Everyone Says I Love You

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Everyone Says I Love You is a 1996 musical comedy written and directed by Woody Allen and starring a large Ensemble Cast.

Like a lot of Woody Allen movies, the film is set in New York and features Loads and Loads of Characters. This particular film distinguishes itself by having the characters randomly break into song. The musical numbers, and the entire tone of the film are a Shout-Out to the musicals of the 1920s and 1930s.

Characters include:

• DJ Berlin - The Narrator of the film, daughter of Joe and Steffie.
• Joe Berlin - Father of DJ, ex-husband of Steffie. Also a neurotic, insecure writer.
• Steffie Dandridge - Mother of DJ, Lane and Laura; ex-wife of Joe, wife of Bob. A philanthropist.
• Bob Dandridge - Father of Schuyler, Scott, Lane and Laura; husband of Steffie. A lawyer.
• Scott Dandridge - Bob's son from his first marriage; considered the Black Sheep of the family for his conservative beliefs.
• Schuyler Dandridge - Bob's daughter from his first marriage. Dating Holden.
• Lane and Laura Dandridge - Bob and Steffie's daughters. Sometimes creep into Bratty Teenage Daughter territory.
• Holden Spence - Schuyler's boyfriend/fiance, a lawyer who works for Bob.
• Von Sidell - A woman whose therapy sessions DJ listens in to (the therapist is the mother of one of Lane and Laura's friends) and decides would be a perfect match for her father.
• Charles Ferry - a recently-released criminal whom Steffie invites for dinner; he takes an interest in Schuyler.

Tropes used in Everyone Says I Love You include:

• All Girls Want Bad Boys: Schuyler dumps Holden to hook up with Charles.
• Amicably Divorced: Joe and Steffie.
• Arc Words: The song "I'm Thru With Love" is repeated by every character, leading up to the climactic dance between Steffie and Joe by the Seine. Ends up being a Brick Joke when DJ's umpteenth love interest gangsta raps it on stage.
• Author Avatar: Writer/director Woody Allen as Joe.
• Be Careful What You Wish For: Von breaks up with Joe because he's too perfect for her, not knowing that Joe was privvy to all of her deepest secrets and desires.
• Breaking the Fourth Wall: As The Narrator, DJ does this often.

DJ: We're not the typical family from a musical comedy.

• • When Bob starts singing "I'm Thru With Love" when Schuyler reveals she dumped Holden, Steffie quizzically asks, "What are you singing about? You're not in love with Holden!"
• The Cast Showoff: Averted mostly, as the only members of the main cast with musical experience were Alan Alda and Goldie Hawn. Woody Allen had to instruct Hawn and Edward Norton to sound worse when they sang, not wanting the main cast to sound like professional singers.
  • Applies to the dancing in the film too- while the dancers in the 'My Baby Just Cares for Me' scene dance like professionals, Edward Norton's dancing is deliberately clumsy and awkward in comparison.
  • Drew Barrymore flatly refused to sing, which is why she is the only cast member who is dubbed.
• City of Canals: Joe and DJ holiday in Venice.
• Cloudcuckoolander: Grandpa.
• The Dead Can Dance: See The Fun in Funeral trope below.
• The Fun in Funeral: Grandpa's funeral turns into a musical performance of Guy Lombardo's 'Enjoy Yourself (It's Later Than You Think)', complete with dancing ghosts.
• Gay Paree: Joe lives in Paris for most of the year, and the Dandridges are vacationing there at the end of the film.
• The Glorious War of Sisterly Rivalry: Lane and Laura compete for the attentions of the same boy.
• Happily Divorced: Joe and Steffie, though they're still in love.
• Happily Married: Bob and Steffie.
• Ironic Echo: Holden's melancholy rendition of 'I'm Thru With Love' after Schuyler leaves him being swiftly followed by a rapper performing at a concert DJ's attending.

Rapper: Yo check it I'm through with love / I'm through with all you muthafuckas

.

• Jerkass: After hooking up with Schuyler, Charles proceeds to dump her in a forest in upstate New York in the midst of a planned robbery heist. Understandably, Schuyler goes back to Holden and says 'yes' when he proposes to her again.
• Kavorka Man: Joe.
• The Matchmaker: DJ goes to great lengths to fix her father up with Von, giving him advice (courtesy of listening in on Von's therapy sessions) and encouragement.
• May-December Romance: Joe and Von.
• Nice Guy: Holden, portrayed by Edward Norton Playing Against Type.
• Nuclear Family: The Dandridges are a blended version of this.
• Runaway Fiance: Subverted- Schuyler leaves Holden for Charles Ferry but then has a change of heart and decides to return to Holden.
• Scenery Porn: The film was shot in New York City, Paris, and Venice.
• Shout-Out: One of the final musical numbers in the film is Hooray for Captain Spaulding, and is sung (in French) by the ensemble cast wearing Groucho Marx glasses and mustaches.
  • The title of the film is a nod to another film starring The Marx Brothers, Horse Feathers.
  • DJ's perfect man? Harpo.
• Show Within a Show: Implied by DJ at the end that the entire movie is a musical. She states she was told that if it were made into a movie, no one would believe the incredible coincidences unless it was a musical.
• Spontaneous Choreography: Everywhere in this film!
• Stalker with a Crush: Joe's courtship of Von, in large part thanks to his daughters knowledge of Von's inner thoughts.
• Strawman Political: Scott Dandridge is the conservative version of this, at least until he has heart surgery and wakes up a liberal, much to Bob's joy. Scott's conservatism is Handwaved as being down to not enough oxygen getting to his brain.
  • Steffie's "limousine liberalism" is also very much a political stereotype. Lampshaded when she says to Schuyler that Charles Ferry is fine to treat as just a "social project" but not as an actual human being.
• Those Wacky Nazis: Frieda, Grandpa's nurse, is heavily implied to have worked under Adolf Hitler.

Bob: Frieda, this pasta doesn't have any sauce. Frieda: It's Bavarian pasta, it doesn't need sauce. The Italians need sauce. The Italians were weak!

• Title Drop: "Everyone Says I Love You" is the final song of the film.
• Wacky Marriage Proposal: Both times Holden proposes to Schuyler, and both manage to Go Horribly Wrong.
  • For the first proposal, Holden hides the ring in Schuyler's dessert, and she ends up swallowing it.
  • The second involves him hiding it in a box of candy with virtually the same results.
• With This Ring: Of the 'hide it in a dessert at a romantic dinner' variety. See Wacky Marriage Proposal above.