During the opening monologue, Alvy speaks directly to the camera. In doing so, this introduces the visual techniques that is consistently employed throughout the film. The director frequently shoots Alvy directly addressing the camera. Throughout various scenes, including one where Alvy steps off a movie line to voice his complaints about another moviegoer, he declares his enraged thoughts to the camera. In framing shots this way, the director sets the viewer up as Alvy’s confidant. His expressiveness of inner thoughts grants the viewer better insight into his psyche and creates a personal dynamic between the viewer and him. With the intimate framing of the scene’s close-up, Alvy opens up to his confidants. The framing device and sets the tone for the viewers’ and Alvy’s …show more content…
The opening monologue includes the lines, “Well, that's essentially how I feel about life. Full of loneliness and misery and suffering and unhappiness, and it's all over much too quickly.” His remarks are indicative of the way he sees the world, his anxious tendencies, and his obsession with death, while pursuing happiness. Yet, the monologue is not only defined by its pessimism. By declaring how life is over too quickly, Alvy demonstrates that he is also cognizant of life’s preciousness, not just its miseries. His ability to add comedic elements, in this moment of emotional vulnerability, also shows that he is not unequivocally miserable. In one moment, Alvy relates his relationship experiences to Groucho Marx and Sigmund Freud, by declaring, “I would never want to belong to any club that would have someone like me as a member…that’s the key joke of my adult life in terms of my relationships with women.” While the reference evinces Alvy’s self-critical nature and his pessimism, it more-so shows his comedic nature. The comedy interwoven with his miseries conceals his pessimistic