Downing Fellow's chapter featured in new book
Dr Sarah Kennedy, Fellow in English, has contributed a chapter to a newly published book, Remembering Annie Hall.
Forty-five years after the release of Woody Allen’s seminal film Annie Hall (1977), this lively collection casts a critical eye on the film's continuing influence on contemporary cinema. The volume brings a new ethical and philosophical perspective to bear on Allen's work, quite different from previous generations of scholars, and contributes to debates within film studies about the limits of auteur theory, the role of the spectator, and the challenges involved in evaluating the work of problematic film-makers.
Dr Kennedy’s chapter, “The Mechanical Bride”, critiques the film’s rendering of female knowledge and subjectivity, placing it within a lineage that stretches from George Bernard Shaw’s play Pygmalion to Rube Goldberg’s impossible cartoon machines.
In a review, Nathan Abrams, Professor of Film at Bangor University, said: “Remembering Annie Hall reassesses this landmark movie, offering new insights into the picture itself but also its position within film culture and the study of it.
“Featuring a range of scholars, the book is far from celebratory but critical and incisive, scrutinising both the film and its director.”
Remembering Annie Hall is published by Bloomsbury and edited by Jonathan Ellis and Ana María Sánchez-Arce.
Published 18 September 2023