Annie Hall is a 1977 American romantic comedy directed by Woody Allen from a screenplay co-written with Marshall Brickman and co-starring Diane Keaton. Allen has described the film as "a major turning point", as it introduced a level of seriousness to his films that was not found in the farces and comedies that were his work to that point. Critical reaction to the film is generally positive. It won four Academy Awards, including Best Picture. Film critic Roger Ebert described it as "just about everyone's favorite Woody Allen movie". The comedian Alvy Singer is trying to understand why his relationship with Annie Hall ended a year ago. Growing up in New York, he vexed his mother with impossible questions about the emptiness of existence, but he was precocious about his innocent sexual curiosity. Annie and Alvy are in line to see a Bergman film and another man loudly misinterprets the work of Marshall McLuhan. McLuhan himself steps in to correct the mistake. That night, Annie isn’t interested in having sex with him; instead they discuss Alvy’s first wife, Allison, with whom there was little sexual pleasure.