Exceeding the Genre of Romantic Comedies in Annie Hall

Annie Hall is one of the best-known American romantic and sophisticated comedies since 1997. The film is considered as a “high-culture comedy that is intellectually stimulating with deeper meaning” (inkblotchpoison). In this essay, regarding the film Annie Hall, I will be discussing how this romantic comedy subverts genre expectations, normative rules for romantic comedies and how it works to and against these rules. I will also discuss how this film strays from being conventional according to its genre and what audience expectations are defied by the film.

Released by Woody Allen, this film complicates the original structure and expectations of the typical romantic comedy genre by challenging the norm of the romantic genre and so-called ‘glorified love’. Annie Hall undermines most of the genre expectations by, for example, incorporating the distinctive fundamental rules and features of a romantic comedy, happy endings, ‘love made in heaven’ and typical comedy jokes. This film leans towards a more sophisticated and intellectual type of film making, which requires an amount of concentration by the audience. This comedy is more dialogue-based than circumstantial, making it more relatable to watch than many films of the same genre.

The restyling of the genre is used to call attention to the way falling in love can make one feel. It crosses the line between fantasy and reality in a way that highlights the enhanced emotional rollercoaster that loves to push us into and falling in love lead up to. Allen breaks the conventions of the genre through the film’s fusion of optical imagination to verbal humour into the narrative, intellectual jokes, the characterization of the main characters and the realistic description of modern love and romance. By comparing and contrasting the interesting effect of breakups and fading love, Annie Hall provides a visual reinvention of reality through a comical juxtaposition.

By exploring factors such as : the realistic perspective of love, the move towards the concept of fading love and a dying relationship, the way in which jokes give meaning to the characterization of Annie and Alvy, and the creative dialogue and narrative, it is clear how this film subverts the classic Hollywood ideal of romantic comedies. The film also subverts genre expectations by withholding the audience of an expected ‘happily ever after’ ending which shows an alteration to a more reluctant point of view towards romance (inkblotchpoison).

The director emphasizes the strain on modern relationships and love through the different perspectives of both Alvy, who is a highly literate person, quick-witted and sexually frustrated, “and Annie who breathes life into his ordered and pessimistic existence” (inkblotchpoison). Though the director of the film has access to the basics standards and ideals for a typical Hollywood romantic comedy, he still provokes aspects of the genre by having a realistic approach towards the concept of modern love. The relationship between Alvy and Annie seems to succeed on many levels, but it fails to prosper the conventional, norm levels, thus it leads to separation of the couple rather than a lasting marriage. It moves away from the expected conventional love and rather emphasizes the insecurities and strain placed on modern love, “creating a platform to discuss the reasons and acceptance of fading love” (inkblotchpoison).

Annie Hall is concerned with love accommodating “the elements of courtship, dating, and marriage which form part of the romantic comedy genre” (inkblotchpoison), but subverts from hardly being easy-going amusement. The film initiates the question of dissolving love and examines a fading relationship to emphasize both the positive and negative facets of love.

“It also manages to be a universal film about how much of our life we are willing to sacrifice in the pursuit of love (inkblotchpoison).” The film introduces the audience to the thought : Regardless of the pain and agony that falling in love puts people through, and the strength of humanity to keep chasing after the love and acceptance of the significant other, even though of all the heartbreaks- isn't that the most romantic part of falling in love and romance over all ('Annie Hall: The Greatest Rom-Com Ever?') ?