Today in seminar we had a cinema professor visit us.  She basically ran down the fundamentals of cinema and related them to numerous films, particularly Manhattan.  When we were watching the opening scene of Manhattan, I noticed a motif in the movie.

In the beginning of the movie, Woody Allen’s character, Isaac, talks about his view of New York City.  It was clear that Isaac had a lot of trouble making his views of the city clear.  In fact, as a character, Isaac seemed to be very indecisive.  Other than his talk about the city, Isaac had a lot of trouble making up his mind in his love life.

Throughout the film, Isaac jumped back and forth between Mary and Tracey.  It took him a few stumbles and a revelation towards the end of the movie to realize that he wanted to be with Tracey.  However, this does not mean he became a decisive character or anything like that.  In my opinion, it was not a hard choice for Isaac to pick Tracey because Mary made it clear that she was not romantically devoted to Isaac.

Essentially, the motif is Isaac’s indecisiveness.  It’s funny actually, whenever Isaac spoke, he never stated anything with certainty.  He talked and talked with a lot of wit until he got his point across.  This is especially relevant at the middle and end of the film in which Isaac tried to manipulate Tracey.  Both times, he kept blurting out excuses and reasons for Tracey to either leave him or come back to him, respectively.

I enjoyed this session of Seminar, talking about film is always a treat.  As a matter of fact, my Intro to Film class is my favorite class this semester.