Manhattan (1979)

Once again rejecting conventional, box-office success, Allen chose to shoot his love poem to New York, Manhattan, in glorious black and white. Drawing on the vast talent of cinematographer Gordon Willis (The Godfather, Pennies from Heaven, The Purple Rose of Cairo) he created one of his most visually impressive works to date, as well as one of his strongest. Released after the tepidly received dramatic film Interiors, Manhattan was a welcome return to form for many long time Woody Allen fans, much closer in mood and style to Annie Hall, Allen's 1977 Oscar winner for Best Picture.

Set to a soundtrack full of George Gershwin tunes, Manhattan tells the story of a small group of people living in New York, and making messes of their lives. The central character, Ike Davis, is once again played by Allen, a welcome treat for Allen fans who missed his presence in Interiors. Ike is a frustrated television writer who quits his job in frustration and sets out to write a novel. Unlucky in love, he is involved in a safe but odd relationship with Tracy (Mariel Hemingway), who happens to be only 17. His best friend, Yale (Michael Murphy), is a happily married man who is nonetheless involved with another woman, the overly intellectual Mary Wilke (played to cerebral perfection by Diane Keaton), in what would be her final role in an Allen film until her brief cameo in 1987's Radio Days. Ike, whose first wife (Meryl Streep) divorced him, became a lesbian, and is writing a confessional book about the experience, soon finds himself becoming attracted to Mary, despite his initial repulsion to her pseudo-intellectualism. He soon pursues Mary - still involved in her destructive affair with Yale - and once she begins to appear interested, he breaks up with the painfully devoted Tracy, a girl who loves him deeply despite his deep protestations that he's too old for her, and that she has her whole life still to live.

At this point, the film becomes increasingly complicated, as do the loyalities of the characters. Ike begins to date Mary, yet she still has feelings for Ike, who has tried to remain unsuccessfully to remain faithful to his wife. I won't reveal who ends up with whom, but I will say that it is one of Allen's finer endings, handled in just the right way by a writer and director working at the top of his form.

As interesting and entertaining as the plot often is, Manhattan is ultimately much more than a just a story of neurotic lives lived sloppily. It's a love poem of sorts to New York, filled with tremendous, overpowering images of one of the most famous cities in the entire world. The opening montage