I always forget how much I love this film.
It seems to perfectly capture those first moments of falling for someone. That patter, the banter of neuroses colliding, but also those quiet moments where the world does the speaking for you. And no city could do a better job of it than New York.
Woody Allen’s Manhattan is a beautiful place, his roaming stills doing all of the description for him. I love the opening sequence where Isaac (in narration) is trying in vain to find the right words to open his story, to introduce his city, and these brief moments are doing more than he’s capable of capturing with words.
And I really love how so many of the shots are composed. I read that no full screen version of this movie exists, and it’s no wonder – there are some great off-centered shots (like the iconic bridge one), and so much of it is filmed from afar, giving the film a real sense of place and lingering relations. It feels like this film unfolds in human time, of bonds developing and maturing even as it happens in one of the busiest places in the world.
And I can’t help but admire how much Allen has done for geeks. He’s a bumbling man-child riddled with neuroses who shows little to no growth throughout the film, and you can’t help but be charmed by him.
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