Annie Hall takes over the Marty Film - Essay Example

Annie Hall takes over the Marty film The movie industry entails a number of researches carried out to establish the type of award or honor to be given to a film. One of the bodies linked with awarding the best films is the Academy for Best Picture. This is one of the Academy awards of value that is organized annually by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences to artists operating in the motion picture industry. This article will involve a selection of two movies that were released before 1990 and which are 10 years apart. This paper will compare the movies in regard to the subject matter, genre, director and actors. This essay also assumes that the person who reads this article has seen the movies; therefore, plot summary will be minimized by entailing a compare contrast essay. On June 14, 2011, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences announced that the nominee integer would contrast between five and ten films beginning with the ceremony in 2012, provided that the nominated film received 5% of the first-place votes in the nomination procedure (Nikki, 2). The official name of the awards has been altered severally over the years. Some of the names used were outstanding production, outstanding picture, outstanding motion picture, best motion picture until currently where it is referred as the best picture awards. In this paper, the films selected are Marty (1955) and Annie Hall (1977). The Annie Hall has a number of advantages compared to Marty. Some of the advantages that Annie Hall possesses in advantage are the producers include its genre, and the cost of making the film that is relevant to the revenue generated by the movie. The effects of the films also describe how significant the film’s content is able to pass a message to the general public. Annie Hall portrays an extensive content in harboring all these factors. The genre, directors, subject matter and the actors of both films are explained in the subsequent paragraphs. Marty is an American film directed by Mann Delbert and produced by Harold Hecht in 1955. This screenplay was written by Paddy Chayefsky, who was intensifying upon his teleplay that he wrote in 1953 with the same title (Paddy 24). The starred in the film include Ernest Borgnine, Betsy Blair, Joe Mantell, Frank Sutton, Karen Steele, Augusta Ciolli and Esther Minciotti. The music and cinematography presented in the film was done by Roy Webb and Joseph LaShelle respectively. Moreover, the United Artists Production Company deals with the supply of the movie which was released in April 11, 1955 and runs for 94 minutes. On the other hand, Annie Hall is an American romantic comedy produced in 1977 by Woody Allen (John 14). The film is directed from a screenplay co-starring Diane Keaton and co-written by Marshall Brickman. The movie was produced by Jack Rollins and Charles Joffe. The cast members in the film include Diane Keaton, Carol Kane, Woody Allen, Colleen Dewhurst, Paul Simon, Tony Roberts, Christopher Walken and Shelley Duvall (Peter 17). The film’s cinematography and editing was done by Gordon Willis and Ralph Rosenblum respectively. The film was released on April 20, 1977, and its distribution was done by United Artists Production Company just like the Marty film. In addition, the film has a running time of 93 minutes (Paddy 45). Nevertheless, it is somewhat evident that if these two movies are placed head to head in the Academy Awards categories, Annie Hall is most likely to scoop the title basing on a number of advantages it has compared to the Marty film. A brief review of the budget comparison of the two films clearly reveals that the Annie Hall film spent quite a colossal sum of money. The Annie Hall had an estimated budget of $4 million, whereas the Marty had a budgeted cost of $343,000. According to box office statistics, the Annie Hall made an estimated $38,251,425 in revenue generation, whereas Marty had a revenue generation of up to $3,000,000. This clearly depicts that much was invested in the Annie Hall and in return the film has made a remarkably high revenue generation. The director of the Annie Hall describes the movie as a focal turning point that introduced a seriousness level to his films, unlike his past films based on comedies and circus scripts. The Annie Hall film won four Academy awards at the 50th Academy Awards on April 3, 1978. The awards included the 2nd best shortest Best Picture winner which was presented to the producer of the motion picture (Peter 34). Woody Allen won the Best Director award and one of the famous film critics named Roger Ebert described the film as the favorite movie from Woody Allen (John 23). Marshall Brickman scooped the Best Original Screenplay award, and Diane Keaton won the Best Actress in a leading role. In addition, Allen had also been nominated for the Best Actor award, but he lost the award to Richard Dreyfuss who cast in The Goodbye Girl film. The Annie Hall also won a Golden Globe award for the best actress in comedy and music (Diane Keaton). Additionally, the movie also scooped the BAFTA award for the best film. There are also a number of honors that encompass the film. For example, in 1992, the movie became preferable for conserving history and culture in the United States National Film Registry by the Congress Library. In 2000, the film became selected as the forty-second best film of all time by the Total Film magazine reader. The film takes position 28 on Bravo’s 100 funniest films. All these awards justify that the Annie Hall film is in a superior position to get the Academy title if it would be nominated together with the Marty film in the same category. The Marty has also scooped a number of awards and honors. In the 28th annual awards ceremony, the film was the only movie to win both Cannes Film Festival Palme d’Or and the Best Picture award. The film also made a milestone by being the first (and only) movie based on a television film to win the Best Motion Picture which the producer received. The film also won other titles including best director by Delbert Ann, best actor (Ernest) and best writing adapted screenplay (Paddy Chayefsky). The film also had other nominations of which they lost. Some of the awards they were nominated for include the best supporting actor and actress, best cinematography and the best art direction-set decoration. The best supporting actor in which Joe Mantell was a nominee was won by Jack Lemmon. The best supporting actress where Betsy Blair was a nominee was scooped by Jo Van Fleet from the East of Eden film. In general, we get to see that the Marty had eight nominations in the Academy Awards, whereas the Annie Hall had five nominations. Out of all these nominations, both the films scooped four awards in the various categories that they were nominated. This saw the Marty obtain an overwhelming and encouraging review from most film critics. Rotten Tomatoes, which is a film review aggregator, reported that 28 sampled critics gave positive reviews concerning the film. The positive reviews score got an average score of 8 out of 10. On the other hand, the Annie Hall movie also gained a warm reception after it first became screened at the Los Angeles Film Festival in March 1977 (Peter 56). Most of the movie critics claim that Woody Allen has significantly improved in the way he is rendered basing on this movie. Allen says that he usually gets approached about making a sequel to Annie Hall, which is an act that he frequently denies. However, he admitted in an interview in 1992, that he had once thought about it for once. Another factor that places the Annie Hall in a better position to get the award comprises of its significant effect on society and fashion. The Annie Hall immensely influenced the world of fashion in the late 1970s where most women were adopting Keaton’s distinctive look that included mannish blazers over vests, long skirts or billowy trousers, a tie by Ralph Lauren, oversized layering and boots. The look was described as the Annie Hall look. A clear example of the look’s influence in the society can be depicted in a Doonesbury comic strip in the 1970s. The Marty has also played a fundamental character in the world. The Lost Weekend film (1945) and Marty are the only two movies that have won grand prizes from the Cannes Film Festival and the other significant event. Marty still holds the record for the shortest best picture winner with a record of 1 hour and 31 minutes. In conclusion, the directors of these movies have in the worked vastly on other films that have made wide recognitions. Other films directed by Delbert Mann include The Bachelor Party, Kidnapped, A Gathering of Eagles and Love’s Dark Ride among others. Woody Allen has also featured in a number of films like take the Money and Run (1969), Midnight in Paris (2011) and Small Time Crooks (2000) among others (John 30). Though, the films are produced by the same production company; other factors like genre, actors and subject matter have widely affected the films. Works Cited Chayefsky, Paddy. Two Choices of Material. New York: Simon and Schuster Press, 1955. Print. John, Baxter. Woody Allen: A Biography. London: Harper Collins Publishers, 1999. Print. Nikki, Finke. OSCAR SHOCKER! Academy Builds Surprise & Secrecy Into Best Picture Race: Now There Can Be 5 To 10 Nominees. 15 Jun. 2011. Web. 26 Apr. 2012. Peter, Cowie. Annie Hall. London: British Film Institute, 1996. Print. Read More