— Ch. 1 · The Murder Mystery That Never Was —
Annie Hall.
~6 min read · Ch. 1 of 6
Principal photography for the film began on the 19th of May 1976, on the South Fork of Long Island. The project started as a murder mystery draft before evolving into a romantic comedy. Allen wrote a first draft of the screenplay within a four-day period and sent it to co-writer Marshall Brickman. This initial version centered on a man in his forties whose life consisted of several strands. One strand involved a relationship with a young woman. Another focused on the banality of daily existence. A third explored an obsession with proving himself. The original script included a murder that occurred after a scene where Annie and Alvy miss the Ingmar Bergman film Face to Face. Allen and Brickman decided to drop the murder plot entirely during development. They later created a different murder mystery many years later called Manhattan Murder Mystery in 1993. The final draft presented to editor Ralph Rosenblum concluded with the words ending to be shot. Allen made the conscious decision to sacrifice some laughs for a story about human beings. He recognized he had the courage to abandon the safety of complete broad comedy.
Gordon Willis And The Prince Of Darkness
Allen selected Gordon Willis as his cinematographer for this production. Willis was known as the prince of darkness for work on dramatic films like The Godfather released in 1972. Many considered this pairing odd at the time, including Diane Keaton herself. Willis described the production for the film as relatively easy despite the challenges. He shot in varying styles throughout the shoot. He used hot golden light for California scenes. He employed grey overcast lighting for Manhattan sequences. He applied a forties Hollywood glossy look for dream sequences. Most of those dream sequences were cut from the final version. It was Willis suggestion which led Allen to film dual therapy scenes in one set divided by a wall instead of using split screen method. He tried long takes with some shots unabridged lasting an entire scene. Roger Ebert noted that few viewers probably notice how much of Annie Hall consists of people talking simply talking. They walk and talk sit and talk go to shrinks go to lunch make love and talk. A study calculated the average shot length of Annie Hall to be 14.5 seconds. Other films made in 1977 had an average shot length of four to seven seconds. Peter Cowie suggests that Allen breaks up extended shots with more orthodox cutting back and forth.