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ANNIE HALL
March 2, 2018  | By David Bianculli

TCM, 8:00 p.m. ET

 

TCM’s annual “31 Days of Oscar” celebration is almost over, because the Oscars, which are televised Sunday, are almost here. Tonight, though, TCM squeezes in a few more Academy Award-winning films – and the first two tonight, which are excellent films indeed, share another, more dubious distinction. Both of tonight’s prime-time movie offerings, starting with Woody Allen’s 1977 comedy classic Annie Hall, star actors who have been accused, during this recent, still-percolating #MeToo movement, of sexual misconduct or harassment. But if you begin pondering the question about whether you can separate the art from the artist, Annie Hall is a potent starting point, because it is, inarguably, one of the best comedy movies ever made – as well as one of the few comedies to win the Best Picture Oscar. But to make things comfortable while watching tonight, focus on Diane Keaton’s peerless, perfect performance, not only as a dramatic and comic actress, but as a singer. The closing scene, when she’s in a club performing “Seems Like Old Times,” gives Annie Hall the emotional capper it demanded, and needed.

 
 
 
 
 
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