The Story
Michael Murphy, Diane Keaton, Woody Allen and Mariel Hemingway in “Manhattan”
Isaac Davis (Woody Allen) is a successful television comedy writer who has had it with the medium and wants to use his talent to amuse in another fashion - his dream is to write a serious book. “Chapter One” is supposed to describe his love for Manhattan, but since it is so hard for him to define what he loves so much about it, he never gets past the opening paragraph. He is recently divorced from a lesbian who is writing a tell-all book about their marriage. Isaac is having an affair with 17-year-old Tracy (Mariel Hemingway), a fact that weighs heavily on his mind and adds to his already considerable sense of guilt.
His best friend, Yale (Michael Murphy), is married and is having an affair with Mary Wilke (Diane Keaton), whom he met at a party. But Yale has doubts about the relationship, and when he eventually breaks it off, he suggests that Isaac pursue Mary. In the meantime, Isaac thinks he wants to end things with Tracy. Initially, Isaac finds Mary annoying and aggressive, yet fascinating. Gradually, he becomes attracted to her despite their frequent clashes, and they start an affair of their own. But eventually Mary decides that she wants return to Yale. Isaac wants to get back together with Tracy, but she is already preparing to leave for six months of acting studies in London. And he still has not managed to finish his book …
From the opening sequence of “Manhattan”
This is the masterpiece of one of the greatest filmmakers of the 20th century. An ode to Woody Allen’s hometown, it is breathtakingly photographed in black-and-white by Gordon Willis and makes splendid use of George Gershwin’s music on the soundtrack.
Star Bios
Diane Keaton was born Diane Hall on January 5, 1946, in Los Angeles, California. She began her performing career in summer stock, eventually making her Broadway debut in the Musical Hair in 1968, where she initially understudied Sheila before taking over the role later that year.
In the early 1970s, she began her film career, managing to hold her own among the powerhouse cast of Francis Ford Coppola’s The Godfather (1972). She then went on to prove her versatility in a number of Woody Allen films, such as Play It Again, Sam (1972), Love And Death (1975), Manhattan, and - most notably - Annie Hall (1977), which won her the Academy Award for Best Actress. She received further Oscar nominations for her roles as journalist Louise Bryant in Reds (1981), a leukemia patient in Marvin’s Room (1996), and a playwright in Something’s Gotta Give (2003).
In 2017, she was honored with the American Film Institute’s Life Achievement Award. A few days after her death on October 11, 2025, Woody Allen published a remembrance in which he described her as "unlike anyone the planet has experienced or is likely to ever see again, her face and laugh illuminated any space she entered".
Mariel Hemingway was born on November 22, 1961, in Mill Valley, California. The striking, squeaky-voiced granddaughter of famed writer Ernest Hemingway made her screen debut at the age of 13 in the distasteful box-office flop Lipstick (1976). For her charming performance in Manhattan (1979), she received an Academy Award nomination for Best Supporting Actress.
Since then, practically none of her subsequent films (including Personal Best (1982) and Star 80 (1983)) were worthy of the talent she had displayed in Manhattan. Several big-screen disappointments eventually led her to television, where she starred in the prime-time legal drama series Civil Wars from 1991 to 1993. In 1997, she once again had the chance to team up with Woody Allen, who gave her a supporting role in Deconstructing Harry.
Hemingway’s acting career became less prominent in the late 1990s, and she increasingly focused on advocating for mental health awareness and suicide prevention. In 2013, she became the central figure in the acclaimed documentary Running from Crazy, directed by Barbara Kopple, which explores her family’s struggles with mental illness, substance abuse and suicide.
The Director
Woody Allen was born Allen Stewart Konigsberg on December 1, 1935, in Brooklyn, New York. Originally aspiring to become a playwright, Allen began writing comedy material while still in High School. His introduction to show business came a few years later when he was hired to write material for such comedians as Sid Caesar and Art Carney. In the early 1960s, after several false starts, he acquired a following on the Greenwich Village night club circuit, performing his own routines. Already during that period of time, Allen developed his character of a bespectacled, self-deprecating Jewish-American neurotic, which he was to vary and refine in the majority of his movies.
His first movie job, as screenwriter and actor in What’s New, Pussycat? (1965) made him a minor icon of the singing sixties. His first film as a director was What's Up, Tiger Lily? (1966), in which he turned a Japanese spy movie into a comedy by supplying it with entirely new dialogue. His first original feature as a writer-director, Take The Money And Run (1969), was followed by a remarkable series of dazzling comedies, including Bananas (1971), Play It Again, Sam (1972), Sleeper (1973) and Love And Death (1975). But it was 1977’s Annie Hall that proved to be his artistic and commercial breakthrough - it won him a Best Director Oscar and another for Best Original Screenplay, which he shared with Marshall Brickman.
Since then, there has rarely been a year without a new Woody Allen feature. Take a look at this extract from his amazing body of work since the late 1970s:
(D=Director, S=Screenplay, A=Actor)
Manhattan (1979) - DSA
Stardust Memories (1980) - DSA
Zelig (1983) - DSA
Broadway Danny Rose (1984) - DSA
The Purple Rose of Cairo (1985) - DS
Hannah And Her Sisters (1986) - DSA
Radio Days (1987) - DSA (narrator only)
Crimes And Misdemeanors (1989) - DSA
Husbands And Wives (1992) - DSA
Manhattan Murder Mystery (1993) - DSA
Bullets Over Broadway (1994) - DS
Mighty Aphrodite (1995) - DSA
Everyone Says I Love You (1996) - DSA
Deconstructing Harry (1997) - DSA
Match Point (2005) - DS
Vicky Cristina Barcelona (2008) - DS
Midnight in Paris (2011) - DS
Blue Jasmine (2013) - DS
Allen’s screenplays have received a record 16 Academy Award nominations in the Best Original Screenplay category, resulting in three wins for Annie Hall, Hannah And Her Sisters, and Midnight in Paris.
Quotes
(manually transcribed from video)
From the opening sequence of “Manhattan”
(Opening sequence. Voice-over.)
Isaac: Chapter One. He adored New York City. He idolized it all out of proportion - er, no, make that: he - he romanticized it all out of proportion. - Yes. - To him, no matter what the season was, this was still a town that existed in black and white and pulsated to the great tunes of George Gershwin. - Er, tsch, no, missed out something. - Chapter One. He was too romantic about Manhattan, as he was about everything else. He thrived on the hustle bustle of the crowds and the traffic. To him, New York meant beautiful women and street-smart guys who seemed to know all the ankles. - No, no, corny, too corny for a man of my taste. Can we … can we try and make it more profound? - Chapter One. He adored New York City. To him, it was a metaphor for the decay of contemporary culture. The same lack of individual integrity that caused so many people to take the easy way out was rapidly turning the town of his dreams in … - no, that’s a little bit too preachy. I mean, you know, let’s face it, I want to sell some books here. - Chapter One. He adored New York City, although to him it was a metaphor for the decay of contemporary culture. How hard it was to exist in a society desensitized by drugs, loud music, television, crime, garbage … - Too angry. I don’t want to be angry. - Chapter One. He was as tough and romantic as the city he loved. Behind his black-rimmed glasses was the coiled sexual power of a jungle cat. - I love this. - New York was his town, and it always would be …
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Woody Allen and Mariel Hemingway in “Manhattan”
(At the Museum of Modern Art, Isaac and Tracy run into Yale and Mary.)
Isaac: We were downstairs at the Castelli galleries and saw the photography exhibition. Incredible, absolutely incredible.
Tracy: Yes.
Mary: Really, you liked that?
Isaac: Er, yes, the photographs downstairs - great, absolutely great. Did you …
Mary: No, I really felt it was very derring-doed. To me it looked like it was straight out of Diane Arbors, but it had none of the wit.
Isaac: Really? Well, you know, we didn’t really like them as much as the plexiglass sculpture, that’s what I meant …
Mary: … Really, you liked the plexiglass, uh?
Isaac: You didn’t like the plexiglass sculpture either?
Mary: Uh, that’s interesting. No, er, …
Isaac: It was a hell of a lot better than that steel cube. Did you see the steel cube?
Mary: Now that was brilliant to me, absolutely brilliant.
Isaac: The steel cube was brilliant?
Mary: Yes. To me, it was very textural, you know what I mean? It was perfectly integrated, and it had a marvelous kind of negative capability. The rest of the stuff downstairs was bullshit!
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Yale: You are so self-righteous, you know. I mean we’re just people. We’re just human beings, you know? You think you’re God.
Isaac: I… I gotta model myself after someone!
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Diane Keaton and Woody Allen in “Manhattan”
Mary: Really, I would like everything to work out.
Isaac: It’s great, it … You should leave everything to me. I’ll make everything happen. You don’t have to worry.
Mary: You promise? You really promise? Because I do - I like you a lot. I feel good around you.
Isaac: Well, I don’t blame you.
Mary: Yeah, I mean … Yale was great, he was absolutely great, but he was married. And Jeremiah, look at Jeremiah, my ex-husband. He was just this oversexed, brilliant kind of animal.
Isaac: Hey, what am I - Grandma Moses?
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Diane Keaton and Woody Allen in “Manhattan”
(Mary and Isaac have just run into Mary’s ex-husband)
Mary: God, what a surprise - I cannot get over it. My ex-husband, and he does … he really does look a lot thinner. He looks great.
Isaac: Well, he certainly fooled me. I’m in awe, sure, because that is something … This is not what I expected.
Mary: What did you expect?
Isaac: I don’t know. You said, well, you would always … Well, you said that he was a great ladies’ man, and that he opened you up sexually …
Mary: … so, so?
Isaac: … and then, this little homunculus, er … uh …
Mary: He’s quite devastating.
Isaac: Really? You know, I … - It’s amazing how subjective all that stuff is.
Woody Allen in “Manhattan”
(Isaac lying on the couch, speaking into the tape recorder)
Isaac: An idea for a short story about … um … people in Manhattan who … er … are constantly creating these real unnecessary neurotic problems for themselves - because it keeps them from dealing with more unsolvable terrifying problems about … er … the universe - Um, tch — it’s, uh … well, it has to be optimistic. Well, all right, why is life worth living? That’s a very good question. Um. Well, there are certain things I - I guess that make it worthwhile. Uh, like what? Okay. Um, for me … oh, I would say … what, Groucho Marx, to name one thing … uh ummmm and Willie Mays, and um, uh, the second movement of the Jupiter Symphony, and ummmm … Louie Armstrong’s recording of “Potatohead Blues” … umm, Swedish movies, naturally … “Sentimental Education” by Flaubert … uh, Marlon Brando, Frank Sinatra … ummm, those incredible apples and pears by Cézanne … uh, the crabs at Sam Wo’s … tch, uh, Tracy’s face …
映画の邦題：『マンハッタン』1979年