1. Phil_Chatzikos

   10

   Maybe Allen's best movie ever, the black-and-white Manhattan is an incredible study on the human relationships presented with a romantic, funny way. Rhapsody in blue is just amazing as the background of the beautiful, yet bittersweet picture of New York that we get here. The movie is about a 42 year old man, who has a relationship with a 17 year old girl and falls in love with his friend's ex-mistress. But is much more than this. It's a movie about you and me. An ode to the simplicity and the complex of our relationships .… Collapse

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2. JMH

   10

   Allen's best film. Among the standouts of American cinema in the post-studio era. Virtually perfect. The film's lifted to extraordinary heights by, among other things, a brilliant screenplay, careful direction, spectacular cinematography, and amazing performances from (particularly) Allen, Keaton, and Hemingway. There's more beneath the (glittering) surface of "Manhattan" than any Allen film. At the center of it all is a captivating tension between romantic ideals -- the drive to satisfy them, and the hypocritical demand that others do the same -- and something of far less starry-eyed allure -- reality. This tension is achieved in multiple, varied ways within the film. From the disconnect between the impeccable look of the film and the messes played out by the characters on screen, to the contrast between one character's surprisingly precocious authenticity and the world of disingenuous posturing that infects the remaining characters. The question at the end of "Manhattan," when revelation may find reality triumphing over romanticism, and taking on a more enduring, humane, and compassionate value of its own, is whether enlightenment (if that's what is) has come too late.… Expand

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3. claw01

   10

   Beautiful and witty, Manhattan is a wonderful work of cinema. Then again, I am a big fan of Woody Allen himself, but that aside the choice of black and white photography helps compliment and boost the film itself. While Annie Hall maybe be slightly more humorous, Manhattan is more serious in its prose and provides a nice balance between the comic and the dramatic. What I find simply wonderful about this film and many others of Allen's is their ability to read like books, with great characters that are deep and realistic rather than stiff and cliché. This movie is just simply a masterpiece.… Expand

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4. lasttimeisaw

   7

   The opening shots of MIDNIGHT IN PARIS (2011, 6/10) can easily hark back to this Black & White paean to New York made more than three decades age, with the same deployment of representative landmarks (although I have yet set my foot on America). The storyline may suit perfectly as a prophesy for Allen his own private life decades later, to which I am trying my best shun away since the independence of the film should be irrelevant of the creator's personal idiosyncrasy, which is a hard call in this case. It's a petit bourgeois melodrama, could be a sequel of ANNE HALL (1977, 9/10), there is still Allen and Keaton, and Allen is still a neurotic and nagging cipher, but Keaton here is not a winning scatterbrain, instead being characterized as a high-strung lost cause, which in a sense, these two are very much alike, pretending sophisticate as a charade to conceal their immature rationality. Words are Allen's strongest weapon, so albeit being a bit piqued by the characters (pretentiousness, stupidity and high-brow condescending), the script itself has its shrewdness and comedic tones will suffice to launch an ambiguous attachment towards our commonplace life. The … Expand

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