musical film
Musical film is a film genre in which songs by the characters are interwoven into the narrative, sometimes accompanied by dancing. The songs usually advance the plot or develop the film's characters, but in some cases, they serve merely as brea ...
written and directed by
Woody Allen
Heywood "Woody" Allen (born Allan Stewart Konigsberg; November 30, 1935) is an American film director, writer, actor, and comedian whose career spans more than six decades and multiple Academy Award-winning films. He began his career writing ...
. It stars Allen,
Alan Alda
Alan Alda (; born Alphonso Joseph D'Abruzzo; January 28, 1936) is an American actor, screenwriter, and director. A six-time Emmy Award and Golden Globe Award winner, he is best known for playing Captain Benjamin "Hawkeye" Pierce in the war come ...
Edward Norton
Edward Harrison Norton (born August 18, 1969) is an American actor and filmmaker. He has received numerous awards and nominations, including a Golden Globe Award and three Academy Award nominations.
Born in Boston, Massachusetts and raised ...
,
Julia Roberts
Julia Fiona Roberts (born October 28, 1967) is an American actress. Known for her leading roles in films encompassing a variety of genres, she has received multiple accolades, including an Academy Award, a British Academy Film Award, and th ...
Natalie Portman
Natalie Portman (born Natalie Hershlag, he, נטע-לי הרשלג, ) is an Israeli-born American actress. She has had a prolific film career since her teenage years and has starred in various blockbusters and independent films, receiving mu ...
. Set in
New York City
New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...
,
Venice
Venice ( ; it, Venezia ; vec, Venesia or ) is a city in northeastern Italy and the capital of the Veneto Regions of Italy, region. It is built on a group of 118 small islands that are separated by canals and linked by over 400 ...
and
Paris
Paris () is the capital and most populous city of France, with an estimated population of 2,165,423 residents in 2019 in an area of more than 105 km² (41 sq mi), making it the 30th most densely populated city in the world in 2020. Si ...
, it features singing by actors not usually known for musical roles. The film did not do well commercially, but is among the more critically successful of Allen's films, with ''
Chicago Sun-Times
The ''Chicago Sun-Times'' is a daily newspaper published in Chicago, Illinois, United States. Since 2022, it is the flagship paper of Chicago Public Media, and has the second largest circulation among Chicago newspapers, after the '' Chicago ...
'' critic
Roger Ebert
Roger Joseph Ebert (; June 18, 1942 – April 4, 2013) was an American film critic, film historian, journalist, screenwriter, and author. He was a film critic for the ''Chicago Sun-Times'' from 1967 until his death in 2013. In 1975, Ebert beca ...
even ranking it as one of Allen's best.
Plot
The emotions of an extended upper-class family in Manhattan are followed in songs at New York, Paris and Venice. Various characters act, interact and sing in each cities. They include young lovers Holden and Skylar, Skylar's parents Bob and Steffi, Steffi's ex-husband Joe, Joe and Steffi's daughter Djuna, Von, a lady whom Joe meets, and a recently released prison inmate, Charles Ferry, who is inserted between them, leading to their breakup.
Cast
*
Alan Alda
Alan Alda (; born Alphonso Joseph D'Abruzzo; January 28, 1936) is an American actor, screenwriter, and director. A six-time Emmy Award and Golden Globe Award winner, he is best known for playing Captain Benjamin "Hawkeye" Pierce in the war come ...
as Bob Dandridge
*
Woody Allen
Heywood "Woody" Allen (born Allan Stewart Konigsberg; November 30, 1935) is an American film director, writer, actor, and comedian whose career spans more than six decades and multiple Academy Award-winning films. He began his career writing ...
Edward Norton
Edward Harrison Norton (born August 18, 1969) is an American actor and filmmaker. He has received numerous awards and nominations, including a Golden Globe Award and three Academy Award nominations.
Born in Boston, Massachusetts and raised ...
as Holden Spence
*
Natalie Portman
Natalie Portman (born Natalie Hershlag, he, נטע-לי הרשלג, ) is an Israeli-born American actress. She has had a prolific film career since her teenage years and has starred in various blockbusters and independent films, receiving mu ...
as Laura Dandridge
*
Julia Roberts
Julia Fiona Roberts (born October 28, 1967) is an American actress. Known for her leading roles in films encompassing a variety of genres, she has received multiple accolades, including an Academy Award, a British Academy Film Award, and th ...
David Ogden Stiers
David Allen Ogden Stiers ( ; October 31, 1942 – March 3, 2018) was an American actor and conductor. He appeared in numerous productions on Broadway, and originated the role of Feldman in '' The Magic Show'', in which he appeared for fou ...
as Arnold Spence
*
Itzhak Perlman
Itzhak Perlman ( he, יצחק פרלמן; born August 31, 1945) is an Israeli-American violinist widely considered one of the greatest violinists in the world. Perlman has performed worldwide and throughout the United States, in venues that hav ...
Billy Crudup
William Gaither Crudup (; born July 8, 1968) is an American actor. He is a four-time Tony Award nominee, winning once for his performance in Tom Stoppard's play ''The Coast of Utopia'' in 2007. He has starred in numerous high-profile films, in ...
Christy Carlson Romano
Christy Carlson Romano (born March 20, 1984) is an American actress and singer. She is known for playing Ren Stevens on ''Even Stevens'' and voicing the titular character from '' Kim Possible'', both of which aired on the Disney Channel.
Earl ...
as a Trick or Treat Child
* Arlene Martell as a Nurse
* Singers: Helen Miles, Arlene Martell, Emily Bindiger, Cindy Cobitt, Al Dana, Kevin DeSimone, Paul Evans, Chrissy Faith, Jeff Lyons, Michael Mark, Jenna Miles, Robert Ragaini, Lenny Roberts, Annette Sanders, Terry Textor, Vaneese Thomas and Ashley H. Wilkinson
Music
The film uses classic songs for each scenes and in some cases with unexpected dance routines.
# " Just You, Just Me" (Jesse Greer, Raymond Klages) — Edward Norton
# " My Baby Just Cares For Me" (
Walter Donaldson
Walter Donaldson (February 15, 1893 – July 15, 1947) was an American prolific popular songwriter and publishing company founder, composing many hit songs of the 1910s to 1940s, that have become standards and form part of the Great American Song ...
,
Gus Kahn
Gustav Gerson Kahn (November 6, 1886October 8, 1941) was an American lyricist who contributed a number of songs to the Great American Songbook, including " Pretty Baby", " Ain't We Got Fun?", " Carolina in the Morning", " Toot, Toot, Tootsie (Goo ...
Ray Henderson
Ray Henderson (born Raymond Brost; December 1, 1896 – December 31, 1970) was an American songwriter.
Early life
Born in Buffalo, New York, United States, Henderson moved to New York City and became a popular composer in Tin Pan Alley. He was o ...
Otto Harbach
Otto Abels Harbach, born Otto Abels Hauerbach (August 18, 1873 – January 24, 1963) was an American lyricist and librettist of nearly 50 musical comedies and operettas. Harbach collaborated as lyricist or librettist with many of the leading B ...
) — Billy Crudup/Sanjeev Ramabhadran
# "Looking at You" (
Cole Porter
Cole Albert Porter (June 9, 1891 – October 15, 1964) was an American composer and songwriter. Many of his songs became standards noted for their witty, urbane lyrics, and many of his scores found success on Broadway and in film.
Born to ...
Enjoy Yourself (It's Later than You Think)
"Enjoy Yourself (It's Later Than You Think)" is a popular song published in 1949, with music written by Carl Sigman and lyrics by Herb Magidson.
Cover versions
A popular version of the song, recorded by Guy Lombardo and His Royal Canadians, was ...
" (
Carl Sigman
Carl Sigman (September 24, 1909 – September 26, 2000) was an American songwriter.
Early life
Born in Crown Heights, Brooklyn, New York to a Jewish-American family, Sigman graduated from law school and passed his bar exams to practice in t ...
,
Herb Magidson
Herbert A. Magidson (January 7, 1906 – January 2, 1986) was an American popular lyricist. His work was used in over 23 films and four Broadway revues. He won the first Academy Award for Best Original Song in 1934.
Life and career
Magidson was ...
) — Patrick Crenshaw
# "
Chiquita Banana
Chiquita Brands International Sàrl (), formerly known as Chiquita Brands International Inc. and United Fruit Co., is a Swiss-domiciled American producer and distributor of bananas and other produce. The company operates under a number of su ...
" (Leonard McKenzie, Garth Montgomery, William Wirges) —
Christy Carlson Romano
Christy Carlson Romano (born March 20, 1984) is an American actress and singer. She is known for playing Ren Stevens on ''Even Stevens'' and voicing the titular character from '' Kim Possible'', both of which aired on the Disney Channel.
Earl ...
Harry Ruby
Harry Rubenstein (January 27, 1895 – February 23, 1974), known professionally as Harry Ruby, was an American actor, pianist, composer, songwriter and screenwriter, who was inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame in 1970.Goldie Hawn, who was told by Allen to intentionally sing worse because she sang too well to be believable as a normal person just breaking into song, and Drew Barrymore, who convinced Allen that her singing was too awful even for the "realistic singing voice" concept he was going for. Her voice was dubbed by Olivia Hayman.
The title song was written by Bert Kalmar and
Harry Ruby
Harry Rubenstein (January 27, 1895 – February 23, 1974), known professionally as Harry Ruby, was an American actor, pianist, composer, songwriter and screenwriter, who was inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame in 1970.Marx Brothers
The Marx Brothers were an American family comedy act that was successful in vaudeville, on Broadway, and in motion pictures from 1905 to 1949. Five of the Marx Brothers' thirteen feature films were selected by the American Film Institute (AFI) ...
Groucho Marx
Julius Henry "Groucho" Marx (; October 2, 1890 – August 19, 1977) was an American comedian, actor, writer, stage, film, radio, singer, television star and vaudeville performer. He is generally considered to have been a master of quick wit an ...
fan. Marx's theme song from ''
Animal Crackers
An animal cracker is a particular type of cracker, baked in the shape of an animal, usually an animal either at a zoo or a circus, such as a lion, a tiger, a bear, or an elephant. The most common variety is light-colored and slightly sweet, bu ...
French
French (french: français(e), link=no) may refer to:
* Something of, from, or related to France
** French language, which originated in France, and its various dialects and accents
** French people, a nation and ethnic group identified with Franc ...
by a chorus of Groucho Marxes. Songs, film score and subsequent album recorded, mixed, and co-produced with Dick Hyman by Roy Yokelson.
Release
Box office
The film was released in
North America
North America is a continent in the Northern Hemisphere and almost entirely within the Western Hemisphere. It is bordered to the north by the Arctic Ocean, to the east by the Atlantic Ocean, to the southeast by South America and th ...
on December 8, 1996 on three screens. Its opening weekend gross was $131,678 ($43,892 per screen). It ended with the run with $9,759,200.
Critical reception
The film was well received. On
Rotten Tomatoes
Rotten Tomatoes is an American review-aggregation website for film and television. The company was launched in August 1998 by three undergraduate students at the University of California, Berkeley: Senh Duong, Patrick Y. Lee, and Stephen Wan ...
, the film has a 77% "fresh" rating, based on 44 reviews, with an average rating of 7.2/10. The site's consensus states: "A likable, infectious musical, Woody Allen's ''Everyone Says I Love You'' is sometimes uneven but always toe-tapping and fun."
Janet Maslin
Janet R. Maslin (born August 12, 1949) is an American journalist, best known as a film and literary critic for ''The New York Times''. She served as a ''Times'' film critic from 1977 to 1999 and as a book critic from 2000 to 2015. In 2000 Maslin ...
wrote a strongly positive review in ''The New York Times'', describing the film as "a delightful and witty compendium of the film maker's favorite things." Among the film's strongest detractors was Jonathan Rosenbaum, who described it as "creepy" and claimed "this characterless world of Manhattan-Venice-Paris, where love consists only of self-validation, and political convictions of any kind are attributable to either hypocrisy or a brain condition, the me-first nihilism of Allen's frightened worldview is finally given full exposure, and it's a grisly thing to behold."