Horribly dated, or perhaps something else
Having endured my insistent and gushing recommendations for some time, my parter agreed to sit down and watch Annie Hall with me yesterday. It was a great disappointment for her and for me.
It must be 20 years since I last saw the film, which hitherto occupied a place in my memory as one of the funniest I had ever seen. I am afraid time has not been kind to Annie Hall, at least for me. Scenes which previously provoked belly laughter fell completely flat, and the whole movie was suffused with a sense of self-regarding importance that was uncomfortable to behold. I felt the same way when I watched California Suite recently, another film I remember as being much better tham it now appears to be; there is a sense that the actors felt they were taking part in Something Important which, while possibly true at the time, serves only to draw attention to itself when watched today.
There are a lot of films from this period which are still every bit as good as they were, so it is clearly not simply a matter of it being dated, but for whatever reason, Annie Hall is now a pale shadw of its former self. I wish it were otherwise.