Annie Hall, the 1977 classic romantic comedy, tells the story
of a neurotic comedian, Alvy Singer, who falls in love with Annie Hall. Throughout the film, Alvy, played by Woody
Allen, reflects on his relationship with Annie and attempts to explain its
failure. The audience is taken through
Alvy’s past relationships, as well as his fondest and darkest memories with
Annie as he tries to piece the puzzle together in order to gain clarity on their past. As viewers, we witness two extremely unique
personalities come together to form a complex and deep relationship, and then break. The movie portrays various scenes that both demonstrate
and challenge sexual scripts that frame today’s media portrayals of
heterosexual relationships.
In the famous tennis scene from Annie Hall, the readers witness Alvy and Annie’s first meeting that
both challenges and follows sexual scripts. Alvy arrives at a country club with
his friend, and Annie arrives with one of her girl friends. Alvy and Annie’s friends are clearly in a
relationship, so it becomes very clear that Annie and Alvy are being set up to
meet each other by their friends. They
are introduced to one another, and then are off to play a doubles match of
tennis. The movie fast-forwards to their
conversation after the tennis match as they are leaving the club. Alvy offers Annie a ride home, as he intends
to pay for her cab. However, Annie
explains that she has a car and instead and she proceeds to drive Alvy
home. As they part, Annie invites Alvy
up to her apartment to have wine.
In Gendered
Relationships on Television: Portrayals of Same-Sex and Heterosexual Couples (Gibson,
Ivory, Ivory, 2009), the authors examine power relationships in television. The authors explain their coding scheme,
which was developed to measure dominance and submissiveness in relationships on
television (2009). The coding scheme for
dominance includes criteria such as “dominates conversation,” “drives motor
vehicle,” “makes sexual advance/initiates sexual activity,” “shows low
commitment to relationship,” and “financially supports the other partner.” Coding categories for submissive characters
included, “exhibits indecisiveness,” “cries,” “shows high commitment to
relationship.” The authors found that the majority of females in the relationships they examined were portrayed as submissive, while the men were portrayed as dominant (Gibson, et al., 2009).
After the tennis match, as Annie is leaving, she
initiates conversation with Alvy by saying, “Hi” as she sees him. She is clearly nervous, as she is going
against the social script by starting the conversation with Alvy. When he offers her a ride home, he is
following the sexual script of dominance.
After some dialogue back and forth, it becomes apparent that Alvy does
not have a car, and was actually going to share a cab with Annie, rather than
drive her home. She reveals that she has
a car, and she drives him back into the city.
This goes against the social script, according to Gibson, et al. (2009), as
they describe the dominant trait, which is usually taken on by males, as the
driver of the vehicle. However, Annie Hall does play on the social
stereotype of women being bad drivers, as Alvy is terrified as Annie swerves
between lanes and speeds past slow-moving cars.
Overall, this excerpt of the movie communicates that men are “supposed”
to initiate conversation, or offer women a ride home, and act as the dominant
character when first meeting a woman.
However, this excerpt also challenges Gibson, et al.’s notion of men
dominating conversation and driving a vehicle, as Annie drives Alvy back into
the city, as well as inviting him up to her apartment. In many ways, Annie is a character that
counters some of the “submissive” women’s codes in Gendered Relationships on Television (2009).
Another scene in the movie that portrays sexual
scripts is one in which Alvy is helping Annie pack up her apartment, as they
have decided they are going to move in together. The point of conflict in the scene surrounds
the idea of whether or not Annie should sell her apartment, as well. Alvy believes she should keep it as a source
of security, in case they were to break up.
Annie wants to sell her apartment because she thinks it would be a waste
of money. They argue about their
conflicting ideas of commitment.
This also touches on the sexual scripts that Gibson,
et al. codes for in the content analysis (2009). Alvy and Annie are fighting about what to do
with their living situation. They are
both packing up Annie’s things, but discuss whether or not to sell Annie’s
apartment. Alvy says he thinks they
should keep Annie’s apartment despite moving in together, so that they know “we
are not married.” Annie, on the other
hand, wants to sell her apartment and fully commit to living with Alvy. This follows the sexual script that men show
less commitment to relationships than women.
This explains that men are “supposed” to be afraid of getting too close
or too tied down to one person, while women are not “supposed” to pressure
their partners into commitment, as this is clearly a source of conflict for the
characters in Annie Hall.
Sexual scripts also come alive during the scene when
Annie and Alvy tell each other they love one another. The scene begins with him complimenting her
as he describes various characteristics of why he thinks she’s sexy. She deflects the comments and denies the
flattery. Although somewhat awkward and nervous,
they both reveal that they love one another through a series of questions and
answers. The scene takes place during
the evening underneath the beautifully lit Brooklyn Bridge.
This scene follows Gibson, et al.’s article, as well,
as Alvy completely dominates the conversation.
Annie says, “You know what? You know, I really like you, I really do.” Alvy replies with, “Yeah but do you love me?”
Annie replies with, “Yeah.” Of course,
Alvy then tells her he loves her, too.
He says that love is not a strong enough word to describe his feelings
for her. Despite the awkward dialogue,
Alvy initiates the “love” discussion, which follows sexual scripts of men saying
“I love you” first. Alvy talks much more
in the conversation than Annie, as she comes off as nervous and timid. This also follows the sexual scripts of women
being the submissive actor in a relationship, while men dominate dialogue.
However, one can draw light on the fact that Annie was the initiator of
the “love” conversation, as she was the first one to bring up how she felt
about Alvy, which can be seen as challenging the sexual scripts often portrayed in the media today.
The scene also takes place
in an extremely romantic situation.
Although unconventional, Alvy awkwardly asks Annie if she loves him,
thus sparking her to be the first one to initiate the “I love you” talk. Not only had he just been complimenting her,
but they are having this conversation on what looks like a boardwalk, with the
Brooklyn Bridge lighting the way for them.
Isn’t It Romantic? Differential
Associations Between Romantic Screen Media Genres and Romantic Beliefs (2014), a
study conducted by Lippman, Ward, and Seabrook, examines how romantic scripts
are idealized in movies, and therefore adds to belief endorsement. This scene portrays a picture perfect
idealized notion of how a man tells a woman he loves her through lighting,
dialogue, and scenery. This portrays the
idea that love and romance is “supposed” to take place in a picture-perfect setting. We also do not know how long exactly Alvy and Annie have been dating at this point, which somewhat points to Lippman, et al.'s notion of "Love at First Sight." In other words, these characters did not need to get to know each other very well before falling in love (Lippman, et al., 2014).
The overall narrative of the film communicates
something different than what the individual scenes communicate. Alvy, in many
scenes, is often portrayed as just as timid or scared about the relationship or
other events that take place. For
example, in a scene where Annie and Alvy are trying to cook lobsters, the
lobsters escape and they are trying to capture them. Annie is the one who gathers the loose
lobsters because Alvy is scared of them.
At the end of the movie, as Alvy professes his love to Annie and
attempts to win her back into his life with a marriage proposal, he is
rejected, showing that romance and love does not conquer all. Referring back to Lippman et al. (2014), Annie Hall demonstrates that the idea of love cannot overcome the obstacles that may face a relationship,
as the movie ends with Alvy and Annie completely broke up, living on opposite
coasts of the country. The sexual scripts are followed, however at the end we see Alvy as the weaker (or more submissive) one, who is unable to get over Annie.
Works Cited
Holz Ivory, A., Gibson, R., & Ivory, J. D. (2009). Gendered relationships on television: Portrayals of same-sex and heterosexual couples. Mass Communication & Society, 12(2), 170-192. doi: 10.1080/15205430802169607
Lippman, J. R., Ward, L. M., & Seabrook, R. C. (2014). Isn’t it romantic? Differential associations between romantic screen media genres and romantic beliefs. Psychology of Popular Media Culture, 3(3), 128-140. doi: 10.1037/ppm0000034
