Everyone Says I Love You

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Everyone Says I Love You
Theatrical release poster
Directed byWoody Allen
Written byWoody Allen
Produced byRobert Greenhut
Starring
CinematographyCarlo Di Palma
Edited bySusan E. Morse
Music byDick Hyman
Distributed byMiramax Films
Release date
  • December 8, 1996 (1996-12-08)
Running time
101 minutes[1]
CountryUnited States
LanguageEnglish
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]

Plot

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.

Cast

Music

The film uses classic songs for each scene, in some cases with unexpected dance routines.

  1. "Just You, Just Me" (Jesse Greer, Raymond Klages) — Edward Norton
  2. "My Baby Just Cares For Me" (Walter Donaldson, Gus Kahn) — Edward Norton/Natasha Lyonne
  3. "Recurrence/I'm a Dreamer, Aren't We All" (Ray Henderson, Lew Brown, B.G. DeSylva) — Dick Hyman/Olivia Hayman
  4. "Makin' Whoopee" (Donaldson, Kahn) — Tim Jerome
  5. "Venetian Scenes/I'm Through With Love" (Kahn, Matt Malneck, Fud Livingston) — Dick Hyman/Woody Allen
  6. "All My Life" (Sam Stept, Sidney Mitchell) — Julia Roberts
  7. "Just You, Just Me" (Salsa Version) (Greer, Klages) — Dick Hyman and the New York Studio Players
  8. "Cuddle Up a Little Closer" (Karl Hoschna, Otto Harbach) — Billy Crudup/Sanjeev Ramabhadran
  9. "Looking at You" (Cole Porter) — Alan Alda
  10. "Recurrence/If I Had You" (Ted Shapiro, Jimmy Campbell, Reg Connelly) — Dick Hyman/Tim Roth
  11. "Enjoy Yourself (It's Later than You Think)" (Carl Sigman, Herb Magidson) — Patrick Crenshaw
  12. "Chiquita Banana" (Leonard McKenzie, Garth Montgomery, William Wirges) — Christy Carlson Romano
  13. "Hooray for Captain Spaulding/Vive Le Capitaine Spaulding" (Bert Kalmar, Harry Ruby, Philippe Videcoq) — The Helen Miles Singers
  14. "I'm Through with Love" (Kahn, Malneck, Livingston) — Goldie Hawn/Edward Norton
  15. "Everyone Says I Love You" (Kalmar, Ruby) — The Helen Miles Singers[4]

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.

Release

Box office

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]

Critical reception

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]

Awards

The film was nominated for Best Motion Picture – Musical or Comedy at the 54th Golden Globe Awards.

References

  1. ^ "EVERYONE SAYS I LOVE YOU (12)". British Board of Film Classification. January 21, 1997. Archived from the original on March 6, 2016. Retrieved November 5, 2015.
  2. ^ a b c "Everyone Says I Love You (1996)". Box Office Mojo. Archived from the original on July 7, 2019. Retrieved August 11, 2011.
  3. ^ Ebert, Roger (January 17, 1997). "Everyone Says I Love You". Chicago Sun-Times. Archived from the original on November 7, 2017. Retrieved November 1, 2017.
  4. ^ Harvey, Adam (2007). The Soundtracks of Woody Allen. US: Macfarland & Company,Inc. p. 54. ISBN 9780786429684.
  5. ^ "Everyone Says I Love You (1996)". Rotten Tomatoes. Flixster. Archived from the original on November 16, 2015. Retrieved January 20, 2022.
  6. ^ "When Everyone Sings, Just for the Joy of It", Janet Maslin, The New York Times, December 6, 1996.
  7. ^ Miner, Michael (January 13, 1997). "Everyone Says I Love You". Chicago Reader. Archived from the original on June 9, 2011. Retrieved May 1, 2011.

External links