Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #4015 in DVD
• Released on: 2000-07-10
• Rating: Suitable for 15 years and over
• Aspect ratio: 2.35:1
• Number of discs: 1
• Formats: Anamorphic, Black & White, Dubbed, PAL, Widescreen
• Original language: English, German
• Subtitled in: English, Spanish, German, French, Italian, Portuguese, Swedish, Danish, Polish, Dutch, Finnish
• Number of discs: 1
• Running time: 92 minutes

Amazon.co.uk Review
Manhattan, Woody Allen's follow-up to Oscar-winning Annie Hall, is a film of many distinctions: its glorious all-Gershwin score, its breathtakingly elegant black-and-white, widescreen cinematography by Gordon Willis (best-known for shooting the Godfather movies); its deeply shaded performances; its witty screenplay that marked a new level in Allen's artistic maturity; and its catalogue of Things that Make Life Worth Living. Allen's "Rhapsody in Gray" concerns, as his own character puts it, "people in Manhattan who are constantly creating these real, unnecessary, neurotic problems for themselves, because it keeps them from dealing with more insoluble, terrifying problems about the universe". It's a romantic comedy about infidelity and betrayal, the rules of love and friendship, young girls (a radiant and sweet Mariel Hemingway) and older men (Allen), innocence, and sophistication. (a favourite phrase is used to describe a piece of sculpture at the Guggenheim: "It has a marvellous kind of negative capability".) The film's themes can be summed up in two key lines: "I can't believe you met somebody you like better than me", and "It's very important to have some kind of personal integrity". OK, so they may not sound like such sparkling snatches of brilliant dialogue, but Manhattan puts those ideas across with such emotion that you feel an ache in your heart. --Jim Emerson

Special Features
2.35 Wide Screen
French\German\Italian\Spanish
English\German
English
Region 2
Mono English French German Italian Spanish
Mono
Original Theatrical Trailer

Synopsis
MANHATTAN is Woody Allen's glorious love letter to the city that he was born to make films about. Woody plays Isaac Davis, a twice-divorced TV writer having a relationship with 17-year old Tracy, a high school student played by Mariel Hemingway. Isaac's best friend, Yale (Michael Murphy), is having an affair with Mary (Diane Keaton), a woman whose every word about the arts infuriates Isaac. Meanwhile, Isaac's ex-wife Jill (Meryl Streep) is writing a book that will expose all of his idiosyncrasies and neuroses. But when Yale breaks it off with Mary, Isaac and Mary start an affair that alters the relationships of all the major characters. Gordon Willis's stunning black-and-white photography and the soaring music of George Gershwin help make Woody Allen's brilliant vision of the city he loves one of the best films of the last quarter of the 20th century. Allen delicately balances the line between comedy and satire, drama and pathos. MANHATTAN is a gorgeous, vibrant comedy that explores the changing state of relationships in the New York of the late 1970s, capturing that moment in time with charm, intelligence, and lots of laughs.

Customer Reviews

What could Woody Allen do after "Annie Hall"? "Manhattan"
When Woody Allen won the Oscar (in abstentia) for writing and directing "Annie Hall," which also won the Oscar for Best Picture, it was assumed the stand-up comic turned auteur had reached the pinnacle of his career. Then Allen proceeded to go out and make an even better film with his next effort, "Manhattan." Filmed in glorious black & white (and widescreen) by the great cinematographer Gordon Willis, the opening sequence combining indelible images of New York City with Gershwin's "Rhapsody in Blue" is a paean to city Allen loves and the most rhapsodical sequence in any of his films.

Rather than talking about the plot per se, "Manhattan" is best explained as a convoluted series of wrecked and ruined relationships centering around Allen's character, Isaac Davis. Isaac is divorced from Jill (Meryl Streep), who is now living with Connie (Karen Ludwig), and planning to write an expose on her marriage. Isaac is having an affair with 17-year-old Tracy (Mariel Hemingway), but then he meets Mary (Diane Keaton), the mistress of his best friend Yale (Michael Murphy), who is married to Emily (Anne Byrne). Ultimately, however, this is not a film about love, but rather a film about loss, because you just know that forced to make choices, Isaac is going to make the wrong ones. Tracy and Mary are characters constructed as such polar opposites and it never dawns on Isaac to focus more on what each has than on what they lack.

Of course, today this film is obviously open to reinterpretation given Allen's very public personal life and it is now assumed that the Isaac-Tracy relationship was a sign of things to come rather than a dramatic construction. If you can get away from the film's Freudian implications then you can appreciate Hemingway's Oscar nominated performance, which is not only at the heart of the film but provides its heart as well. In contrast, Keaton's Mary is rather soulless (the anti-Annie Hall if you will). When the choice is so clear the fault is clearly not in the women, but rather in the character of Isaac (or lack of character, as the case might be). The ending is certainly the most bitter sweet of any Allen film to date.

Most Romantic Lines (remember, this is a Woody Allen film): (1) "I think people should mate for life, like pigeons or Catholics"; (2) "Yeah! I can tell, a lot. That's, well, a lot is my favorite number", and, of course, (3) "Why is life worth living? It's a very good question. Um...Well, There are certain things I guess that make it worthwhile. uh...Like what... okay...um...For me, uh... ooh... I would say ... what, Groucho Marx, to name one thing... uh...um... and Willie Mays... and um ... the 2nd movement of the Jupiter Symphony ... and um... Louis Armstrong, recording of Potato Head Blues ... um ... Swedish movies, naturally ... Sentimental Education by Flaubert ... uh... Marlon Brando, Frank Sinatra ... um ... those incredible Apples and Pears by Cezanne... uh...the crabs at Sam Wo's... uh... Tracy's face ..."

MANHATTAN is "THE ONLY TRULY GREAT FILM OF THE 70s" -
- according to American film critic ANDREW SARRIS. Granted, this is high praise indeed! But once you surrender swiftly to WOODY ALLEN's most achingly romantic, poignant film, listen to the lush and beautiful GEORGE GERSHWIN music score, marvel at GORDON WILLIS' shimmering monochrome photography of the Big Apple at its most seductive, and I guarantee you will find it very hard to disagree with Sarris' famous comment.

Add in to the mix DIANE KEATON and MARIEL HEMINGWAY at their (respectively) funniest and most youthfully heart-warming, some of the sharpest, most hilarious ALLEN dialogue on celluloid ("he had...the sexual prowess of a coiled jungle cat"!!), and, quite frankly film fans, you simply MUST have this wonderful film in your collection.

Finally, before I really do over-eulogise over WOODY's masterpiece (a minority view but one I've held for 25 years) it is also worth noting that ALLEN's portrait of middle-class New York life remains unsurpassed. For those of you fortunate enough to have visited this great city, you will instantly recognise both the well known landmarks and, and quite probably, even some of the lesser known but distinctly recognisable MANHATTAN nightclubs, cafes and other locations that give the Big Apple its lasting charm and character.

Watch this film and cherish it's swooning romanticism and sharp analysis of middle class intellectual life; you will be delighted and want to watch it every time you see or read anything about NYC again...

One of Allen's best
Although the content of this film has much in common with most of Allen's work, something lifts it above his less convincing projects and makes it soar. Perhaps it's the music, or the way that Manhattan itself is made a star of the piece. More probably it is as close as Allen can get to an honest look at a middle aged man's life crisis and sexual frustration. The emotion feels genuine and the character Woody Allen plays evokes sympathy. In short, it's one of the best places to start with Woody Allen, and a must for anyone who loves New York.