‘The most fun I’ve ever had without laughing’ is Woody Allen’s description of sex in Annie Hall. But sex really is a funny business in this film, which is basically a collection of revue sketches on sexual themes adapted from a book by Dr. David Reuben. Some jokes hardly get off the couch, but Allen’s own performances, particularly as a court jester with an unreliable aphrodisiac and as a nervous sperm preparing for his space odyssey, are very fine. Allen said he simply strung together ‘every funny idea I’ve ever had about sex, including several that led to my own divorce’.

Allen: ‘The doctor who wrote the book hated the movie. I don’t know why. I guess he just thought it was trivial or foolish or silly. But, you know, the book was silly also. It could have fallen into worse hands than mine.’