A divorced TV writer (Woody Allen) with a teenage girlfriend (Mariel Hemingway) falls in love with the... (Learn more)
Starring: Woody Allen, Diane Keaton, Michael Murphy (View All)
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Starring: Woody Allen, Diane Keaton, Michael Murphy
On the heels of Annie Hall, the Oscar-winning romantic comedy that rocketed Woody Allen to the front ranks of American filmmakers, Manhattan continued Allen's romantic obsessions in a slightly darker, more pessimistic vein. Allen stars as Isaac Davis, a TV comedy writer sick of the pap he is forced to churn out and harboring dreams of being the great American novelist. His love life is in barbed-wire territory: he is tormented by his second ex-wife Jill (Meryl Streep), a lesbian who has written a tell-all book about their marriage, and he is dating teenager Tracy (Mariel Hemingway), to whom he refuses to commit, and keeps hinting that a breakup may be imminent. Isaac's disillusioned (and married) best friend Yale (Michael Murphy) has begun an affair with the cerebral writer Mary Wilke (Diane Keaton). While Isaac makes a last minute, sink-or-swim decision to quit his job and devote all of his time to book writing, and neurotically moans about what the lack of a full time job will do to him ("My parents won't have as good of a seat in the synagogue," he moans. "They'll be far away from God... away from the action") Yale is crippled by his lack of resolve, as indicated by his inability to leave his wife Emily (Anne Byrne). Meanwhile, Isaac and Mary) begin to fall for one another. Tracy then tells Isaac the basic truth that none of his hung-up friends and past lovers fully realizes: "You have to have a little more faith in people." Manhattan is both a seriocomic dissection of perpetually dissatisfied New Yorkers and an ode to the city itself, filmed in glorious black-and-white by ace cinematographer Gordon Willis, and set to a score of rhapsodic George Gershwin music. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
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US Release Date
4/25/79
MPAA Rating
Rated R
Running Time
96 mins.
Locations
- Manhattan, New York City, NY
- New York City, NY
Language
- English
Awards
- Winner of the Best Supporting Actress award at the 1979 National Board of Review [Festival/Awa Awards.
- Winner of the Best Screenplay award at the 1979 British Academy of Film and Television Awards.
- Winner of the Best Director award at the 1979 National Society of Film Critics [Fest Awards.
- Winner of the Best Picture award at the 1979 National Board of Review [Festival/Awa Awards.
- Nominated for a Best Picture - Drama award at the 1979 Hollywood Foreign Press Association [F Awards.
- Winner of the Best Director award at the 1979 New York Film Critics Circle [Festival Awards.
- Winner of the Best Picture award at the 1979 British Academy of Film and Television Awards.
- Nominated for a Best Original Screenplay award at the 1979 Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Scie Awards.
- Winner of the Best Supporting Actress award at the 1979 Los Angeles Film Critics Association [ Awards.
- Nominated for a Best Director award at the 1979 Directors Guild of America [Festival/A Awards.
- Winner of the U.S. National Film Registry award at the 2001 Library of Congress [Festival/Award] Awards.
- Nominated for a Best Supporting Actress award at the 1979 Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Scie Awards.
- Winner of the Best Foreign Film award at the 1979 French Academy of Cinema [Festival/Awa Awards.
- Winner of the Best Supporting Actress award at the 1979 National Society of Film Critics [Fest Awards.
Distributor
- United Artists Films
