Jamais vu

Manhattan

(1979; Crit)

When I saw that this was the Mimosa Movie this week, I recalled the last time I had seen the film--that there had been a longer-than-usual interim between screenings, and that I had somehow convinced myself that the film is in black and white, and was surprised when I popped in my DVD to discover (or rediscover, I guess I should say) that it is in color. I remembered discussing this soon after w/ a friend from grad school, who said that he too distinctly remembered it as being in black and white.

So I thought, This time I'll keep an eye out for elements that would plant the b/w virus in the brain. Of course, I thought of the opening montage of shots of the city, and also of the planetarium sequence, which is so dark as to be monochromatic. On the walk in to the theater I called my friend ("I'm walking to Manhattan," I said, hilariously) and asked whether he remembered our discussion of the issue a year or two before. He didn't, but that meant nothing, as he is a quintessentially absentminded professor--and he again reported the distinct recollection of the film's being b/w.

Well, you're probably way ahead of me, punchlinewise: the trick the memory had played on us to convince us that the film is in black and white is a very simple one: the film is in black and white.

Which makes it clear why someone of my age, with a cranial battlefield strewn w/ brain-cell corpses, should make a habit of writing a few words about every movie he sees. I guess it must have been Annie Hall whose color had surprised me.

By the way, a young woman behind me proclaimed, if I eavesdropped accurately, that everyone in this film (Manhattan, i.e., the b/w version) is "a horrible person." Golly, I think that's a little excessive.