Some of you cringe when you hear the name Woody Allen. The name is synonymous with strange sexual behavior and questionable moral practice. Some of you have judged the person before you have judged the filmmaker. Some of you deserve my spit on your clothing (spit composed primarily of mucus: greens and yellows and exciting textures!).

Woody Allen is a living god. His films are extremely funny, poignant and intelligent. They speak so truthfully about the human condition that the viewer is forced to sigh a sad acknowledgement and, if they are a male urbanite, feel intrinsically linked to the protagonist. Nobody has better represented the affairs, concerns and alienation of the modern metropolitan. And tonight two of his greatest accomplishments, Manhattan and Annie Hall, are being screened at the Revue Cinema.

Manhattan is my favorite Allen production (more hilarious than his other films because it accurately foreshadows his marriage to a woman half his age). Manhattan is about a 42-year-old man, struggling with a vacuous job and the various implications arising from dating a 17-year-old girl. Being a realist, Isaac Davis (Allen) knows that the relationship is bound to fail, and he dumps Tracy in favor of the much more sophisticated Mary (Keaton). Dumping Tracy is just one of the major decisions Davis makes in his quest for a better, more fulfilled life. Manhattan is about a man dealing with urban alienation and loneliness; a man who realizes the only stable thing in his life is the city he lives in--a concept exploited by the popular series Sex and the City. Manhattan starts at 7 PM.

Annie Hall is probably Woody Allen's best-known film. Alvy Singer (Allen) is a New York comedian who falls in love with the shy nightclub singer Annie Hall (Keaton). Through coaching and encouragement, Annie blossoms as a performer, and the relationship between the two becomes very strong. Eventually, his hang-ups and insecurities drive Annie Hall into the arms of another lover (Paul Simon) and Alvy is forced to journey to Los Angeles in a fleeting attempt to win her back. This is my least favorite of the two films being screened tonight; but it is fully deserving of the four Academy Awards it won in 1977 including Best Picture and Best Screenplay. Annie Hall starts at 9 PM.

Revue Cinema
400 Roncesvalles Ave. (at Howard Park Ave.),
(416) 690-2600
Tickets: $8 for non-members (each screening)