Manhattan

Manhattan is Woody Allen's love letter to the greatest city in the world, New York City. It means more to him than just a birthplace: New York is where a young man by the name of Allen Stewart Konigsberg, discovered himself through the arts and his inspirational passion for New York, to become the renowned film director, known as Woody Allen. Released in 1979, Manhattan stars Allen as Isaac Davis, a TV writer unhappy with his job, as well as other issues in his life. His ex-wife, Jill (Meryl Streep), previously left him for another woman, and is plotting to write a book based on their relationship--including their sex life--which he is absolutely objective about. His only sense of warmth is through Tracy (Mariel Hemingway), an intelligent young lady who complements his mellowness. However, Tracy is a 17-year old high school student, and though she's passionately in love Isaac, Isaac doesn't necessarily feel the same about her.

Isaac suddenly falls in love with the mistress of his married best friend, Yale (Michael Murphy). In the same way Tracy complements his maturity, Mary (Diane Keaton) complements his intellectualism and knack of cultural knowledge. In one scene, they argue about "great" artists whom, they feel are overrated--in particular, the film director Ingmar Bergman, whom Isaac felt was "the only genius living in cinema today", while Mary discredits his work. Isaac soon breaks up with a brokenhearted Tracy, and has an affair with Mary that, not only affects everyone involved, but also affects Isaac's moral judgment. Over the course of the film, he has to make a decision of who he's truly in love with: Mary or Tracy.

Allen takes a more dramatic approach to his comedy, this time around. The film is entirely in black and white--Allen's tribute to the nostalgic golden era of films. This effect, by cinematographer Gordon Willis, creates a stunning, atmospheric composition, which makes each frame feel like a moving arc of still, first-rate photographs. Instead of opening credits, the film opens with several shots of the city and its landmark areas, such as Central Park--all leading up to a clever title sequence of a flashing neon sign. Set to the tone of musician George Gershwin's Rhapsody in Blue, we get the perfect representation of how Woody Allen is, as a complex individual, wrapped in artistic sadness.

While Annie Hall was a "therapy session" for Allen, Manhattan is not only a love letter, but a romantic novel. In a flimsy voiceover, Allen simultaneously reads and alters the opening chapter of his story, confessing that he's a romantic and not a novelist intellectual, though not quite revealing whether he's speaking as himself, or Isaac. Each beginning of his openings emphasizes Allen's love for NY, and it's evident in the way the film presents itself as to why this is not the New York we all are used to seeing, but instead, this Woody Allen's New York. Gone are the noisy, grimy, crime-ridden aspects of the city; what you get in return is, a mature and sublime environment--the beauty of New York, that often gets overlooked.

Allen's philosophical trademark is referenced in the film's black and white appearance, as a clear set of beliefs and principals on what it means to be a New Yorker, as well as a modern romantic--a way of life represented by Manhattan. The strongest shot in the film is the scene where Isaac and Mary have their first moment of intimacy, on a park bench facing the Manhattan Bridge. The symbolism behind it reflects love and intimacy being born under the film's central character, a regular in Allen's films: New York City.

Manhattan allows Allen to put an entertaining spin on some serious themes in the film. Out of the characters he's played loosely of himself, Isaac Davis is Allen at his most vulnerable; a character who is more optimistic and less desperate for love. Before he can reach a level of maturity as a person, he has to make mistakes in love. Isaac represents a man with a mid-life crisis--a period where adults lose themselves through the overindulgence of pleasure, body, and moral values--in other words, Isaac loses himself to lust. Through his lust for intellectual affection, he ends up making three mistakes: having a politically incorrect relationship with a minor, and committing adultery, and betraying his best friend.

Isaac's best friend, Yale, is Allen's witty reference to Yale University. Like the perception of the "prestigious" institute, Yale is supposedly a commanding intellectual figure, but fails by allowing his own mid-life crisis to be shown, through a sports car--another reference, this time to the Yale "yuppie". Feeling that he sold-out his intelligent integrity, Isaac confronts Yale in a scene at his