The FILMS:

* PLAY IT AGAIN, SAM (1972)

Written by Woody Allen (based on his stage play), and unusually for Allen, directed by Herbert Ross. Starring Woody Allen and Diane Keaton.

Screening on Sunday May 13 at 8.45pm.

Story:
Allan Felix, a neurotic film critic, obsessed with the film ‘Casablanca’, tries to get over his wife leaving him with the help of his best friends and his alter ego, Humphrey Bogart.

Best Quote:
Allan: That's quite a lovely Jackson Pollock, isn't it?
Museum Girl: Yes, it is.
Allan: What does it say to you?
Museum Girl: It restates the negativeness of the universe. The hideous lonely emptiness of existence. Nothingness. The predicament of Man forced to live in a barren, Godless eternity like a tiny flame flickering in an immense void with nothing but waste, horror and degradation, forming a useless bleak straitjacket in a black absurd cosmos.
Allan: What are you doing Saturday night?

* LOVE AND DEATH

Story:
In czarist Russia (think ‘War and Peace’), neurotic soldier Boris, and his distant cousin Sonja (who is to wed a herring merchant), formulate a plot to assassinate Napoleon.

Screening on Monday May 14 at 8.45pm.

Best Quote:
Boris: If it turns out that there IS a God, I don't think that he's evil. I think that the worst you can say about him is that basically he's an underachiever.

* ANNIE HALL (1977)

Directed by Woody Allen from a screenplay co-written with Marshall Brickman. Starring Woody Allen, Diane Keaton and Christopher Walken. Won four Oscars for Best Picture, Best Director, Best Original Screenplay and Best Actress.

Screening on Tuesday May 15 at 8.45pm

Story:
New York stand-up comedian Alvy Singer attempts to come to terms with why his relationship to singer Annie Hall ended so disastrously.

Best Quote:
Alvy Singer: Here, you look like a very happy couple, um, are you?
Female street stranger: Yeah.
Alvy Singer: Yeah? So, so, how do you account for it?
Female street stranger: Uh, I'm very shallow and empty and I have no ideas and nothing interesting to say.
Male street stranger: And I'm exactly the same way.

* BANANAS (1971)

Written by Woody Allen and Mickey Rose. Directed by Woody Allen. Starring Woody Allen and Louise Lasser.

Screening on Wednesday May 16 at 8.45pm.

Story:
The wonderfully named Fielding Mellish (played by Woody Allen) is a neurotic blue collar man who tries to impress social activist Nancy (Louise Lasser, who in real life had also been Allen’s wife but divorced in ‘69) by trying to get in touch with the revolution in San Marcos, a fictional South American country, or ‘banana republic’.

Best Quote:
Nancy: You're immature, Fielding.
Fielding Mellish: [whining] How am I immature?
Nancy: Well, emotionally, sexually, and intellectually.
Fielding Mellish: Yeah, but what other ways?

* HANNAH AND HER SISTERS (1986)

Directed by Woody Allen. Starring Woody Allen, Mia Farrow, Michael Caine, Max Von Sydow, Carrie Fisher, Dianne Wiest. Won two Oscars for best Supporting Actor (Caine) and Best Supporting Actress (West).

Screening on Thursday May 17 at 8.45pm

Story:
A trio of unhappy sisters - Hannah, Lee and Holly - attempt to sort out their lives, inevitably complicating their love lives and those of the people around them.

Best Quote:
Mickey’s (Woody Allen) Dad: How the hell do I know why there were Nazis? I don't know how the can opener works!

* MANHATTAN (1979)

Directed by Woody Allen. Written by Woody Allen and Marshall Brickman. Starring Woody Allen, Diane Keaton, Meryl Streep and Mariel Hemingway. Won a BAFTA for Best Film.

Screening on Friday May 18 at 8.45pm

Story:
A divorced New York television writer (Allen) dating a high-school student (Hemingway) falls in love with the mistress (Keaton) of his best friend instead.

Best Quote:
Party Guest: I finally had an orgasm, and my doctor said it was the wrong kind.
Isaac Davis (Allen): You had the wrong kind? I've never had the wrong kind, ever. My worst one was right on the money.

FOR FURTHER DETAILS CALL THE PHOENIX PICTURE HOUSE, WALTON STREET, OXFORD ON 01865 316570.

www.picturehouses.co.uk/cinema/Phoenix_Picturehouse

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