Woody Allen Collection (1971)

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Video
Audio
Extras
Plot
Overall

Bananas (1971)

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General		Extras
Category	Comedy	Theatrical Trailer
Rating
Year Of Production	1971
Running Time	78:27
RSDL / Flipper	RSDL (57:42)	Cast & Crew
Start Up	Language Select Then Menu
Region Coding	2,4	Directed By	Woody Allen
Studio Distributor	MGM	Starring	Woody Allen Louise Lasser Carlos Montalbán Natividad Abascal Jacobo Morales Miguel Ángel Suárez David Ortiz René Enríquez Jack Axelrod Howard Cosell Roger Grimsby Don Dunphy Charlotte Rae
Case	Amaray-Transparent-Secure Clip
RPI	?	Music	Marvin Hamlisch

Video		Audio
Pan & Scan/Full Frame	None	English Dolby Digital 2.0 (192Kb/s) French Dolby Digital 2.0 (192Kb/s) German Dolby Digital 2.0 (192Kb/s) Italian Dolby Digital 2.0 (192Kb/s) Spanish Dolby Digital 2.0 (192Kb/s)
Widescreen Aspect Ratio	1.85:1
16x9 Enhancement
Video Format	576i (PAL)
Original Aspect Ratio	1.85:1	Miscellaneous
Jacket Pictures	No
Subtitles	English English for the Hearing Impaired German German for the Hearing Impaired French Italian Spanish Dutch Swedish Finnish Norwegian Danish French Titling German Titling Italian Titling Spanish Titling	Smoking	Yes
		Annoying Product Placement	No
		Action In or After Credits	No

    I should preface this review by pointing out that unlike other reviewers here at Michael D's Region 4 DVD Info Page, I am a fan of Woody Allen and enjoy most of his films (although I will admit that Everything You Wanted To Know About Sex is pretty ordinary). I was very keen to review this DVD and I have not been disappointed. This DVD is one of seven contained in the box set The Woody Allen Collection which includes all of Woody's feature films from the 1970s. This is the earliest film in the box set.

    Bananas was Woody Allen's third feature film as a director after the revoiced Japanese Film, What's Up Tiger Lily and Take The Money And Run. It was released in 1971. The film is very funny and features comedy of many styles including political & social satire, sight gags, slapstick and some absurdist touches. Woody is very funny as Fielding Mellish, a product tester for a major corporation.

    The story follows Fielding as he meets a girl, Nancy (Louise Lasser), who is a political activist, goes out with her for a while, get dumped because 'something is missing' and then decides to take a holiday. He decides to travel to San Marcos, a small South American country because of Nancy's opposition to the dictatorship in power there. Through a bizarre and funny series of events he ends up becoming a rebel fighter against the government and eventually their leader. Eventually, he is charged with treason in the United States which results in a very funny courtroom scene. The film is bookended by a couple of great sequences where both an assassination and sex are covered as if they are sports events including Howard Cosell, the famous American sportcaster appearing as himself.

    Overall, this is a light and very funny film that pokes fun at everything from sports, American foreign policy, relationships, society and the media. Most of the jokes work and even though I had seen the film before, I found myself laughing quite a bit.

Video

    The video quality is quite good for a film of this age.

    The feature is presented in a 1.85:1 aspect ratio 16x9 enhanced which is the correct aspect ratio. The film is encoded at a very high bitrate and is thus spread across two layers despite only being a 78 minute film.

    The picture was generally clear and sharp throughout although some scenes were a little soft and the picture generally did not have the sharpness of a more modern film. There was no evidence of low level noise. Shadow detail was reasonable with night scenes showing some details. There was also some occasional grain.

    The colour was good throughout with all colours being well saturated and free from colour bleeding. The skin colouring was natural. The colours were not as vibrant as more modern films but considering the age they come up very well in this transfer. I did notice some minor chroma noise in a wall at 22:20.

    There were quite a few white specks and lines on and off throughout the film, noticeable when you are looking for them but not too bad. Some scenes were worse than others. During the credits I noticed that one the left hand side of the screen small patches of light were visible, I would guess from the sprocket holes in the side of the film source. There were also a couple of instances of minor aliasing at 8:30 on a shirt and at 12:33 on a car grille. There was also a visible curled hair at 6:58.

    There are subtitles in ten European languages including English and two sets for the Hearing Impaired (English & German). The English subtitles were clear and easy to read, but were slightly different to the spoken word.

    This is a dual layered disc and the layer change is well placed at 57:42.
    

Video Ratings Summary

Sharpness
Shadow Detail
Colour
Grain/Pixelization
Film-To-Video Artefacts
Film Artefacts
Overall

Audio

    The audio quality is good, but mono.

    This DVD contains five audio options all in Dolby Digital 2.0 mono encoded at 448 Kb/s. The options are English, German, French, Italian & Spanish.

    Dialogue was clear and easy to understand, although I did use the subtitles to check one word. There were no problems with audio sync.    

    The score of this film written by Marvin Hamlisch is very suited to the film but fairly dated.

    The surround speakers & subwoofer were not used at all.

Audio Ratings Summary

Dialogue
Audio Sync
Clicks/Pops/Dropouts
Surround Channel Use
Subwoofer
Overall

Menu

    The menu included a scene selection function and had no motion or music.

Theatrical Trailer (3:13)

    This trailer is presented in 1.33:1 and is pretty funny. It includes Woody Allen being interviewed and scenes from the film.

    This movie is available on a very similar disc in Region 1 with the exception of  the Region 1 disc having a full screen open matte transfer in addition to the widescreen one. Unless you desperately want a full screen transfer, I would go for the Region 4 due to standard PAL/NTSC differences.

    The video quality is quite good considering the age of the film.

    The audio quality is good, but mono.

    The disc has the theatrical trailer as its only extra.

Video
Audio
Extras
Plot
Overall

Interiors (1978)

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General		Extras
Category	Drama	Theatrical Trailer
Rating
Year Of Production	1978
Running Time	88:00
RSDL / Flipper	No/No	Cast & Crew
Start Up	Language Select Then Menu
Region Coding	2,4	Directed By	Woody Allen
Studio Distributor	MGM	Starring	Kristin Griffith Mary Beth Hurt Richard Jordan Diane Keaton E.G. Marshall Geraldine Page Maureen Stapleton Sam Waterston Missy Hope Kerry Duffy Nancy Collins Penny Gaston Roger Morden
Case	Amaray-Transparent-Secure Clip
RPI	?	Music	None Given

Video		Audio
Pan & Scan/Full Frame	None	English Dolby Digital 2.0 (192Kb/s) German Dolby Digital 2.0 (192Kb/s) French Dolby Digital 2.0 (192Kb/s) Italian Dolby Digital 2.0 (192Kb/s) Spanish Dolby Digital 2.0 (192Kb/s)
Widescreen Aspect Ratio	1.85:1
16x9 Enhancement
Video Format	576i (PAL)
Original Aspect Ratio	1.85:1	Miscellaneous
Jacket Pictures	No
Subtitles	English for the Hearing Impaired English Titling French Italian Spanish Dutch Portuguese	Smoking	Yes
		Annoying Product Placement	No
		Action In or After Credits	No

    This DVD is one of seven contained in the box set The Woody Allen Collection which includes all of Woody's feature films from the 1970s. Unlike the others in the set and nearly every other film Woody Allen has made, this is not a comedy and has no comedic elements whatsoever. This film is a dark, dense and somewhat depressing drama abut human relationships focussing on family dynamics. This film was made in 1978 and was subsequently nominated for 5 Academy and numerous other awards.

    The plot focuses on one family including the mother, Eve (Geraldine Page), who is cold, manipulative and an attention-seeking drama queen. She is also an interior designer and seems to try to inflict her designs on the whole family. Her husband of many years, Arthur (E.G. Marshall) has finally decided that he has had enough of her and moves out of their home, despite her desperate desire for him to stay. Their three grown daughters approach this issue in different ways and have obviously all been affected by their mother over the years. The oldest, Renata (Diane Keaton), is a successful writer but is also quite emotionally stunted in her relationships. She bears resentment toward her mother but is unable to confront her. The next daughter, Joey (Marybeth Hurt) is completely indecisive and has no idea what to do with herself, jumping from job to job. She tends to be more honest with her mother and gets more respect from the father. The youngest daughter, Flyn (Kristin Griffith), is a budding actress who seems to avoid the problems in the family, leaving their mother to the two older daughters. It should be noted that the blurb on the back cover of this film mixes up Joey & Flynn's characters. The cast is rounded out by Renata's husband, Frederick (Richard Jordan), who is also a writer but less successful and a heavy drinker, Michael (Sam Waterston, now well known for Law & Order), Joey's long-suffering de-facto and Pearl (Maureen Stapleton), the new and very different woman in Arthur's life. The plot examines the way these changes affect the already difficult relationships within this family.

    The film has very much the feel and style of a stage play, with minimal sets & lighting, no score and music only in one short scene. The focus is on the dialogue and the interaction of the characters. Although being well received by the critics it was certainly not a box office success. Visually, this film is quite dark, with most characters (with the exception of Pearl) wearing grey, brown and tan clothing. Pearl's bright clothing and the music are used to highlight how different she is from Eve and her daughters. There is a recurring motif of light in most scenes being provided by lamps rather than normal lighting. The film was Oscar nominated for the art direction. The ensemble cast all do a good job of portraying their mostly very-difficult-to-like characters. Both Geraldine Page and Maureen Stapleton were nominated for Oscars for their acting. Woody Allen wrote and directed the film and was nominated for both.

    Overall, this is quite an artistic and interesting film, however it is lacking in entertainment value.

Video

    The video quality is reasonable but certainly not anything special. Overall the picture was quite dark.

    The feature is presented in a 1.85:1 aspect ratio 16x9 enhanced which is the original aspect ratio.

    The picture was reasonably clear and sharp throughout but had a distinct softness about it. There was no evidence of low level noise. Shadow detail was poor with night scenes showing few details, although this may have been a stylistic choice.

    The colour was quite washed out but as mentioned above the film was designed to look cold and sterile with minimal colour.

    The only noticeable artefacts were reasonably regular flecks and specks.

    There are subtitles in six European languages including English and English for the Hearing Impaired. The English subtitles were clear, easy to read and quite close to the spoken word.

    This is a single layered disc.
    

Video Ratings Summary

Sharpness
Shadow Detail
Colour
Grain/Pixelization
Film-To-Video Artefacts
Film Artefacts
Overall

Audio

    The audio quality is fine.

    This DVD contains five audio options, a Dolby Digital 2.0 mono soundtrack encoded at 192 Kb/s and the same in English, German, French , Italian & Spanish. As this film includes only a small amount of music and virtually no other sounds besides dialogue, the mono soundtrack suits the film.

    Dialogue was mostly clear and easy to understand, however, the subtitles were required to check what some dialogue actually was.    

    There were no problems with audio sync.    

    There is no score and music plays in only one short scene. The music is old jazz music as you would expect in a Woody Allen film.

    The surround speakers & subwoofer were not used.

Audio Ratings Summary

Dialogue
Audio Sync
Clicks/Pops/Dropouts
Surround Channel Use
Subwoofer
Overall

Menu

    The menu includes a scene selection function.

Theatrical Trailer (2:37)

    The theatrical trailer is presented in 1.33:1 and consists of critics' quotes and scenes from the film.

    The Region 1 release seems to be identical except for PAL/NTSC differences and the inclusion of a booklet.

    The video quality is reasonable.

    The audio quality is fine for the movie but is mono.

    The disc has only a theatrical trailer as an extra.

Video
Audio
Extras
Plot
Overall

Sleeper (1973)

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General		Extras
Category	Comedy	Theatrical Trailer
Rating
Year Of Production	1973
Running Time	83:31 (Case: 88)
RSDL / Flipper	RSDL (48:22)	Cast & Crew
Start Up	Language Select Then Menu
Region Coding	2,4	Directed By	Woody Allen
Studio Distributor	MGM	Starring	Woody Allen Diane Keaton John Beck Mary Gregory Don Keefer John McLiam Bartlett Robinson Chris Forbes Mews Small Peter Hobbs Susan Miller Lou Picetti Jessica Rains
Case	Amaray-Transparent-Secure Clip
RPI	?	Music	Woody Allen

Video		Audio
Pan & Scan/Full Frame	None	English Dolby Digital 2.0 (192Kb/s) French Dolby Digital 2.0 (192Kb/s) German Dolby Digital 2.0 (192Kb/s) Italian Dolby Digital 2.0 (192Kb/s) Spanish Dolby Digital 2.0 (192Kb/s)
Widescreen Aspect Ratio	1.78:1
16x9 Enhancement
Video Format	576i (PAL)
Original Aspect Ratio	1.85:1	Miscellaneous
Jacket Pictures	No
Subtitles	English English for the Hearing Impaired German German for the Hearing Impaired French Italian Spanish Dutch Swedish Finnish Norwegian Danish French Titling German Titling Italian Titling Spanish Titling	Smoking	Yes
		Annoying Product Placement	Yes, but its probably a joke!
		Action In or After Credits	No

    I should preface this review by pointing out that, unlike other reviewers here at Michael D's, I am a fan of Woody Allen and enjoy most of his films (although I will admit that Everything You Wanted To Know About Sex is pretty ordinary). I should also reveal that when I first saw this film on television many years ago I thought it was the funniest thing I had ever seen. I have not seen it since, more due to the lack of opportunity than anything else. I was very keen to review this DVD and I have not been disappointed. This DVD is one of seven contained in The Woody Allen Collection box set which includes all of Woody's feature films from the 1970s.

    Sleeper is a very funny and quite silly film. Unlike most other Woody Allen films, the focus is on physical comedy rather than acerbic wit. In some scenes it seems more like a silent comedy than a movie from the 1970s. This is due to many of the comedic chases and other scenes being set to a jazz soundtrack with no other sounds. There is also some political satire and great one liners, including one of my favourites from the film:

"My Brain? It's my second favourite organ!"

    The plot that holds the silliness together is that Miles Monroe (Woody Allen), a clarinet player and health food restaurateur from 1973 is frozen after mistakes are made treating him in a hospital. He is thawed 200 years later in 2173 by some rebellious scientists who want him to help them in their struggle against 'Our Leader', a totalitarian ruler. The scientists are breaking the law by unfreezing him and are soon captured by the police. In order to escape, he hides by impersonating a domestic robot servant and hiding in the robot delivery truck. The delivery driver leaves him at the house of Luna Schlosser (Diane Keaton), a bad poet but good citizen who believes that 'Our Leader' provides her with everything she needs, including sex toys like The Orb and the Orgasmatron. Shortly thereafter, Miles & Luna are on the run together trying to get to the Western District to uncover the highly secretive Aries Project. What follows are some truly hilarious comedy set pieces featuring oversized fruit, a hydrovac suit, Jewish tailor robots, A Streetcar Named Desire, and a disembodied nose.

    This is the first feature film of many in which Diane Keaton starred and Woody Allen directed, starred and wrote the screenplay (although in this case, he co-wrote it with Marshall Brickman). They had appeared together before in Play it Again, Sam which Woody wrote but did not direct. Both Woody and Diane play their parts well in this film and show great comedic timing.

    Overall, if you are a fan of Woody Allen, this is one of his greatest films and if you are not, this is the one which may make you think twice.

Video

    The video quality is very good for a film of this age.

    The feature is presented in a 1.78:1 aspect ratio 16x9 enhanced which is close to the original aspect ratio of 1.85:1.The film is encoded at a very high bit rate (nearly 10 Mbps) and is thus spread across two layers despite only being an 83 minute film.

    The picture was generally clear and sharp throughout although one scene seemed unfocussed and the picture generally did not have the sharpness of a more modern film. There was no evidence of low level noise. Shadow detail was reasonable with night scenes showing some details.

    The colour was good throughout with all colours being well saturated and free from colour bleeding. The skin colouring was natural. The colours were not as vibrant as more modern films but considering the age of the source material, they come up very well in this transfer.

    There were quite a few white specks on and off throughout the film - noticeable when you are looking for them but not too bad. They were more noticeable during the few dark scenes. One scene which lasted a few seconds at 16:54 jumps quite badly. There was some minor edge enhancement and one spot of minor aliasing on an escalator at 70:43.

    There are subtitles in ten European languages including English and two sets for the Hearing Impaired (English & German). The English subtitles were clear and easy to read, but were slightly different to the spoken word.

    This is a dual layered disc and the layer change is well placed at 48:22, although there is a reasonably long pause.
    

Video Ratings Summary

Sharpness
Shadow Detail
Colour
Grain/Pixelization
Film-To-Video Artefacts
Film Artefacts
Overall

Audio

    The audio quality is good, but mono.

    This DVD contains five audio options all in Dolby Digital 2.0 mono encoded at 448 Kb/s. The options are English, German, French, Italian & Spanish.

    Dialogue was clear and easy to understand. There were no problems with audio sync.    

    The score of this film played by Woody Allen and his jazz band is very good traditional jazz and is well suited to the film.

    The surround speakers & subwoofer were not used at all.

Audio Ratings Summary

Dialogue
Audio Sync
Clicks/Pops/Dropouts
Surround Channel Use
Subwoofer
Overall

Menu

    The menu included a scene selection function and had no motion or music.

Theatrical Trailer (2:16)

    This trailer is presented at 1.33:1 and is pretty good. It includes Woody Allen being interviewed and scenes from the film.

    This movie is available on a very similar disc in Region 1 with the exception of  the Region 1 disc having a full screen open matte transfer in addition to the widescreen one. Unless you desperately want a full screen transfer, I would go for the Region 4 disc due to the standard PAL/NTSC differences.

    The video quality is very good considering the age of the film.

    The audio quality is good, but mono.

    The disc has the theatrical trailer as its only extra.

Video
Audio
Extras
Plot
Overall

Love and Death (1975)

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General		Extras
Category	Comedy	Theatrical Trailer
Rating
Year Of Production	1975
Running Time	81:22 (Case: 77)
RSDL / Flipper	RSDL (48:20)	Cast & Crew
Start Up	Language Select Then Menu
Region Coding	2,4	Directed By	Woody Allen
Studio Distributor	MGM	Starring	Woody Allen Diane Keaton Georges Adet Frank Adu Edmond Ardisson Féodor Atkine Albert Augier Yves Barsacq Lloyd Battista Jack Berard Eva Betrand George Birt Yves Brainville
Case	Amaray-Transparent-Secure Clip
RPI	?	Music	Sergei Prokofiev

Video		Audio
Pan & Scan/Full Frame	None	English Dolby Digital 2.0 (192Kb/s) French Dolby Digital 2.0 (192Kb/s) German Dolby Digital 2.0 (192Kb/s) Italian Dolby Digital 2.0 (192Kb/s) Spanish Dolby Digital 2.0 (192Kb/s)
Widescreen Aspect Ratio	1.85:1
16x9 Enhancement
Video Format	576i (PAL)
Original Aspect Ratio	1.85:1	Miscellaneous
Jacket Pictures	No
Subtitles	English English for the Hearing Impaired German German for the Hearing Impaired French Italian Spanish Dutch Swedish Finnish Norwegian Danish French Titling German Titling Italian Titling Spanish Titling	Smoking	No
		Annoying Product Placement	No
		Action In or After Credits	No

    This DVD is one of seven contained in the box set The Woody Allen Collection, which includes all of Woody's feature films from the 1970s. This is from 1975 and is one of the lesser known films in this collection. Once again he wrote, directed and starred in this film.

    Love & Death is a fairly broad comedy, however it is more ambitious and pretentious than his previous broad comedies Bananas & Sleeper (both included in the box set). It is set in Russia at the time of the Napoleonic Wars when Napoleon's armies were marching across Europe and threatening Russia. Most of the film is done as a flashback from Woody Allen's prison cell as he waits to be executed. Woody plays Boris Grushenko, the youngest and most cowardly son of a land owner. Boris loves his cousin Sonja (Diane Keaton). When Sonja decides to marry a herring merchant because Boris' older brother, Ivan, won't marry her, Boris decides to enlist for the war. Through various unintentional activities he comes back a hero and eventually gets Sonja to marry him. She convinces him that they need to assassinate Napoleon and the rest of the plot revolves around their scheme to do so.

    Much of the humour in this film is based upon satirising philosophy, classic literature, the art community, death and religion. This makes the tone slightly pretentious and I think annoying in some parts. Despite this there are also some excellent jokes, slapstick and physical comedy to be found as well. The scenes while he is in the army are probably the best in the entire film. I believe many viewers would find this film more bizarre than funny and some of the jokes just don't work. As usual for this set there is a minor packaging problem with the running time being listed as 1:17 minutes (it is actually 81).

    If you like Woody Allen films (as I do) you will find things to enjoy in this film. If you do not (like my wife), you may lose interest quickly. Overall, a patchy effort that is not on the same level as Bananas or Sleeper.

Video

    The video quality is good but certainly not great for a film of this age.

    The feature is presented in a 1.85:1 aspect ratio 16x9 enhanced which is the negative aspect ratio. The film is encoded at a very high bit rate and is thus spread across two layers despite only being an 81 minute film.

    The picture was generally clear and sharp throughout although some scenes were a little soft and the picture generally did not have the sharpness of a more modern film. Close-ups were especially fuzzy. There was no evidence of low level noise. Shadow detail was reasonable with night scenes showing some details.

    The colour was good throughout with all colours being well saturated and free from colour bleeding. The skin colouring was natural. The colours were not as vibrant as more modern films but considering the age they come up very well on this transfer.

    There were quite a few white specks and lines on and off throughout the film, some large enough to distract. Some scenes were worse than others. Some thin white vertical lines were also noticeable. There was also a visible curled hair at 16:31.

    There are subtitles in ten European languages including English and two sets for the hearing impaired (English & German). The English subtitles were clear and easy to read, but were slightly different to the spoken word.

    This is a dual layered disc and the layer change is well placed at the end of a scene at 48:20.
    

Video Ratings Summary

Sharpness
Shadow Detail
Colour
Grain/Pixelization
Film-To-Video Artefacts
Film Artefacts
Overall

Audio

    The audio quality is fine, but mono.

    This DVD contains five audio options all in Dolby Digital 2.0 mono encoded at 192 Kb/s. The options are English, German, French, Italian & Spanish.

    Dialogue was generally clear and easy to understand, although the subtitles did come in handy once or twice.    

    There were no problems with audio sync.    

    The score of this film is the music of Sergei Prokofiev which fits the setting of this film well given he is a Russian composer.

    The surround speakers & subwoofer were not used at all.

Audio Ratings Summary

Dialogue
Audio Sync
Clicks/Pops/Dropouts
Surround Channel Use
Subwoofer
Overall

Menu

    The menu included a scene selection function and had no motion or music.

Theatrical Trailer (2:24)

    This trailer is presented in non 16x9 enhanced widescreen. The video quality here is much worse than the feature and is extremely dark by comparison. Also the black bar is much larger at the top than at the bottom. So, all in all, pretty shoddy.

    This movie is available on a very similar disc in Region 1 with the exception of  the Region 1 disc having a full screen open matte transfer in addition to the widescreen one. Unless you desperately want a full screen transfer, I would go for the Region 4 due to the PAL/NTSC differences.

    The video quality is good considering the age of the film.

    The audio quality is fine, but mono.

    The disc has a shoddily presented theatrical trailer as its only extra.

Video
Audio
Extras
Plot
Overall

Annie Hall (1977)

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General		Extras
Category	Romantic Comedy	Main Menu Animation Theatrical Trailer-1.33:1, not 16x9, Dolby Digital 2.0
Rating
Year Of Production	1977
Running Time	89:26 (Case: 93)
RSDL / Flipper	RSDL (43:44)	Cast & Crew
Start Up	Language Select Then Menu
Region Coding	2,4	Directed By	Woody Allen
Studio Distributor	Twentieth Century Fox	Starring	Woody Allen Diane Keaton Tony Roberts Carol Kane Paul Simon Shelley Duvall Janet Margolin Christopher Walken Colleen Dewhurst
Case	Amaray-Transparent
RPI	$31.95	Music	None Given

Video		Audio
Pan & Scan/Full Frame	Auto Pan & Scan Encoded	English Dolby Digital 2.0 mono (256Kb/s) German Dolby Digital 2.0 mono (256Kb/s) French Dolby Digital 2.0 mono (256Kb/s) Italian Dolby Digital 2.0 mono (256Kb/s) Spanish Dolby Digital 2.0 mono (256Kb/s)
Widescreen Aspect Ratio	1.85:1
16x9 Enhancement
Video Format	576i (PAL)
Original Aspect Ratio	1.85:1	Miscellaneous
Jacket Pictures	No
Subtitles	English English for the Hearing Impaired German German for the Hearing Impaired French Italian Spanish Dutch Swedish Finnish Norwegian Danish Portuguese Polish	Smoking	Yes
		Annoying Product Placement	No
		Action In or After Credits	No

    This thinly disguised piece of autobiographical rambling is broadly speaking the story of Woody Allen's (Woody Allen) real life break up with Diane Keaton (Diane Keaton). Just to try and keep some semblance of fiction to the film, Woody is actually cast as Alvy Singer, a neurotic Jewish comedian, with a less than stellar love life. Diane is cast as Annie Hall, an aspiring Midwestern night club singer. The two meet, and the film broadly traces the path of their relationship as they fall in love, go through the throes of coming to grips with each other, gradually realize that it is not going to work and gradually pull away from each other. As usual, the backdrop to the film is New York, with the usual NYC vs LA shtick thrown in for good measure. As we experience the ongoing relationship between Woody and Diane, we get flashbacks to some of Woody's/Alvy's earlier relational disasters. Naturally we go down the usual route of Woody/Alvy ending up being the schmuck without the girl.

    Now by all accounts, this really must be some film: it copped four Oscars in 1977 including some of the big ones in Best Picture, Best Actress and Best Director. Sorry to say, I simply cannot see how this could be considered the best picture in that year, and whilst there is a certain charm to Diane Keaton's performance as the slightly whacky singer, I really do not see that it was that great. One can only presume that the competition that year for the Oscars was not great - or else it was another year rife with inexplicable Academy decisions. However, beyond the often incomprehensible decisions of the Academy, this also garnered similar awards from other sources too. The underlying themes are those that Woody Allen pushes with such regularity that they really have become far too tiresome, and certainly not the least bit entertaining. His love affair with New York and hatred of Los Angeles are renowned, so do we really have to keep copping this in his films? We all know relationships are difficult, so does he really need to keep shoving it down our throats? And, we know he has an obsession with death, so do we really need to have that shoved down our throats, too? Really, these central themes of Woody Allen are getting so decidedly passé that he has long since lost any semblance of originality in what he does and as far as I am concerned has well and truly descended past any level at which it is still necessary to take any notice of what he does. Sort of the Jan De Bont of "arty" films really.

    Billed as a comedy, amongst other things, there is nothing here that I find remotely funny. It is always a bad sign when you are checking the "time to end" reading with regularity, which is what I was doing here after the first half an hour or so. Also billed as a romance, it works a little better in that form than any other, but really there is nothing too special here either. Beyond that, I simply have no idea at what level this may work. Woody Allen does a sterling job of playing Woody Allen, but then again he should do - he has only been playing this shtick role all his life. His narrative style of film here has not worn the years well, and loses somewhat in the way of impact because of it. Diane Keaton is the best part of this film, but she simply is unable to drag it above the lead weight that Woody Allen brings to the screen. The rest barely offer more than cameo, token performances, such is the centrality of the two main characters to the film. At least the direction from Woody Allen provides some originality even if the film style is decidedly dated nowadays.

    Sorry, but I simply cannot raise any enthusiasm for this film at all. I find it anything but funny, the style of the film is very dated and Woody Allen is getting more irritating every time I see him in film. That obviously places me in a huge minority though, which I recognize. My apologies if you find this to be a great film - I unfortunately do not find this either to be a great film nor to be great entertainment. I obviously just do not "get" Woody Allen films.

Video

    The transfer is presented in an aspect ratio of 1.85:1 and is 16x9 enhanced. Additionally, this transfer is auto pan and scan encoded.

    The age of the transfer is amply demonstrated by the decidedly muted sharpness of the transfer. Whilst this is partly the result of the way Woody Allen makes films, as all of his films that I have seen seem to be consistent in this regard, it is also a reflection of the fact that this is not sourced from a pristine print and would seem to be from a third generation print, judging by the reel change markings present in the transfer. It is also evident that this film has not been subjected to any serious restoration work. Detail is nothing to write home about and I suppose that we should be thankful that this really is a character piece, otherwise the lack of detail would have been rather annoying. This is not a particularly clear transfer and suffers a little from grain problems at times: nothing serious but enough to spoil the effect a little. There seemed to be a little low level noise in the transfer at times, but again nothing too serious.

    The general tone here is a little rich, which gives the transfer a reasonably natural feel to it. Skin tones are well handled, and there is a nice change in style of colour between New York and Los Angeles. Just don't be looking for too much in the way of bright colours here. There was nothing really too far wrong with the saturation at all and there was certainly nothing remotely approaching colour bleed.

    There are no apparent MPEG artefacts in the transfer. There are no real problems with film-to-video artefacts in the transfer. Naturally, since this is over twenty three years old, there is something of a problem with film artefacts in the transfer, but nothing that I would consider unduly distracting in a film of this age.

    This is an RSDL formatted disc, with the layer change coming at 43:44: it is not a particularly well-placed change, even though it is at a scene change, as it is just a bit too noticeable and just a bit disruptive to the flow of the film.

Audio

    Dialogue was generally clear and easy to understand.

    There did not appear to be any problems with audio sync in the transfer.

    The minimal music score is uncredited, probably as there is not an awful lot to it.

    The fact that we have a Dolby Digital 2.0 mono soundtrack actually suits the style of the film pretty well, even if it is not an especially dynamic effort. Like a lot of Woody Allen films, at least in my experience, this is not a film that requires much from the soundtrack apart from presenting clear, undistorted sound. The lack of surround channel use and bass channel use are barely noticed here. The mono sound is a little frontal but not too shabby in its own way.

Menu

Theatrical Trailer (2:02)

• 16x9 enhancement

    A pretty good video transfer.

    A very average audio transfer.

    A minimal extras package.

Video
Audio
Extras
Plot
Overall

Everything You Always Wanted to Know About Sex * But Were Afraid to Ask (1972)

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General		Extras
Category	Comedy	Main Menu Animation Theatrical Trailer Booklet
Rating
Year Of Production	1972
Running Time	84:13 (Case: 88)
RSDL / Flipper	RSDL (57:23)	Cast & Crew
Start Up	Language Select Then Menu
Region Coding	2,4	Directed By	Woody Allen
Studio Distributor	Twentieth Century Fox	Starring	Woody Allen John Carradine Lou Jacobi Louise Lasser Anthony Quayle Tony Randall Lynn Redgrave Burt Reynolds Gene Wilder
Case	Amaray-Transparent
RPI	$34.95	Music	Mundell Lowe

Video		Audio
Pan & Scan/Full Frame	Auto Pan & Scan Encoded	English Dolby Digital 2.0 mono (256Kb/s) German Dolby Digital 2.0 mono (256Kb/s) French Dolby Digital 2.0 mono (256Kb/s) Italian Dolby Digital 2.0 mono (256Kb/s) Spanish Dolby Digital 2.0 mono (256Kb/s)
Widescreen Aspect Ratio	1.85:1
16x9 Enhancement
Video Format	576i (PAL)
Original Aspect Ratio	1.85:1	Miscellaneous
Jacket Pictures	No
Subtitles	English English for the Hearing Impaired German German for the Hearing Impaired French Italian Spanish Dutch Swedish Finnish Norwegian Danish Portuguese Polish	Smoking	Yes
		Annoying Product Placement	No
		Action In or After Credits	Yes, some rabbits during credits

    I think MAD Magazine said it all when their profile of Woody Allen stated that he claims to be a typical New York citizen, which, as they say, should frighten the daylights out of other New Yorkers. I think little more can be really said for this film, because my interest in the plot itself soon dissolved to an even lower level than the interest I exhibit in a McDonald's cheeseburger.

Video

    The sharpness of this transfer is distinctly ordinary, betraying all of the twenty-eight years since this film was shown in theatres in spite of the fact that no details are lost. The shadow detail is poor, with the dark portions of any given shot being nothing more than large expanses of black that occasionally have some colour and detail swimming out of their edges. Thankfully, there didn't appear to be any low-level noise in the transfer, although film grain was frequently an issue, especially in the opening credits where the white background helped make it even more noticeable.

    The colour saturation is very ordinary, also betraying the age of the film. It's not that the saturation in itself is particularly bad - it simply appears as if the photographic process simply sucked all the life and vivid detail out of the final image.

    MPEG artefacts went unnoticed, which is a wonder considering that the film is in awful shape, and the abundance of grain must have played havoc upon the compression. Film-to-video artefacts consisted of some occasional mild aliasing. Reel change markings were apparent during the course of this transfer, betraying its release print source.

    This disc is presented in the RSDL format, but I think I must have fallen asleep during the layer change. Attempts to locate it were unsuccessful. (Ed. It's at 57:23, in between segments, so it's very well hidden.)

Audio

    Of course, the lack of life in the audio, much like the lack of life in the video, could probably be blamed fairly and squarely upon the source material rather than any specific transfer problem. Matching a video transfer that was taken from a print source is an audio transfer that has had no real restoration work done to it at all. The audio transfer is presented in a choice of five languages, all of them in Dolby Digital 2.0 mono: the original English dialogue, and dubs in German, French, Italian, and Spanish. I stuck with the original English, which was clear and easy to understand at all times in spite of the limitations of the mix. It is worth noting that during one sketch, most of the dialogue is in Italian, anyway. Audio sync didn't appear to be a problem at any point, although it was rather hard to tell for much of the main feature.

    The music by Mundell Lowe reminded me of a really bad silent film, and I was thankful not to have an isolated score on this disc. It reminded me a lot of the piano playing during one part of The Muppet Movie, and didn't exactly help to set anything remotely resembling an atmosphere. Still, you cannot make a powerful score out of a satire that fails to make its audience laugh.

    The surround and subwoofer presence on this disc is non-existent.

Menu

Theatrical Trailer (2:29)

    The video quality is very ordinary, and looks as if it has been taken from a print element.

    The audio quality is good for a mono mix, but is nothing special.

    The extras are, in keeping with the rest of the package, very ordinary.

Video
Audio
Extras
Plot
Overall

Manhattan (1979)

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General		Extras
Category	Romantic Comedy	Main Menu Animation Theatrical Trailer
Rating
Year Of Production	1979
Running Time	92:15 (Case: 96)
RSDL / Flipper	RSDL	Cast & Crew
Start Up	Language Select Then Menu
Region Coding	2,4	Directed By	Woody Allen
Studio Distributor	Twentieth Century Fox	Starring	Woody Allen Diane Keaton Michael Murphy Mariel Hemingway Meryl Streep Anne Byrne
Case	Amaray-Transparent
RPI	$34.95	Music	George Gershwin

Video		Audio
Pan & Scan/Full Frame	Auto Pan & Scan Encoded	English Dolby Digital 2.0 mono (192Kb/s) German Dolby Digital 2.0 mono (256Kb/s) French Dolby Digital 2.0 mono (256Kb/s) Italian Dolby Digital 2.0 mono (256Kb/s) Spanish Dolby Digital 2.0 mono (256Kb/s)
Widescreen Aspect Ratio	2.35:1
16x9 Enhancement
Video Format	576i (PAL)
Original Aspect Ratio	2.35:1	Miscellaneous
Jacket Pictures	No
Subtitles	English English for the Hearing Impaired German German for the Hearing Impaired French Italian Spanish Dutch Swedish Finnish Norwegian Danish Portuguese Polish	Smoking	Yes
		Annoying Product Placement	No
		Action In or After Credits	No

    The broad story here is based around Isaac Davis (Woody Allen), who happens to be smack in the midst of a mid-life crisis: he is forty two, hates his job and is dating a seventeen year old schoolgirl in Tracy (Mariel Hemingway). To make matters worse, his ex-wife Jill (Meryl Streep) is writing a book about their marriage and its break up, which is just a little annoying to Isaac since Jill happened to run off with another woman, taking his son with them. Isaac is not exactly happy that all sorts of personal details are going to be revealed. Naturally, he would like to do disgusting things to Jill, all of which involve some illegal activity and usually with the intent of terminating Jill's life.

    Isaac's best friend Yale (Michael Murphy) happens to be having an affair with Mary (Diane Keaton), supposedly unbeknownst to Yale's wife, Emily (Anne Byrne). When Mary tires of the illicit relationship with Yale, she decides to break off the affair, which is great news for Isaac who has obviously previously met Mary and been smitten by her. So, Tracy gets the flick and Mary moves into his life (sans a job which by now he has quit), apartment and bed. The trouble is that Yale still is in love with Mary, and Mary slowly comes to realize that she is still in love with Yale, and their relationship is eventually rekindled much to the consternation of Isaac and Emily - most especially when Emily invites Isaac and Mary over for a meal one evening. This unholy mess of a menage a quatre gets a tad too much to handle, and we end up with Yale and Mary getting back together, Emily being devastated (and blaming Isaac for introducing Mary to Yale) and Isaac realizing that he really does love Tracy and setting off to rekindle that relationship - only to discover that she is about to head off to Europe to go to school (which Isaac originally encouraged her to do as a way of breaking off their relationship). So all in all, we end up down the usual route of Woody/Isaac ending up being the schmuck without the girl - again - in what is almost a epitaph to the sexual enlightenment of the seventies.

    Confused? Welcome to the world according to Woody Allen. On the whole, critical acclaim for Manhattan seems to be somewhat less than for Annie Hall, so in some sort of perverted way that would probably account for why I find Manhattan a more palatable film. The story is riddled with the usual clichés that seem to be a recurring theme in Woody Allen's films, and the characters are if anything even more trite than usual, and yet it seems to work a little better than usual. Woody Allen is still not a favourite of mine but I find his performance here to be far less unappetizing than usual. Diane Keaton basically gets to play the same role she always plays in Woody's films, namely the somewhat unlikeable, possibly egocentric object of Woody's infatuations. Accordingly, this is very much acting by numbers as far as she is concerned. Of the rest, Mariel Hemingway is the only one to stand out and that is for all the wrong reasons. I simply find it difficult to believe that she copped an Oscar nomination for Best Supporting Actress for this role: frankly, the one thing that is not on display here is any real acting ability. It does have to be said, though, that the best parts of this film are actually when she and Woody Allen are in scene together: there is something naive and immature in her performance that in some ways conveys the uncertainty inherent in this sort of relationship (at least I guess there would be some sort of uncertainty in such a relationship, not having any personal experience of such a relationship to draw upon!). The rest is pretty much your typical Woody Allen film by the numbers.

    Billed as a comedy, this actually raised a couple of (minor) laughs out of me, so that immediately makes it a rip-roaring success as far as Woody Allen films and I are concerned. It is of course much more a romance than a comedy and at that level it also works pretty well, and whilst I would not be rushing out to indulge in this effort again too soon, it is actually the first Woody Allen film that I have come across that I would actually contemplate watching again in the future.

Video

    The transfer is presented in its correct aspect ratio of 2.35:1 and is 16x9 enhanced - unusual I would suggest for a black and white DVD (although no doubt several dozens will now be brought to my attention). The transfer is Auto Pan & Scan encoded.

    The disappointment in the DVD transfer is apparent almost from the opening scene, and so pervasive that I am almost tempted to suggest that it is the way the film is supposed to look, despite the fact that it was filmed anamorphically which usually means a sharp, detailed image. However, I found this to be at times a very diffuse image that reminded me of such earlier black and white films of the forties and fifties as Angel And The Badman, but without the annoying film artefacts. I was really expecting something a lot sharper in nature with a greater degree of detail than what we have here, that is for sure. The detail at times is not much better than average and again is far more reminiscent of black and white films of the fifties rather than something from the seventies. Shadow detail is at times decidedly average. This is not an especially clear transfer, but thankfully does not seem to suffer from any significant grain problems to speak of. Just to balance the whole inconsistency of the transfer, there were times that this was as sharp and as clear as I was expecting. There did not appear to be any low level noise problems in the transfer.

    The big let down after the inconsistency in the transfer is the general lack of depth to the black and white tones. Again, this is in sharp contrast to the reviews of the Region 1 release which seem to be high on the solid blacks and bright whites. They are sadly lacking here in my view, and this is really a good example of how black and white should not look. Blacks in general were of a distinctly greyish tone and lacked any sort of depth throughout much of the film. At no time could I honestly say that the whites were really clean and bright (and I will now stop sounding like a detergent advert, I promise).

    There are no apparent MPEG artefacts in the transfer. There are no real problems with film-to-video artefacts in the transfer. Naturally, since this is over twenty one years old, there is something of a problem with film artefacts in the transfer, but again nothing that I would consider unduly distracting in a film of this age.

    This is an RSDL-formatted disc, but I was unable to note where the layer change occurred. That being the case, it is obviously not disruptive to the flow of the film.

Audio

    Dialogue was generally clear and easy to understand.

    There did not appear to be any problems with audio sync in the transfer.

    The original music score comes from George Gershwin: obviously it was not composed for the film, but rather the film uses some of his great music to complement the film. I am not certain that the choices were totally appropriate to the mood of the film at times, but there is no denying the quality of the music. Some of the very best orchestral music of the twentieth century originates from the United States and George Gershwin is one of the very best of those American composers.

    The final disappointment with the DVD comes from the soundtrack itself, which is an exceedingly unnatural sounding effort. Perhaps this is best illustrated by the scene in Bloomingdales, where Mary and Isaac are talking. As they leave "centre stage" and blend into the passing traffic walking away from the camera, their voices actually become louder and more prominent in the mix. This is not an isolated example, and throughout the film I was always being confronted by what I would consider unnatural and often extremely frontal soundscapes. Whilst appreciating that this is often the case in Woody Allen films, where dialogue clarity seems to rule above all else and mono will do as well for this as anything else, it is nonetheless quite disappointing that this is so marked an example of his quirks as far as audio are concerned. Accordingly, this demonstrates in the extreme that this is not a film that requires much from the soundtrack apart from presenting clear, undistorted dialogue and that is what we actually get here - and nothing else. However, with the setting being New York, you do at times really miss the surround channel and bass channel detail that would really bring in the vibrancy of the city.

Menu

Theatrical Trailer (3:14)

    An average video transfer at best.

    A below average audio transfer.

    A minimal extras package.

Video
Audio
Extras
Plot
Overall