Hannah and her sisters

I'd never enjoyed Woody Allen films very much - firstly, because I associate them too much with a friend whom I don't remember too fondly; and secondly, because I watched most of them in said crap university viewing room where I had to try and catch the jokes above some annoying Chinese student loudly discussing The Dream of Red Mansion so it was never a very good viewing experience.

So perhaps it's no surprise that on DVD, in the privacy of my own room and played on my superb viewing system, I have to say I enjoyed Hannah and Her Sisters more than any of Allen's other films, notwithstanding its central subject on sisters which is one I'd rather not care for. Otherwise, how would I describe this film? It will have to be a comparative study: more romantic than Annie Hall (what a lovely scene between Michael Caine and Barbara Hershey in the bookshop, to the tune of "Bewitched"! I have forgotten what beautiful places bookshops can be), less patronisingly clever than Deconstructing Harry, less of the edgy hardness in Manhattan, less hysterical than Manhattan Murder Mystery (but still funny), less nauseating than Radio Days (but still nostalgic and warm).

HAHS has some better lines too - my top Woody Allen line would always be "I see meadows, I see blue skies" from Manhattan Murder Mystery - but "I didn't name any names, I only said the Pope" must definitely come a close second. And there were many other parts where I laughed out loud (very rare for me). This is a film which you can thoroughly enjoy - sort of just lap up lovingly and feel happy and cosy afterwards - without being punched in the gut (ala LVT), without being totally awed (WKW), without feeling your mind has to run quickly in order to understand what the hell is going on (most French films of the 60s).

I watched Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind (I'm going through an American film phase now, having done far too many French and Italian films over the month) over the weekend, which I felt was far superior to Being John Malkovich (though arguably perhaps Kaufman wouldn't have been able to do ESOTSM without having first done BJM with the roses he received from the latter. But Kaufman is undeniably a talented screenwriter). The line I particularly enjoyed was, when Jim Carrey and Kate Winslet were down to their last memory, KW says, "this is it. What do we do now?" And Jim Carrey replies: "We enjoy it."

I bring this up because it is a sentiment similar to what Woody Allen discovers in his quest for God and the meaning of life. There is nothing you can do about the past or the future - you simply enjoy the moment. In presenting a gentle, soothing, all-is-right-and-well film like Hannah and Her Sisters, Allen, in an the-artist-is-subconsciously-(or-not)-self-reflexive way, allows us to do precisely that.