The_Film_That_Changed_My_Life

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Rian Johnson
Annie Hall
Writer and director Rian Johnson is a romantic. A softy. But, like most of us,
he’s a slightly cynical softy—which is why Annie Hall seemed like the perfect
film to spur him to cinematic action.
“It’s magical to me,” he says. “To this day, I can watch the film and try to
analyze it and try to figure out how this little movie works, and it’s almost
impossible. I just end up getting lost. . . . For me, watching the film is like a
kid watching a magic trick.”
Johnson also has an affinity for playing with—and sometimes breaking—
cinematic forms, which explains why he cast his first feature, Brick, as a noir
murder mystery set in a high school. This, perhaps, explains why Annie Hall
has been so attractive to him in its playfulness with (and outright disregard
for) movie conventions.
“I’d put it up there with 8½ in terms of a film that personally redefined
for me what film was capable of,” Johnson says. “This was one of the first
films I saw that played with form in a brave way, and it paid off.”
Rian Johnson, selected filmography:
Brick (2005)
The Brothers Bloom (2008)
Annie Hall
1977
Directed by Woody Allen
Starring Woody Allen, Diane Keaton, Tony Roberts, Carol
Kane, Paul Simon, and Shelley Duvall
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