The 1979 Academy Award-winning comedy from Woody Allen was originally intended to be a murder mystery drama with a comic romantic subplot. The film’s editor convinced Allen to make the film a pure comedy and history was made (though Allen would redeem the mystery-plot in Manhattan Murder Mystery). Early titles ranged from Anhedonia and It Had To Be Jew, both of which were deemed too unmarketable. The eventual title is believed to have stemmed from co-star and former flame Diane Keaton, whose real name was Diane Hall and whose nickname is Annie.
The story pits two opposites together as they try to navigate the stormy waters and rocky shoals of their on again, off again relationship. Allen plays Alvy Singer, a neurotic comedian whose obsession with death stands in stark contrast the ditsy but darling Annie Hall (Keaton), whose love for life only worsens Alvy’s insecurities. Throughout the chronicle of their lives together, the story takes several detours into fantasy: Alvy takes Annie to visit his childhood… literally; Alvy converses with Annie’s ghost while she has an out-of-body experience during sex; an animated Alvy has a fling with the evil witch from Snow White. Over the years, the two break up and get back together, with Annie eventually leaving New York for a Hollywood mucky-muck (Paul Simon) and the sunshine of Los Angeles, where according to Alvy, they recycle their trash into T.V. shows. Realizing he still loves her, Alvy flies to L.A. to try and convince Annie to come back to New York with him but she refuses, telling him that, like New York, he is an “island unto himself.â€Â Dejected, he writes a play about their relationship with a happy ending and ends up meeting Annie years later where both discover that they’re glad to see each other and have no regrets.

Considered to be one of the best films of all time, Annie Hall makes brilliant use of film techniques such as “magic realism,â€Â double exposure, and split-screen imagery which would become highly influential in romantic comedies over the next few decades. But that isn't all that the movie influeced; Annie Hall made masterful use of Keaton's sense of style, and like Kathryn Hepburn's effect on her own movies, the style caught on with the public and started a fashion craze known as Annie Hall Androgeny.

With Academy nods to Diane Keaton as Best Actress, Allen as Best Director (and Best Writer with Marshall Brickman), and the film itself for Best Picture (over superpower Star Wars), Annie Hall remains an enjoyable and poignant look into the pain and ecstasy of romance decades after its release.