annie hall

I read a lot of reviews online for Annie Hall, and on most they talked about how Woody Allen's role of Alvy set up the template for a lot of Allen's future roles/characters in his movies. I thought this was interesting because I'm currently reading "Sex, Drugs, and Cocoa Puffs: A Low Culture Manifesto" by Chuck Klosterman. In his first chapter "This is Emo", Klosterman is writing about his past relationships with women. He discusses how Woody Allen made it possible for him and other nerdy men like him to sleep with women who he sees as out of his league. He goes on to say how probably most of these women have never seen a Woody Allen film, and if asked they would never classify Allen as sexy, or desired, or say that they wanted to sleep with him. "But this is how media devolution works: It creates an archetype that eventually dwarfs its origin. By now, the "Woody Allen Personality Type" has far greater cultural importance than the man himself" writes Klosterman. I think thats an interesting idea, that media has created archetypes for different kinds of relationships, which the public therefore tries to conform to. For example, how often do you here people describe their relationship as a "Ross and Rachel" type relationship? Fairly often, and when you think about it Ross and Rachel are the perfect example of how Allen has manifested his character archetypes into the media today. Ross is much like Alvy, nerdy, goofy and full of neuroses. Rachel on the other hand is the beautiful woman who seems out of his league. Throughout 10 seasons the couple goes through an on again off again relationship, much as Annie and Alvy did. I think it's safe to say that Allen created a new prototype of character that is still prevalent in media culture today.

Klosterman, Chuck. Sex, Drugs, and Cocoa Puffs: A Low Culture Manifesto. New York City: Scribner, 2003. Print.