On Wednesday, we watched Woody Allen’s film, Manhattan. I’d heard of Woody Allen before, and I thought that I’d maybe seen one of his films before and just didn’t know that it was by him. However, it turns out, that this was the first film of his that I’ve ever seen. I found it to be very amusing while dealing with some rather dramatic situations. For homework, we were asked to analyze the movie, and I thought it was a very interesting film to analyze.

1. The camera seemed to be focused mainly on Isaac, the main character. Of course, it focused on the other characters as well, but Isaac was the main focal point of the camera for the majority of the film.

2. Many times, I found that Allen chose to frame the scenes to make the people seem like part of a bigger picture. The camera would be focused on the characters, and yet it would also be zoomed out enough to show what was going on behind them; I think Allen wanted to show that despite whatever issues the characters in the film were dealing with, they were all relatively small compared to the rest of the city of Manhattan.

3. This film was shot in black and white and while I think that in general, shooting in color allows the filmmaker to fully portray the picture that they’re trying to paint, I think that a big advantage of filming in black and white is that it forces the audience to use their imagination to fill in the colors that they can’t really see. I think it can possibly engage the audience even more than a colorful scene can.

4. The clips lasted for a few minutes each before moving into the next scene.

5. The dialogue was very varied in this movie. At times, the characters would engage in intelligent conversation while at others, they would speak rather crudely. It was fitting, I thought, because if you were to take a stroll in Manhattan and listen in on random conversations as you pass by groups of people, I’m sure you’d hear such variety.

6. The costumes seemed like the normal attire you’d see people wearing in New York City. The film was a portrayal of the city of Manhattan, and I think that what the characters wore helped execute that portrayal.

7. There wasn’t much music in the movie, as far as I can remember. When it was there, however, it highlighted the scenes that it accompanied. The one that stood out to me was when Isaac was with his son. The music drowned out the rest of the sound and we just got to see Isaac interact with him, and we got to imagine what was being said instead of actually hearing it. Again, I find it a bit more engaging when the audience has to use their imagination instead of having everything given to them.

8. The set in this movie is, quite fittingly, New York City. The film is meant to portray Manhattan, and what better way is there to portray Manhattan than to shoot the movie in the city itself?

I honestly thought that this was a fun movie to watch, and because of it, I might try to watch some other Woody Allen films in my free time.