Woody Allen - Where to start?

Which is the best Woody Allen film to start with?

ANNIE HALL. Start with the best.

As Roscoe said, start with the best, so go with Manhattan or Annie Hall.

However, I think anywhere in the top 8 (or thereabout) of this list would be a good starting point.

start with the light comedies: Bananas, Take the Money and Run, Small Time Crooks, Manhattan Murder Mystery, Scoop, Radio Days

then move onto the heavier stuff: Manhattan, Husbands and Wives

then the really heavy (ie downer stuff): September, Stardust Memories, Another Woman

actually the new one is not a bad starting place: it is lightly comic, personal and has a old timey feel that Allen often cultivates and comments on.

i would say start with annie hall and manhattan then make your way from there

Thanks guys!

Has Midnight In Paris even been released yet? I thought it was just premiered at Cannes and then is due for release later this year..

yes, it has….it depends on where you are, though. It’s in limited release.

I’d start with “Everything You Always Wanted To Knwo About Sex But Were Afraid To Ask”

midnight is wide release in the states

Meancreek: Before you see LOVE and DEATH, you might want to do a brief wikipedia scan of 19th century philosophy, and then watch at least one early Bob Hope comedy. Otherwise a lot of the gags just won’t make sense.

Also, the absolutely brilliant STARDUST MEMORIES definitely requires a familiarity with Fellini’s 8 1/2 and Bergman’s visual style. Go into that one appropriately armed and the rewards will flow unto you.

Why don’t you start with Take the Money and Run and work your way chronologically. Skip his first few films until you’ve developed an interest.

Annie Hall is the obvious starting point because, as Roger Ebert said, " it is just about everyone’s favorite Woody Allen movie". But Woody Allen has covered a lot of ground in his career, so I’d say check out Match Point as well. It’s one of Woody Allen’s favorite Woody Allen films so that’s saying something, or maybe it isn’t, but either way it would be good starting out with an idea of what this guy’s career entails.

I think roughly chronological is good. I’d go with Take The Money & Run first, then maybe Sleeper, Love & Death, Annie Hall, Manhattan, Broadway Danny Rose and then whatever you fancy after that. Everything he’s done is well worth watching imo.

I agree with a lot mentioned here but I need to add one of his very best to the growing list: The Purple Rose of Cairo. This is one of maybe several movies that I smile all the way through.

While I like the idea of starting with his first film and working through, overall I think Manhattan is the best choice. Not my personal favorite, but if you don’t like that one, you probably don’t need to keep going.

Probably Manhattan Murder Mystery cause its fun to watch and Hannah and Her Sisters cause its only slightly depressing.

I think the first one I saw was Love and Death. Hilarious!

It all depends upon what you’re in the mood for. They all have elements of humor.

Some of the ones not mentioned earlier:

Broadway Danny Rose
Crimes and Misdemeanors
New York Stories
Deconstructing Harry
Zelig

Thank you for your input!

I decided to watch Take The Money And Run and I loved it.

I’m thinking of watching Annie Hall and Manhattan next, and then skipping forward to the more modern ones like Match Point, Sweet and Lockdown (I’m a big Sean Penn fan) Vicky Cristina Barcelona and then shooting back into the old ones, so I can get a view of his original pictures and his more recent ones to see how I interpret each and which I prefer (if that makes sense)

Thanks again! Much appreciated!!

Annie Hall
Crimes And Misdemeanors

Films not to start with (Though I like quite a bit):
Zelig
Interiors

Midnight In Paris is a really good film, but it’s the sort of film you may like and still dislike other Woody Allen stuff. Annie Hall is really the best barometer for whether Woody Allen is for you.

I disagree about Annie Hall, most of the stuff he does in Annie Hall, he did better in Play it Again Sam years before (tho he only wrote and starred in that) plus the film has not aged well, for every spot on observation, there is a out of date groaner.

he has many good ones (and many bad ones) but crimes and misdemeanors would be my fave

Sleeper

The advice here is good but i say skip his more ‘serious’ films like September etc, because they are just crappy Bergman imitations, with the exception of maybe Interiors, which is quite good.

Stardust Memories does not belong in his ‘serious’ film category to me, but if it does, that is also an exception

‘crappy bergman imitations’

awww

Here is joks’s wonderfullly ‘scientific’ list of Allen’s films in terms of rank that he posted on another site a few months ago:

Top Tier: Annie Hall, Crimes and Misdemeanors, Deconstructing Harry, Interiors, Manhattan, Sleeper

Second Tier: Bananas, Broadway Danny Rose*, Bullets Over Broadway*, Everything You’ve Ever Wanted To Know About Sex….., Husbands and Wives, Love and Death*, Manhattan Murder Mystery, A Midnight Summer’s Sex Comedy, Mighty Aphrodite, Radio Days, Stardust Memories*, Take The Money and Run, Zelig

Third Tier:Alice, Another Woman, Everyone Says I Love You, Hollywood Ending, Match Point, The Purple Rose Of Cairo, Small Time Crooks, Sweet and Lowdown, Whatever Works

Fourth Tier:Anything Else, Cassandra’s Dream, Celebrity, Curse Of The Jade Scorpion, Melinda and Melinda, Scoop, September, Vicky Christina Barcelona

Just to give you an idea of how i rank things according to scale: First Tier=movies that score between 8-8.5/10. Second Tier=7-7.5 Third Tier=6.6.5 Fourth Tier=3.5-5.5

*denotes those films that fall just outside the top tier

FINALLY.

A man of science!

Manhattan, Annie Hall, Broadway Danny Rose, or even his newest Midnight in Paris are good places to start as far as comedies go.

1. Annie Hall
2. Manhattan

There a bunch of others I have yet to see from Allen. I also liked Hannah and Her Sisters a lot, and Crimes and Misdemeanors to a lesser degree. His recent films (Match Point/VCB etc) have been lesser films, but mildly engaging. Whatever Works was very meh, but it seemed to be operating on a different level than a normal Allen film, more like an Allen film brought almost to the level of sitcom (bit of a Curb Your Enthusiasm vibe). Larry David was all over the place in that film, and I found it funny for the most part, and maybe sad at the same time.

edit: Zelig was also hilarious.

Sleeper
Bananas

Anything before the whole “romantic comedy” backwash took the front seat of the narrative. Granted, these have that romantic angle, but they are visually Freudian, and are not consumed by petty intellectual talk.