Manhattan (film) Manhattan (film) Manhattan is a 1979 American romantic comedy film directed by Woody Allen and produced by Charles H. Joffe. The screenplay was written by Allen and Marshall Brickman. Allen co-stars as a twice-divorced 42-year-old comedy writer who dates a 17-year-old girl (Mariel Hemingway) but falls in love with his best friend's (Michael Murphy) mistress (Diane Keaton). Meryl Streep and Anne Byrne also star. "Manhattan" was filmed in black-and-white and 2.35:1 widescreen. The film features music composed by George Gershwin, including "Rhapsody in Blue", which inspired the idea behind the film. Allen described the film as a combination of his
Manhattan (film) of "Embraceable You" plays over the credits. According to Allen, the idea for "Manhattan" originated from his love of George Gershwin's music. He was listening to one of the composer's albums of overtures and thought, "this would be a beautiful thing to make ... a movie in black and white ... a romantic movie". Allen has said that "Manhattan" was "like a mixture of what I was trying to do with "Annie Hall" and "Interiors."" He also said that his film deals with the problem of people trying to live a decent existence in an essentially junk-obsessed contemporary culture without