Netflix’s Answer to the Universe: Annie Hall
For those not familiar with their system: Whenever you log on, Netflix asks you to rate movies (not just ones you’ve rented through them, but any you've ever seen) to better know your tastes and thus give you more accurate recommendations of what you would enjoy watching. In five years of membership, I’ve rated 777 films using their 5-star system:
1 star – Hated It
2 stars – Didn’t Like It
3 stars – Liked It
4 stars – Really Liked It
5 stars – Loved It
While it threw me at first, I’ve come to see this preference-based system as superior to the usual “quality”-based ratings, since we all know that there are movies that we’d have to grant 4 or even 5 stars to because of their cinematic importance but that we actively disliked or were just bored silly by. (Last Year at Marienbad would be on that list for me, and, well, pretty much everyone I know who ever sat through it.)
And then there are those “guilty pleasures” that are no one’s idea of fine cinema but which entertain us to no end. (The Austin Powers movies and their inspiration, the early James Bonds, come to mind.)
And finally there are those movies that are so bad they’re deliciously good (here I’ll go with The Omega Man, starring that all-time epic cheesy actor, Charlton Heston). Give me The Omega Man and a bowl of popcorn and I’ll forget that I have a B.A. in Film and put works like L’Atalante and Wings of Desire on my “best ever” list. Freed from cinematic correctness, we can rate movies based purely on our enjoyment. And no one but Netflix is the wiser as to our secret tastes.
The real shocker is that it doesn’t take much to tip Netflix off to those. About 770 of those ratings I painstakingly entered seem to have been in vain, as most of the 116 customized viewing suggestions they have for me right now are based on a mere handful of movies I’ve rated. Annie Hall, All About Eve, Chinatown, The Third Man, Breaking Away and Sense and Sensibility are what I’ve now dubbed “Rosetta Stone movies,” because they apparently reveal everything that Netflix needs to know about my viewing tastes.
You see, for every suggestion that Netflix offers of a movie they think you’d like, they support it with three others that you’ve rated highly, as in this item they’re currently showing me when I log on and click on the “Movies You'll Love” tab:
Gallipoli
Because you enjoyed:
The Killing Fields
The Thin Blue Line
I've Loved You So Long
Most of their recommendations make sense, but some are downright silly, as when a film is recommended because you enjoyed…the same film. This usually means you liked one version and so they think you’d like another. But are they really so dense that they don’t realize that if I love the classic David Lean Doctor Zhivago that I might actually hate the more recent TV remake?
But just when I find myself getting irritated at their insensitivity, they offer me suggestions that feel like that bouquet of flowers your lover brings home because he knew they were your favorites:
An Angel at My Table
Because you enjoyed:
The Piano
The Third Man
The Sweet Hereafter
Some suggestions are intriguing mash-ups that only make sense after you think for a moment. Combine a couple of historical dramas with a strong female protagonist trying to hold onto power and you get:
Elizabeth R (4-Disc Series)
Because you enjoyed:
Sense and Sensibility
All About Eve
Amadeus
Others offer brilliant insights into a filmmaker’s possible inspirations for, say, clay characters who are very fond of cheese:
Wallace & Gromit: Three Amazing Adventures
Because you enjoyed:
The Third Man
The Straight Story
Seven Samurai
Some are like those conversations where everything is making sense up until the very last thing a person says to you:
The Forsyte Saga
Because you enjoyed:
Persuasion
Sense and Sensibility
Breaking Away
Still others are not just puzzling but outright sinister. What do you get if you combine an artist who works by carving up nature with servants chopping up food for their masters and add in a female police inspector looking for a guy who’s cutting up women? Why the delightful Julia Child of course!
The French Chef with Julia Child (3-Disc Series)
Because you enjoyed:
Rivers and Tides
Upstairs, Downstairs: Season 1
Prime Suspect 1
Some seem to engage in stereotyping:
Project Runway: Season 1
Because you enjoyed:
I'm the One That I Want
The Times of Harvey Milk
While others have a mobius strip quality that gives me a bad acid flashback to Last Year at Marienbad:
Pride and Prejudice
Because you enjoyed:
Sense and Sensibility
Pride and Prejudice
Sense and Sensibility
Oddly enough, given the 777 ratings I’ve put in, almost all the suggestions were for movies I’d already seen. Those that I hadn’t did actually pique my interest because of the unusual triangle of preferences they were balanced on:
Peter and the Wolf
Because you enjoyed:
Sophie Scholl: The Final Days
Persepolis
The Diving Bell and the Butterfly
But the most curious pattern of all is the importance Netflix places on my 5-star rating of Annie Hall. A staggering 29 out of 116 suggestions referenced it. As in these two consecutive listings:
In Treatment: Season 1
Because you enjoyed:
Sophie's Choice
Hannah and Her Sisters
Annie Hall
Twin Peaks: Season 1
Because you enjoyed:
The Elephant Man
Mulholland Dr.
Annie Hall
Now, I completely understand why they’d suggest In Treatment based on two Woody Allen movies and the (literal) mother of all Holocaust dramas, but how in the world does Annie Hall lead to Twin Peaks? (The other two are “gimmes” – gee, ya think if I like David Lynch movies, I might like his TV series?)
Looking down the list, it’s like Annie Hall is the water you have to add to every suggestion to reconstitute it. Trying to crack Netflix’s logic, I wonder if they think that Annie Hall is a cultural touchstone for my Boomer generation:
The Beatles Anthology (5-Disc Series)
Because you enjoyed:
The Last Waltz
A Hard Day's Night: Collector's Series
Annie Hall
And since Woody Allen is known for being a Bergman worshipper, I guess it makes sense that if you mix up 2 Woodies, add Carol Reed flavored by a soupçon of Orson Welles, you get:
Fanny and Alexander
Because you enjoyed:
The Third Man
Manhattan
Annie Hall
Or, if you like your Bergman less sentimental and more agonizing, you add in some acidic Joseph Mankiewicz, a bumpy Bette Davis and Roman Polanski-styled neo-noir:
Scenes from a Marriage
Because you enjoyed:
All About Eve
Chinatown
Annie Hall
But when I saw that Annie Hall also leads to Truffaut’s 400 Blows and Fellini’s La Strada, I began to suspect that Netflix considers it a signifier for a person who, just like a character in a Woody Allen movie, adores the received classics of world cinema, but isn’t much more imaginative than that.
Therefore I was a bit relieved when I saw that it also generates recommendations for cult TV shows, as long as it’s leavened by a taste for the Coen brothers:
Freaks & Geeks: The Complete Series
Because you enjoyed:
Chinatown
The Big Lebowski
Annie Hall
And if you mix in classics of both French and Japanese cinema, you get The Boss:
Bruce Springsteen: Hammersmith Odeon
Because you enjoyed:
Grand Illusion
Rashomon
Annie Hall
And I was deeply gratified that Netflix thinks I might be up for a lengthy Polish masterpiece about the Ten Commandments -- but only because Polanski helps me along:
The Decalogue (3-Disc Series)
Because you enjoyed:
All About Eve
Chinatown
Annie Hall
I’m also apparently savvy enough to prefer the original British version of a gritty, multi-layered drama about the drug trade rather than the American remake:
Traffik (2-Disc Series)
Because you enjoyed:
Chinatown
The Grifters
Annie Hall
The list goes on and on, and with less and less sense. Annie Hall is implicated in a taste for Japanese anime (Spirited Away) as well as documentaries about not just jazz (Jazz on a Summer's Day), which makes some sense given Woody Allen's musical tastes, but also about the Vietnam war (Hearts and Minds).
There’s apparently no limit to what that girl can do. La de da, la de da.
In the gospel according to Netflix, All About Eve and Chinatown run such a close second to Annie Hall as keys to my cinematic tastes that I now think of them as the Holy Trinity of Celluloid.
Clearly the ideal film for me would be All About China Annie, a tale of a neurotic Jewish private dick trying to solve the murder of an aging film star who was drowned in a lobster pot by her cross-dressing protégée. The last line is a classic: “Forget it, Alvy…it’s Tinseltown.”
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Comments
Hilarious post, Silk stone. So many comparisons to crack up over. Okay, I pick Springsteen/Rashomon/Grand Illusion, etc. as being the silliest combo.
Pandora radio is like this. You set up a "station" for Tom Waits, next thing you know, Memphis Minnie is singing about girlish ways.
I don't rate anything, so I guess I am a tabula rasa to the Netflix computer. But, I think I might rate Annie Hall today (actually, not one of my favorite Woody Allen films) just to see what happens.
greenheron, yes, Pandora can certainly come up with some, um, interesting picks. (But that may be based on what they have available. My surf station has includes a lot of WTF? picks, and also has a lot of repeats.)
Greenheron, don't ever let them know how much you've seen Annie Hall. I mean, I only rated the thing once, and you see where it got me: in some kind of Annie Hell. (gee, wish I'd thought of that pun when I was writing this!)
Lulu, I'd love to see what they'd recommend for the dog. Probably Dirty Harry.
Kathy, I actually adore Netflix because I love movies and it's a great way to catch up on stuff I missed in the theater or older movies. It's even better now that there's streaming. Well, that is, unless I want to get anything done in life other than watching movies.....
Jeanette, you must do the Annie Hall experiment! Actually I love the idea of anyone choosing to rate just one movie and seeing what happens from that one piece of data. Might be more interesting if it were another movie, and a more obscure one.
Deborah, either there's a glitch or as I said, they've wasted their money on this famous algorithm (which they just supposedly upgraded to the tune of $1 million since someone did in fact win that prize). Or maybe they just use it on the hard cases and people like me are easy to peg with just a few movies.
Stellaa, I don't even want to know what this piece reveals about me to you all. I'm still traumatized by finding out that Netflix thinks I'm a cultural poser. Yes, the "people in your town" feature is interesting, esp here in the Bay Area where people are film hounds. It's kinda like the Bay Area bestseller list for books. Often quite different than the country as a whole...but then we knew that, didn't we??
That reminds me that the NY Times had a graphic feature a few weeks ago that showed how you could pinpoint popularity of various Netflix rentals by neighborhood. Kinda freaky.
R
Annie Hell, I like that! Everyone here knows that was Christopher Walken's acting debut, driving Woody and Diane to the airport?!
Hilarious.
This is both fun and fascinating -- as usual from you. But do you think Twin Peaks and Annie Hall are connected is because of her perky boobs?
Deborah, Annie Hall is definitely a cultural milestone. I watched it again a year or so ago and it's a different experience now (and not just because of All We Know About Woody). It wasn't as good as my memories of it, but it's still got a lot of great stuff in it.
Greenheron, I vividly remember seeing Annie Hall the first time when it came out and during Walken's scenes wondering who that really strange dude was. As for the French films, our local critic says many of them never get released on DVD in this country at all. So it might not be Netflix's fault. They don't have everything, but I've yet to find a video store that can beat their selection.
Steven, I thought you might resonate with some of those.
VR, I tell ya, I've had it with rating. They got 777 clicks out of me and we see where I ended up!
Lea, I'm not touching that one. It is funny what you can imagine if you start to try to connect up these movies, though.
Thanks, Bonnie. My mind is often mysterious even to me.
since you enjoyed:
Chinatown
Freaks & Geeks
The Big Lebowski
But these lists are priceless. And Annie Hall was the first film my dad put onto VCR or Beta whatever were those early ways of filming. And it was therefore the only film my husband and I owned during the cold Vermont winter of 1982. I'd guess we watched it 30 times. Maybe more. It holds up, and I always love that last scene, "because we needed the eggs." I think YOU should stop rating and see what they offer up. Excellent fun post.
P.S. Thanks so much for the link to famous directors "directing" the Super Bowl--it was pure magic. Loved the Lynchian bobble head moment.
Daniel, that may be my favorite comment of all time on my blog!! (Now that I've rated it, what kind of comments do you think I'll get?)
CMF, I'm definitely a tough rater. But I do have at least 50-75 movies that I've rated 5 or 4 stars. You'd think that would be enough to allow for more variety!
Sophie, the human touch can be tricky, too, though. I often don't like movies that other people recommend to me, including ones they particularly think I'll like. And that's a really sticky wicket -- if you watch something because someone loved and recommended it and then wants to know how you liked it and you have to say, "Well, actually...."
Ralph, yeah, the Google ads are a good comparison. And obviously, I love The Third Man. I got to see it on the big screen several years ago, in a restored version, and it was fantastic that way.
Wendy, I love the ending, too. Your story about that winter reminds me of a novel I once read, Preservation Hall, about a group of people freezing in an unheated New England cabin while snowed in and first burning up all the furniture and then later the books, and arguing about which books to burn first because they also wanted to have something to read!
Caroline, thanks! You write: "you might have a thing for neurosis hidden beneath a cheerful exterior. This is why they might have recommended Twin Peaks for you." Actually I'd say I have more of a thing for cheerfulness hidden underneath a neurotic exterior. Which is also how I'd characterize a lot of Woody's characters. They're very sentimental characterizations (I had a prof who compared him to Chaplin). And Lynch is as you say: neurosis (or a lot worse!) under a cheerful exterior. They seem fairly opposite to me. I think Woody's actually deeply conventional and traditional, while Lynch likes to subvert both convention and tradition. (Glad you liked the video - I thought it was a hoot.)
I guess Annie Hall is a touchstone, most people I know either love it (including me) or hate it, I haven't done this kind of analysis of which of my rated faves NetFlix's algorithm finds most predictive, does it throw a monkey wrench in when my favorite recent films include Drag Me to Hell and Synecdoche NY?
Sweetfeet & Toby & Lainey, thanks!
Roy, boy, now I'd love to know what they're recommending to you! (I've got Synecdoche on my endless queue but haven't seen it yet.)
Out of 777 ratings, I've given 5 stars to 90 movies and 4 stars to 230 movies. (That's actually more than I would have thought, as I do think of myself as being a tough rater.) And after all that, they still are using just a handful of movies to give me recommendations??
Dear Netflix, it's not me - it's you.
Since I share a Netflix account with my anime-obsessed daughter, I'm always getting anime suggestions. I just signed on there and noticed that her love of "Murder She Wrote" led to a suggestion of "Buffy the Vampire Slayer." I'd pay to see a mashup of those shows.
And I'm chagrined to admit this, but my wife and I actually enjoyed Last Year in Marienbad, but then we have a warped idea of entertainment.
I'm not sure even David Lynch could figure out that mash-up.
It reminds me of how a few years ago my ipod seemed inclined to play either U2 or Lenny Kravitz all the time, even on random shuffling.
Cranky, try giving your daughter her own queue. My partner and I share an account but each have our own queue (and get 1 DVD each at a time). It's saved our relationship. As for Marienbad...there had to be someone out there who liked it.
Bike, sometimes the suggestions are helpful. For whatever odd reason, my partner seems to get better ones than I do (see note above - he has his own queue).
Leonde, as it is for many of us.
Abra, I'd love to know what people get recommended if they say "Hated It" for Annie. I assume dislikes are also factored into recommendations, but if so, it's not visible the way the preferences are.
Renee, I like the idea of Annie vs. Alvy movies. ha. But you lost me on cat vs. death books -- ?
Leeandra, that's one of those where the first two make a kind of wacky sense but the third one makes you go, "huh?"
Wade, sounds like the first time I went to France. No matter what I ordered in restaurants, they served me chicken. (Which in France is not a bad thing at all, but it was still weird.)
Rated.