An unusual script, Annie Hall features a number of scenes where Alvy Singer speaks directly to the audience. Seamless and often confusing flashback scenes occur throughout the script. One particular scene is an animation sequence. However, despite its unusual aspects, Annie Hall follows the standard three act structure of storytelling that is often confusing because of the multiple turning points, particularly those of the second act.
Act 1 opens with a monologue by Alvy Singer that reveals his current situation and his problems with past relationships. Accompanying flashbacks occur shortly thereafter and give the audience a glimpse of his dysfunctional childhood. As a child, Alvy’s mother constantly tried to change his father. This foreshadows Alvy’s behavior with Annie as their relationship develops in the second act. A flashback to Alvy’s time in grade school explains Alvy’s obsession with women and his reliance on sex as the driving force of any of his relationships.
Act 1 of Annie Hall foreshadows occurrences that happen in the second and third acts. The Act 1 turning point occurs when Annie and Alvy meet for the first time (Allen, 32). The Act 1 climax happens when Annie and Alvy decide to drive uptown together (34). Though it’s clear to the audience that Alvy and Annie will end up in a doomed relationship, it is at that point that Alvy and Annie begin a journey in which there is no turning back.
The relationship between Alvy and Annie comes undone during Act 2. The first turning point of Act 2 is when Annie reveals that she’s going to sing at a night club (43). This indicates and foreshadows Annie’s future success as a singer which will no doubt cause conflict between her and Alvy, as he is a character who is unwilling to change.
The second turning point of Act 2 happens when Annie and Alvy discuss the idea of having Easter dinner with Annie’s family. This turning point indicates that Alvy will get to experience Annie‘s world through his own eyes. It’s a world that he will not be able to mold to his liking. As Alvy dines with the Hall family, he draws a comparison between them and his own family:
“I can’t believe this family. Annie’s mother. She really’s beautiful. And they’re talkin’ swap meets and boat basins, and the old lady at the end of the table is a classic Jew hater. And, uh, they, they really look American, you know, very healthy and… like they never get sick or anything. Nothing like my family. You know, the two are like oil and water” (61).
Alvy is not capable of being optimistic for himself or for Annie and has no intention of changing his ways or his views on life. Meeting Annie’s family is a test for the judgmental Alvy. It’s a test that he fails because he can’t embrace the differences between people that ultimately make them unique.
The third turning point of Act 2 occurs when Tony Lacey, a music producer, approaches Annie after a night club performance and suggest the idea of working with her (86). Tony invites Annie and Alvy to join him and his entourage. Annie is eager to speak with Tony about the possible business opportunity and she makes this clear to Alvy. “(looking down at her hands, then up at Alvy) I don’t know, I thought it might be kind of fun, you know what I mean, it’d be nice to meet some new people” (89). She wants to broaden her horizons and she wants to change. Alvy declines with “I’m just not… you know, I don’t think I could take a mellow eve- ’cause I-I don’t respond well to mellow, you know what I mean, I-I have a tendency to… if I get too mellow, I-I ripen and then rot. You know, and it’s-it’s not good for my…” (89). The conflict is evident. Annie wants growth and Alvy does not. At this point, their relationship is as good as finished.
The fourth and final turning point of Act 2 happens during a scene where Annie and Alvy each vent their feelings and their frustrations to a psychiatrist. Each one admits that their feelings for each other have changed a great deal. In the discussion with the psychiatrist, Alvy states the problem as he sees it: “The incredible thing about it is, I’m paying for her analysis and she’s making progress and I’m getting screwed” (90). He does not understand that he’s unwilling to change, and that is exactly the reason why he should not be in a relationship with Annie.
He goes on to say, “She’s making progress and I’m not making any progress. Her progress is defeating my progress” (90). Annie tells the psychiatrist, “But the thing is-I mean, since our discussions here, I feel I have the right to my own feelings. I think you woulda been happy because… uh, uh, I really asserted myself” (90). Again, Alvy is not willing to change and he spends much time focusing on changing other people. Annie states that she has asserted herself and made some changes. Her statement indicates that she has “developed” the right to her own feelings. She has developed as a person. Development is change.
The Act 2 climax occurs when both Annie and Alvy admit that their relationship is simply not working. Annie states “Alvy, uh, let’s face it. You know something, don’t think our relationship is working” (105). Alvy replies, “Tsch, I know. A relationship, I think, is-is like a shark, you know? It has to constantly move forward or it dies. And I think what we got on our hands is a dead shark” (105). Finally, each character is willing to admit to themselves and to each other that the relationship is going nowhere and that they should part ways. It’s a simple ending to a long act with many turning points.
Act 3 of Annie Hall is the resolution. After going their separate ways, Annie moves to California to be with Tony Lacey. In a last ditch effort to reconcile and get back together with her, Alvy makes a trip out to California to propose to Annie (110). Naturally, Annie declines but leaves him with the knowledge that he helped her change. “I mean, you know… you’re the reason that I got outta my room and that I was able to sing, and-and-and, you know, get more in touch with my feelings and all that crap” (112).
Annie has changed because of Alvy. It’s a revelation that causes him to understand what went wrong in their relationship and why they didn’t end up together. Alvy moves on with his life and turns his experience with Annie into a stage play (115).
In developing his failed relationship with Annie into a stage play, he goes through a change. Alvy understands what went wrong with their relationship and is able to tell his story. “Alvy and Annie shake hands and kiss each other friendly like. Annie crosses the street, Alvy watching her go” (117). Alvy has finally let go of Annie Hall. The story ends with a final voice over. Alvy says, “I realized what a terrific person she was and-and how much fun it was just knowing her…” (117). The line is a clear indication that he has made peace with how their relationship ended.
In the wake of Alvy’s realization of what kind of a person Annie is, he undergoes a change. Realizations indicate a level of change and that’s not something that Alvy Singer was initially capable of. At this moment, dramatic conflict between Alvy Singer and Annie Hall has been resolved.
Annie Hall is a story that adheres to the rules of the three act structure of storytelling. The turning points of Act 2 may cause the story to appear episodic to a reader who hasn’t been educated in this particular form of writing.
Woody Allen’s Annie Hall is a fine example of how “structure” may be tampered with in screenwriting.
~Frankie Collazo
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