Manhattan
1979 · Directed by Woody Allen
Original language: English
- comedy
- drama
- romance
The story
Manhattan explores how the life of a middle-aged television writer dating a teenage girl is further complicated when he falls in love with his best friend's mistress.
What it’s like
Black-and-white Cinemascope widescreen, shot by Gordon Willis with rich, velvety contrast: city lights smeared across the Hudson at night, sunlit Gershwin-scored skylines in the opening montage, and long, unhurried dolly moves through apartments lined with books and jazz records. The camera lingers on faces in two-shots and on the city's mid-century textures, from brownstone stoops to Central Park in autumn. Gershwin's "Rhapsody in Blue" and other standards give the whole film a wistful, romantic pulse. The vibe is witty, self-conscious and quietly melancholy, a talky urban comedy that suits a late evening, a rainy weekend, or a slow rewatch with a glass of wine. Pacing is conversational and deliberate, with long scenes of people talking in bars, museums and bedrooms. Its middle-aged protagonist is neurotic and romantically tangled, slowly confronting his own self-deception and the cost of his choices, with a tender, bittersweet edge. Sexual themes and an age-gap relationship run throughout, handled through dialogue rather than explicit imagery; violence is absent and the emotional sting is mostly verbal. It is for people who love Woody Allen's sharp dialogue, black-and-white New York romance, and grown-up, rueful character study.
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