Manhattan Page #4

Synopsis: Forty-two year old Isaac Davis has a romanticized view of his hometown, New York City, most specifically Manhattan, as channeled through the lead character in the first book he is writing, despite his own Manhattan-based life being more of a tragicomedy. He has just quit his job as a hack writer for a bad television comedy, he, beyond the ten second rush of endorphins during the actual act of quitting, now regretting the decision, especially as he isn't sure he can live off his book writing career. He is paying two alimonies, his second ex-wife, Jill Davis, a lesbian, who is writing her own tell-all book of their acrimonious split. The one somewhat positive aspect of his life is that he is dating a young woman named Tracy, although she is only seventeen and still in high school. Largely because of their differences a big part of which is due to their ages, he does not see a long term future with her. His life has the potential to be even more tragicomical when he meets journalist Mary
Genre: Comedy, Drama, Romance
Director(s): Woody Allen
Production: United Artists
  Nominated for 2 Oscars. Another 15 wins & 21 nominations.
 
IMDB:
8.0
Metacritic:
83
Rotten Tomatoes:
95%
R
Year:
1979
96 min
5,819 Views


Really mired in Thirties radicalism.

- What do you do, Tracy?

- I go to high school.

Oh, really. Really. Somewhere Nabokov

is smiling, if you know what I mean.

LeWitt is overrated. In fact,

he may be a candidate for the academy.

Right!

Mary and I have invented the Academy

of the Overrated for such notables as...

...Gustav Mahler...

- Isak Dinesen and Carl Jung.

- ...Scott Fitzgerald.

- Lenny Bruce. Can't forget him, can we?

- How about Norman Mailer?

- I think those people are all terrific.

- Who was that guy you had?

- I didn't. It was yours. Heinrich Boll.

- Overrated?

- Don't wanna leave out Heinrich.

Gee, what about Mozart?

You guys don't wanna leave out Mozart.

- Well, how about Vincent Van Goch?

- She said "Van Goch"?!

- Or Ingmar Bergman?

- You'll get in trouble.

Bergman? Bergman's the only genius

in cinema today, I think.

He's a big Bergman fan.

God, you're so the opposite.

You write that fabulous television show.

It's so funny and

his view is so Scandinavian.

It's bleak, my god.

I mean, all that Kierkegaard, right?

Real adolescent, fashionable pessimism.

I mean, the silence. God's silence.

OK, OK, OK. I mean,

I loved it when I was at Radcliffe,

but, all right, you outgrow it.

Get her away from me. I don't think

I can take too much more of her.

No. Don't you guys see?

It is the dignifying of one's

psychological and sexual hang-ups...

...by attaching them to these

grandiose, philosophical issues?

Here we are.

Uh, listen,

it was very nice meeting you.

It was a pleasure

and a sincere sensation...

...but we have to go.

We gotta do some shopping. I forgot.

Hey, listen, I don't even

wanna have this conversation.

I'm just from Philadelphia, you know.

I mean, we believe in god so, uh... OK?

What the hell does that mean?

What do you mean?

Well, that...

"I'm from Philadelphia.

I believe in god."

Does this make any sense to you?

What a creep. Could you believe her?

- I mean, she was really...

- She seemed nervous.

Nervous? She was overbearing.

She was, you know, terrible!

She was all cerebral.

Where the hell

does a little Radcliffe tootsie

come off rating Scott

Fitzgerald...

...Gustav Mahler and Heinrich Bll?

- Why are you getting so mad?

Because I don't like that

pseudo-intellectual garbage.

"Van Goch!" Did you hear that? She said

Van Goch. Like an Arab she spoke.

One more remark about Bergman, and I'd

have knocked her other contact lens out.

- Is she Yale's mistress?

- That will never cease to mystify me.

I mean, he's got a wonderful wife and

he prefers to... to diddle this yo-yo.

But he was always a sucker

for those kind of women.

The kind that would involve him

Rate this script:5.0 / 1 vote

Woody Allen

Heywood "Woody" Allen is an American actor, comedian, filmmaker, and playwright, whose career spans more than six decades. more…

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Submitted on August 05, 2018

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