Cities, Fashion and Gender
Abstract: This paper selects the 1977 Woody Allen film "Annie Hall" as the research object, and discusses the connotation of the film from the perspectives of city, fashion and gender. We believe that the protagonists Annie and Ivey are influenced by various aspects of modern society, including the anxiety of the big city, the influence of street fashion, as well as the concept of love and gender, etc. These unique problems in the post-industrial society have affected the two The relationship affects the behavior and orientation of the two people in the relationship and in personal growth.
keywordsanne hall new york modernity fashion
1. Woody Allen and his films
Jewish consciousness, intellectual dialogues, rambling nonsense self-reports, the identity and pride of New York City and New York University, and the postmodern psychological research paradigms that were popular in the 1970s and 1980s, such as psychoanalysis. It is the consistent style of American director Woody Allen's films. Many of Woody Allen's films can probably be summed up with a few key words, namely city, sex, love and intellectual complex. Woody Allen's films continue to deepen the urban symbols and traces of New York City, and in "Hollywood Ending" (2002), he takes a unique satirical perspective on the commercialization and industrialization of the Hollywood film industry in California. Similarly, Woody Allen gave up a job opportunity to Los Angeles at the end of the film, under an unexplained pretext, in "The Unexpected Thing" (2003), and other films about New York directly or indirectly express the director's own concern for recognition and appreciation of the city. Woody Allen's films with the city itself as the core are not only concentrated in New York. The European trilogy and the London trilogy can also highlight the free urban core and spirit of his films.
In addition, sex and love are two sides of the same body. The former focuses on physical integration, while the latter in a narrow sense focuses on spiritual dialogue. Woody Allen's sexuality sometimes runs through the entire film. It shows the director's own discussion and cognition of sex itself, and in "Annie Hall" (1977), sex became Woody Allen's way of escaping and protesting the social places of intellectual celebrities. As a companion of sex, love is not like the men and women in Rohmer's films. Rohmer is able to explore and grasp the trivial matters and troubles between couples in the small things in the daily camera, and he also has a full and wise choice in it. And cognition, when parting or getting together, can always choose the object of love based on their own circumstances. The couples in Woody Allen's films are divided and combined, in many cases based on the mismatch of ideas or spiritual levels, and the entanglement, contradictions and conflicts arising from this difference.
Perhaps because American intellectuals always have a sense of cultural inferiority in the face of European culture. Although Hollywood films dominate the world film market, in the eyes of most American intellectuals, American films are still just a commercial mass culture, and their ideological and artistic value is very low (Zhong Dafeng, 1992) . Except for a few early films, most of Woody Allen's films are based on the intellectual life in the modern city mainly in New York. The role played by Woody Allen, as well as other characters in the film, are more or less intellectual. They live in a complex urban society and are out of tune with the noisy flow of people. In the modern consumerist industrial society , Woody Allen is trying to use personal emotions and values to dissolve the domination of the social structure over individuals, which we will discuss in detail in the follow-up.
We were able to understand the general style of Woody Allen's films, the focus on love relationships, the background of living in the big city of New York, and the inner complex of intellectuals, etc. to piece together Woody Allen's unique film image. Based on this, this article selects the film "Annie Hall" (1977), which won the best director, best picture, best actress and best original screenplay at the 50th Oscar in 1978. Explore topics and discussions about gender, cities and fashion in Woody Allen films.
2. An Introduction to Anne Hall
The film "Annie Hall" tells the love story between comedian Ivy Singer (Woody Allen) and pub singer Anne Hall (Diane Keaton). Ivy Singer has been through two marriages, the first with stage crew Alison and the second with a writer. The end of the two marriages is shown in the film as a resistance and rejection of sex, just like the end of Annie Hall, the emotional separation and estrangement between the two can be directly reflected in the denial of sex. In the film, Ivey said, "The body is honest." This kind of honesty itself can directly show the depth and future direction of the relationship between the two parties, confront knowledge and spirit with the real feelings of the flesh, and eliminate all kinds of "alienation" brought about by vanity, imagination and hypocritical social interaction. However, later in the story, Ivey is reluctant to give up physical pleasure while being mentally violent to Annie. The first meeting between Annie and Ivey was due to a tennis party. Annie's admiration and inferiority complex allowed Ivey to directly capture admiration and prejudice. When the two entered into a formal and stable relationship, Ivey kept berating Annie in spirit, recommending her to take courses at an adult university, requiring her to study literature, philosophy, etc., and choosing to sign up for psychiatrist consultation for her. Making Annie a perfect intellectual lover according to her own imagination, and Ivey is full of jealousy and wants to control her life all the time. After endless quarrels and consumption, the two chose to temporarily separate, and then they got back together because of a trivial matter in life. After a brief period of warmth and harmony, Annie met Tony, a music producer from California, who invited Annie to go to California to record an album. The trip to California became a turning point and afternoon in the relationship between Annie and Ivey. After the real goodbye, Ivey tried to go to California to seek reconciliation. Annie, who had a new life, categorically refused such a request, and the relationship between the two came to an end. .
In the whole film, except for the simple love story, the filming method is different from the traditional film structure and arrangement, and does not tell the past and experience between the two people in time series. The film uses a scene of time and space travel and coexistence to describe Ivey's childhood experience and Ivey's own love history. Fragmentation did not disturb the integrity and focus of the film, and turned to another story in a specific part, which can better illustrate the formation and characteristics of Ivey and Annie's respective characters. For Ivey, the young bourgeois-style intellectual pursuit is his constant interest under the shell of a comedian. Comedy is used to cover up childhood trauma and the broken family of origin, and the intellectual pursuit reflects his Jewishness. Immigrant sense, all kinds of characteristics require him to pursue utopian love, and this kind of love that is 100% in line with the spirit hits a wall everywhere in reality. For Annie, simplicity has always been her true nature, and her persistence and persistence in self are her most precious character. She has her own persistence and understanding of her own preferences and pursuits. Although she sacrificed a lot for love, and was controlled, scolded and mentally violent by her partner, Ivey never really wanted to understand and empathize with Annie, always complaining: "Did you have a period, why are you angry again? ?"
In general, the film tells about the pains of love under the contradictory situation of intellectuals, the harshness and unreasonable demands of the partner, and the final outcome is often to force the lover away and gain "contempt". In addition to love itself, this article will try to explain the relationship and connotation of the city (New York), gender and fashion in "Annie Hall" later.
3. New York and modernity
In this section, we will focus on the relationship between New York City as a modern metropolis in Anne Hall and individual behavior and intellectual power. In the film, a modern love story with New York as the background, the anxiety and modernity structure attached to the city itself are important factors affecting the relationship between the two parties and their respective behaviors. At the same time, compared with Los Angeles, the urban scene and character are more It can reflect the personal shaping of survival under the modern big city structure.
Modern metropolitan life - New York - brings with it the anxiety and confusion of an industrial society and a consumerist society. The city has a free and structured place spirit and urban spirit. Through the "place spirit" proposed by Norwegian urban architect Christian Norberschutz in the 1970s, he discussed how urban space manifests from a historical perspective. People's concept of "settlement". Facing the trend of diversification, globalization, and complexity presented by contemporary cities and architecture, as well as the tendency of "meaning" loss and "de-spiritualization" (Zhang Yuben, 2014). The development of the city transcended the market mechanism and industrial agglomeration in the pre-modern society, and turned to a complex and symbolic living space. Individuals can only experience a small part of the grand urban narrative discourse in urban life. However, in this In some of them, urban spirit and urban discourse are deeply cast in individual experience and behavior. In modern cities, the anxiety and imprint of commodity symbols are engraved in landscapes and fields. Lefebvre emphasized the political and economic characteristics of urban space. The layout and planning of cities are controlled by power, and behind this control are economic needs and its driving force. Lefebvre's theory of spatial power is in line with Marx's critical theory. On the economic basis, it emphasizes the transformation of space by political power, and the fundamental starting point of this transformation is the promotion of economic, capital and other interest factors, "'Social space is the product of society'... It is decomposed into: material and natural space is being disappear; every society, every mode of production produces its own space; to shift from focusing on things in space to the production of space itself; the transition from one mode of production to another inherently involves new production of space. "(Fu Qingsong 2013). Such a political and social theory emphasizes that in a capitalist society (or a market economy society) power represents capital, policies represent production methods, and the planning and guidance of entire cities and spaces are expressions of economic interests. The materialization of capital and production is extended to the spatial structure, and the arrangement and adjustment of space has become a powerful way for a new wave of commercialization. The economic and commercial centers that appear in cities are the best manifestations of capital operation, and the site selection range is often located in a city with the most convenient and developed urban transportation and infrastructure. The convenient conditions of urban space endow the commercial center with a high status and treatment, and its own function can also drive the further development of the surrounding economy, allowing more capital to flow into it. High land prices, bustling crowds, as the most lively area in a city, it is the most concentrated expression of space power and capital power. On the contrary, there are villages in cities - "urban villages". A considerable part of the residents living in them are the lowest and most humble people in the city. They live in areas where power and policies are forgotten, far away from prosperity and glory. We cannot blindly deny that this dense building group hinders the overall urban development, but we need to admit that from an economic point of view, "urban villages" are really not the beneficiaries of urban development.
In "Annie Hall", the depiction of New York breaks away from the landmarks - the Empire State Building, the Metropolitan Museum, etc., and turns to the everyday, corner-style city buildings and shops. These shots and images focus on the modernity and everyday life of New York City, with a special liking for the city’s ancient architecture: the carousel and boardwalk at Coney Island in Brooklyn, the East River Pier in the sunset, and the gorgeous silhouette of Washington Square ... Everything is gone without the dazzling neon, and the "gorgeous shadow" with bare breasts. There are few people on the street, it is clear and clean, and everything looks so elegant and romantic. Alvi Singer and Annie, played by Woody Allen, have their love relationship set against the backdrop of the big city, and they converse on the green balcony of Annie's apartment; in the sun-drenched Central Park While looking at the passing pedestrians, guessing their identities and occupations in a playful way; kissing affectionately by the river in the night, behind them is New York's famous blue-lit Brooklyn Bridge... He kept on Defend the city and criticize the injustice: "Don't you know that the whole country looks down on New York? It seems that we are left-wing communists, Jews, gays, and pornographic people", and he is also full of contempt for Los Angeles, which many people flock to, thinking it There is "cultural murder": "Trash into a TV show", and he loves New York so die-hard and unrepentant that his inability to adjust to Los Angeles eventually makes his love for Annie irreparable. The film presents the romantic side of New York with a poetic brush, which is the New York in Woody Allen's heart—despite the trauma, it still has infinite charm (Qin Chang, 2011). In addition, cool-toned New York contrasts with warm-toned Los Angeles, and indoor tennis courts, crowded movie theaters and theaters, etc., are the base color of modern life in the city. Different from the quiet and bustling New York, the vibrant Los Angeles is the epitome of a new life. The story of Los Angeles represents Annie's choice, while New York is Ivey's romanticized imagination and phantom, the myth of spring in a modern city.
Individual behavior is dominated by urban space, in other words, modern life. In the film, repeated family gatherings, memory images and flowing city scenes directly affect Ivey's personal growth. The home in "Annie Hall" is no longer the home of the protagonist, but just a coordinate to linger between cities (Zhang Junyi, 2021). Ivey's eccentric and alternative character can be seen from his personal growth. Living in a family with a low roller coaster, he is disturbed and interfered by the noise of amusement facilities every day. Family conflicts and school experience make him in a nondescript situation. in the role position. It is hard to imagine a family living under a roller coaster in a modern city, just as it is hard to imagine a childhood in an "urban village" environment, growing up in a huge gap and fragmentation, adjacent to modern facilities, and their own life is only the bottom in the sociological sense. , The strong sense of contrast made Ivey anxious, panic, and constantly reflect, so much so that he sought help from a psychiatrist. In addition, the amusement facilities represented by roller coasters can directly reflect the modern life in the big city, and the urban imprint of consumerism and entertainment to death is engraved in the modern New York City. Under the influence of business, culture and entertainment industry, Ivey is full of anxiety about his life. This anxiety stems from the individual's sense of powerlessness and loss of control under modernity. As Giddens said, the separation of time and space makes each This kind of social practice requires neither individual experience nor collective knowledge. It is difficult for people in the city to control their own life and order, and it is difficult to obtain corresponding compensation and remuneration through individual efforts. Ivey later chose to become a comedian. According to this perspective and method of psychoanalysis, it is precisely because of the complexity and out-of-control of modern life that he can only use comedy such as the "myth of spring" to dissolve the effects of modernity. Various consequences and disadvantages. However, the lack of discourse on the grand social process forced him to strive to obtain a sense of satisfaction and achievement at the intellectual level. As for his private life, his deformed and distorted attitude towards love, his dictatorship and control over others, became The final destination of Ivey's helplessness. Work in the comedy industry, with a playful attitude to resist the intrusion of modernity on the individual, and the regulation of lovers are a side effect of empty aspiring intellectuals.
Different from the influence on individuals in a broad sense, intellectual power is not only reflected in the social division of labor, but also can be seen in the differences between people, groups and groups. According to Hayek, the division and refinement of knowledge in modern society makes it difficult for everyone to obtain a holistic or "encyclopedic" knowledge picture. The refined division of knowledge and power not only represents the precision of the division of labor in modern society, but also reflects class differences. Not only economic differences are brought about by class differentiation, but the density distribution of cultural capital, as Bourdieu argues, is the main division that distinguishes different classes. In the film, Ivey plays the image of a middle-class intellectual. However, this image contains inherent contradictions. On the one hand, he has a paranoid pursuit and identification with knowledge, and on the other hand, he has no respect for the opinions and viewpoints of others. In the scene with Ivey and Annie in the movie theater, Ivey constantly breaks through the "fourth wall" to complain to the audience about other people's opinions of Fellini. The modern city squeezes the individual will, and knowledge has become a symbolic symbol, a source of legitimacy and rights to survive in New York. In Ivey's view, it is not to ask his partner to conform to his own imagination, but more importantly. Ask each other to live together in New York City with a cultural atmosphere, so as to despise the popular life in California. The spirit of New York is cast in Ivey's personal impression, and the typical New Yorker is reluctant to step out of New York to integrate his body and soul with the city. To a large extent, this is not just a personal choice, but the influence of the city itself. The city's landscape, culture and places contain all aspects of the city's impression. The power of space forces citizens to adopt the same living habits as the city. Otherwise, they will face rejection and contempt from the collective and urban space.
4. Gender and fashion
In the first part, we focus on the impact of modern sex life in New York City on personal behavior, and mainly explore the structural reasons for the character and behavior of the hero Ivey. In this section, we move our perspective to the heroine Annie and focus on the visual symbols of fashion and clothing in the Annie Hall film.
The film does not directly face the relevant fashion industry. In addition to clothing, New York life itself is also a kind of fashion. We can think from Ivey's daily wear that Ivey wears New York City on his body. In terms of clothing, Ivey always wears a blazer with a striped or plaid shirt, matching trousers and leather shoes, and occasionally, Ivey wears an M-65 military jacket. Similarly, the men's outfits in the film basically follow this template and paradigm, and this kind of clothing can be switched back and forth between work and entertainment without being obtrusive. When Ivey and Annie met for the first time, the two were drinking and talking on the rooftop. Annie was wearing a jet-black vest, lined with a patterned tie and a white shirt with a lapel, matching the white Ivey, and Annie's resident singing in the bar was also here. similar. Neutral and minimalist fashion collocation declares the asexuality of life in a big city. For everyone, they are only the producers and residents of the city, they are not the masters of the city, they are the next generation of the city. trivial lowercase person. However, when the picture of the film turns to the quarrel and contradiction between the two, Anne's clothing changes from a neutral shirt and trousers to a feminine long skirt. For Annie, the change of clothing not only reflects the enlargement of the gender difference between men and women in the film's discussion of love, but also reflects the expansion of Annie's self-awareness and cognition. If we look at the clues of the clothing, we can think of the neutralized Anne as Ivey's "second personality". Ivey tries to change Anne, teach Anne, help her recommend a psychiatrist, and ask her to attend adult university courses, etc. Wait. At this stage, Annie is not Annie, Annie is just Ivy's objectified self. The switch of clothing, on the one hand, means the difference between men and women in love, and the difference between men and women in love can be reflected in the difference in clothing; on the other hand, Annie is no longer an abstract person under the control of Ivey, but It is to become a specific person with self-pursuit and cognition.
Gender traits other than fashion and the choice of men and women in urban life are also topics that this article attempts to discuss. Ivey is a typical little bourgeois-style middle-class intellectual. If he does not consider his Jewish identity and the inferiority complex and aggression it brings, Ivey is the most disgusting "privileged class" in society. To gain attention and recognition from the outside world, but aside from these labelled symbolic capital, for others, they are nothing more than neurotic and chatty comedians. Anne's original character is different from Ivy. Her own temperament attracts others. She is simple, hardworking, and pursuing, and she is also fragile and fragile. On the back of Fashion New York, it is the confusion and pain of the two about reality.
Of course, in addition to clothing, the places and ways of urban life are many fashion expressions of modern society, and even the pursuit of psychoanalysis and intellectual life attitudes are also a fashion expression in a consumerist society. In a society where modern production conditions are ubiquitous, life itself is presented as a vast accumulation of spectacles, and everything that exists directly is transformed into an appearance. The city represented in the film: high-rise buildings, chaotic overpasses, narrow street parks, small and rushing crowds, both rely on the visual scope and transcend visual experience (Jia Zhemin, 2013). Urban life is gorgeous and colorful. The protagonists have a work and living environment that others envy, but there is also anxiety and confusion under the surface of this fashion, but this is not due to the subjective reflection on the loss of urban identity and cultural collision. Rather, it arises from the contradiction between reality, dreams and "imaginative" success (Jia Zhemin, 2013). Annie is eager to succeed in her career, but she is frustrated due to helplessness and lack of opportunities. Ivey's pursuit of culture and knowledge, as well as his control over Annie, is a tangled problem caused by helplessness and loss of control over reality. .
5. Conclusion and discussion
This article focuses on Woody Allen's 1977 film "Annie Hall", and discusses the connotation and implication of film and beyond from three aspects: the structural influence of modern cities, gender and fashion.
Regarding the structural influence of the modern city, a modern love story with New York as the background, the anxiety and the structure of modernity attached to the city itself are important factors affecting the relationship between the two parties and their respective behaviors, and the urban scene compared with Los Angeles And personality, it can better reflect the personal shaping of survival under the modern big city structure. Modern metropolitan life - New York - brings with it the anxiety and confusion of an industrial society and a consumerist society. Ivey later chose to become a comedian. According to this perspective and method of psychoanalysis, it is precisely because of the complexity and out-of-control of modern life that he can only use comedy such as the "myth of spring" to dissolve the effects of modernity. Various consequences and disadvantages. However, the lack of discourse on the grand social process forced him to strive to obtain a sense of satisfaction and achievement at the intellectual level. As for his private life, his deformed and distorted attitude towards love, his dictatorship and control over others, became The final destination of Ivey's helplessness. Work in the comedy industry, with a playful attitude to resist the intrusion of modernity on the individual, and the regulation of lovers are a side effect of empty aspiring intellectuals. In contrast, Annie chose to flee New York and go to Los Angeles, not only to say goodbye to the unfinished past, but also compared to the romantic and quiet New York, the vibrant Los Angeles life is more suitable for her life planning and choices .
From a gender point of view, Ivey and Annie's love shows the difference between men and women. At the same time, from a feminist perspective, Ivey is an extremely failed and despicable boyfriend. He constantly suppresses Annie, denies Annie's ability and personal growth, and also contains complete jealousy, eager to control Annie and interfere in Annie's life. For Annie, selfless devotion in the name of love, obeying Ivey's request, seeing a psychiatrist, and applying for an adult university. However, what Ivey didn't expect was that Annie, who gained new knowledge and insights, could no longer bear the control from Ivey, and finally chose to leave.
In terms of fashion, the film does not face the relevant fashion industry directly. In addition to clothing, New York life itself is also a fashion. Fashion is an industry, but also a landscape, a cage and attitude to life. Ivey (Woody Allen) is reluctant to leave New York from the beginning to the end, unwilling to leave what he thinks is the fashion city, the fashion scene of New York City, including the streets, clothing and all romanticized figurative objects, has been deeply engraved in Ivy. on Wei. Annie, who is from other places, appears to be more open and tolerant, and can make more wise decisions and choices when faced with life choices and realistic challenges.
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[3] Fu Qingsong. Space Production, Space Criticism, and Space Rights: An Analysis of the Basic Framework of Lefebvre’s Space Politics [J]. Social Scientist, 2013(8):5.
[4] Qin Chang. On the "New York Complex" in Woody Allen's films [J]. Film Literature, 2011(17):2.
[5] Zhang Junyi. Dialogue, Characterization and Plotization of Existentialism: An Analysis of Woody Allen's Screenwriting Creation [J]. Drama Home, 2021(12):2.
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