Manhattan native Isaac Davis has a job he hates, a 17-year-old girlfriend he doesn’t love, and a lesbian ex-wife who’s writing a tell-all book about their marriage.
Living vicariously through the protagonist of his debut novel, but struggling to find personal or professional fulfilment of his own, Isaac quits his job as a television writer and begins a relationship with his best friend’s mistress, setting him off on a neurosis-riddled journey of self-discovery and self-sabotage.
Dir: Woody Allen | US 1979 | 96mins | Cert: 15
Language: English
Starring: Woody Allen, Karen Allen, Anne Byrne, Mariel Hemingway, Diane Keaton
Short film accompaniment: American Dreams No 3: Life, Liberty and Happiness, 2002, Moira Tierney
What happens when the smoke clears? One of the most remarkable sights was the mass movement of people, on foot, along highways usually reserved for motorized traffic. The Brooklyn & Manhattan bridges, as well as the FDR Drive, which runs along the East River from lower to upper Manhattan, became human rivers with an unhurried but steady flow and no end in sight.
