Dec. 02, 2002 - 3:10 pm
again, this week i'm watching films from the IMDb's top 250 list in no particular order. just things off of there that i felt like watching. some i've seen before, some i haven't. this one i haven't. and i normally either don't like Woody Allen movies very much or i just hate them. this one i really loved. amazing, i know. so this just goes to show you i guess that not all of his films are the same. or at least they weren't in the past. i don't know about the last 5 years or so. i think the main reason i loved this film so much is the Mariel Hemingway character. she is so beautifully written and portrayed, that it makes the whole film excellent.
wonderful how Woody Allen makes two women that you and he can believably fall in love with over the course of an hour and a half. Mariel Hemingway actually earned her first Oscar nomination for this film, at the ripe old age of 18. i mean she's basically just every man's fantasy girl (especially for men who watch tons of movies..."oh, look, they're showing an old W.C. Fields movie on the late show tonight" she says), but she's so sweet and caring at the same time. excellently conceived character in any case.
apparently there's some thing about this movie and widescreen format. apparently this is Woody Allen's only widescreen film and it absolutely must be shown in widescreen. there's some sort of contract thing out there to where the film in every type of release ever, must legally be shown in widescreen. that's interesting to me. i didn't know that was possible to have that so legally bound. weird.
so anyway, yeah i have to highly recommend Manhattan. i had just about given up on Woody Allen, then i see this one. and it's definitely my favorite of his at this point.