THE FIRST IN AN OCCASIONAL SERIES

FORGOTTEN FILMS THAT SHOULD BE REMEMBERED

  We live in an age were everything is immediate and most things disposal; Income, music , TV shows, literature, photography and film.  If you go back 10 years and pick up an old “NOW THAT’S WHAT I CALLED MUSIC THEN” CD, what you’ll be struck by is how few of the tracks are memorable.  Oh sure you might see six or seven identifiable songs on disc 1, but on Disc 2 ...Who the hell were Sunset Strippers and Thirteen Senses???  

  The good news is that because of this the shit very soon gets cast to the scrapheap (So long, Pit-bull!)  But in this world of increasing noise much of the great stuff, particularly in the world of film, from our not so recent past is being drowned out in a maelstrom of Bad CGI, endless movie franchises and dismal “Let’s improvise every fucking scene” lazy-ass directing.  So in this occasional series I’m going to be looking at films that have either being forgotten (“Stalag 17”, “The Sunshine Boys”, “Dave”, “Crimes and Misdemeanors”), or films that need a champion (“Meet Dave”, “Her Alibi”, “Clue”, “Living in Oblivion”) or films that are just too damn good to let go of (“Enemy of the State”, “Jackie Brown”).  But first is a film that in it’s day 30 years ago was revered in cinemas as a massive achievement, grandiose in scale and probably one of the best films of the Seventies.  Ladies and gentlemen, I give you the case for ...Manhattan.

1.  Manhattan (1979)

  Chapter One:  In the seventies Woody Allen could do no wrong.  He had had a string of successful comedies, his film Annie Hall had beaten Star Wars to both the best picture and  best director gongs at the Oscars and ...he didn’t even care.  He didn’t show.  He didn’t believe in awards ceremonies, but in spite of all these glorious moments he had one final trick up his sleeve, his own “Star Wars”-ian style spectacular and that was Manhattan.

  Beginning with George Gershwin’s “Rhapsody in Blue” “Manhattan” starts in impressive style with a writer trying to find the perfect blend of intellect and swagger.  The writer himself is Isaac, who has quit his steady job as a TV writer in the hope that he’d have something to say for himself on a broader canvas.  His best friend is Yale (played by Michael Murphy) a successful academic caught up in a huge mid-life crisis and having an affair with Mary (Diane Keaton) who is more neurotic and stretched out than any of the male characters, caught in the headlights of wanting something for herself and yet terrified about it not working out, and lastly there’s Tracy (Mariel Hemingway), Isaac’s young girlfriend, who is idealistic, not screwed up by the world, but who Isaac is constantly thinking about ditching due to the age gap.

  Manhattan is the simple tale of a crossroads in all of the characters lives and how they deal with these challenges and dilemma’s while also suffering the fallout for everyone else’s decisions.  Filmed in black and white it probably doesn’t get the network showings it should because of this, and Woody Allen’s films have become kind of Taboo after, well everything that happened (You know what I mean!) which is kind of sad because we have effectively lost one of the last twenty years best film-makers vast and impressive bodies of work.

  As with all of Woody’s work the word is king and in common with all the best films where the script is boss it almost develops it’s own rhythm, it is especially true in Manhattan from the first scene.  

  This film was undoubtedly the beginning of his films where drama and comedy collide and while Manhattan isn’t as out-and-out funny as Annie Hall when it is funny it is hilarious.  The decision to film in black and white also reflects the script perfectly which was arguably Woody’s most moral film up to this stage.  The direction is exquisite and the use of Gershwin’s music, which seems so obvious now, was a master-stroke.  The cast all do a terrific job, Michael Murphy terrific as the awful Yale, Diane Keaton great as the woman messed up after a disastrous relationship with a father figure and both Mariel Hemingway and Meryl Streep rounding off a fantastic crew.  However there is another star of this film and that’s New York itself.  

  In this film New York is a heartbeat, a pulse, and it acts like a dramatic opera setting with all the city’s inhabitants seeming to act like extras to Woody and Gershwin’s tune.  It is a majestic transcendent piece of film-making and like the city itself (according to my wife) well worth spending sometime getting to know.