Woody Allen pays tribute to the city he loves in one of his best films, MANHATTAN
MANHATTAN (Woody Allen, 1979)
MoMA Film, Museum of Modern Art
The Lewis B. and Dorothy Cullman Education and Research Building
4 West 54th St. between Fifth & Sixth Aves.
August 27-29, 1:30
Tickets: $12, in person only, may be applied to museum admission within thirty days, same-day screenings free with museum admission, available at Film and Media Desk beginning at 9:30 am
212-708-9400
www.moma.org
Woody Allen’s Manhattan opens with one of the most beautiful tributes ever made to the Big Apple, a lovingly filmed black-and-white architectural tour set to the beautiful sounds of George Gershwin’s “Rhapsody in Blue.” Once again collaborating with screenwriter Marshall Brickman, master cinematographer Gordon Willis, and Oscar-winning actress Diane Keaton, Allen’s tale of a nebbishy forty-two-year-old two-time divorcee who takes up with a seventeen-year-old ingénue (Mariel Hemingway) is both hysterically funny and romantically poignant, filled with classic dialogue (Yale: “You think you’re God.” Isaac: “I gotta model myself after someone.”) and iconic shots of city landmarks. After quitting his job as a successful television writer, Isaac moves to Brooklyn, where he has to cope with brown water and expensive taxi rides, among other dispiriting things. Meanwhile, against his better judgment, he develops a liking for the elitist snob Mary Wilkie (Keaton), who is seeing his best friend, the married Yale (Michael Murphy); calls her therapist Donnie; and counts among the overrated Carl Jung, Lenny Bruce, Norman Mailer, and van Gogh, which she pronounces “van Goch.” And then he has to deal with one of his ex-wives (Meryl Streep), who left him for another woman (Ann Byrne) and is writing an intimate account of their failed marriage. Of course, it’s impossible to watch Manhattan without thinking about Allen’s relationship with Soon Yi (they’ve now been together for nearly two dozen years), but if you get past that, you’ll rediscover a wonderful, intelligent comedy about men and women neatly wrapped up in a gorgeous love letter to Gotham. “He adored New York City, he idolized it all out of proportion — no, make that, he romanticized it all out of proportion,” Isaac says at the beginning of the film, which was nominated for two Oscars (Hemingway as Best Supporting Actress and Allen and Brickman for Best Original Screenplay).
Michael Murphy, Diane Keaton, Woody Allen, and Mariel Hemingway star in Allen’s love letter to New York City
The glorious Gershwin music is performed by the New York Philharmonic, conducted by Zubin Mehta, and the Buffalo Philharmonic, under the baton of Michael Tilson Thomas. Be on the lookout for cameos by Karen Allen, Mark Linn-Baker, David Rasche, Wallace Shawn, Michael O’Donoghue, Frances Conroy, Bella Abzug, Zabar’s, the Queensboro Bridge, the Empire Diner, the Hayden Planetarium, Bloomingdale’s, MoMA’s Sculpture Garden, the Russian Tea Room, the Dalton School, John’s Pizza, the Guggenheim, and Elaine’s, among so many others. Manhattan is screening August 27-29 at 1:30 as part of the MoMA series “An Auteurist History of Film,” concluding its current season.