# Would you let a twelve-year-old girl watch Annie Hall? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Tags:** movies\ **Created:** [November 18, 2021, 11:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-you-let-a-twelve-year-old-girl-watch-annie-hall/954590 "2021-11-18T23:51:51Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![peedin](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/peedin/32/14095_2.png) [@peedin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/peedin)\ **Post date:** [November 19, 2021, 2:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-you-let-a-twelve-year-old-girl-watch-annie-hall/954590/21 "2021-11-19T14:25:22Z")
I wouldn’t prevent her from seeing it, but as so many others have said, she will be bored out of her mind. ---
**Author:** ![Rilchiam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/2bfe46/32.png) [@Rilchiam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rilchiam)\ **Post date:** [November 19, 2021, 3:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-you-let-a-twelve-year-old-girl-watch-annie-hall/954590/22 "2021-11-19T15:00:54Z")
“She’ll be bored out of her mind…no interest…watch a movie aimed at 7 year olds instead.” I’m so glad I asked people who don’t know the kid. And who don’t know that she’s starting a costume-drama phase. She wasn’t bored out of her mind watching The Favourite with her mom, or Mary Queen of Scots by herself on streaming. Yes, I know those films are not parallel to 1970s kitchen-sink comedies, but if she appreciates them, I don’t think she’d reject AH on the grounds of sheer boredom. If she prefers a different movie when they get here, it would probably be something aimed at tweens, but not at grade-schoolers. Perhaps I should have been more clear. I wasn’t planning to say “We’re gonna watch a classic film and I suggest you take notes!” More like, “We’re gonna watch this movie; you can stay if you want.” She might want to, or she might want to read a book, or go outside and play in the snow (if we get snow). But to suggest that she’ll fall asleep in five minutes, or sit there rolling her eyes, playing on her phone and cracking her gum, is at odds with how she’s been the other times I’ve hosted this family. Or been to their house. ---
**Author:** ![Pleonast](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pleonast/32/1183_2.png) [@Pleonast](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Pleonast)\ **Post date:** [November 19, 2021, 3:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-you-let-a-twelve-year-old-girl-watch-annie-hall/954590/23 "2021-11-19T15:07:40Z")
> [@Icarus](#): > > urban intellectual New Yorkers were like back in the 1970s This is why I wouldn’t expose my kids to _Annie Hall_. It was hard enough explaining _Ghostbusters_ (1984) to them. New York around 1980 is very foreign to Californian kids around 2020. ---
**Author:** ![kenobi\_65](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kenobi_65/32/13178_2.png) [@kenobi\_65](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kenobi_65)\ **Post date:** [November 19, 2021, 3:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-you-let-a-twelve-year-old-girl-watch-annie-hall/954590/24 "2021-11-19T15:15:03Z")
> [@Rilchiam](#): > > She wasn’t bored out of her mind watching The Favourite with her mom, or Mary Queen of Scots by herself on streaming. Yes, I know those films are not parallel to 1970s kitchen-sink comedies, but if she appreciates them, I don’t think she’d reject AH on the grounds of sheer boredom. I’d say that, if you didn’t have an issue with her watching the content of “The Favourite,” and she wasn’t traumatized by it, then “Annie Hall” would not be an issue, at least from that perspective. That said, my personal guess would be that, if your daughter (or _any_ 12 year old) is bored by “Annie Hall,” it’d be because most movies from the '70s are really slow-paced compared to modern films. ---
**Author:** ![Llama\_Llogophile](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/49beb7/32.png) [@Llama\_Llogophile](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Llama_Llogophile)\ **Post date:** [November 19, 2021, 3:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-you-let-a-twelve-year-old-girl-watch-annie-hall/954590/25 "2021-11-19T15:15:08Z")
> [@Two\_Many\_Cats2](#): > > If you must show a Woody Allen flick to a tween, I would suggest “Sleeper”. As much as I love Sleeper, if I’m going to introduce someone to Woody Allen’s films, my go-to is “Radio Days”. One of his more accessible movies. It’s a nice period piece, great music, funny, no explicit sex, and crucially… Woody isn’t in it, except as narrator. ---
**Author:** ![Elmer\_J.Fudd](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/elmer_j.fudd/32/1211_2.png) [@Elmer\_J.Fudd](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elmer_J.Fudd)\ **Post date:** [November 19, 2021, 3:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-you-let-a-twelve-year-old-girl-watch-annie-hall/954590/26 "2021-11-19T15:24:19Z")
You can never predict what will interest or bore a 12 year old. _Annie Hall_ depicts a place and time that is romanticized by millions of people too young to remember it. I’ve been a sucker for any film made in LA in the mid-1960s since I was about 12 even though I was a baby when they were made. ---
**Author:** ![Horatio\_Hellpop](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/e5b9ba/32.png) [@Horatio\_Hellpop](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Horatio_Hellpop)\ **Post date:** [November 19, 2021, 3:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-you-let-a-twelve-year-old-girl-watch-annie-hall/954590/27 "2021-11-19T15:33:47Z")
I second the idea of letting the kid pick the movie. Other possible recommendations: **Roman Holiday, A Room With a View,** and **Persepolis.** ---
**Author:** ![puzzlegal](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/puzzlegal/32/3827_2.png) [@puzzlegal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/puzzlegal)\ **Post date:** [November 19, 2021, 3:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-you-let-a-twelve-year-old-girl-watch-annie-hall/954590/28 "2021-11-19T15:44:21Z")
> [@kenobi\_65](#): > > it’d be because most movies from the '70s are really slow-paced compared to modern films. That’s an even more pronounced difference with TV. Remember laugh tracks? Boy do they slooooow down old sitcoms. I found old episodes of “All in the Family” almost unwatchable, because they were sooooo slooooooow. And novels, although novels vary more from author to author. But back when there weren’t a lot of other entertainment options, people wanted their novels to last. And they did. ---
**Author:** ![Rilchiam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/2bfe46/32.png) [@Rilchiam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rilchiam)\ **Post date:** [November 19, 2021, 3:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-you-let-a-twelve-year-old-girl-watch-annie-hall/954590/29 "2021-11-19T15:46:41Z")
Good news, everyone! The kid did pick the movie, and it’s one I’ve been wanting to see: Little. The reverse Big: Regina Hall hates adulting and becomes a tween in middle school. I’ll let you guys know if an adult version of her seventh-grade love interest shows up at her job in the final scene. 😉 Anyway, jeez. It was a matter of Stacy saying “But speaking of Diane Keaton, I have never seen Annie Hall…I knew you’d own it!..But would it be okay for Paige to see?” And it was more a question of “What if she’s doing something else, but comes into the room while we’re watching – what’s the worst thing she might walk in on?” As far as watching it voluntarily, hey, I first saw AH when I was ten. It was a bit bewildering, but honestly, I preferred a film I had to catch up with, over the live-action Disney slurry that was forced on me. Likewise, Paige **asked** to see Lincoln “Because it might help in school.” ---
**Author:** ![Rilchiam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/2bfe46/32.png) [@Rilchiam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rilchiam)\ **Post date:** [November 19, 2021, 3:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-you-let-a-twelve-year-old-girl-watch-annie-hall/954590/30 "2021-11-19T15:55:25Z")
Missed the edit window: Yeah, but AH is not such a slow-paced film, compared to its contemporaries. Woody’s style at the time was often described as “twitchy”, with all the cutaways, split screens, breaking of the fourth wall and so on. And that style had an influence on later filmmakers, so perhaps it wouldn’t seem so different from today films. ---
**Author:** ![Procrustus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/procrustus/32/2994_2.png) [@Procrustus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Procrustus)\ **Post date:** [November 19, 2021, 4:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-you-let-a-twelve-year-old-girl-watch-annie-hall/954590/31 "2021-11-19T16:21:14Z")
> [@puzzlegal](#): > > That’s an even more pronounced difference with TV. Remember laugh tracks? Boy do they slooooow down old sitcoms. I found old episodes of “All in the Family” almost unwatchable, because they were sooooo slooooooow. As I recall, it was the laughing of the _live audience_ at All in the Family that slowed the scenes. It was one of the first to tape in front of a live audience. ---
**Author:** ![Grrr](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/grrr/32/146_2.png) [@Grrr](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Grrr)\ **Post date:** [November 19, 2021, 4:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-you-let-a-twelve-year-old-girl-watch-annie-hall/954590/32 "2021-11-19T16:30:47Z")
In the first season people used to laugh when Edith hits the high note in the intro song. but then in season 2 or 3 they cut that laugh out. interesting piece of useless trivia. ---
**Author:** ![JKellyMap](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jkellymap/32/15880_2.png) [@JKellyMap](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JKellyMap)\ **Post date:** [November 19, 2021, 4:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-you-let-a-twelve-year-old-girl-watch-annie-hall/954590/33 "2021-11-19T16:38:10Z")
I think Bananas and Radio Days, and maybe Broadway Danny Rose, are the only Allen films a reasonably hip 12-year-old might enjoy. ---
**Author:** ![Rilchiam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/2bfe46/32.png) [@Rilchiam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rilchiam)\ **Post date:** [November 19, 2021, 4:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-you-let-a-twelve-year-old-girl-watch-annie-hall/954590/34 "2021-11-19T16:43:13Z")
Yeah, Radio Days is the closest to a “family” movie Woody’s ever done. I saw it on cable with my parents, who remembered that era! As for All in the Family, I have the entire series on DVD, and I don’t find it slow at all. There is no wasted dialogue; it’s like Frasier or Seinfeld in that regard, and it may have had some influence on those shows. And the reactions from the live audience, not just laughter but “ooh” or a tense silence, make it closer to live theater than a sitcom, compared to sitcoms before 1971. ---
**Author:** ![JKellyMap](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jkellymap/32/15880_2.png) [@JKellyMap](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JKellyMap)\ **Post date:** [November 19, 2021, 4:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-you-let-a-twelve-year-old-girl-watch-annie-hall/954590/35 "2021-11-19T16:44:00Z")
Also, the secondary plot of “Crimes and Misdemeanors” is exactly about Allen and his character’s hip 12-year-old neice (no, nothing weird, in this case — a wholesome set of dialogues between them). ---
**Author:** ![BrickBat](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/ac91a4/32.png) [@BrickBat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrickBat)\ **Post date:** [November 19, 2021, 4:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-you-let-a-twelve-year-old-girl-watch-annie-hall/954590/36 "2021-11-19T16:46:20Z")
Heh heh, I remember that very well. 🤣 I seem to remember that at some point in the show, Edith’s timbre of voice went from being screechy/strident to lower and more measured ( as in Jean Stapleton’s real voice ). ---
**Author:** ![peccavi](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/peccavi/32/388_2.png) [@peccavi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/peccavi)\ **Post date:** [November 19, 2021, 4:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-you-let-a-twelve-year-old-girl-watch-annie-hall/954590/37 "2021-11-19T16:47:19Z")
No, no, no. _What’s Up Tiger Lily_ I was about 13 when I saw it and it was the funniest movie ever (my tastes have shifted a bit, but I still chuckle at some of the bits). But, if she is in a period costume phase (_The Favourite_? A film which actually depicts oral sex?), then two movies from that era I would highly recommend are _The Lion in Winter_ and _Anne of the Thousand Days_. ---
**Author:** ![Rilchiam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/2bfe46/32.png) [@Rilchiam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rilchiam)\ **Post date:** [November 19, 2021, 4:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-you-let-a-twelve-year-old-girl-watch-annie-hall/954590/38 "2021-11-19T16:58:36Z")
> [@BrickBat](#): > > I seem to remember that at some point in the show, Edith’s timbre of voice went from being screechy/strident to lower and more measured ( as in Jean Stapleton’s real voice ). That may have happened late in the run. But what I know happened is that in the first six “tryout” episodes, not only was JS using her real voice, but she was playing Edith very gloomy, almost bitter. There’s more than one way to read almost any line, and, frex, when Edith says “Well, it’s better than when he called [black people] coons!” it is **not** with misguided pride; it’s in a scornful way, like she thinks even less of Archie than Mike does. Goes to show how almost any line of dialogue can have its meaning changed according to how it’s read. Anyway, for _most_ of the first season, like the jury duty episode, Edith is the iconic character: cheerfully stoic, always seeing the bright side. But if one sees those early episodes out of context, it’s like accidentally eating an uncured olive. WTH happened here? ---
**Author:** ![BrickBat](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/ac91a4/32.png) [@BrickBat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrickBat)\ **Post date:** [November 19, 2021, 5:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-you-let-a-twelve-year-old-girl-watch-annie-hall/954590/39 "2021-11-19T17:59:50Z")
Come to think of it, I had it backwards, as to early and late, vis-a-vis her voice. Yes, she sure was more sardonic and less much less amenable toward and in reference to Archie early on. Great observations. ---
**Author:** ![Rilchiam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/2bfe46/32.png) [@Rilchiam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rilchiam)\ **Post date:** [November 19, 2021, 7:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-you-let-a-twelve-year-old-girl-watch-annie-hall/954590/40 "2021-11-19T19:00:58Z")
> [@peccavi](#): > > ( _The Favourite_ ? A film which actually depicts oral sex?) Yikes! I did not know that. I’ve never seen it and don’t intend to\*. Okay then! \*Just on principle, because IMO, Melissa McCarthy deserved that Oscar, for Can You Ever Forgive Me?. But playing an historical or literary character always seems to be the yellow brick road to Gold-Man City. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-you-let-a-twelve-year-old-girl-watch-annie-hall/954590.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-you-let-a-twelve-year-old-girl-watch-annie-hall/954590.md?page=3)