Annie Hall (1977 Woody Allen)

One of the most interesting things about Annie Hall is that it is not the film that Allen and Marshall Brickman devised, wrote and filmed. The original cut of 'Anhedonia' was two hours twenty, and according to Allen was "all about me, exclusively, not about a relationship". In the months of cutting Allen and editor Ralph Rosenblum took out "a lot of material that I thought was wonderfully funny" and although this print no longer exists, some of its hilarious content is described in Chapter 19 of Ralph's great book 'When the Shooting Stops' from which all this information is derived.

That we are left with a particularly sweet, romantic and insightful film about a relationship (which still has masses of great comedy left in it) pleases all of us - and the Award boards - but explains why Allen's always thought of it as a failure. It won best film, screenplay and director and Keaton took Best Actress (AA and BAFTA), and it marks the beginning of Allen's eight-picture collaboration with Prince of Darkness Gordon Willis.