Review of Love and Death (2013) by Art S — 12 Jan 2013

When asked, I had to admit "it's not funny", but there's still something about this early Woody Allen effort that makes it worth seeing. Perhaps it is only to marvel at the audacity of the attempt to fuse a parody of Russian literary, cinematic, and philosophical traditions (with Bergman thrown in for good measure,as he was in the neighborhood) with lowbrow (sometimes puerile) sex comedy.

Filmed in France and Hungary, with a dazed Diane Keaton on board, the film looks pretty good (though certainly of the 70s) but Allen's monologues to the camera still make me wince. This strange neurotic and nebbish character that is nevertheless successful with women (perhaps due to his intellect) seems out of time and place, not only in the Napoleonic era, but here in the 21st century.