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2. Blue Jasmine (2013)

Speaking of acting Oscars for women, my second-favorite Woody Allen film of all is unquestionably the haunting Blue Jasmine of a couple of years ago. Netting Cate Blanchett a Best Actress win, and also featuring a touching performance by Sally Hawkins, Blue Jasmine tells the story of a self-involved, mostly pathetic woman who has to deal with the death of her husband following the revelation that he was a financial criminal. She falls on hard times, from the height of Manhattan wealth society, to living essentially on her sister’s couch in San Francisco, alone and without a job.

The movie is at first a bit light-hearted, criticizing the self-involved and selfish nature of some of the rich socialites it portrays. As it turns out, Allen is an introspective and brilliant critic of privileged American subcultures (Vicky, Cristina, Jasmine).

But as the plot develops, this movie becomes an unforgettable tour de force analysis of addiction, depression, and loneliness. Like many of Allen’s other women, Jasmine is memorable, strong, and with a deep will to live and love. Unlike most of them, however, she is not surrounded by an environment conducive to these desires, and her selfishness proves to be too extreme. For it is eventually revealed that in her pain, she committed acts that made her responsible for her and her husband’s own downfall. So, from being a sympathetic character, Jasmine turns into almost a monster, or at least a pitiful being. Buoyed by Blanchett’s brilliant performance, one of the best of all time, Blue Jasmine reminds us that human nature can be so dark at times that one cruel act can be ruinous, no matter the good intentions or efforts that one may later make to undo them. All the while he makes us laugh, even if nervously, at the light-hearted situations that these deeply flawed characters create for themselves. To do this while never removing his finger from the point of precisely what motivates people, is simply astounding.

1. Manhattan (1979)

But it is undoubtedly the movie that Allen himself once described, accurately, as an improvement on Annie Hall (it all goes back to that movie it seems), that occupies the number one spot today. Clearly paying homage both to the City and to West Side Story, the movie that explored its heart two decades earlier, Manhattan opens with a panoramic exploration of key New York City landmarks. The movie poster itself features the now-iconic scene of sitting on the bench by the bridge (parodied as recently as this month’s Trainwreck). But it is the substance of the movie that, on top of all this, earned it its position as my favorite Woody Allen film of all time. If you’ve been following this space, you may also note that this is the first time I place the same movie on the top of the list on two separate occasions. I guess that must mean something!

Unsurprisingly, the movie features complex women (a brilliant Meryl Streep is Allen’s ex-wife, now a lesbian, and Diane Keaton is his best friend’s mistress, for whom he falls), the hypochondriac, anxious, and existential Allen, love affairs, ex-wives, and betrayals. As the plot develops, the familiar becomes clear: women are difficult, and drive men crazy. Love is an illness, but we can’t resist it. Life is full of questions, and Allen has no clue about its answers. But in the midst of this existential chaos a simple truth emerges: it is so much better to be among the living, and to experience these tortures, than the alternative - that ever present fear of death that envelops him.

This life, any life, is infinitely worth it.

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