Woody Allen's Film, Rhapsody In Blue

First and foremost, Woody Allen is a New York citizen to the core. It is the only place where he can imagine existing (cf. Rothman 65). He could never leave the city for good (cf. Klein 83); he would miss his day-to-day- life including his favorite restaurants, galleries, and Monday performances with his jazz band. “The Manhattan he loves and inhabits, is a rather remarkable place: prettier, cleaner, more romantic and less dangerous than the city most people know” (Klein 84). His films take place around the area of the Times Square and the chic Upper East Side, where Allen lives himself. Most of the romantic scenes are set near the East River, on picturesque streets with brownstone houses, or in Central Park, which is one of the few natural spaces

In 1979, Woody Allen shot a movie that has become known as the ultimate declaration of love to the city, Manhattan. I would like to highlight the opening shot of the film, as it is a montage in black and white that captures the cinematic New York Allen adores. This example serves as the basis of comparison for the portrayal of the urban image in his post-9/11 period. To the music of George Gershwin’s “Rhapsody in Blue” the movie opens with several quick shots of the Yankee Stadium, the Central Park, people jogging in a winter scenery, the Guggenheim museum, Washington Square Park and many more. The film mirrors the New York in a way he perceives it, regardless of whether people find it authentic or appropriate. Allen bases his vision on the New York of the Golden Era, in which Hollywood “excit[ed] the collective imagination and fantasies of its audience, offering them upper class glamor and success” (Quart 14). Nonetheless, the main protagonist also talks about the “decay of contemporary culture” (Allan, Manhattan), thus being aware of the social and economic tensions and that the city consists of two