Annie Hall
This whole thing's going to crash and burn sooner or later.
- Alvy hates Los Angeles as to him the city represents all that's wrong with the world, and is the center for superficiality. In fact, when Rob suggests relocating to Hollywood, Alvy says "[He doesn't] want to move to a city where the only cultural advantage is being able to make a right turn on a red light". But more importantly, Alvy doesn't just loathe L.A. because he finds it fake. He dislikes it because it symbolizes Annie's freedom. When she moves out there to pursue singing professionally, she leaves Alvy behind. She doesn't involve him in the decision to go because she doesn't need to. It's a big, exciting change in her life, and Alvy's incapable of change. When Annie abandons New York for Los Angeles to kick-start her career, Alvy takes it as a personal rejection.
- Conversely, New York to Alvy is everything Los Angeles isn't. It's crowded, energy-filled, and full of culture… and garbage. In a word, it represents home or it's Alvy's safety blanket. It even symbolizes Alvy himself. When he leaves, he gets physically sick. He can't survive without its hustle, bustle, and intellectual ambiance. And he definitely can't imagine why Annie would ever want to stray from it. She's ready for a change of location… and a change of partner. After all, Annie is well aware of the realities of both Alvy and The Big Apple—and she thinks that they're both ultimately toxic. Whether he's magically summoning Marshall McLuhan or getting relationship advice from random passersby on the street, Alvy uses New York as the playground for his fantasies, which suggests just how comfortable he is there.
- We don't spend a lot of time with Annie's weird brother Duane, but the time we do spend is important as just like Alvy, Duane has fantasies; more specifically, he has visions of steering his car into oncoming traffic in a fiery, glass-filled explosion. Later, Duane gives Alvy and Annie a lift to the airport, and Alvy is thoroughly freaked out. But film critic Tim Dirks argues that Alvy and Annie's treacherous ride with Duane "metaphorically foreshadows the crashing future of their relationship." As they speed across the wet blacktop, Alvy's extremely anxious, but Annie's cool. Similarly, when their romance does go up in flames, Alvy's a mess. He flies to Los Angeles, rents a car, and chases down Annie. Flying, L.A. and driving all seriously stress Alvy out. When he meets Annie, he's stressed and petulantly asks her to marry him, twice. Annie, on the other hand, is as cool as a cucumber—just like she was in the car with Duane. She's unfazed by Alvy's concerns and demands. Duane and his unsettling car crash fantasies are a symbol of not only the end of Alvy and Annie's relationship, but also of how both parties will handle it. Alvy travels to Los Angeles not only to blow up his relationship with Annie, but also to literally crash his rental car.
- When it comes to drugs towards Alvy, they symbolize a lack of control he just can't abide. That's why Annie's persistent need to smoke pot before they get it on irks him so much: If he gets high, he'll lose control of himself; when she gets high, he feels like he loses control of her and the experience. Alvy's and Annie's differences in opinion when it comes to drugs also symbolizes their different attitudes about life outside of the sack. Annie's open to exploration and unpredictability. Alvy isn't. Take the scene where their friends offer them some cocaine, for example. Annie's game for a new experience (albeit a thoroughly stupid one). Alvy's not, and explains that he just doesn't see the appeal in letting go, while Annie accuses him directly of never wanting to try anything new. Whether it's a joint or a pile of cocaine sneezed across a coffee table, drugs are a symbol of change: Annie welcomes it, and Alvy rejects it.
Manhattan*
A Midsummer Night's Sex Comedy*
Crimes and Misdemeanors*
- The rabbi is a symbol of religion and the codes of morality that religions have provided for man. Throughout the film, Ben is slowly going blind. By the wedding reception at the end, he's completely blind. This is very symbolic as it represents the slow fading away of the significance and value of religious observation and the commitment to its moral codes to society as it becomes more secular in its civilization.
- The open eyes of Dolores's corpse as she lies dead on the floor when Judah goes to her apartment are a direct symbol of the concept that the eyes of God are watching us at all times. God’s watchful eyes see the wickedness and the good and delivers punishment or reward. This is what is believed through faith, but the reality is expressed through those dead eyes of Judah’s mistress: they see nothing, but the void and the abyss and the emptiness that follows death.
- Poop becomes a symbol of significance through the strange man who defecates on Cliff’s sister. Said defecation underlines the theme of a meaningless and random universe where bad things happen to good people without any explanation provided or logical answer.
- Judah has a flashback (or possibly just an Imagine Spot) of his family back when he was young sitting at the dinner table during Passover feast and having a lively debate over the nature of morality, free will and God. Judah’s dad firmly believes that living a good life brings rewards while committing sin brings punishment. Other family members disagree, positioning the Nazis and German collaborators who got away scot-free as evidence. An adult Judah is framed standing in the doorway watching this debate take place, thus positioning the doorway as a symbol through which Judah can enter either into the faith of his father or exit into the rejection of that faith. His guilt has been wracking him up to this point, but once he exits through the doorway, he seems far more willing to forgive himself.
- The film's structure is pretty much an allegorical realization of the typical two silhouetted faces representing comedy and tragedy. The comparison and contrast that make comedy and tragedy commingle while also making them separate entities is alluded to by Lester’s pronouncement that “Comedy's tragedy plus time.” The structure of the film situates the tragic tale of Judah and his mistress against the comical storyline of Cliff and Halley. They do not intertwine, but are left separate: tragedy and comedy. Then four months and Cliff’s comic storyline takes on the dimension of tragedy (for him, at least) and the tragedy of Judah’s having his mistress murdered becomes fodder for a movie pitch that ultimately leads to a punchline about where to find happy endings.
Midnight in Paris*
- When Gil and Inez visit Versailles with Paul and Carol, Inez brings up Gil’s work and gives details about Gil’s current main character that he is working on for his book. His main character starts to hold symbolic value as we learn about his traits. The details about this character that Inez mentions are the exact desires that Gil talks about at the beginning of the film, while he and Inez are standing on a bridge over a pond. The main character of Gil’s book symbolically represents Gil's own wishes and desires.
- The car that takes Gil to the dance party where he meets Scott Fitzgerald and Zelda Fitzgerald, then Ernest Hemingway later on, isn't a normal car. It is a very old model that is more of a collector's item than a transportation vehicle in the current time. This old Peugeot is symbolic of the time period of the writers to whom it drives Gil towards.
- From the first few scenes of the film, it is quite apparent the entire movie would be set in Paris. Our protagonist, who we continually see gush over Paris, is constantly talking about how he wants to live here. In the film, Paris symbolizes Gil's, true love. So much so that Gil decides to live in Paris and leave Inez.
- The character of Adriana shows up on the screen during Gil's second meeting with Hemingway. We see Gil amazed by her beauty. Furthermore, we learn that Adriana shares Gil's thoughts and desires about living in Paris. Here, Adriana symbolizes Gil’s wish that Inez was more like-minded and understanding of his passion for Paris.
- Near the end of the film, when Gertrude Stein is giving Gil feedback on his rewrites, she mentions how the protagonist doesn’t realize his girlfriend is cheating on him with the “pedantic one”. This scene gives the audience the realization that Gil’s whole imaginary meetings with these dead writers and artists were him denying himself the truth. We realize that the novel that Gil wants input on symbolizes his way of life and his life happenings.
Blue Jasmine*
- The flowers that Jasmine looks at are symbolic of her rebirth into a radically different life.
- Jasmine's clothes, which were initially symbolic of her wealth and her high class, come to symbolize just how far she has fallen on the socioeconomic ladder.
- On its surface, Blue Jasmine is a film about a woman who must adapt to her new life circumstances. However, on a deeper level, the film is an allegory for the way that society ignores things that make it uncomfortable - even if the thing it ignores is important.
- Jasmine's husband is symbolic of American businessmen's greed and malevolence, who like Jasmine's husband went to prison for fraud.
- Mental illness and its effects are a frequent motif in the film, which begins with the aftereffects of a severe nervous breakdown. Throughout the film, viewers see Jasmine abuse alcohol and anti-anxiety medications because of her mental illness. Viewers have also speculated that some of Jasmine's behavior can be attributed to Schizophrenia.
