Everyone Says I Love You | |
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Directed by | Woody Allen |
Written by | Woody Allen |
Produced by | Robert Greenhut |
Starring | |
Cinematography | Carlo Di Palma |
Edited by | Susan E. Morse |
Music by | Dick Hyman |
Distributed by | Miramax Films |
Release date |
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Running time | 101 minutes [1] |
Country | United States |
Language | English |
Budget | $20 million [2] |
Box office | $9.8 million [2] |
Everyone Says I Love You is a 1996 American musical film written and directed by Woody Allen. It stars Allen, Alan Alda, Drew Barrymore, Goldie Hawn, Edward Norton, Natalie Portman, Julia Roberts and Tim Roth. Set in New York City, Venice and Paris, it features singing by actors not usually known for musical roles. The film was a commercial failure, but is among the more critically successful of Allen's films, with Chicago Sun-Times critic Roger Ebert even ranking it as one of Allen's best. [3]
The emotions of an extended upper-class family in Manhattan are followed in song in New York City, Paris and Venice. Many characters act, interact and sing in each city. They include young lovers Holden and Skylar, Skylar’s parents, Bob and Steffi, Steffi’s ex-husband, Joe, Steffi and Joe’s daughter, Djuna “DJ,” a lady Joe meets named Von, and a recently released prison inmate, Charles Ferry.
The film uses classic songs for each scene, in some cases with unexpected dance routines.
Most of the performers sing in their own voices, with two exceptions: 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, and was used as a recurring theme song in the Marx Brothers film Horse Feathers (1932). Allen is a well-known Groucho Marx fan. Marx's theme song from Animal Crackers (1930) " Hooray for Captain Spaulding" is featured, sung in French by a chorus of Groucho Marxes. The songs, film score, and subsequent album were recorded, mixed, and co-produced by Dick Hyman and Roy Yokelson.
The film premiered in North America 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. [2]
The film was well received. On Rotten Tomatoes, 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." [5] Janet 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." [6] 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." [7]
The film was nominated for Best Motion Picture – Musical or Comedy at the 54th Golden Globe Awards.