[HIGHEST RATING!]
"The ultimate portrait of late-'70s Gotham sophistication... Seeing Manhattan at Film Forum is just about the most New York thing you could do this weekend."
- Joshua Rothkopf, Time Out New York Click here to read complete review
"One of the best openings in the history of movies. Every proud Manhattanite should show up to see the film for that opening alone." – Foster Hirsch
"In Film Forum's beautiful new 35mm print, Manhattan shines again!"
– Will McKinley, Downtown Express Click here to read complete review
"Not just Woody Allen's dream movie. Wistful as it is witty, it's his dream of the movies...
As romantic as Casablanca, as slickly metropolitan as Sweet Smell of Success."
- J. Hoberman, The Village Voice Click here to read complete review
"ABSOLUTELY PERFECT!
The most refined distillation of Woody Allen's sensibility and his best film."
- Bilge Ebiri, New York magazine
"SUBLIME!" - Elizabeth Weitzman, Daily News
"Many films can be said to put an epitaph on the decade, but few remain as relevant."
- Joshua Rothkopf, Time Out New York
"The Woody Allen movie where it all came together. The city is gorgeously rendered by cinematographer Gordon Willis; the apartments are lovingly cluttered with cultural detritus; the mainly East Side locations have been fastidiously selected. Every line is a one-liner, but the dialogue flows—it's not only funny but also seamless."
- J. Hoberman, The Village Voice
Click here to read The Reeler interview with MANHATTAN cinematographer Gordon Willis
(1979) “Chapter One. He was as
tough and romantic as the city
he loved. Beneath his blackrimmed
glasses was the coiled
sexual power of a jungle cat.
New York was his town, and it
always would be...” Nervous time
even for Woody Allen: thinking about
moving from TV comedy writing to
something more serious, he’s
dumped by wife Meryl Streep for
another woman — and she’s writing
a book about their marriage. And when Diane Keaton sneers
at his taste in art and trashes his film idol Ingmar Bergman —
of course it’s love. Only trouble is, Keaton is the mistress of
his best friend Michael Murphy, himself already married to
Anne Byrne (Mrs. Dustin Hoffman.) And Woody himself has
been dating high-schooler Mariel Hemingway, a relationship
fine with her but rife with uneasiness for him. The one-liners
keep coming amid the dissection of super-complicated
relationships, but with a new seriousness, an awareness of
the possibility of tragedy beyond mock angst that began with
Annie Hall. Shot in ravishing black & white Scope by the great
Gordon Willis (whose credits include Annie Hall and all three
Godfathers), and backed by an all-Gershwin soundtrack, this is
one of the greatest of all odes to New York, never more so
than in the opening sequence culminating in fireworks over
Central Park; plus a final shot evocative of Chaplin’s City
Lights. “Allen’s best film: the most grown-up, most technically
accomplished, most securely pitched.” – Foster Hirsch.
“Woody Allen’s writing isn’t just persuasive; it cuts like a laser
through the gorgeous black-and-white valentine he constructs
to the city. His one-take scenes and ingenious tracking shots
etch an indelible portrait of a community in slow decay and are
no less breathtaking than Renoir’s Rules of the Game.” – Neil
LaBute. “I like to think that one hundred years from now, if
people see the picture, they will learn something about what
life is like in the 1970s.” – Woody Allen. AN MGM RELEASE.
3:20, 7:30
(1979) “Chapter One. He was as
tough and romantic as the city
he loved. Beneath his blackrimmed
glasses was the coiled
sexual power of a jungle cat.
New York was his town, and it
always would be...” Nervous time
even for Woody Allen: thinking about
moving from TV comedy writing to
something more serious, he’s
dumped by wife Meryl Streep for
another woman — and she’s writing
a book about their marriage. And when Diane Keaton sneers
at his taste in art and trashes his film idol Ingmar Bergman —
of course it’s love. Only trouble is, Keaton is the mistress of
his best friend Michael Murphy, himself already married to
Anne Byrne (Mrs. Dustin Hoffman.) And Woody himself has
been dating high-schooler Mariel Hemingway, a relationship
fine with her but rife with uneasiness for him. The one-liners
keep coming amid the dissection of super-complicated
relationships, but with a new seriousness, an awareness of
the possibility of tragedy beyond mock angst that began with
Annie Hall. Shot in ravishing black & white Scope by the great
Gordon Willis (whose credits include Annie Hall and all three
Godfathers), and backed by an all-Gershwin soundtrack, this is
one of the greatest of all odes to New York, never more so
than in the opening sequence culminating in fireworks over
Central Park; plus a final shot evocative of Chaplin’s City
Lights. “Allen’s best film: the most grown-up, most technically
accomplished, most securely pitched.” – Foster Hirsch.
“Woody Allen’s writing isn’t just persuasive; it cuts like a laser
through the gorgeous black-and-white valentine he constructs
to the city. His one-take scenes and ingenious tracking shots
etch an indelible portrait of a community in slow decay and are
no less breathtaking than Renoir’s Rules of the Game.” – Neil
LaBute. “I like to think that one hundred years from now, if
people see the picture, they will learn something about what
life is like in the 1970s.” – Woody Allen.