poignant
7 min readJun 18, 2020
todays videos to watched: Opening Scene of Annie Hall, by Woody Allen.
ANNIE HALL
written by
Woody Allen
Marshall Brickman
(Sound and Woody Allen monologue begin)
FADE IN:
White credits dissolve in and out on black screen. No sound.
FADE OUT: credits
FADE IN:
Abrupt medium close-up of Alvy Singer doing a comedy monologue. He
wearing a crumbled sports jacket and tieless shirt; the background is stark.
ALVY
There's an old joke. Uh, two elderly
women are at a Catskills mountain
resort, and one of 'em says: "Boy, the
food at this place is really terrible."
The other one says, "Yeah, I know, and
such ... small portions." Well, that's
essentially how I feel about life. Full
of loneliness and misery and suffering
and unhappiness, and it's all over much
too quickly. The-the other important
joke for me is one that's, uh, usually
attributed to Groucho Marx, but I think
it appears originally in Freud's wit and
its relation to the unconscious. And it
goes like this-I'm paraphrasing: Uh ...
"I would never wanna belong to any club
that would have someone like me for a
member." That's the key joke of my adult
life in terms of my relationships with
women. Tsch, you know, lately the
strangest things have been going
through my mind, 'cause I turned forty,
tsch, and I guess I'm going through a
life crisis or something, I don't know.
I, uh ... and I'm not worried about aging.
I'm not one o' those characters, you know.
Although I'm balding slightly on top, that's
about the worst you can say about me. I,
uh, I think I'm gonna get better as I get
older, you know? I think I'm gonna be the-
the balding virile type, you know, as
opposed to say the, uh, distinguished
gray, for instance, you know? 'Less I'm
neither o' those two. Unless I'm one o'
those guys with saliva dribbling out of
his mouth who wanders into a cafeteria
with a shopping bag screaming about
socialism.
(Sighing)
Annie and I broke up and I-I still can't
get my mind around that. You know, I-I
keep sifting the pieces of the relationship
through my mind and-and examining my life
and tryin' to figure out where did the
screw-up come, you know, and a year ago we
were... tsch, in love. You know, and-and-and
... And it's funny, I'm not-I'm not a
morose type. I'm not a depressive character.
I-I-I, uh,
(Laughing)
you know, I was a reasonably happy kid,
I guess. I was brought up in Brooklyn
during World War II.
CUT TO:
INT. DOCTOR'S OFFICE-DAY
Alvy as young boy sits on a sofa with his mother in an old-fashioned,
cluttered doctor's office. The doctor stands near the sofa, holding a
cigarette and listening.
MOTHER
(To the doctor)
He's been depressed. All off a sudden,
he can't do anything.
DOCTOR
(Nodding)
Why are you depressed, Alvy?
MOTHER
(Nudging Alvy)
Tell Dr. Flicker.
(Young Alvy sits, his head down. His
mother answers for him)
It's something he read.
DOCTOR
(Puffing on his cigarette and
nodding)
Something he read, huh?
ALVY
(His head still down)
The universe is expanding.
DOCTOR
The universe is expanding?
ALVY
(Looking up at the doctor)
Well, the universe is everything, and if
it's expanding, someday it will break apart
and that would be the end of everything!
Disgusted, his mother looks at him.
MOTHER
(shouting)
What is that your business?
(she turns back to the doctor)
He stopped doing his homework.
ALVY
What's the point?
MOTHER
(Excited, gesturing with her hands)
What has the universe got to do with it?
You're here in Brooklyn! Brooklyn is not
expanding!
DOCTOR
(Heartily, looking down at Alvy)
It won't be expanding for billions of years
yet, Alvy. And we've gotta try to enjoy
ourselves while we're here. Uh?
He laughs.
CUT TO:
Fall shot of house with an amusement-park roller-coaster ride built over it.
A line of cars move up and then slides with great speed while out the window
of the house a band shakes a dust mop.
ALVY'S VOICE
My analyst says I exaggerate my childhood
memories, but I swear I was brought up
underneath the roller-
CUT TO:
INT. HOUSE
Alvy as a child sits at the table eating soup and reading a comic book while
his father sits on the sofa reading the paper. The house shakes with every
move of the roller coaster.
ALVY'S VOICE
-coaster in the Coney Island section of
Brooklyn. Maybe that accounts for my
personality, which is a little nervous, I
think.
CUT TO:
Young Alvy at the food-stand concession watching three military men
representing the Army, the Navy and the Marines arm in arm with a blond woman
in a skirted bathing suit. They all turn and run toward the foreground. The
girl stops before the camera to lean over and throw a kiss. The sign over the
concession reads "Steve's Famous Clam Bar. Ice Cold Beer, "and the roller
coaster is moving in full gear in the background.
ALVY'S VOICE
You know, I have a hyperactive imagination.
My mind tends to jump around a little, and
have some trouble between fantasy and reality.
CUT TO:
Full shot of people in bumper cars thoroughly enjoying bumping into each other
as Alvy father stands in the center of the track directing traffic.
ALVY'S VOICE
My father ran the bumper-car concession.
(Alvy as a child moves into the frame
driving a bumper car. He stops as other
cars bombard him. His father continues
to direct the traffic)
There-there he is and there I am. But I-I-I-I
used to get my aggression out through those
cars all the time.
Alvy backs up his car off screen.
INT. SCHOOLROOM - DAY
The camera pans over three austere-looking teachers standing in front of the
blackboard. The chalk writing on the board changes as each teacher lectures.
While Alvy speaks, one of the male teachers puts an equation on the blackboard.
- "2 X 10 = 20 " and other arithmetic formulas.
ALVY'S VOICE
I remember the staff at our public
school. You know, we had a saying, uh,
that "Those who can't do, teach, and
those who can't teach, teach gym." And
...uh, h'h, of course, those who couldn't
do anything, I think, were assigned to
our school. I must say-
CUT TO:
A female teacher standing in front of an old-fashioned schoolroom. The
blackboard behind her reads "Transportation Administration. The camera pans
her point of view: a group of young students sitting behind their desks. Alvy
as a child sits in a center desk wile all around him there is student activity;
there is note-passing, ruler-tapping, nose-picking, gumchewing.
ALVY'S VOICE
I always felt my schoolmates were idiots.
Melvyn Greenglass, you know, fat little
face, and Henrietta Farrell, just Miss
Perfect all the time. And-and Ivan
Ackerman, always the wrong answer. Always.
Ivan stands up behind his desk.
IVAN
Seven and three is nine.
Alvy hits his forehead with his hand. Another student glances over at him,
reacting.
ALVY'S VOICE
Even then I knew they were just jerks.
(The camera moves back to the teacher,
who is glaring out at her students)
In nineteen forty-two I had already dis-
As Alvy talks, the camera shows him move from his seat and kiss a young girl.
She jumps from her seat in disgust, rubbing her cheek, as Alvy moves back to
his seat.
1ST GIRL
(Making noises)
Ugh, he kissed me, he kissed me.
TEACHER
(Off screen)
That's the second time this month! Step
up here!
As the teacher, really glaring now, speaks, Alvy rises from his seat and moves
over to her. Angry, she points with her band while the students turn their
heads to watch what will happen next.
ALVY
What'd I do?
TEACHER
Step up here!
ALVY
What'd I do?
TEACHER
You should be ashamed of yourself.
The students, their heads still turned, look back at Alvy, now an adult,
sitting in the last seat of the second row.
ALVY (AS ADULT)
(First off screen, then onscreen as
camera moves over to the back of the
classroom)
Why, I was just expressing a healthy sexual
curiosity.
TEACHER
(The younger, Alvy standing next to her)
Six-year-old boys don't have girls on
their minds.
ALVY (AS ADULT)
(Still sitting in the back of
the classroom)
I did.
The girl the young Alvy kissed turns to the older Alvy, she gestures and
speaks.
1ST GIRL
For God's sakes, Alvy, even Freud speaks
of a latency period.
ALVY (AS ADULT)
(Gesturing)
Well, I never had a latency period. I
can't help it.
TEACHER
(With young, Alvy still at her side)
Why couldn't you have been more like Donald?
(The camera pans over to Donald,
sitting up tall in his seat, then
back to the teacher)
Now, there was a model boy!
ALVY (AS CHILD)
(Still standing next to the teacher)
Tell the folks where you are today, Donald.
DONALD
I run a profitable dress company.
ALVY'S VOICE
Right. Sometimes I wonder where my
classmates are today.
The camera shows the full classroom, the students sitting behind their desks,
the teacher standing in the front of the room. One at a time, the young
students rise u from their desks and speak.
1ST BOY
I'm president of the Pinkus Plumbing Company.
2ND BOY
I sell tallises.
3RD BOY
I used to be a heroin addict. Now I'm a
methadone addict.
2ND GIRL
I'm into leather.