
(which he fails at miserably) despite the fact that he has an attractive woman
in his bed who he happily turns away in order to go see Annie without even
knowing what the emergency is. When does that EVER happen?! They mutually agree
to break up which is atypical since it’s usually the least happy person
breaking the bad news rather than both sides of the relationship coming to the
same conclusion simultaneously and agreeing from the beginning that this is an
appropriate break up. When does that ever happen? Unrealistic. When do you ever
laugh and reminisce with your ex-significant other while you’re packing up all
of your belongings in preparation of removing yourself from their apartment? Oh
right, never. That’s why it’s a movie.
How does the film present ideas and theories about love?
Attributing
“the screw up” to why a relationship ended and not realizing that it just
wasn’t meant to be and it wasn’t necessarily a screw up but a difference in
personalities, values or ambitions. That falls under the idea or theory that
there is always a cause for the ending of a relationship. That’s like saying there
is a root or cause to unhappiness or depression which is untrue because if
there was, some genius would have figured out a new drug to correct or prevent
that particular cause of unhappiness from occurring. So similarly, there cannot
be a one screw up that ended this particular relationship. This is not true for
all relationships because some end for one reason such as a cheating incident.
But for Annie, this one screw up theory is a waste of time considering.
A
“sexual problem” being the root of all unhappiness in a relationship is one of
those “screw ups” considered in the film as well. Couples start making excuses
on either end that “I’m too tense. I need a valium.” Or that there is too much
noise. At one point, Alvy talks about the fact that he doesn’t want to be in
any club that would let someone like him in it and then goes on to talk about
sex and sex is essentially a club of people who are sexually active that he
doesn’t want to be in if they’ll take him, which “they” do because “they “ is
woman and he has had sexual encounters and is therefore a part of the group he
wishes not to be in since “they” did take people like him. That’s a terrible
way of looking at it. He also attributes
his sexual drive to hostility and irritation but sometimes those are
propellants into having sex and other times they are deterrents.
Other notes:
I thought the use of marijuana in the film was interesting.
Alvy was pissed off that Annie smoked a joint before sex and actually took it
away from her once. He refers to it as “artificially relaxed before sex” but
how is that any worse than “I’m too tense, I need a valium”? He says he’s
against it because a laugh from a person who is high doesn’t count because
they’re always laughing anyway but I don’t see how that can be applied to sex
since some people swear that marijuana makes everything, including sex, better.
I saw it as him enforcing his views on drugs on his girlfriend instead of
letting her live her life the way she has long before he arrived in it. Drugs
seem to be a world that Annie is well suited for and seems to have a lot of
experience in while Alvy absolutely doesn’t belong there. In contrast, Alvy
belongs in this world of academics, intellectuals and comedians and Annie tries
to become a part of that world but fails just as badly as Alvy does in the drug
scenes. After asking other couples how they handle their relationships (again
atypical for a male character to do), he finds that other couples use
artificial ways of creating a more pleasurable sexual experience such as large
vibrating eggs? There is way too much emphasis placed on orgasms making up for
emptiness in life which may actually be the way the world is in reality or it
could be that just some people feel that way. I don’t know but there was a lot
of emphasis placed on orgasms, even in their respective therapy sessions.
I thought Annie was an interesting character in that she had
(in my opinion) a great personality (friendly, funny, ambitious to be
intellectual but ignorant at the same time) but she presented herself in this
strange package of weird and poorly fitting clothing and awkward mannerisms
especially when she first starts talking to Alvy. Her voice is also an interesting
part of her persona. She has a really beautiful voice but
she presents it in an equally awkward manner through the songs she chooses to
sing and not even so much the song choices themselves but how she chooses to
sing songs that everyone knows so they sound familiar but all sorts of strung
out that makes it feel strange but you can still appreciate the beauty of her
voice the same way you can appreciate her personality through all her weird
clothes and “la ti da” mannerisms.
One last thing: What is with all of these short shrimpy
dudes dating mile high women? Just saying.
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