5) “La-dee-da, la-dee-da.” – Annie Hall, 1977
Woody Allen is one of the greatest living American filmmakers, and that hasn’t gone unnoticed. He has been nominated for an Oscar a total of 23 times: 15 times for screenwriting, seven for directing, and once as an actor. In fact, Allen has more Academy Award nominations for screenwriting than any other writer, all of which are in the Best Original Screenplay category.
So how many lines from Woody Allen’s movies made AFI’s list? Just one, and it wasn’t even really written by him. At number 55 on the list is “La-dee-da, la-dee-da,” a whimsical saying from the 1977 classic Annie Hall that was improvised by star Diane Keaton.
Really? I suppose that “la-dee-da, la-dee-da” is a pretty defining aspect of Annie as a character, but it’s also pretty insulting that this nonsensical muttering is apparently considered better than any of the hilarious one-liners that Allen has authored for his films over the years, including one of my personal favorites from 1997’s Deconstructing Harry, “the most beautiful words in the English language aren’t ‘I love you’ but ‘it’s benign.’”